The flyer advertising Colin Powell’s upcoming talk at Vanderbilt University had originally asked, “Can a black man be president?” But a white student had crossed out Powell’s face and written in the name “Jamaal Nelson,” an African-American classmate who was running for student government president. The student had also drawn a noose around Nelson’s name and written racial slurs across the poster.

When Nelson heard about the graffiti, he wasn’t just angry and disappointed. He was ready to drop out of college altogether. But his posse—the group of students from New York City with whom he was admitted to college—would not let him. “The power of their presence, their encouraging words, and the sense that I was not there alone” convinced Nelson to stick it out, he says. He eventually won the presidency, becoming the third African-American in the university’s history to hold the position.

Nelson was among the first students to participate in the Posse Foundation’s signature program. Founded in New York in 1988, Posse recruits multicultural cohorts of talented public high school students and places them as a group into top colleges, such as Vanderbilt University, Bowdoin College, and Boston University. These participants—called Posse Scholars—receive full four-year tuition scholarships. Currently, Posse Scholars hail from six metropolitan areas, including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Deborah Bial cofounded the program after hearing one of the inner-city kids whom she counseled explain, “I never would have left college if I had my posse with me.” As a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she created the program to test her counselee’s hunch. First, the Posse Foundation relies on a network of public high schools and community-based organizations to nominate potential candidates. Next, Posse uses an intensive interview process to select its scholars, and then teaches them how to support each other through the foreign, sometimes hostile terrain of college life.

Twenty years later, the data suggest that Bial’s counselee was correct: The Posse Foundation has sent some 175 groups of 10 students to college, and secured more than $222 million in scholarships. More than 90 percent of these scholars graduate from college.

At the same time, colleges benefit from the influx of diverse leaders who are skilled at building bridges between communities. One Posse Scholar, for instance, founded Vanderbilt’s first gospel choir. Another cofounded Bowdoin’s Caribbean Students Alliance. Overall, 75 percent of Posse Scholars either form new campus organizations or lead existing ones.

LOCATING LEADERS

The Posse Foundation targets students who would otherwise have a hard time getting into and staying in college. “Many Posse Scholars are first-generation students from nontraditional backgrounds,” says Rassan Salandy, a Posse Scholar from the early 1990s and national director of university and public relations for the foundation. Nelson, for example, struggled with grades and test scores because of his dyslexia. One of his college counselors even recommended that he not pursue higher education. But because education was important to Nelson’s family, he was determined to apply to college. He had also discovered his passion for dramatic arts. That was when his English teacher recommended him for the Posse program.

Grades and SAT scores are among the last criteria that Posse considers when accepting students. Instead, Posse looks for leadership talent, the ability to work in teams with people from diverse backgrounds, and the desire to succeed—in other words, the qualities of people who will actively contribute to their colleges and, later, their communities. Although the majority of Posse Scholars are racial or ethnic minorities or from low-income families, the foundation also admits white, middle-class students—in part to dispel the notion that education obstacles are only a racial, ethnic, or social class problem. White scholars also help students learn to befriend people from all cultural backgrounds.

To tap into the skills that Posse and colleges value, applicants undergo a rigorous three-hour interview called the Dynamic Assessment Process (DAP). Candidates participate in small-group tasks while Posse staff members observe their interactions. In one DAP activity, for example, staff members place a figurine out of sight, allowing only one candidate to view it. The candidate then describes the figurine to the rest of his or her group, which attempts to recreate the figurine using similar materials. This exercise reveals to staff both how well candidates work together and how well they lead.

For Nelson, small-group activities such as the figurine task were exactly what he needed to show his leadership and communication capabilities. “When you take a fish out of the water, it’s clumsy and flaps around,” he says. “But when you place it back into water, it’s graceful, fast, and skillful. The same is true for people. When you put me into my element, I can engage in ways that are naturally comfortable for me and allow me to excel.”

BUILDING BONDS

Once the Posse Foundation selects its groups, it works with them during the last eight months of high school to prepare them for college. The posses meet once a week for two hours and participate in what Bial calls “catalytic activities,” which encourage the scholars to talk openly and honestly about issues such as race, gender, sexual identity, and politics. By the end of their training, Posse Scholars have formed opinions about a range of social and political issues and are comfortable discussing them across racial, gender, and income levels.

As a result, “students not only get to know each other, but also prepare themselves to be valuable members of the student community on campus,” says Bial. “Posse Scholars enter universities equipped to promote dialogue.”

The Posse training also binds the group members to each other. “By the time they start college, they know each other, trust each other, and in some cases have had fights with each other—just like a family,” says Michael Ainslie, former president and CEO of Sotheby’s Holdings and chair emeritus of the Posse Foundation. “They come to college with the advantage of a really tight bond.”

These bonds are “an incredibly powerful tool in alleviating some of the alienating effects of being in a strange place with people to whom you do not relate,” says Salandy. Nelson, for example, grew up in the South Bronx, and was not accustomed to being in a mainly white student body or facing overt racism. His posse gave him the courage to bring up the vandalized flyer issue with his dorm, during which time the perpetrator revealed himself. Without his posse, Nelson says, he would not have completed his college degree.

Participating colleges must also believe in the cohort model, as well as in the value of diversity and merit, says Salandy. Thus far, the Posse Foundation has successfully formed partnerships with more than 35 different colleges and universities. “Admissions officers know exactly the kind of kids Posse is able to identify,” says Bial, and would seek them out themselves “if they had the time and resources to go into the public schools.”

SUPPORTING EACH OTHER

Posses continue to meet every week for the first two years of college. During their meetings, students participate in bonding activities, such as one called “the blanket of venting.” In this activity, students first write their problems on a large piece of paper, and then take turns adding solutions to these problems.

Over time, however, students’ support becomes more spontaneous and immediate. For instance, recalls Nelson, a female student was struggling academically and had made up her mind to leave Vanderbilt. As she packed each of her belongings in her suitcase, a member of her posse would remove it. When she realized that her posse wasn’t going to let her go—or let her down—she decided to stay. “Now she has a great job, is married, pregnant, and attends [the church Nelson founded],” says Nelson.

Scholars also receive regular guidance from their assigned mentors, who are typically tenured faculty or senior-level administrators. Nelson recalls his first day on Vanderbilt’s campus, when his mentor took his posse to the stadium where graduations take place. Standing on the lawn, his mentor told them, “At the end of four years, I expect to meet each one of you here and shake your hand,” says Nelson. This powerful experience solidified Nelson’s sense of responsibility to both his posse and himself.

At graduation, the Posse Foundation gives each scholar a key, which represents the key to opportunities. Nelson used his key to motivate himself to establish a church. It also reminds him of what his posse taught him: “It is better for two people to take a long journey. Should one fall, the other is there to pick him up.”

Read more stories by Chitua Alozie.