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RELEASED: April 28, 2005
DANVILLE, KY—Centre College has announced a partnership with the Posse Foundation of New York, an organization that prepares promising small groups of public high school students for enrollment at top-tier colleges nationwide. The partnership will bring student leaders from a major metropolitan area to Centre, and will help develop a more balanced student body at the College.
Over the past 14 years, the Posse Foundation has placed 1,228 students in colleges and universities. These students have won more than $112 million in scholarships from Posse partner institutions and are persisting and graduating at a 90 percent rate—a percentage far higher than the national averages for institutions of higher education.
Posse currently recruits students from five major cities: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. Centre's partnership is with the Boston office of the Posse Foundation. Two representatives from the Posse/Boston office will visit Centre's campus in early May for discussions and to learn more about the College. The Centre/Posse partnership will begin in the fall of 2006.
On Centre's behalf, the Posse Foundation will identify 20 scholarship finalists for Centre from among thousands of Boston-area nominations, host on-site interviews for Centre to select 10 students, provide a weekly, pre-collegiate training program for the 10 over an eight-month period, and maintain contact with the students and the campus for each of the four years they are enrolled.
In becoming a Posse partner, Centre joins some of America's most prestigious institutions, including Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr, Carleton, Claremont McKenna, Middlebury and Vanderbilt.
"I am pleased to announce this agreement between the College and the Posse Foundation," says John Roush, president of the College. "The Posse Foundation provides the ideal intersection between Centre's long-term interests in developing leaders and our need to provide a diverse experience for all our students. We believe that the Posse Foundation represents an excellent opportunity to make Centre a stronger and more interesting place."
The rationale for the Posse Foundation is described on the organization's web site (http://www.possefoundation.org/) as follows: "As the United States becomes an increasingly multicultural society, Posse believes that the leaders of this new century should reflect the country's rich demographic mix and that the key to a promising future for our nation rests on the ability of strong leaders from diverse backgrounds to develop consensus solutions to complex social problems. One of the primary aims of the Posse Program is to train these leaders of tomorrow."
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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/
For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html.
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