U-M grad student wins $25K scholarship from Porn Hub site

Image 1 of 6

This is a story about a pornography website giving $25,000 to a University of Michigan student - but the only graphic content here is the mating habits of prairie voles.

Natalie Nevarez is just weeks away from her PHD studying the dopamine release in lab animals - a path she could only have dreamed of growing up the child of Mexican migrant farm workers.

"Very humble beginnings, it was a very different lifestyle," she said. "There were a lot of things I liked about it. It was more simple."

She would follow a much different path. At 13 she was attending high school and college.

"I have actually completed my entire education on scholarship funding," Nevarez said. "Merit based scholarships that I have been able to achieve."

Which is where Porn Hub, one of the largest adult websites with over 78 billion videos comes in. But not in the conventional sense, rather a philanthropic branch called Porn Hub Cares which gives away an annual scholarship of $25,000.

So how does a fine upstanding grad student come across such a salacious offering?

"I actually heard about it through social media, I think people were passing it around like a joke," she said.

Of course Nevarez had her reservations when the scholarship was attached to a scandalous industry. But there was no nudity or anything like that involved in her submission, just her talking about her work and her desire for a life her parents never even dreamed of.

"A lot of my story too, is how an education was my American dream," she said. "And how not being in debt is also part of the American dream and this will allow me to accomplish that."

And if Porn Hub being attached to the money means she can talk about the opportunities this will create, then all the better.

"I see it kind of as a great way for Porn Hub to support women in science," she said. "Because money is a great way to support science."

Natalie plans to use the money as she furthers her education at Stanford University.