We Develop Tomorrow’s Leaders.

Posse is one of the most comprehensive and renowned college access and youth leadership development programs in the United States. In fact, President Barack Obama recently said in an interview in The Chronicle of Higher Education , “One of this year’s MacArthur awardees—the ‘genius’ awards—is an innovator named Deborah Bial. She proposed a model to identify promising students from disadvantaged urban backgrounds using an alternative set of qualities as predictors of success in college. …The students that are selected form a ‘Posse’ and are provided with extra supports, and end up graduating from selective colleges with a very high success rate.”

College Access and Leadership Development

Founded in 1989, Posse identifies public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential who may be overlooked by traditional college selection processes. Posse extends to these students the opportunity to pursue personal and academic excellence by placing them in supportive, multicultural teams—Posses—of 10 students. Posse partner colleges and universities award Posse Scholars four-year, full-tuition leadership scholarships.

A worthwhile investment

For 20 years, Posse partner colleges and universities have welcomed Posse Scholars onto their campuses. They have awarded an incredible $265 million in leadership scholarships to these young people and have seen their success not only as leaders on campus, but in these students’ 90 percent graduation rate. Posse’s incredible partners are investing time, energy and resources in the promotion of equity in education and social justice. They believe in the intelligence, talent and dreams of young people who might not always show up on their radar screens, and are giving them a chance to excel.

From President and Founder Deborah Bial

Dear Friends,
When I look back at our 19-year history, I don’t see just the individual accomplishments of our incredible Posse Scholars; I see their collective successes. I am inspired by what this means for our country. Read Full Message

Where is Posse?

Posse has sites in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C.

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430 Students in Six Cities Win $43 Million in Scholarships

Posted January 16, 2009

This year, from a pool of over 9,000 nominees, 430 new Posse Scholars in six cities around the country were awarded $43 million in full-tuition leadership scholarships from Posse’s elite partner colleges and universities. Read More

UC Berkeley Partners with Posse

Posted December 15, 2008

University of California, Berkeley—the country’s highest-ranked public university according to U.S. News & World Report—has joined Posse’s growing roster of partner colleges and universities. Partnered with Los Angeles, Berkeley will welcome its first Posse at the start of the 2009 academic year. Read More

Bill Clinton Taps Posse for Global Initiative

Posted December 09, 2008

At the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting—a gathering of a diverse community of heads of state and nonprofit, business and religious leaders from around the world—Posse President and Founder Deborah Bial weighed in on the state of education in the United States. Read More