We Develop Tomorrow’s Leaders.

Posse is one of the most comprehensive and renowned college access and youth leadership development programs in the United States. In fact, President Barack Obama recently said in an interview in The Chronicle of Higher Education , “One of this year’s MacArthur awardees—the ‘genius’ awards—is an innovator named Deborah Bial. She proposed a model to identify promising students from disadvantaged urban backgrounds using an alternative set of qualities as predictors of success in college. …The students that are selected form a ‘Posse’ and are provided with extra supports, and end up graduating from selective colleges with a very high success rate.”

College Access and Leadership Development

Founded in 1989, Posse 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 worthwhile investment

For over 20 years, Posse partner colleges and universities have welcomed Posse Scholars onto their campuses. They have awarded an incredible $484.5 million in leadership scholarships to these young people and have seen their success not only as leaders on campus, but in these students’ 90 percent graduation rate. Posse’s incredible partners are investing time, energy and resources in the promotion of equity in education and social justice. They believe in the intelligence, talent and dreams of young people who might not always show up on their radar screens, and are giving them a chance to excel.

From the President + Founder and Chair

Dear Friends,
Margaret Mead’s familiar quote couldn’t more aptly apply to the Posse program: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. After 22 years, Posse is seeing this idea manifest itself in a powerful way.Read More

Where is Posse?

Posse has sites in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Washington, D.C. This fall, we’re opening our eighth site in New Orleans.

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