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Students at a Paying for College Bus Tour stop, Reading PA

Posse Foundation comes to D.C. innovative college support program for aspiring leaders

Posse Foundation to launch D.C. office with $1 million from The Sallie Mae Fund

WHAT: A reception to launch the Washington, D.C. office of the Posse Foundation—an organization that identifies leadership potential in students who might otherwise be overlooked by the traditional university selection process and sends them to college. Selected students receive full tuition scholarships (from a partnering university or college) and attend college together, in a supportive “Posse,” or group of 10 peers. The Sallie Mae Fund is making Posse DC a reality with a $1 million grant which is part of “Project Access: DC”—the Fund’s initiative designed to give local K-12 students their best chance at achieving a higher education. Members of the media are invited to attend.

WHY: Barriers to higher education are particularly high in the nation’s capital, where only half of D.C.’s public school students graduate from high school. The perception that college is out of reach also keeps many of D.C.’s college-age youth from capitalizing on college opportunities. The Posse Foundation has achieved phenomenal success with a 90 percent college graduation rate—far higher than the national average. Posse Scholars, selected in the fall of their senior year of high school, receive support beginning immediately and continuing until they successfully graduate from college, which differentiates Posse Foundation from typical enrollment-focused scholarship programs. Students move on to leadership positions in the workforce after graduation.

WHO:

Deborah Bial, Posse Foundation president and founder
Posse Foundation program directors from New York and Posse Foundation alumni
Representatives and students from local schools
Representatives from Grinnell College and other partnering colleges
Argelia Rodriguez, executive director, DC College Access Program
Marianne Keler, executive vice president, Sallie Mae
Representatives from The Sallie Mae Fund

WHEN: Wednesday, May 19, 2004, 6 - 8 p.m.

WHERE: The Willard Inter-Continental Hotel
Holmes-Hughes Room, 2nd Floor
1401 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004-1010

The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization sponsored by Sallie Mae, achieves its mission—to increase access to a post–secondary education for America's students—by supporting programs and initiatives that help open doors to higher education, prepare families for their investment, and bridge the gap when no one else can. For more information visit www.salliemaefund.org.

The Posse Foundation identifies public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential, who may be overlooked by the traditional college selection process. The Foundation extends to these students the opportunity to pursue personal achievement and academic excellence by placing them in supportive, multi-cultural teams (“posses”) of 10 students. The Foundation’s partner universities acknowledge Posse Scholars by awarding them four-year, full-tuition, leadership scholarships.