Scholarships
The Helen Veress-Mitchell Scholarship program is designed to help HIV-positive individuals attend college and pursue a two-year, four-year or graduate degree
Providing college scholarships to HIV-positive students since 1995 has proven to be one of the most rewarding projects CCAF has undertaken. By investing in young people, we are investing in not only their health and well-being but in the overall health and well-being of the future.
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The Helen Veress-Mitchell Scholarship Fund awards money to HIV-positive students attending college or technical schools. Since its creation in 1995, the program has raised and distributed more than $500-thousand to students in northern California students.
Helen Veress-Mitchell Scholarship Fund
Investing in people living with HIV is crucial and a primary mission of Capital City AIDS Fund (CCAF). The Helen Veress-Mitchell Scholarship program was created in 2002 and since has accrued donations and awarded more than $300,000 in scholarships. These scholarships help people living with HIV attend college or technical school. Most are pursuing careers in the health care field in hopes of helping other people living with HIV.
The Helen Veress-Mitchell Scholarship Fund was established in memory of the mother of Joyce Mitchell, chair of the CCAF board and a co-founder. "The scholarship fund is something my mother would be very proud of," said Mitchell. "I couldn't think of a better way of keeping her memory alive."
Charisse Ahmed is a CCAF scholarship recipient and is studying to get a PhD in Nursing. Ahmed discovered she was HIV+ after testing herself. Her mother died when she was a teenager. When her family finally told her the cause of her mom’s death, Ahmed started volunteering as an HIV/AIDS outreach worker, doing testing. That’s when, at home alone one night, she administered her own test. She was only 20 years old.
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Ahmed is a Fullbright Scholar and received a research grant to study HIV in Swaziland for nine months. She presented her research focused on health care experiences among adolescents living with HIV at the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam.
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More and more, with medications helping people manage their health; children infected at birth are growing into young adults living with HIV. Many have lost their parents to the disease and are on their own. The Helen Veress-Mitchell Fund is dedicated to helping these young people move forward with their lives and attend college.