FEBRUARY 10, 2008 --

Deborah Bial got an idea in 1989  that high school students from urban public schools would have a better chance of graduating from college comprised as teams -- or posses -- on scholarship.  

Today, Ms. Bial's Posse Foundation sends students from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and Washington D.C. to 28 colleges and universities, with a graduation rate at 90 percent.  The  Posse program was inaugurated at Vanderbilt University, in 1989 and since then, Posse has placed 1.850 "posses" at colleges and universities on some $175 million in scholarships.  Presently, there are 550 Posse alumni.

Last September, Ms. Bial was named one of 24 fellows by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for her work and awarded a $500,000  unrestricted "genius" grant.   

 Ms. Bial is a 1987 graduate of Brandeis University (a Posse school for the past 10 years) and, January 16,  spoke about Posse at Brandeis House  in Manhattan,  assisted by two Brandeis Posse alumni, Jasmine R. Vallejo and Christine Caruso.  For more information about Ms. Bial and Posse, please go to www.possefoundation.org.   

Ms. Bial, with a masters and doctorate  in education from Harvard, is described as an "education strategist."

For LPR, Ms. Bial is particularly significant as a person who combines effectiveness with vision, and has much to teach us, in this regard.

(BTW -- the name "Posse" comes from the comment of a student to Ms. Bial that he would not have dropped out of college had he attended as part of a "posse.")