Lawrence
Today magazine, Spring 2007
Beginning in the 2007-08 academic year, Lawrence will be affiliated
with the Posse Foundation of New York City.
The foundation, in its own words, is “a college-access and youth-leadership
development program that identifies, recruits, and selects student leaders
from public high schools and sends them in groups called Posses to some of
the top colleges and universities in the country.
“A Posse is a multicultural team made up of ten students. It acts as
a traveling support system to ensure that each Posse Scholar succeeds and
graduates from
college. Posse Scholars receive four-year, full-tuition leadership scholarships
from Posse partner colleges and universities.”
It began in 1989, when a minority youth who had received a scholarship from
a prestigious college was asked why he had dropped out after only six months.
His reply, “I never would have left if I’d had my posse with
me,” inspired a program that, almost 18 years later, has placed 1,521
students, who have won over $142 million in scholarships from Posse partner
universities and are persisting and graduating in four years at a rate of
90 percent — Lawrence’s graduation rate for minority students
currently is 54 percent.
Posse has sites in five major cities: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York,
and Washington, D.C.; the Posse that will start at Lawrence this fall will
be from New York.
Last fall, over 2,000 New York City students participated in a non-academic
screening process created by Posse that is called the Dynamic Assessment
Process (DAP). The students were nominated by New York City Public Schools
and a
variety of youth organizations
and churches.
In December, a Selection Committee of six Lawrence faculty and staff members
participated in the final DAP with the 21 students the Posse staff had identified
as the best candidates for Lawrence. The ten students selected will comprise
Lawrence’s first Posse. A new Posse of ten freshmen
will enroll each year; in four years, there will be 40 Posse students on
campus.
Before entering college, members of Posse teams are prepared for the experience
through an intensive Pre-Collegiate Training Program, meeting weekly from
January through September prior to their matriculation.
“An important aspect of the Posse program is the expectation that each
of the Posse students will strive to assume leadership roles on campus,” comments
Steve Syverson, dean of admissions and financial aid. “Additionally,
they are responsible for planning an annual Posse Plus Retreat, a weekend
at Björklunden
at which about 80 selected students, faculty, and staff will confront and
discuss issues of diversity on campus. In addition to broadening the geographic
and ethnic diversity on campus, we expect our participation will have a substantive
positive impact on the campus culture.”
Although there have been studies of the impact of the program on the Posse
Scholars, Lawrence has gained permission to conduct an unprecedented research
study of this impact on the broader campus community. This research group
is led by William Skinner, director of research administration, and also
includes David
Burrows, provost and dean of the faculty, and three other faculty members.
