Imagine your first year of college if you had your posse with you. The Posse Foundation has brought this sense of friendship and community to USC for 12 freshmen students from New York City, who said this unique scholarship has helped them transition into college.

The Posse Foundation is a national organization founded in 1989 that aims to create a network of leaders from diverse backgrounds, who will not only be successful individually, but also have an impact on their university campus. A multicultural group of scholars are awarded a merit-based scholarship from each participating university where the “posse” enrolls and attend college together.

“A couple of days ago, me and one of my Posse peers pulled an all-nighter together in Leavey Library,” said Vidal Woods, a freshman and Posse Scholar majoring in international relations. “It’s great that I have someone that I already know and can turn to for support at the start of the year.”

President and founder of the Posse Foundation, Deborah Bial, began the Foundation after a student once said, “I never would have dropped out of college if I had my posse with me.”

Since then, she has promoted the importance of leadership to freshmen campuses at 38 partner colleges.

“This really is a leadership merit award allowing students as a group to come to USC and further that leadership in the classrooms and organizations on campus,” said Bial. “They bond together, but are not only diverse in race and sexuality, but interests as well.”

The students’ mentor, George J. Sanchez, vice dean for diversity and strategic initiatives, said the Posse scholarship expands upon previous USC initiatives to increase diversity.

“This will help USC in their recommitment to establishing itself as a premiere institution that can produce a generation of urban leaders of the future,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez said he is thrilled with the Posse’s progress so far and believes this diverse addition to the Trojan family will help build on programs USC has with local communities such as the Norman Topping Scholars, who are awarded academic scholarships based on merit and community involvement.

“We officially meet as a group every Friday to go over the week and discuss certain issues, such as time management,” Sanchez said. “It’s been amazing watching their progress so far -— one is an Annenberg Scholar and two others have already won national fellowships.”

Sanchez said having a group of peers from a similar background can help a student overcome adversities in college.

“They are all really in this together,” Sanchez said. “I think it really helps for the students to have such a touchstone from people they have grown up with since high school.”

Scholars have a three-step nomination process. After a being nominated by their school, students have several rounds of group and one-on-one interviews. Out of the 20 remaining candidates, university representatives and the Posse foundation select a group of 12 students.

In addition to being selected as a Posse Scholar, Matthew Fasciano, chief operating officer of Posse, said that recipients go through a pre-collegiate curriculum that helps build strong relationships between the scholars.

“It’s during that [pre-collegiate curriculum] that these young men and women really begin to learn as a cohort to develop that support network that really carries them through that college experience,” Fasciano said. “While other students may still be trying to adjust in their second year, Posse scholars have each other as a resource and are equipped in other ways to seek resources on campus.”

Woods said he likes being able to come back to his family of scholars at the end of the day.

“The fact that we have 12 of us that we can go to and talk to when we need help for homework or anything makes it easier to adjust,” said Woods. “We hang out and have dinners together often, but what really helps is that we’re all going through this together.”

Posse scholars at USC are awarded full tuition for their undergraduate education. In 2010, President Barack Obama chose the Posse Foundation as one of the 10 organizations in which he donated a part of his $1.4-million Nobel Peace Prize award money. The Posse Foundation has awarded over 3,000 scholarships to students residing in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, Miami and Washington, D.C.

The students said they hope to pave the way for future “Posses” because this is the first year Posse students are enrolled at USC.

“We recognize we have a great responsibility to set the bar high by keeping our grades up and keeping a good name for the foundation,” said Woods. “The full tuition has been a great support, but the connections I’ve made with my team will have us, on graduation day, looking back on our experience as priceless.”

Rachel Jones, a Posse scholar and freshman majoring in international relations and environmental studies, said her time so far at USC has been rewarding.

”I love being a Posse scholar,” Jones said. “My experience here at USC so far has been very wonderful and I’m super excited for the years to come.”