NEW YORK, Sept. 26, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Deborah Bial, president and founder of The Posse Foundation, has been awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship from the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Bial, along with 23 other awardees, will receive a $500,000 "no-strings-attached" grant to support her work over the next five years.
"It's an incredible gift," says Bial. "It will change my life, and I hope it will change Posse's life."
Bial, who holds a bachelor's degree from Brandeis University and a doctorate in education from Harvard University, founded Posse in 1989 because of a student who said that he never would have dropped out of college if he had had his posse with him. These comments inspired Bial to create Posse, a program that identifies, recruits and trains dynamic urban public high school students and sends them to elite colleges and universities in multicultural teams, or "Posses." Posse Scholars are awarded full-tuition, four-year scholarships from Posse partner colleges and universities.
Since its inception, Posse has placed nearly 2,000 students from six cities -- Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C. -- at 28 colleges and universities. Most impressive, these students are persisting and graduating at a rate above 90 percent -- well above the national average.
"Deborah is without question the most visionary leader I've worked with in my career," says Posse Chair Michael Ainslie. "She is most deserving of this award."
The MacArthur Fellowship will provide Bial the opportunity to further the work of Posse. "The MacArthur Foundation supports highly creative individuals and institutions with the ability and the promise to make a difference in shaping and improving our future," says MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton.
Deborah views the award as a reflection of the strength of both Posse as an organization and of the talented students Posse looks to serve. "I feel like the luckiest person in the world because I love what I do," she says. "It was serendipity -- I was in the right place at the right time with a kid who had a good idea."