{"id":2559,"date":"2015-11-19T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T13:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=2559"},"modified":"2015-11-19T08:04:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T13:04:00","slug":"posse-president-and-founder-deborah-bial-named-as-commencement-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2015\/11\/19\/posse-president-and-founder-deborah-bial-named-as-commencement-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Posse President and Founder Deborah Bial named as commencement speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY HAYLEY HOFFMAN – EDITOR-IN-CHIEF<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s commencement speaker will be Deborah Bial, founder and president of the Posse Foundation.<\/p>\n

Bial received her B.A. from Brandeis University, where she delivered the commencement address in 2012, and her M.A. and Ed.D. from Harvard University. She was honored with a MacArthur Foundation \u201cGenius Grant\u201d for her work with Posse in 2007.<\/p>\n

Founded by Bial in 1989, Posse recruits outstanding young leaders in urban school systems in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., Miami, Houston, and New Orleans, preparing them to succeed at some of the nation\u2019s top liberal arts colleges. High-achieving students selected to participate in the program form supportive, multicultural teams, or \u201cposses,\u201d of 10 students to attend one of 55 partnering schools.<\/p>\n

Centre began its partnership with the Boston office of the Posse Foundation in 2005, with the first class of scholars arriving on campus that fall. This year, then, marks the College\u2019s tenth anniversary of its partnership with the organization.<\/p>\n

Director of Communications Dr. Michael Strysick said that selecting a commencement speaker is \u201ca challenge in its own way,\u201d but the \u201cstars aligned\u201d in the efforts to bring Bial to campus this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Centre, we are very proud to be affiliated with the Posse Foundation,\u201d Dr. Strysick said. \u201cThe College has developed a great relationship with the foundation and with Deborah Bial, and we thought it would make perfect sense to celebrate this anniversary by having the founder of the Posse Foundation as our commencement speaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr. Strysick noted that Centre\u2019s partnership with the foundation has \u201ccontinued to make the College a more diverse place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBial has such a strong commitment to providing leadership opportunities to young people, and knows all the ways in which the Posse Foundation has not just enriched the lives of Posse Scholars but how our society as a whole has been enriched by the work that they do when they serve their communities,\u201d Dr. Strysick explained. \u201cI could imagine her wanting to talk about that [at commencement], and the profound impact that the Posse program\u00a0has had in bringing greater diversity to American higher education and to private liberal arts colleges.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news of the Commencement speaker has fostered positive support among the faculty and students, particularly those who have a strong connection to\u00a0the foundation.<\/p>\n

Senior Ashley Barker, a member of Centre Posse 7, is particularly thrilled\u00a0that Bial will speak at graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to have the person who gave opportunities to students like myself, come to Centre and talk about the change she\u2019s made in our world as well as how the scholars have affected her life,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to know that someone who the Posse Scholars\u00a0respect and who respects us, and who has given us this opportunity to do amazing things is talking to my senior class about change and about our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commencement for the Centre Class of 2016 will take place on Sunday, May 22 in Newlin Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY HAYLEY HOFFMAN – EDITOR-IN-CHIEF This year\u2019s commencement speaker will be Deborah Bial, founder and president of the Posse Foundation. Bial received her B.A. from Brandeis University, where she delivered the commencement address in 2012, and her M.A. and Ed.D. from Harvard University. She was honored with a MacArthur Foundation \u201cGenius Grant\u201d for her work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}