Old Mill High School senior Justin Riopelle had long thought that he would have to enlist in the Air Force or Marines as a way to pay for college. Two weeks ago, he learned that he would not need to take that step.
The child of an Army family, who has lived in seven countries, will attend Sewanee, the University of the South, this fall after being awarded a full-tuition scholarship from a nonprofit institution dedicated to nurturing a diverse crop of future leaders.
Riopelle, 18, of Pasadena has a 4.3 grade-point average, is fluent in Spanish and would like to study Chinese or Arabic and business. He is excited about the move to Tennessee because he has a "passion for traveling."
"I like to be challenged," he said. "I'm just grateful for this opportunity."
Riopelle and two other Anne Arundel County students are among 41 students from the Washington metropolitan area who received the scholarships from the Posse Foundation. Amanda Renvall of Annapolis High School will join Riopelle at Sewanee. Kyvory Henderson of North County High School in Glen Burnie will enroll at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa.
The three received their scholarship awards Thursday during a ceremony at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington.
The Posse Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit, is founded on the premise that students will be more likely to graduate if they have the support of their "posse" -- a group of fellow students from their area who are facing the same challenges.
The foundation has found that students from urban areas have had a hard time gaining entry to top-tier schools or graduating from them because they are suddenly plunged into an unfamiliar environment.
The scholarships are merit-based, but many of the scholarship recipients are minorities because they make up a large proportion of inner-city populations, said Deborah Bial, founder and president of the Posse Foundation.
The infusion of talented minority students into top-tier colleges could boost schools' diversity after a 2003 Supreme Court ruling limited the use of affirmative action, Bial said.
"There's been a backlash to affirmative action, so programs like Posse are more important than ever because they are achieving some of those same goals without focusing on race," she said.
This year, the Posse Foundation's Washington branch selected 17 students from Maryland, 16 from Washington and eight from Virginia, said Marcy Mistrett, director of Posse D.C.
