Venice Gonzalez, pictured at right, was one of several seniors to interview for the Posse scholarship on September 3. Milena Collazo, Javier Delgado, Dmytro Holyk, Ashley Komperda, Lukasz Kuczynski, Jose Padilla, Maria Reyna, Carlos Sanchez and Emony Tate also interviewed.
The Posse scholarship pays for all four years of college tuition and places students in supportive teams – “posses” – of 10 students at partner colleges and universities.
The seniors had been nominated by their counselors then completed an application, which included an essay. The Posse interview – in a group setting – was the first of several steps in the selection process for the scholarship.
“Our students usually do very well during this portion,” counselor Tania Moumji wrote in an email to staff explaining why the students were out of uniform and school functioned for periods 6-8.
The Posse foundation “Quick Facts” page on its website explains the application process:
“After the large group interview [with all the Chicago area nominees] about half will be called back as semi-finalists. Each semi-finalist will come to the Posse office to be interviewed individually by Posse staff. Between 20 and 25 of these students will be chosen as finalists for each partner school. Finalists must agree to accept the Posse Scholarship if it is offered to them. This is a serious commitment. Finalists will each fill out an application to their Posse college or university. In mid-December they will participate in a group interview with all other finalists for their particular school. An admission committee from the college, including the dean of admission, will attend this meeting. Finalists will be notified if they are Posse Scholarship winners in late December and begin Posse’s eight-month pre-collegiate training program in January.” (possefoundation.org)
