Gates, Posse scholarships a windfall for metro Atlanta grads

Jasmine Williams, Carver: Early College

Demarquez Grissom, Carver: Health Sciences & Research

Jori Marshall, Carver: Health Sciences & Research

Ibrahim Carson, Douglass

Mezmure Dargie, Grady

Sanjida Mowla, Grady

Divine Butts, Jackson

Bulmaro Espericueta, Jackson

Ocquianna Suggs, Mays

Miaya Faniel, South Atlanta: Computer Animation & Design

Adrain Artary, Therrell Law, Government & Public Policy

Kourtney Mosley, Washington: Banking, Finance & Investment

Marionte Poole, Washington: Banking, Finance & Investment

CLAYTON

Nahom Ogbazghi, Riverdale

Elijah Cantrell, North Clayton

Kayla Glass, North Clayton

Daiyann Cook, Holy Spirit Prep School

Denisia Thomas, Jonesboro

Rashaad Pierre, Lovejoy

Kyla Stewart, Lovejoy

Dia Clark, Lovejoy

Lashanah Thomas, Lovejoy

Blanche Akonchong, Mount Zion

Huy Trinh, Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High

COBB

Queentela Benjamin, Campbell

Jayson Toweh, Kennesaw Mountain

Brittany Davis, South Cobb

Halimo Hasaan, South Cobb

Nnennia Magazwu, South Cobb

Christopher Lee, McCallie School

DOUGLAS

Khaleelah Logan, Douglas County

DEKALB

Ashley Wrushen, King

Lila Siwakoti, Clarkston

Ayomide Akin-David, Arabia Mountain

Amiri Banks, Arabia Mountain

Morgan McCall, Arabia Mountain

Karri Thomas, Arabia Mountain

Natasha Monroe, Redan

Nahome Diribssa, Druid Hills

Kaven Bell, Miller Grove

FULTON

Courtenay Brooks, Banneker

Terrence Dixon, McNair

Mikayla Farr, Riverwood International Charter

Clarisa Hernandez, Tri-Cities

Daniel Jordan, Westlake

Asanni York, Langston Hughes

GWINNETT

Earl Hughes, Central Gwinnett

Yonnatan Manmektew, Meadowcreek

Yong Lee, Mill Creek

Victor Mata, Mountain View

Hannah-Dulya Menelas, Mountain View

Adrianne Osorio, Mountain View

Nyles Pollonais, Mountain View

Yonas Takele, Mountain View

John Koh, North Gwinnett

Ha Truong, North Gwinnett

Wendy Yang, North Gwinnett

Desiree Aighobahi, Shiloh

HENRY

Adrienne Reeves, Ola

McDonald Fingall, Woodland

ROCKDALE

Jasmine Johnson, Rockdale County

METRO ATLANTA’S 2013 POSSE SCHOLARS AND THE COLLEGES THEY ARE ATTENDING

Bard College

Skylar Sims

Sarah Jones

Jordan Randles

Chance Wren

Lisa Burke

Autumn Rivers

JaQuan Beachem

Leah Bracey

Winta Mehari

Jasmine Thomas

Brandeis University

Vanessa Alamo

Alleah Salone

Omar Scruggs

Shaipitsiri Thaviny

Mike Wagura

Justin Cates

Margot Farnet

Elias Flores

Adriana Gleaton

Kourtney Mosley

Boston University

Jordan Carter

Rahel Tebo

Joshua Hinnant

Daniel Wiley

Socheata Huy

Haritha Pavuluri

Joshua Mosby

Drew Schwartz

Jonea Weekley

Jameson Hollis

The College of Wooster

Kito Ashbey

Chadwick Smith

Brenda Khor

Ariel Miller

Diana Powers

Samara Abdulla

Andrew Lee Conaway

Uri Smiley

Jasmine Carruth

Emerald Rutledge

Syracuse University

Divine Butts

Edgar Carranza

Chaz Delgado

Dulce Gallo-Blanco

Demarquez Grissom

Henry Hokura

Julian Nelums

Collin Robinson

Bilal Vaughn

Freedom Wright

Texas A & M University

Christopher Mahaffey, Jr.

Demetrius Moore

Breanna McKnight

Laura Nguyen

Jasmine Green

Jalen Starks

Elijah Cantrell

Chauncey LaBoo

Jamie Morgan

Joshua Lewis

Stephanie Weiss

This spring about 40,000 metro Atlanta students picked up diplomas and 122 hit what amounts to an academic jackpot.

Sixty-one won Gates scholarships, which are awarded to outstanding minority high school seniors across the country from low-income families, and 61 won Posse scholarships, which pay for teams of students who have demonstrated leadership potential to attend prestigious colleges.

Both are full-tuition programs. So they are as transformative for family finances as they are for student futures, given that the average cost of a private college is more than $40,000 a year.

“When my daughter went to the mailbox and found that letter from Gates and told me, I just whooped. I just cried. I think I was more excited than she was,” said Pamela Sullivan, the mother of Gates scholar Chantil Coleman.

Coleman just finished her freshman year at Wesleyan College in Middletown, Conn., where tuition is $62,000. She grew up in Centennial Place subsidized housing and attended Grady High School, graduating with a 4.0 grade-point average.

Growing up in Centennial was “the bomb,” the 18-year-old said in a speech last week at the Atlanta Housing Authority’s 75th birthday event. And winning a Gates? It was a dream come true, said Coleman, enabling her to attend a college that her mother — who had one rule: “Do not bring a C into this house” — couldn’t begin to afford.

Coleman was a finalist for a Posse when she found out she had been accepted to Wesleyan with a full scholarship from that college. Then she learned Gates was essentially going to write her a blank check good through graduate school. She wants to obtain a doctorate “and become an international environmental attorney.”

The Gates Millennium Scholarship, administered by the United Negro College Fund, covers costs from freshman year through studies for a doctorate. It is awarded to minority students with significant financial need, and applicants must have a 3.3 grade-point average.

Since 1999 Gates has spent almost $11 million on 194 students from metro Atlanta. And the Gates Foundation has long had ties to Atlanta Public Schools, awarding multimillion-dollar grants to fund initiatives such as teacher recruitment and training.

Nationally, the Gates five-year graduation rate is 80.6 percent, and the six-year graduation rate is over 86.3 percent. Gates could not provide graduation figures for its Atlanta scholars.

Reuben McDaniel, chairman of the Atlanta school board, said Gates’ financial support of the district, including the scholarships, has inspired students and the district. “It’s given them pride, and it’s given them a chance they wouldn’t have otherwise.”

APS Superintendent Erroll Davis also praised the partnership.

“For more than a decade, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has had a significant impact on Atlanta Public Schools,” he wrote in an email response. “In addition to providing scholarships for our students, the foundation has supported alternative school structure models, invested in our Effective Teacher in Every Classroom initiative, and most recently, supported our human capital management project.”

The Posse Foundation, through its six partner universities — Bard College, Boston University, Brandeis University, the College of Wooster, Texas A&M and Syracuse University — has awarded almost $30 million in tuition to 237 metro Atlanta students since 2007. Ninety percent have graduated.

The Posse scholarship isn’t limited to minorities and those facing financial hardship. Rather, it seeks diverse applicants with at least a 2.7 GPA who excel in areas not readily measured by grades and SAT scores, said Zenith Houston, director of Posse Atlanta.

For example, this year’s field of thousands of Posse applicants went through a three-month, three-stage crucible that included a mind-bending two-hour session where they mixed in a room, performed exercises, and tried to draw attention to their ability to lead.

The term “posse” derives from street lingo meaning a supportive group. Hence, the Posse scholarship sends students to colleges in groups of 10 so they can help one another. There’s an eight-month preparation period before classes begin in the fall, and Posse scholars meet regularly throughout the school year.

Sixty percent of Posse scholars are the first members of their families to attend college, Houston said. “What happens is a whole new world opens up to these students.”

Posse scholars Brandon LaBord and Alexis Roe, along with eight other scholarship students from Atlanta, attended Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., and graduated in May.

Before he got the scholarship, LaBord, 21 — an alumnus of Atlanta’s Therrell High School — dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur, perhaps in the fashion industry.

“If I didn’t get the Posse scholarship, it was going to be the Marines.” He was in high school ROTC and a marksman, he said. Four years later, he has a degree in sociology and has taught classes in business etiquette and the sociology of addiction at Yale University.

“Who knows where I would have been without this scholarship,” LaBord said. He’s headed back to New Haven, Conn., this summer to teach at Yale. And he’s applying to join the Peace Corps, where he can learn more about nonprofit work. He wants to apply his entrepreneurial skills to humanitarian endeavors.

Roe, an alumna of DeKalb School of the Arts, is from a family of singers and imagined a career in theater before she attended Bard. Instead, she obtained a degree in political and global international studies. In August, she’ll head to China, where she will learn Chinese and teach English.

“I want to be an ambassador one day,” she said. “Mandarin is the language of the future.”