2008 POINT SCHOLARS

Caroline Cox-Orrell

University of Chicago

Caroline was raised in a progressive Boston suburb, and spent much of her youth educating others about her lesbian-parented family. In her adolescence, Caroline realized that her divorced, re-blended and multiracial queer family was incredibly different from the same-sex-parented families represented in the Boston gay community. She felt excluded from Boston’s seemingly homogenized gay community and sought out communities that embraced difference and celebrated a broad and more eclectic definition of queer family and community.

As a second-generation queer person, Caroline served as the president of her high school’s Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) and on the Boston Board of Directors for Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Caroline also volunteers her time at Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE), lobbies with queer rights organizations and has raised family awareness through an article she wrote that was published in TIME Magazine. In 2008, she co-founded the GSA Youth Networking Series, a collaborative networking series for queer youth leaders in Boston.

Caroline is matriculating at the University of Chicago, where she plans to study medicine from a sociological perspective. She continues to be involved in multi-issue social justice work, dedicating herself to help to build truly inclusive communities. She hopes to use her education to work towards health equity for all, while remaining passionately dedicated to activism across intersecting social justice issues.