Pushing back
The Posse Foundation may sound like something out of the Wild West, but it’s actually a unique nonprofit that helps promising but economically disadvantaged kids to prepare for and then succeed in college, in part by strengthening ties with their college-bound peers, or “posses.” Since the organization’s founding in 1989, it has helped more than 3,000 students get into and graduate from top-tier universities. The group’s founder, Deborah Bial, Ed.M.’96, Ed.D.’04, spoke on “The Politics of Race and Class in Higher Education” at an Askwith Forum on Tuesday (Oct. 26) to a crowd that included current Posse students, who continued the discussion during an impassioned question-and answer period. “What is smart?” she began, showing slides of luminaries from Einstein and Al Sharpton to Mother Teresa and Marilyn Monroe. “Whether you think each of these people is or was smart is really not important,” she continued. “For sure we know each of these...