Founded in 1989, the Posse Foundation 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 significant percentage of Posse Scholars are African Americans.
The Posse Foundation recruits high school students in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. The foundation then places posses of 10 students at its partner colleges and universities. Several partnership institutions admit two or more posses each year. Since 1989 more than 4,200 students have received scholarships from partner institutions valued at more than $484 million.
Texas A&M University is one the foundation’s newest partners. In the fall of 2013, two posses of students, one from Atlanta and one from Houston, will enroll on the College Station campus. The posses at Texas A&M will be made up of students who plan to major in STEM fields.
“We look forward to welcoming the inaugural class of Posse Scholars to Aggieland,” said Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin. “Both Texas A&M and the Posse Foundation share a similar goal of developing leaders of character, particularly those who come from diverse backgrounds. We see this partnership — developing talented students in the critical areas of science, technology, engineering and math — as a tangible extension of Texas A&M’s land-grant mission of serving our state and country.”
