World - Bucknell University
World - Bucknell University
World - Bucknell University
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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