Three Samo Students Named Posse Scholars

In 1989, education strategist Deborah Bial created one of the most exclusive and distinguished college access and youth leadership development programs in the United States: The Posse Foundation.  The Posse Foundation is a nationwide organization that provides full scholarships for high school students who want to attend a sponsored school. For the Los Angeles area, there are 11 sponsored schools, including Bucknell University, Grinnell College, Hobart and Williams College,  Kalamazoo College, Middlebury College, Pepperdine University, Syracuse, Berkeley, University Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern University and Tulane University.  Each year the foundation “[identifies], [recruits] and [trains] 8,480 public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential to become Posse Scholars,” (possefoundation.org). Once you go through the extensive application process and are deemed a Posse Scholar, you are placed with other Posse Scholars who have been accepted into one of the 11 sponsored schools to formulate a posse. Each posse has 10 members. These members all attend the same school on a full-four year scholarship.  This year, with the commencement of the foundation’s 29th year, three Samo students have been given this award. The organization receives over 17,000 nominations for their allotted 740 scholarships every year, which come from teachers and community service leaders. This high selectivity makes the scholarship even more of an honor to receive. When one is nominated to Posse, they are immediately directed to their first interview. During this interview, everyone is paired into teams and instructed to participate in an assortment of activities. Usually these application processes consist of endless paperwork and formal one-on-one interviews. But Posse doesn’t treat their applicants like the one-sided piece of paper of applications, they want to know each and every person seeking their life outside of school and academics.  When one surpasses the first interview, they’re directed to another, more personal interview, which people consider the most stressful. During the second interview, Posse truly tries to grasp a good understanding of everyone’s individual life by casually asking about their passions and life outside school. The final interview, considered the longest, gives you a chance to consort with some representatives of your university, talking about why you chose this specific university and why you’ll be a valuable student there.  This foundation has celebrated 29 years of scholar success, recognizing over eight thousand public high school students who represent exceptional academic and leadership potential. The purpose is to select scholars who may be overlooked by the traditional college acceptance processes. The Posse Foundation has recognized these scholars by awarding over $1.2 billion in scholarships.   By 2020, there will be more than 6,000 Posse alumni in the workforce. Members of this Posse alumni network will be actively involved in settings where decisions are made and will better represent the voices of all Americans. The Posse Foundation recipients have all reflected on this country’s valuable demographic mix. Every year that Posse continues to enhance students’ futures, they come closer to reaching their long-term goal of challenging the face of leadership in the United States. Their ultimate goal is to build a brand new kind of professional leadership network: one that this country has never seen before, and one that will more accurately represent the demographics of the nation.  Posse promotes the idea that the answer to a bright future lies on the strength of these strong leaders from diverse cultures to formulate consensus explanations to complicated social issues of today. This program’s final goal is to cultivate the leaders of tomorrow.  Emnet Abera: Each student discovers the Posse Foundation differently and for Emnet Abera (’18), the process was no different, but resulted in her acceptance into Northwestern University.  After being nominated by her counselor, Abera was set off on her path to become a Posse scholar. Tracing back to her achievement as a Posse Scholar, this process occurred in a span of over four months. One could just imagine how unsettling it was waiting to hear back in between interviews. But Abera describes how all this anticipating paid off in the end.  “Now I’m going to Northwestern's school of communications to be a part of a flexible yet challenging academic environment that prepares students for future work and study in any number of diverse fields, but ultimately teaches about how companies and businesses use media and technology to interact with their audience,” Abera said.  This extensive and demanding application process all began during the second semester of her junior year when Abera was nominated by her counselor. She started it with a group interview, consisting of over 50 students.  “The initial interview was more group oriented. We were given different tasks to complete with six people. There was a structure made of Legos hidden from every group member except one and we were required to build this structure based on the instruction of the person who actually saw it exactly. None of the groups really succeeded at this one. Another activity was where we were given a specific cause to make a PSA,” Abera said.  During this second activity, Abera not only expressed her leadership talent but also impressed the interview facilitators with how innovative and creative she is. She proposed her idea that the team used and performed.  Given the amount of students participating and the competition, Abera didn’t see herself returning for round two. So instead of solely focusing on what impression she gave off to the judges, she just made the most out of the activities and focused on having fun. When Abera got the email asking her to come back for another more personal interview, it proved how beneficial her lightheartedness was. “During this interview, they asked about the different things I was passionate about multiple times, how I am a leader in and outside of school and which school I was most interested in. But they also managed to make it very casual and conversational, so we were cracking jokes while they were giving me some advice for college,” Abera said.  The final interview, consisting of a group of 20 students, had representatives from Abera’s chosen university, Northwestern. Although one might think that this room would be  nerve-racking, Posse organized the interview in a way so that everyone felt at ease. In this interview the students talked about their beliefs on various topics.  Thanks to her demonstration of “extraordinary academic and leadership potential,” Abera will be going to Illinois for her full-scholarship at Northwestern University.  Emily Goldman: One of the reasons why Emily Goldman (’18) chose Bucknell University out of the other ten prestigious universities partnered with Posse’s Los Angeles Division was because of a golf course. She started her beloved passion for golf when she joined Samo’s team her freshman year.  When Goldman first enrolled in golf in 2014, there were only five players. Right away, she knew the risk of girls golf being potentially cut, so Emily took the responsibility of seeking new recruits so there could be a team. Now, the golf team has eleven girls and ended with a very successful season.  Her dedication to golf doesn’t stop there; Goldman also founded Golf Club so her team would still be able to connect when the season ended. As she started exploring her promising life at Bucknell, she realized that this university offers much more than a golf course.  “At Bucknell, I'll be studying economics and business. The school has an [amazing] business program and provides a lot of flexibility with their classes. The school is great in many ways and I really wanted to branch out of California. I like the town of the school and how involved the students are in the town. I also wanted smaller class sizes. Overall, the school was a perfect fit,” Goldman said.  As she studies economics at Bucknell, Goldman will understand societies, behavior, political trends and how they significantly apply to modern-day society. Bucknell will test her ability to think independently, challenging her to understand social responsibility and theories within the global economy. Since their economics major is flexible, Goldman will be able to combine her major in economics while also exploring her other interest in business.  When Goldman received the nomination note toward the end of her junior year, she quickly understood the commitment going into this application. As she started researching The Posse Foundation, she fell in love with the program because of what they stood for. Emily appreciates how The Posse Foundation has taught their scholars persistence,  making a visible difference on campus and throughout their professional careers. “Once I committed to the program there were three rounds of interviews over the course of a couple months. It was very competitive. The last one was about four hours and after than one is when I heard I was accepted,” Goldman said.  Posse Scholars are identified for their leadership ability and overall motivation to succeed, and since Goldman exceedingly demonstrated her abilities to the foundation, she will now go on to serve as a catalyst for increased individual and community development.  Nathan Garcia: As team captain for Wrestling for boys varsity for all four years, Nathan Garcia (’18) was crushed when he found out that Kalamazoo College didn’t have a wrestling team. But he soon gained high hopes when he read the mission of the computer science program at Kalamazoo College. The program strives to provide students with a strong base towards the concepts and skills underlying computer science by the context of an integrated, multi-dimensional liberal arts program.  “My decision was to just get out of my comfort zone and be able to explore more. I’ll be studying either computer science or computor engineering, to just study something I know will continue being a big role in society,” Garcia said.  Garcia was introduced to The Posse Foundation when he received a packet during one of his class periods. When he learned his potential opportunities at Posse, he followed through with it at the College Center. As he went through the three interviews, they discussed the actual application to his college of choice. His first interview was based on how well these students could demonstrate skills working as a team. Nathan understood this concept right away and displayed himself as a proactive person. If one successfully demonstrates this, then they move onto the second one-on-one interview. “The second round was probably the most stressful part, having to talk about why [you chose] Kalamazoo and why you demonstrate leadership qualities through your activities,” Garcia said.  After Garcia successfully explained his potential and impact at Kalamazoo, he was directed towards his third activity. By this time, the foundation is already convinced that these applicants demonstrate academic and leadership potential, but they also seek individuals with very diverse backgrounds.  “Third round was a group activity but more personal and went into our more personal life like financial background, parents background, and any struggles we’ve faced. I enjoyed the third round, because I believe there we could really show our character in the best way possible.” After successfully completing each round of interviews, Garcia was deemed a Posse scholar.