NOVA Celebrates Pride Month, Inclusive Culture

Pride Month is celebrated each June, in honor of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York, which occurred on June 28. Over half a century later, members of the LGBTQIA+ communities continue to fight for recognition and inclusion.

Pride Month falls during the relatively quiet summer months at NOVA, but it still offers an opportunity for all of us to model inclusive excellence and support our LGBTQIA+ students. A recent survey reported that as many as one in four LGBTQIA+ students considered dropping out of college due to stress and mental health concerns. The surveyed students suggested steps that colleges could take to improve this situation, and NOVA is engaged in many of them. First and foremost, all NOVA students now have access to TimelyCare, 24/7 tele-mental health services. I encourage all of us to communicate frequently with our students about this important service. Because the LGBTQIA+ students surveyed identified cost and access as two of the key barriers to mental health services, please remind your students that TimelyCare is free and readily available through MyNOVA or the TimelyCare app. And it is completely confidential.

I hope all of us will also take time this June to focus on the message of pride that is the hallmark of the celebration of LGBTQIA+ communities. As actress Samira Wiley (a graduate of D.C.’s Duke Ellington High School) noted, “I want to make sure that any young person or anyone really who is looking up to me—who sees a glimpse of who I am as a person—that they see no shame, that they see pride and that I’m truly unabashed about the person that I am.”

Thank you for building an inclusive culture at NOVA—one in which they can bring their whole selves to all that we do—with pride and confidence in the knowledge that we will be seen, understood and welcomed.