How do you predict success?  Colleges and universities weigh quantitative and qualitative measures to try to identify the best students for their institutions, for scholarships.  Evaluating activity-laden resumes and test scores, interviews and aspirations, admissions' officials make book on an individual's success.  As in horse racing, though, there are elusive factors, like heart, that produce champions.

Twenty years ago, Deborah Bial, EdD, placed a bet on an alternative method of predicting success.  Inspired by a college drop-out who told her that he never would have left college if he had his posse with him, Bial launched the  Posse Foundation.   With community support, Posse identifies disadvantaged high school students with leadership potential and works with colleges to admit and provide full scholarships for ten Posse scholars at a time, a group trained to support each other for four years and promote cross-cultural exchange on campus.

More than 90% of Posse scholars graduate.  More than 75% form or lead campus activities.  More than $200 million in scholarships have been awarded. The 2007 annual report tells the bigger story, though, and in itself is a model for any nonprofit's emulation. 

Posse is more than an alternative to traditional affirmative action initiatives.  Posse changes the college experience for all students.  Those scholarships are an investment generating immediate returns for those institutions and their numbers are growing.   So too are the numbers investing their time and money in Posse's success.

Originally posted @ Ann Oliveri