Carlos Bonachea said he would be in the military right now without it. Alex Trinh never would have left California. Pedro Bringas never would have found his passion for filmmaking.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen (after high school). I was ready to go into the military,” said Bonachea, a freshman television, radio and film major. “But after the first interview, I could tell Posse was so different and so creative. I told them in the second meeting that this was where I needed to be.”

Bonachea, Trinh and Bringas are three of 33 Posse scholars at Syracuse University who receive a full academic scholarship. The scholars represent a partnership with the Posse Foundation and a commitment to increase campus diversity.

In conjunction with 44 partner colleges and universities in 18 states, the    organization provides students from disadvantaged neighborhoods a chance to attend college. To date, 4,237 scholars have been awarded more than $484.5 million in scholarship money.

The 33 students — from Los Angeles, Miami and Atlanta — make up the first-ever Posse class at SU. And SU has made a deal with Posse to maintain its presence in the three cities for five years, said Don Saleh, vice president of enrollment management. During that time, the university is allowed to negotiate the terms of the contract to recruit from different cities, but is unlikely to do so, he said.

“The program recruits students primarily from the public schools in the cities,” he said. “Those schools often reflect the national socioeconomic and ethnicity trends of large cities.”

Since Chancellor Nancy Cantor came to SU in 2004, there has been a 10-percent increase in student diversity, including African-Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and people of two or more races. As of 2013, minority students at SU represent 25.1 percent of the 21,029 student population — roughly 5,278 students, according to the SU website.

Before her time at SU, Cantor supported racial justice while she worked the University of Michigan and then the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While in Illinois, she campaigned to ban the school’s perceivably racist mascot, Chief Illiniwek. Though unsuccessful at first, the mascot was retired three years later.

Although sometimes criticized for her emphasis on off-campus issues, Cantor has made SU into a university that provides opportunities.

Bonachea, part of the Miami Posse, didn’t consider college an option until he was nominated for the scholarship.

“Syracuse has been too good to us,” Bonachea said. “The tools available to us, especially at Newhouse, are incredible. I can’t see myself doing my undergrad anywhere else.”

Drawn to Syracuse for its progressive involvement in social issues, Trinh said he is considering joining several racial justice groups on campus. Trinh, an English and textual studies and education major, said his and his friends’ academic success is more important than his ethnicity.

“I see myself as a mentor in my group,” Trinh said. “We’re a posse, we’re here for each other and we’re a support group. So I’m whatever they need me to be.”

The scholarship is highly competitive — in 2011, there were more than 14,000 nominations nationally for only 572 slots. Students go through an extensive screening process before stepping foot on a college campus.

To qualify for a Posse scholarship, high school students must be nominated by someone affiliated with their school. Then, for finalists, Posse conducts an evaluation called the Dynamic Assessment Process to help schools pick the scholarship winners.

Though difficult to measure, the process is meant to gauge a student’s capabilities in leadership and working in a team setting. According to the foundation’s website, it is designed to identify students who might not excel in traditional admissions criteria.

“The process is very qualitative, not quantitative,” Saleh said. “You get a feel for (a student’s) leadership and you make a judgment about what kind of impact they’re going to have on campus.”

After students have made it through the vetting process, they are put into groups in which they find support from students with the same experiences.

“Posse always talks about how these kids are your support system,” said Bringas, a television, radio and film major. “It’s super corny stuff, it’s almost cultish. But it turns out, it’s all true.”

Before attending SU through Posse, Bringas considered playing collegiate volleyball, but being a part of Posse has introduced him to people with shared interests, backgrounds and heritage.

In December, while working on a COM 117: “Multimedia Storytelling” film project, Bringas realized he had more work ahead of him than he had planned.

He wasn’t happy with what his group had done while editing, and decided to redo it. Realizing it was going to be a long night, he called Bonachea for help.

“Pedro told me and I just said, ‘No way, you have to be exaggerating,’” Bonachea said. “But I got there, watched it and agreed that it was pretty bad.”

Bringas said by banding together with his friend, he was able to navigate through unfamiliar academic terrain, just as the Posse Foundation intended.

“Even though it wasn’t my project, I had to help him out,” Bonachea said. “So for the rest of the night we would tweak it, cry a little and then tweak it again.”

Bringas credits everything that has happened to him at SU – both good and bad – for forming the close bonds between him and his friends.

“It’s those experiences that really make you a posse,” Bringas said. “I don’t know half my family the way I know Carlos.”

Published on March 25, 2013 at 11:25 pm

Contact Joe: jtinfant@syr.edu | @joeinfantino