The Posse Program at Bard College

Bard College Posse commencement celebration. Photo by Karl Rabe

Bard College partners with the Posse Foundation to recruit talented young leaders from diverse backgrounds as Bard students. Posse Scholars receive full-tuition scholarships from Bard, where they attend as members of a team. Other supports include eight months of pre-college training leading up to matriculation and faculty mentoring once enrolled. Bard Posse Scholars currently attend from Atlanta. Bard will enroll its first cohort of Posse Arts Scholars from Puerto Rico in fall 2022.

Event at Bard College for students and alumni/ae of the Equity and Inclusion Programs.

What is Posse?

The Posse model is rooted in the belief that a small, diverse group of talented students—a Posse— can serve as a catalyst for individual and community development. The Foundation identifies, recruits, and trains individuals with extraordinary leadership potential. Posse Scholars receive full-tuition leadership scholarships from Posse’s partner colleges and universities.

Posse Scholars—a majority of whom are first-generation collegegoers from low-income BIPOC communities—reflect the diversity of their school districts. To be considered for the award, students must first be nominated by their high school or a community-based organization. Nominees then take part in Posse’s Dynamic Assessment Process, an innovative, nontraditional method for assessing leadership and academic potential.

Learn More at possefoundation.org

Class of 2021 Spotlights

Sakinah Bennett ’21

Sakinah Bennett is a native of Douglasville, Georgia. She earned her bachelor's degree in dance and historical studies with a concentration in Africana studies. She began dancing at the age of 5 and hasn’t stopped since. She is the co-founder of Sister-2-Sister, dedicated to mentoring young women of color in her community—and eventually around the world. She is also a teaching artist at the Center for Creative Education in Kingston, New York.
Skylar Walker ’21

Skylar Walker is a native of Marietta, Georgia and earned her bachelor's from Bard College in jazz. She has released three solo music projects while pursuing her studies. Before coming to Bard, Skylar served as a Girl Scout for fourteen years and was an active member of the choir, drama, dance, and ministries at her church for many years. During her high school career she participated in a four-year performing arts magnet program at Pebble Brook High School in Mableton Georgia (CCEPA). Skylar is a co-founder of Sister-2-Sister and she is dedicated to inspiring and educating young women in her community.

Recent Senior Projects by Posse Graduates

Saul Amezcua ’19 Familias Separadas: The Zero Tolerance Policy that Changed the U.S. Immigration System
Edwar C. Aviles Mercedes ’20 What Lies in the Market: The Untold Connections Between Dominicans and Haitians
Cariahbel Hilary Azemar ’19 Neuroplasticity
Stephen Richardson ’18 The Cultivation of Black Eloquence By Means of Cultural Capital and Speech Training
Eniyah C. Willingham ’19 Beyond Repair: An Investigation of the Experiences, Interpretations, and Self-Construction of Black Women Welfare Recipients in the Deep South

NEWSROOM

Bard College First to Offer Full-Tuition Posse Scholarships to Students from Puerto Rico as Posse Foundation, Lin-Manuel Miranda Launch Arts Leadership Program

The Posse Foundation is expanding to recruit art students in Puerto Rico through a new project launched in collaboration with Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Miranda Family Fund and Bard College. Beginning this fall, the college success and youth leadership development organization will identify, select and train cohorts of high school seniors in Puerto Rico interested in pursuing undergraduate arts degrees at mainland US colleges.

Bard, which worked closely with Posse to initiate this new leadership scholarship, is offering full-tuition funding for study in its renowned arts programs and will recruit the inaugural class of Puerto Rico Arts Posse Scholars this fall.

“As the son of two Puerto Rican migrants, this project is especially meaningful to me,” says Lin-Manuel, the award-winning creator and star of the Broadway musicals In the Heights and Hamilton. “So much of my work as an artist is informed and enriched by my Puerto Rican heritage. I’m excited to partner with Posse to increase opportunities for the next generation of Boricuas to lead as actors, musicians, painters, dancers, sculptors.”

This new effort is the latest expansion of the Posse Arts initiative, which aims to create a diverse pipeline of leaders in both fine arts and performing arts fields. Bard joins California Institute of the Arts—which will recruit Arts Posse students from New York City this fall—as a premier partner. Over the next five years, Bard will award in excess of $10 million in full-tuition scholarships to Arts Posse Scholars from Puerto Rico.

“We’re delighted to be the first institutional partner for the new Posse Arts Program in Puerto Rico,” said Bard College President Leon Botstein. “Recruiting a cohort of young artists from Puerto Rico for our Arts Division aligns perfectly with our belief in the importance of the arts in higher education and in increasing access. We are excited to be embarking on this new project with Posse and look forward to selecting the first class in December and welcoming them to our campus.”

Winners of the prestigious award will be selected for their exceptional leadership potential as well as artistic ability. Like all Posse Scholars, Puerto Rico Arts Posse Scholars will receive full-tuition scholarships from participating institutions, where they will attend as members of a team. Other supports will include eight months of pre-college training leading up to matriculation and faculty mentoring once enrolled.

Posse Scholars—a majority of whom are first-generation collegegoers from low-income BIPOC communities—reflect the diversity of their school districts. To be considered for the award, students must first be nominated by their high school or a community-based organization. Nominees then take part in Posse’s Dynamic Assessment Process, an innovative, nontraditional method for assessing leadership and academic potential.

The Posse Arts Program was launched on April 15 at an event hosted by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Warner Bros. Pictures. Former First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated the new initiative in a message to attendees, saying, “Thank you for what you are doing; it couldn’t be more important. Behind every great artist—just like every great engineer, doctor, lawyer, business leader, and, yes, president and first lady—is a great Posse.”

As part of their involvement with the new arts program in Puerto Rico, Lin-Manuel and the Miranda Family Fund together with the Flamboyan Foundation and the Hispanic Federation—organizations with wide footprints in Puerto Rico—will work with Posse to establish a network of nominators throughout the island. They will also assemble a group of accomplished artists in a diversity of fields to help enrich various aspects of the program.

“Bringing Posse to Puerto Rico is a dream project,” says Luis Miranda, Jr., a leading political strategist and father of Lin-Manuel. “Puerto Rico is home to so many brilliant young people who are gifted artists. This Posse expands their horizons so they can pursue their creative aspirations at a professional level. Connecting them to leading institutions like Bard not only expands opportunities for them to hone their craft and build successful careers as artists, but also helps position them to lead in their fields. That’s exciting.”

The Posse Foundation plans to grow its arts initiative—both in Puerto Rico and in the contiguous United States—to include six top-tier arts colleges. At capacity, the program will support 300 Arts Posse Scholars annually, providing upwards of $12 million in full-tuition scholarships each year.

“It’s difficult to overstate the importance of having leaders in the arts who reflect our unique diversity,” says Posse President and Founder Deborah Bial. “So much of who we are and who we can imagine ourselves becoming hinges on representation. Our expansion to Puerto Rico is a natural extension of Posse’s mission to build a diverse, equitable, inclusive leadership network we can all be proud of. I’m so thankful to Lin-Manuel and President Botstein at Bard for collaborating on this exciting initiative.”

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About The Posse Foundation
Posse started in 1989, inspired by a student who said, “I never would have dropped
out of college if I’d had my Posse with me.” Posse recruits students as seniors in high school, works with them through an eight-month pre-collegiate training program, supports them through all four years of college, and helps them secure competitive internships and leadership-track jobs.

Posse Scholars represent the diversity of the cities from which they are recruited and are majority first-generation collegegoers. To be considered for the award, students must first be nominated by their high school or a community-based organization. Nominees then take part in Posse’s Dynamic Assessment Process, an innovative, nontraditional method for assessing leadership and academic potential.

Posse partners with 63 highly selective colleges and recruits dynamic students from more than 20 cities across the United States. To date, more than 10,000 students have won over $1.6 billion in scholarships from Posse partner colleges and universities. Most important, Scholars graduate at a rate of 90 percent—a rate that well exceeds the national average and equals or exceeds the average graduation rates at most selective colleges in the United States.

For more information about The Posse Foundation, visit possefoundation.org.

To nominate a student from Puerto Rico, visit possefoundation.org/recruiting-students/arts-nominations

Post Date: 05-21-2021

Student Spotlight: Jahari Fraser ’22

The Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program profiles Jahari Fraser, a Bard junior and Posse Scholar studying Global and International Studies and Spanish Studies. This semester, Jahari is studying at BGIA and interning at Project CETI, a nonprofit organization and 2020 TED Audacious Project Grant recipient that is applying advanced machine learning and non-invasive robotics to listen to and translate the communication of whales.

Bard Alumna Works within Prison System, Attends Cornell Law

Tayler Butler ’17 is a Bard alumna, a Posse Scholar, and a future lawyer. As a Bard student, she worked as a tutor for incarcerated students in the Bard Prison Initiative. The experience inspired her to continue work in the field. Now she's pursuing her law degree at Cornell.