Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship 2026
Introduction
Dedicated to continuing the legacy of the late AIDS educator and health and social justice activist, Pedro Zamora, these $5,000 scholarship awards support those who are working toward and committed to making a difference in the fight against HIV/AIDS and/or advancing health equity and social justice.
Because HIV/AIDS is a disease that intersects with and is driven by countless health and social justice issues, young people addressing these issues from an urgent sense of the need for change are aligned with the fight against HIV/AIDS. Therefore, this Scholarship is not exclusive to HIV/AIDS work and activism. If your work is change making in other areas of health, racial, or social justice, please consider applying!
Click here to meet our twenty-five 2025 Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship Awardees.
Each of these twenty-five awardees received a $5,000 scholarship.
We intend to award another twenty-five (25) $5,000 scholarships this year.
This award program is open to applicants who study or reside in the U.S.
Although ChatGPT and similar AI programs are valuable tools, they cannot replace a human voice - they cannot tell your story like you can! Your unique talents, goals, values, and personality are what we are most interested in. Our application platform uses an AI & tool designed to identify plagiarism and AI use in application essay responses. Provide as much of your own voice as possible, and while we won’t remove applications for AI usage, we will note the percentages in our final decisions for awards.
Description
This scholarship supports young leaders who carry the torch of activists who came before them and are responding with urgency to some of the most pressing issues of our times. The National AIDS Memorial wants to spotlight their efforts because we know they bring us closer to realizing our vision that never again will a community be harmed because of fear, silence, discrimination, or stigma. This scholarship seeks to support students who, like Pedro did, embody their activism in ways inspired by their own passions, insights, lived experience, and conviction.
When the National AIDS Memorial launched the scholarship in 2009, we looked to young activists to tell us how their career choice would impact the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic. As the program grew, we saw how more and more of our scholars worked at the intersection of health and social justice in a variety of ways.
Today, this scholarship embraces a broader interpretation of 21st century public health and health justice issues. Examples of a scholarship recipient’s work may include, but are not limited to:
● HIV/AIDS research, prevention, treatment, access and activism
● Public health and health justice
● Reproductive health
● Serving in peer education, prevention, and community resource programs
● Racial justice
● Immigrant rights
● LGBTQ+ equality and rights
● Reducing gun violence
● Environmental justice
● Drug policy and drug sentencing reform
● Employment and economic justice issues
● Housing and homelessness
● Technology innovation that supports justice work
Qualifications
The Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship is open to all current high school seniors and first-year college students, sophomores and juniors (ages 27 and younger). Our awardees' academic, extracurricular, or career pursuits are consistent with the goals of the scholarship, demonstrate an active commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS and/or community justice work, and take on public service and leadership roles.
This scholarship celebrates and supports young people who are doing work inspired by (or similar to) the late HIV/AIDS, health, racial, and social justice activist, Pedro Zamora, but, again - it is not necessarily just about HIV/AIDS. If you are urgently working on progressive change-making in other areas of health or social justice, this scholarship is probably for you!
Selection Process
A panel of esteemed judges will be reviewing each application to confirm that the applicant has thoroughly addressed the questions and prompts, uploaded all required documents, and meets the eligibility requirements detailed in our Application Requirements. For the Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship Application Requirements, Click Here.
The National AIDS Memorial is the steward of our nations’ two most notable AIDS memorials: the federally-designated National AIDS Memorial Grove and the globally-recognized AIDS Memorial Quilt.Imparting the history and lessons of AIDS and the AIDS Movement is at the core of everything we do, and through our iconic memorials and inspiring programs and events, we seek to ensure that the story of AIDS is known by current and future generations and that they be inspired to advance equity, health, and social justice. Our vision is that never again will a community be harmed because of fear, silence, discrimination, or stigma.