Homeless But Not Hopeless
Richard Hotson, left, and Stephen Teller flank Ambassador Attallah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X and keynote speaker at 2019’s Southern Nevada Diversity Summit, held on the UNLV campus.
If you want to address youth homelessness in Las Vegas, you really need to address LGBTQ+ homelessness. An estimated 40% of the 14,000 homeless youth in Clark County identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Stephen Teller and Richard Hotson are doing just that. Their groundbreaking estate gift to UNLV will offer help to this vulnerable population, which too often is subjected to violence, food insecurity, and bullying.
The Stephen L. Teller and Richard V. Hotson, Jr. Diversity Fund will remove obstacles that keep homeless LGBTQ+ youth from achieving success. For example, it will help them maintain Nevada residency status so that they can be eligible for in-state tuition. Overall, it will help these youths gain the greater financial stability that comes with a UNLV degree.
“UNLV is a young, imaginative institution that addresses real present-day problems,” says Teller. For homeless and LGBTQ+ students, this means targeted programs that give them academic, financial, and social support. Case in point are UNLV’s academic multicultural center, The Intersection; the HOPE Scholars program; and the office of Student Diversity and Social Justice.
Teller and Hotson offer this advice to other UNLV advocates who want to effect change through their will or estate plan “If you are looking for a stable, regulated institution that will long outlive you, a state university foundation is an ideal beneficiary.”
“UNLV is willing and able to carve out a way to make your money accomplish what you have hoped to do.”
Contact Eric Schimmoeller at 702-895-3641 or plannedgiving@unlv.edu today to learn more about how easy it is to make a profound impact on UNLV’s students — now and in the future — by including UNLV in your estate plan.