The Posse Foundation has designed a recruitment strategy called the Dynamic Assessment Process (DAP), an innovative approach to identifying exceptional students who might be missed by traditional college admissions processes. DAP taps into the often unseen qualities of high school students using non-traditional forums to evaluate students. Interactive workshops in which students have the opportunity to work alongside peers to generate and share ideas have proven to be an effective means of identifying an alternative set of qualities that can predict academic success in college. Posse identifies its primary selection criteria as leadership talent, ability to work in a team with people from diverse backgrounds, and desire to succeed. Posse’s network of public high schools and community-based organizations nominate potential candidates and allow the Posse staff to begin its process with thousands of pre-screened students. The first phase of DAP consists of workshops which place students in situations that highlight their public speaking, listening, negotiation and communication skills. DAP offers insight into the identity, personality and strengths of participating students and identifies students who are strong team players, have leadership ability, are good communicators and are motivated. The process relies on trained staff to identify these exceptional students. Approximately 60 percent of first round students are invited back to the second phase of the process, the individual interview. The last stage of the recruitment process is a finalist workshop involving Posse staff, representatives from the partner university and 20 scholarship candidates. As a group they participate in activities that allow further evaluation of group behavior and individual potential. Together, the university administration and The Posse Foundation agree on ten Posse Scholars for the next entering class. Selected scholars are awarded four-year leadership scholarships by the university. Back to the top