19.12.2012 Views

World - Bucknell University

World - Bucknell University

World - Bucknell University

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

As the <strong>University</strong> makes diversity one of its overarching goals<br />

through The Plan for <strong>Bucknell</strong>, a group of determined students<br />

is changing campus from the ground up.<br />

The Posse Perspective<br />

M<br />

10 BUCKNELL WORLD • September 2006<br />

CHRISTINA MASCIERE WALLACE<br />

ay Naldo ’09, the daughter of Filipino<br />

immigrants, was expected to go to college. “They came to<br />

America to work so that I could have a good future,” says<br />

Naldo, who commanded the ROTC unit at her high<br />

school. But with a father who worked two full-time jobs,<br />

seven days a week, she relied on getting a scholarship.<br />

Lyndon Thweatt ’09 had never heard of <strong>Bucknell</strong> before<br />

his senior year of high school. A strong student and<br />

natural leader, he’d only considered Morehouse College,<br />

an all-male, historically African-American school.<br />

Odinakachi Anyanwu ’09, whose parents are from<br />

Nigeria, held down three summer jobs and worked 30<br />

hours a week during high school to help support his<br />

mother and younger siblings — and he still excelled<br />

academically. “But we didn’t know how we were going<br />

to pay for college,” he says.<br />

These three sophomores are smart, talented, and<br />

community-minded — exactly the type of students<br />

<strong>Bucknell</strong> wants to attract. But top-tier universities like<br />

<strong>Bucknell</strong> rarely target the less competitive, urban high<br />

schools that these students attended.<br />

Enter The Posse Foundation, a national college-<br />

access and leadership program that identifies, recruits,<br />

and trains outstanding young leaders from public<br />

schools in urban areas. These students receive merit<br />

leadership scholarships from partner colleges across the<br />

country. Based on the theory that these students are<br />

more likely to succeed in college if they have strong<br />

peer support on campus, Posse selects nominees and<br />

trains them as a “posse” of 10 students, focusing on team<br />

building, leadership, communication, and academics.<br />

The students hone skills needed to build bridges across<br />

cultural divides — first on an individual level, then<br />

across a college campus, and eventually in the workplace.<br />

Following an intense, even grueling interview and<br />

assessment program, each posse is placed at one of 26<br />

highly selective universities that are committed to<br />

increasing diversity.<br />

The program works: After 17 years and more than

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!