For many high-school seniors, receiving the long-awaited letter of acceptance into a college or a university is conquering half the battle. Once settling in on campus, incoming students can feel as if they are in “The Twilight Zone.” University life is challenging and often frightening, but like taking a road trip with friends, the journey is less daunting with one’s posse, so to speak, by your side.
That is exactly the idea behind the Posse Foundation. Since it’s founding in 1989, the foundation has worked to support students in their college endeavors with a network of similarly motivated peers already in place. Posse partners with colleges and universities to award students four-year, full-tuition scholarships “to ensure that Posse Scholars persist in their academic studies and graduate so they can take on leadership positions in the workforce,” its mission states.
The foundation aims “to extend to these students the opportunity to pursue personal and academic excellence by placing them in supportive, multicultural teams (‘Posses’)…,” reads the organization’s 2006 annual report.
“Posse is among the most comprehensive and unique programs of its kind,” says Rassan Salandy, the national director of university recruitment and public relations for the Posse Foundation. “Posse Scholars graduate at a rate of ninety percent, which is well above the national average,” he says. “Since the majority — something like 85 percent — of Posse Scholars are either Hispanic or African American, it is reasonable to infer that their success rate mirrors that of the Posse scholars in general.”
In today’s increasingly competitive and multicultural society, many colleges and universities welcome innovative programs that lend a hand in recruiting and retaining minority students. One of Posse’s goals is to help colleges enroll students from diverse backgrounds that the school might not have otherwise attracted.
“Many scholars are first-generation students. Some are from less than affluent families,” Salandy says. “But whatever their individual circumstances, their team, or Posse, is a powerful support system that facilitates Scholars’ academic and personal success.”
Jessica Flores, a Posse Scholar and native of Pasadena, Calif., is a freshman at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., where she is majoring in international business and management and learning Italian as a third language. Flores says she did not realize the impact Posse would have on her life.
