Diplomas Count - June 5, 2014 - 12

S12 | EDUCATION WEEK JUNE 5, 2014
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Diplomas Count > www.edweek.org/go/dc14
When you are comfortable
in your surroundings, you
achieve more than you
think you can ever
achieve."
SUZANNE DEL ROSARIO
Posse Scholar
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10
Great
b change
egins with
great
ideas.
My research isn't meant to sell
a particular point of view. It's
meant to move us past those
arguments and show evidence
we can use to figure out what's
really working for kids.
Gary T. Henry, Ph.D.
Patricia and Rodes Hart
Professor of Public Policy and
Education, Dept. of Leadership,
Policy & Organizations
Explore Our Difference
peabody.vanderbilt.edu
mentoring and leadership training.
The St. Paul, Minn.-based
College Possible helps groups of
low-income students navigate
the college-application process together
and extends that support
with coaches through the first
year of college. And, in an effort
to retain students, campuses are
trying peer-mentoring programs,
among other interventions, to
nurture perseverance.
"The messaging and communication
is a whole lot stronger
when it comes from the students
themselves," said Rick Dalton,
College for Every Student's president
and chief executive officer.
"They can serve as role models."
Positive Pressure
With Posse, the training and
bonding begins well before high
school graduation. After the intensive
selection process, students
from various high schools within
each city are placed into a posse.
They meet weekly at that city's
Posse office beginning in January
through August, when they go to
campus together.
During those eight months of
precollegiate training, seniors soak
up advice on everything from time
management, to sitting together
in the front row in a lecture, to
being open to people from different
cultural backgrounds. Since
the program draws from urban
schools, there are more students of
color and students from poor and
working-class families in the program
than is typical of the overall
U.S. population. On campus, each
posse meets regularly, under the
guidance of a mentor.
Jake J. Moreno-Coplon, a 2008
graduate of Middlebury College in
Vermont, said his posse was made
up of "superstars" who weren't just
in college to make it as individuals
but were committed to blazing a
trail for others.
"When you get like-minded kids
who are 16 or 17 when they first
meet each other, there is also this
generous and friendly competition,"
he said. "You want to succeed
and you want each other to
succeed, but you don't want to be
left behind, either."
While her other friends are
talking about going away to college
as the "end of the world"
because they are leaving their
friends and favorite foods behind,
high school senior Suzanne
Del Rosario doesn't share that
anxiety. Ms. Del Rosario, whose
parents immigrated from the
Dominican Republic to New York
City, said she feels her posse is
like taking part of home with her,
and the other young scholars will
always have her back.
"[The Posse scholars] are going
to be my new home, the family I
can always go to," said Ms. Del Rosario,
who will be attending Trinity
College in Hartford, Conn., this
fall. "When you are comfortable in
your surroundings, you achieve
more than you think you can ever
achieve."
Brandeis University in Waltham,
Mass., has hosted Posse scholars
for more than two decades, and
http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu
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