Though the 34 students who were awarded Syracuse University’s first Posse scholarships will arrive on campus as part of the Class of 2016, the majority of the scholarship winners do not share the same geographic and financial backgrounds of many students who commit to SU.

Don Saleh, vice president for enrollment management, headed to Miami, Atlanta and Los Angeles with Maurice Harris, dean of undergraduate admissions, and other SU faculty to select the university’s Posse winners in December. The scholarship winners will meet and communicate regularly with their respective Posse — a group of students from the same city that act as a support system for one another — between now and when they enter college as a group in the fall.

Saleh and those on the SU staff participated in the tail end of the admissions search after Posse, an organization that helps more than 30 undergraduate institutions identify and award high-achieving public school students with full college tuition, helped narrow the field to about 25 candidates from each of the three cities. The team from SU met the students in a large group setting and read through the candidates’ application materials before finalizing the scholarship winners, Saleh said.

In the end, 12 students were each selected for SU’s Atlanta and Los Angeles Posses, while 10 were chosen for Miami’s. Though SU does not track student data by cities, the university enrolled 28 students from Georgia in fall 2011. During that same enrollment period, the university enrolled 57 students from Florida and 165 students from California.

Though Posse’s selection process does not center on recruiting minority students, roughly 80 percent of Posse scholarship winners across the nation are black or Hispanic, said Harris, dean of undergraduate admissions who accompanied Saleh to two of the three cities. The number of minority students selected for scholarships also reflects the demographic of the large, urban cities they come from. For example, more Hispanic students belong to the Los Angeles and Miami Posses, cities with traditionally large Hispanic populations, Harris said.

Saleh said more than 50 percent of the students selected are first-generation college students, compared to 16 percent of students currently on campus. Though Saleh said he does not have specific numbers, most of the scholarship winners come from lower- and middle-income families and all would qualify for need-based financial aid without the scholarship. Sixty percent of current SU students receive need-based financial aid.

‘In many ways, they’re not typical to Syracuse,’ Saleh said of the Posse students.

Harris reviewed the candidates’ application materials, including SAT scores, GPAs and extracurricular activities, and found the Posse winners are ‘on par with other scholarship recipients.’

Though Harris cautioned against making generalizations, he said many of the students face socioeconomic difficulties or hardships at home, but are driven to overcome their circumstances. Their will, Harris said, helped separate many of the Posse winners from the general population.

Said Harris: ‘These are students who, on paper, would be impressive even if you knew nothing else about their personal struggle.’

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Published on January 17, 2012 at 12:00 pm

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