By: Shavonda Kornegay ‘11

MMSA Juniors looking for peer support as they head off to college have an excellent program they can apply to: The Posse Foundation.  Posse is a college access and youth leadership development program that identifies, recruits, and selects student leaders from public high schools. The Posse Foundation was founded in 1989 by Deborah Bial (President).

The name “Posse” comes from when Bial was working with a group of talented urban students. She watched them go off to college, then dropping out within a semester. When Bial asked them what happened, one student replied “If only I had my posse with me, I never would have dropped out”. Bial then had the idea that sending a group or posse of students together would help them back each other up. That then developed the program that sent hundreds of students to top colleges and universities throughout the United States.

The Posse Foundation in 2009 trained over 3,110 public high school students with potential to become Posse Scholars. Most important, they have a 90 percent graduation rate in college. A Posse is a support system for its members, helping students deal with pressure on campus. A Posse is made up of 4 teams of 10 student leaders who attend college together. There are Posse Scholars from Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and Washington D.C. They are involved on campus and in the workforce on campus. Posse Scholars are described as motivated, creative, intelligent, dynamic, highly involved, funny, positive and many more.

To become a member of the Posse Foundation you must first apply to become one your junior year. MMSA Juniors should contact Ms. Levin to let her know you are interested. If you are selected then you are put into teams. The teams are prepared through an eight-month Pre-Collegiate Training Program. If you pass the program, you are then enrolled to top universities nationwide.

The Posse Foundation is a great program that every student should participate in. Some programs are there to help students get into college, others, like the Posse Foundation, are there to make sure students stay there. Maybe all it takes is for your posse to be there on your side.  Go to www.possefoundation.org to learn more.

1.  To expand the pool from which top colleges and universities can recruit outstanding young leaders from diverse backgrounds.

2.  To help these institutions build more interactive campus environments so that they can become more welcoming institutions for people from all backgrounds.

3.  To ensure that Posse Scholars persist in their academic studies and graduate so they can take on leadership positions in the workforce