Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. So you're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week on Carol Master along with Jason Kelly and
Speaker 1: one of the great dividers in our society. We have
Speaker 1: definitely talked about this over the last few hours. M
Speaker 1: is education and higher education. Working to reduce that gap
Speaker 1: is the Posse Foundation. It provides scholarships and partners with
Speaker 1: schools and universities, founded back in eighteen not eighteen, nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine and really finds those public high school students
Speaker 1: with extraordinary academic and leadership potential who may be overlooked
Speaker 1: by traditional college selection processes. Debor Beale is president and
Speaker 1: founder of the nonprofit the Posse Foundation. She joins us
Speaker 1: on the phone in New York City. Debora, so delighted
Speaker 1: to have almost that would be a miracle. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't. You should be in lots of other businesses too.
Speaker 1: If you can pull off stories you could to tell us.
Speaker 1: Um I did a brief introduction of who you are,
Speaker 1: but just share with our audience. Michael Ainslie has talked
Speaker 1: about you. He's been a guest on our show. I
Speaker 1: know he's a member of your board, but has talked
Speaker 1: about the great work that you do. So give us
Speaker 1: a fuller picture if you would. Well, I I thanks
Speaker 1: for having me, first of all, and you know, I
Speaker 1: think the easiest way to understand what posse is about
Speaker 1: is to explain how it got its name. Um, because
Speaker 1: possey is an unusual name for a program. And in
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties there was a student who had dropped
Speaker 1: out of college and he said, I never would have
Speaker 1: dropped out if I had my posse with me. And
Speaker 1: we thought, well, that's a brilliant idea, right, why not
Speaker 1: send a team of students a posse together to college?
Speaker 1: And that way, if you grew up in the Bronx
Speaker 1: and you ended up in Middlebury, Ver month, you'd be
Speaker 1: a little less likely to say I'm I'm leaving. So
Speaker 1: how does it work? How do you put that all together?
Speaker 1: Because it seems like a good idea. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't think anybody would argue it was like, yeah, that
Speaker 1: makes total sense. But I can't imagine that it's that
Speaker 1: easy to pull off, or is it? Right now? It's
Speaker 1: a great question because you know, and especially now, we
Speaker 1: could talk a little bit about what the pandemic has
Speaker 1: done to programs like ours, But you know, POSSEY evolved
Speaker 1: over the years and we've become, you know, really one
Speaker 1: of the most unique college success, diversity and leadership programs
Speaker 1: in the entire country. We probably interview about seventeen thousand
Speaker 1: students a year and these it's a lot, and we
Speaker 1: we picked seven hundred. So these are young people that
Speaker 1: are nominated by high schools and community based organizations, people
Speaker 1: who really know the students, UM, and we say, can
Speaker 1: you please nominate someone who is brilliant and motivated to
Speaker 1: do big things in the world, but who might be missed,
Speaker 1: as you said earlier, by traditional admissions measures that focused
Speaker 1: historically on test scores and high school ranking. UM. So
Speaker 1: we've been around thirty one years doing this thing called
Speaker 1: the Dynamic Assessment Process our our alternative way of finding talents. UM.
Speaker 1: We're operating out of ten cities. This fall, we will
Speaker 1: take our ten thousand POSSE scholar, which I can't even believe.
Speaker 1: And what's amazing is they've won over one and a
Speaker 1: half billion dollars in scholarships from our partner colleges and
Speaker 1: universities and it works. They graduated rates of over and
Speaker 1: they go on to become leaders. We we want to
Speaker 1: see them as ceo s and you know, senators and
Speaker 1: college presidents. We hope that they will represent a new
Speaker 1: kind of leadership out there. Well, you have a college
Speaker 1: president in your lum ranks, don't you. I know. I
Speaker 1: love telling her story and I know you're going to
Speaker 1: have her on the show. We're talking about the president
Speaker 1: of Ithaca College. Yeah, do you want to hear her?
Speaker 1: The way I like to talk about shirl is is
Speaker 1: because she was just a superstar. I knew her when
Speaker 1: when she was only fourteen years old she becomes a
Speaker 1: member of the First Posse. Shirley is the Dominican kid
Speaker 1: who grew up in Brooklyn. Her her dad drove a
Speaker 1: yellow taxi in New York. Um and she didn't have
Speaker 1: the best test course, and I'll tell you she was
Speaker 1: not thinking about going to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: So she gets into the first Posse and it's a
Speaker 1: pilot program. We're testing out the idea and it was
Speaker 1: incredibly successful. Shirley graduated in four years with honors. She
Speaker 1: went on to get her doctorate in clinical psychology from
Speaker 1: Duke University. She became the dean of the College at Middlebury,
Speaker 1: and a couple of years ago, Shirley became the president
Speaker 1: of Ithaca College. She is the first Dominican American to
Speaker 1: be president of a four year college in the United States.
Speaker 1: And that's what we're talking about, finding talent, connecting that
Speaker 1: talent to these great institutions of higher education so they
Speaker 1: can go lead. We need them, We really need them leading.
Speaker 1: We need people who represent the versity of this country.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought it was interesting what you said
Speaker 1: you look for brilliant and motivated students, and I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, there are some students out there, whether it's
Speaker 1: their home life, what they're born into, you know, just
Speaker 1: there are a lot of odds stacked against them that
Speaker 1: don't give them an opportunity to necessarily be motivated. And
Speaker 1: I do wonder against the backdrop of everything that's going on,
Speaker 1: especially the last three weeks um you know, we're looking
Speaker 1: at racism in America, and I do wonder, you know,
Speaker 1: how do we make it so that more students feel
Speaker 1: motivated and have those opportunities to shine and be brilliant.
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any shortage of motivated students. I
Speaker 1: think you're raising a great point. You know, we're we're
Speaker 1: taking a look at our own institutionalized racism in this
Speaker 1: country in a way that we have not focused on
Speaker 1: it before. You know, we have a history that shames
Speaker 1: this country of racism. And you know a lot of
Speaker 1: people are saying, is look, what's happened with George Floyd
Speaker 1: is not new, but it has garnered the attention of
Speaker 1: the American people in a way that's powerful and and
Speaker 1: it's dominating the news in a in a way that
Speaker 1: it should be. In a program like Posse is saying,
Speaker 1: come on, you know, there's all these young people out
Speaker 1: there who are very motivated to go succeed in their lives,
Speaker 1: have huge, big dreams, and I think now, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe this is a wake up call that we've we've
Speaker 1: got to make significant change in how we operate as
Speaker 1: a nation. Let's get back to our conversation with Deborah Deal, President,
Speaker 1: founder of the Posse Foundation, joining us on the phone
Speaker 1: from New York. So, Deborah, I love the context that
Speaker 1: you give us earlier about the Posse Foundation and what
Speaker 1: it does. I've got to ask you, as someone who
Speaker 1: is about to have. I believe you said your posse
Speaker 1: member posse scholarship. What is different about higher education as
Speaker 1: we go into this fall because Carol and I both
Speaker 1: have high school juniors. Obviously, they are you know, very
Speaker 1: privileged high school juniors, so they're not facing a lot
Speaker 1: of the things that a lot of the kids you're
Speaker 1: working with are. But they are anxious, as are their
Speaker 1: classmates of you know, various socioeconomic backgrounds about what college
Speaker 1: looks like. And I wonder what you're hearing and thinking
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, and that's on so many you know
Speaker 1: parents minds to what's going to happen in the fall.
Speaker 1: And you know, I also sit on the board at BRANDI,
Speaker 1: so I have this interesting perspective, you know, bandage points. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we are worried about what's going to happen with the
Speaker 1: pandemic obviously, and schools sent students home early UM and
Speaker 1: then really didn't have them back on campus. So young
Speaker 1: people were getting their curriculum through remote classes and that
Speaker 1: may continue. So many schools are thinking about some kind
Speaker 1: of hybrid re reopening. You can ask surely when you
Speaker 1: interview her about Ithaca, which is one of the few
Speaker 1: schools that's planning to just completely reopen UM in the fall.
Speaker 1: But many schools are thinking about having some students back
Speaker 1: on campus or doing alternating classes, you know, where they
Speaker 1: where half the students go to class one day and
Speaker 1: then the others another day. But all of this is
Speaker 1: really complicated and and they're also you know, we have
Speaker 1: to remember that colleges and universities have been the home
Speaker 1: to students who are involved and engaged in the world.
Speaker 1: And they're talking about UM racism now in a way
Speaker 1: that's UM in the front of the discussion. UM campuses
Speaker 1: or places where students can can talk about those things
Speaker 1: and can protest and can make their voices heard. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on for in hire IT right now.
Speaker 1: These institutions are really afraid about what's happening with the economy,
Speaker 1: you know, with forty million people who have filed for
Speaker 1: unemployment it UM, and we're watching what's happening with the
Speaker 1: stock market. UM. The endowments are affected at these institutions.
Speaker 1: They're worried about their financial aid budgets and how they're
Speaker 1: going to cover all of the financial aid they need
Speaker 1: to cover. They're worried about their revenues, you know, income
Speaker 1: from tuition paying students, international students who may not be
Speaker 1: coming to the United States. Um, I mean, I know
Speaker 1: I'm giving you a long list of things. You're all
Speaker 1: all their effects and it's important. Well, yeah, absolutely, And
Speaker 1: you do wonder if there is an economic downturn, you know,
Speaker 1: for those who are graduating, what kind of job market
Speaker 1: do they come into and do they get lost? You know,
Speaker 1: we've we've done a lot of stories, you know, the
Speaker 1: young population that came off the financial crisis where they
Speaker 1: got kind of stuck in jobs because there was just
Speaker 1: nowhere to go. And you do wonder what this does
Speaker 1: to the momentum kind of coming off of you know,
Speaker 1: a college or you know a great college and getting
Speaker 1: a great degree. You know what happens to that momentum. Oh,
Speaker 1: you're so right. I mean you're asking the exact great question.
Speaker 1: And you know, I run a nonprofit that's that is
Speaker 1: um pretty well resourced. But you know, we're worrying and
Speaker 1: we've depend so much on our donors. But there are
Speaker 1: many nonprofits and for young people who are coming out
Speaker 1: of college and who are you know, civically minded, a
Speaker 1: lot of nonprofits are worried that they're going to close
Speaker 1: their doors. You know, there's not going to be enough
Speaker 1: money for them to survive. It's just a scary time
Speaker 1: in that way. But I I believe we will rally,
Speaker 1: and so Debora, just to sort of round out the
Speaker 1: conversation and take it back to the Posse Foundation, I mean,
Speaker 1: what have you learned, you know over these you know,
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of kids that you've put together into
Speaker 1: these polics, Like, how is the program different now? What
Speaker 1: are you doing differently now? Uh? And especially in light
Speaker 1: of everything that's going on in the world than when
Speaker 1: you started. You know, we're constantly evolving. We are a
Speaker 1: diversity in leadership organization. UM. You know, we we were
Speaker 1: often talking from the beginning about what anti racist work
Speaker 1: looks like when you are a multi racial UM institution
Speaker 1: that's fighting it. And we're specifically now talking about anti
Speaker 1: black racism in this country. UM. And so we even
Speaker 1: though we've been working on this for a long time,
Speaker 1: we know that we need to bring in UM more
Speaker 1: speakers and do more training for our own staff as
Speaker 1: well as our scholars to make sure that we are
Speaker 1: learning all the time and not getting complacent and not
Speaker 1: feeling like well, you know, because we've been doing it
Speaker 1: for thirty years. We're done. Um, you know, we need
Speaker 1: to be more than allies. We need to be actors.
Speaker 1: We need to make sure we're doing things to change
Speaker 1: our society and make it better. That is so true.
Speaker 1: One last question. You know, I think about you know,
Speaker 1: these students that you work with and they go to college,
Speaker 1: they get a degree, and then of course it's off
Speaker 1: to recruiters to recruit with them. One of the things
Speaker 1: that we've heard is that companies need to think about,
Speaker 1: you know, more aggressively, that they recruit diverse you know employees.
Speaker 1: They you know they do, but they've got to do
Speaker 1: it even more. Just got about forty seconds here. No,
Speaker 1: you're right. I mean, look Goleman, Sacks and Travelers in
Speaker 1: Deloitte Bank of America, these are companies that deliberately recruit
Speaker 1: students from posse. They focus on it in a programmatic way.
Speaker 1: So you're absolutely right, Carol. It's critically important that they
Speaker 1: pay attention and they're they're deliberate. Yeah, we all have
Speaker 1: a role in all of this, and you guys are
Speaker 1: obviously playing a very big role. Um, Michael was right.
Speaker 1: He said, you've got to talk to Debor Bale over
Speaker 1: at the Posse Foundation. So I'm so glad um Deborah,
Speaker 1: we got some time with you, and good luck, certainly
Speaker 1: with the next group of students that you're working with.
Speaker 1: Debor Bill, President and founder of the Posse Foundation, on
Speaker 1: the phone in New York City. What a very cool program, Jason.
Speaker 1: You need to be more than all that, you need
Speaker 1: to be an actor. I like that. That's good. Gonna
Speaker 1: remember that. Going to take that away. Uh, Debra deal terrific.