"I hope to be able to speak with knowledge and passion about my work to the point that even those who are skeptical of the importance of it will be open and gain new perspective." - Mia Dent
How is the next generation of activists pioneering change?
With social media and the internet reaching new stratospheres of influence, news stories are as accessible as ever. In a time where health and social injustices fester across news cycles like viruses, young people across the globe are growing up in a complex era. They are not sitting idle in the face of those injustices. They are aiming to make their mark on this complex era.
Mia Dent, a recipient of the Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship, is inspiring action and setting herself up for a career fighting for change as an Honors College student at North Carolina A&T, an HBCU in Greensboro, NC. Among a plethora of other accomplishments, Mia co-founded Living At The Intersections, Inc. (LATI), a nonprofit organization focused on providing space and education for and regarding Black girls/Emerging Adults and Black nonbinary youth.
Now in her third year at North Carolina A&T, an HBCU in Greensboro, NC, Mia recently sent our team an update about how her educational and advocacy efforts are progressing:
"As the Fall semester of my third year at North Carolina A&T has come to an end, I want to again update you on my progress. I have again made the Chancellor’s List (which I have consistently done since coming to NCAT). I continue to enjoy my time in Honors College and the programming we have been developing. I have continued my involvement in the National Council of Negro Women’s NCAT Section, as well as serving as the secretary of the Earth & Environmental Sciences Club. My role as Senator representing the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) also continues and I am excited to see the work we are doing engaging Aggies within CAHSS. These leadership positions are in addition to my ongoing work on the Advisory Board of NC A&T Center of Excellence for Social Justice, and as the Co-Chair of the National Organization for Women’s Young Feminist Committee. Further, I continue to be a member of Lewis Gives, a volunteer organization that provides support to those within the Greensboro, NC community. As of December 2025, I was selected for Lewis Gives' internship program and will begin that this semester.
In spite of the various cuts to funding of programs in my areas of interest (environmental justice, social justice, etc.), I continue to search for internships and (cross fingers) paid study abroad opportunities for the upcoming summer.
I am one of the co-creators of an adaption of the Duluth Program’s Domestic Violence & Equality Wheels specialized wheel that focuses on Black girls (available on their website soon) and am excited to announce that the curriculum I co-authored is now “live” and available on Amazon. In collaboration with a grant-funded project through the University of Oklahoma, my co-authors and I are in the process of identifying organizations to co-pilot the curriculum with the initial plan being to test its efficacy. In this current climate where funding is often not available for culturally informed projects, we are offering the piloting of the curriculum for free to eliminate the cost barrier of paying for such a resource.
As I begin my second semester of my junior year, I continue to search for scholarships as they become more difficult to come by as I advance in classification. I am also beginning to study for the LSAT and GRE as I plan which direction my graduate journey will take.
As always, thank you again for providing scholarships to me and others like me. It is financial support that allows us to pursue our dreams.”
Good luck with the rest of your third year, Mia! We can't wait to see the change you continue to make in this world!
Scholarship Opportunities at the National AIDS Memorial
Dedicated to continuing Pedro Zamora’s legacy, the Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship is a $5,000 award that supports the school costs of young activists and non-profit changemakers. These students are working in their communities and carrying the late activist Pedro Zamora’s torch forward in the struggles for social and health justice. This scholarship is not exclusive to HIV/AIDS work and activism.
If you or a student that you know is urgently working on progressive change-making in other areas of health or social justice, learn more about the Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship today:
