Illinois Wes. Signs On, BU Doubles Partnership

This fall, Illinois Wesleyan University will recruit its first Posse from New Orleans, and Boston University, which already recruits from Atlanta, will select its first Posse from the Bay Area. Both inaugural classes will matriculate in fall 2017.

“Increasing access, diversity and our geographic reach are key goals that this new partnership with The Posse Foundation will help us to accomplish,” said Illinois Wesleyan University President Eric R. Jensen. “We’ll be joining more than 55 top-tier colleges and universities—schools like Carleton, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Oberlin, and St. Olaf —who partner with Posse. Posse’s unique selection process and pre-collegiate training program yields student leaders who are very successful in college and after they graduate. I’m looking forward to the PossePlus Retreats, in which campus issues identified by the Posse Scholars are discussed by a cross-section of the campus community.”

Posse’s unique process yields student leaders who are very successful in college."

Illinois Wesleyan, located in Bloomington, Illinois, is an undergraduate liberal arts institution that offers more than 81 majors and has professional schools of nursing, art, music and theatre, and business. Its more than 1,800 undergraduates have access to research opportunities, 200 student organizations, and a robust alumni network of 22,000. 

Boston University, a partner since 2007, has admitted seven Posses from Atlanta. The success of the Scholars and program on campus paved the way for an expanded partnership with Posse’s 10th chapter. BU joins the University of Puget Sound in selecting Scholars from the San Francisco Bay Area.

“We have no doubt that the students of New Orleans and the Bay Area will benefit greatly from and contribute to the first-class education that Illinois Wesleyan and Boston University offer,” says Posse President and Founder Deborah Bial. “We look forward to working with President Jensen and his team to establish the program on their campus, and we’re thrilled for the opportunity to grow our long-term partnership with BU as they expand to recruit Scholars from two cities.”