# Posse Veterans Program



## Lefty375 (Sep 1, 2015)

Alright ladies and gents here is my next adventure in life. This is a great opportunity for all veterans and I know the studs on this forum would be a good fit for something like this.

*Website:*
Posse Veterans Program — The Posse Foundation

*What it is:*
The Posse Foundation believes it can leverage its unique recruitment strategy to identify those veterans who can excel at selective four-year institutions of higher education. By creating cohorts of veterans, preparing them for the college experience and supporting them through to graduation, Posse can partner with top colleges and universities and support up to 500 veterans in its pipeline annually.

The Posse Veterans Program began in partnership with Vassar College and now also counts Wesleyan University and Dartmouth College as partners. Vassar President Catharine Bond Hill writes in a recent editorial, _“It’s time for colleges and universities to increase their commitment to veterans who want more education. Selective private colleges in particular must step up and do [their] part.”_ *Vassar, Wesleyan and Dartmouth will supplement available GI Bill and Yellow Ribbon funding to guarantee full tuition for every veteran student selected.*

I will be updating this thread soon with where I'm at.


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## Lefty375 (Sep 2, 2015)

Alright folks. 

First step I took was to simply research what this program was. There are two options, one to self-nominate and another to be nominated by someone else. I looked all over the internet and didn't see anything negative about self nominating so I sua sponte'd. 

Next step was filling out the application. Pretty standard application but heavily focused on your school and military history. I also wrote an essay about an experience in the military that was around 500 words I believe.  I had this checked over by multiple people. I submitted it and waited. I was then contacted by the organization and had a Skype interview set up with one of their advisers. It went well, I chose a quiet location with a good background as it was a video interview. I REALLY need to practice some "standard" interview answers for myself. Everyone "knows" them self but being able to answer questions quickly and with confidence is something I could use practice on. I recently attended a ACAP job interview/resume writing class and that really helped me with this. I feel more confident and I know what steps I need to take now.

The group interview is next and my date is Sept. 22 at Fort Bragg (if anyone is around let me know). I have read on the internet for any G2 and what I have seen is that they are looking to see how you work in groups. Events like construct a building with only straws is an example of what might be seen there. I plan to almost treat it like when I was in RASP, and take control or offer suggestions when I think it's applicable and will allow the group to "win". I know they are looking for leaders, but I know I also don't want to come off as a douchebag. Leadership is key though from the organizations mission statement.


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## DA SWO (Sep 2, 2015)

Interesting.
You getting out?


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## Lefty375 (Sep 3, 2015)

DA SWO said:


> Interesting.
> You getting out?



Yes


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## DA SWO (Sep 3, 2015)

lucky l3fty said:


> Yes


Check with the SOCOM Care Coalition.  They have a good resume service.


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## Lefty375 (Oct 5, 2015)

Group Interview:

Quite a few people there, _most_ were dressed in business casual or at least not wearing jeans and their PT shoes. Got in line, told them my name and got a name tag. After turning in all my paperwork, sat around and talked to different people for about an hour while everyone else got signed in and paperwork turned in. Healthy mix of all types of people.

First thing was an overview of the program and what they do. After we got a brief on the first event.....team event with Lego pieces. 5-6 people teams with the goal of working together to put a "robot" together. The kicker is at your table nobody can leave to go see the model robot that you need to copy except one person at a time. So basically one person goes and looks at this "working robot" and comes back to the group and tells them what pieces go with which. We had people switching on and off to go look at the working robot instead of one person. I knew something like this would be there, and to be honest I felt useless. If there were peers, I would have been the lowest. I won't bullshit, after I realized I am not good at remembering what pieces were combined with which, I just started to try and help coordinate the larger group effort. 

*During everything, there are staff walking around with notepads taking notes.
*
Second event and third events were my money makers though and seemed like a more heavy focus was placed on this. 

Second event: Switch groups and then once you are sitting with your new group of 5-6 people you will get an envelope full of topics. Ex., "what do you think about race relations since the Michael Brown case" or "was the War on Terror effective" etc etc. One person randomly grabs a topic from the envelope and leads a discussion with their group. I feel like I did the best in my group because I quickly realized that letting people talk with no limit, when you are only allotted 3 minutes for the whole group is a bad thing. I watch a lot of debates so when my time in the group came I set up basic rules. I was the moderator meaning I have control. Before we started I told the rest of the group they get 30 seconds to make their point and then after everyone has gone, I will come back to the group and use what they said to ask questions and flush out more productive thoughts. It was a success and my run went the most smoothly IMO. 

Third event: Pick one topic from the topics your group had talked about. Create a "day" to get students out talking about whatever issue you pick. Essentially if you were on a campus and your group had an unlimited budget, how would you get people to care about whatever issue you pick. After you pick a topic, create the "day" and then be ready to present how you will get students out participating. My group picked one about the Middle East, while almost every other group picked something about the Michael Brown case and race relations. Our logic was that since we are all veterans, we should leverage that to bring a different discussion you wouldn't normally see on these campuses (or at least not as talked about as say something like the Brown case). Each person in our group contributed an idea, and seeing as in my eyes I had the most unique idea (which isn't really too unique) I wanted to split the presentation talking time into "whatever idea you came up with, you talk about it". It led to everyone getting a fair shake and equal talking time. What was very unique to me was that there were groups who let ONE person talk about the whole thing. I actually think not working with women hindered some of the guys there because those women rolled over them, which.....this is a competition so more power to them. In two of the groups (out of three IIRC) with women, two let the woman speak the whole time. It was something I noted because I haven't worked with a lot of women during my career. 

Last event: Essay on the spot. I forget all the topics you could write about, but I ended up writing about losing my faith as a black guy in a Christian majority country and blacks being some of the most religious people in the US. The prompt was basically "write about something that has/can cause you adversity in your life and would cause people to judge you before knowing you"...something to that effect. As they want leaders I connected this with my hope to be able to change who is seen as a "leader" in the black community because for whatever reason we still have Sharpton and Jackson as some of the biggest names. I used Carson's comments to show that I stay up with relevant political talk, and to show that everyone should feel welcome in the U.S., not just the group you are apart of (assuming you follow all the laws etc). 

After that, overview of the schools and payment info. Pretty much if you make it, no matter what they will pay for you to get a Bachelor's from one of these top schools. They told us to wait for a call back to see if moved on to the next round which was a 1 on 1 interview.

I got a call back after a couple of hours and they wanted me to come in later that afternoon.

1 on 1 interview: I was drilled on my school history because I have not the best track record with school. I think if anything holds me back, it will be my history. My SAT scores are just above average so nothing to write home about. I had provided a writing sample and I had also written that essay a couple of hours before, both of which I were told were pretty good. For the record, I don't actually think I'm a good writer by any means. 

We talked about Ranger Regiment and what it meant to be a Ranger. How it was different etc etc. 

He then asked me if there was anything else I care about. I honestly wasn't prepared for this question and the only thing that saved me was just thinking and reading about leadership. I basically said that when I make it to college and if I'm apart of the program I don't just care about grades. Grades are extremely important and should be the main focus but I pointed out that we have a huge health crisis in teens and college aged students. Stress rates are at an all time high, along with all kinds of heart disease etc. As a Crossfit trainer and a lover of all things fitness (spiritual, physical, mental) I think it's important we focus on that as a group also. I talked about mentoring people in lifting and in general about life things. I stressed the importance of fitness as a way to better grades and better health, which will produce better leaders. 

He asked me if I had any questions....I had used my really key question in the group interview and was the first one to ask a question (no doubts in my mind that it helped me get to the 1 on 1). I didn't have any more questions so he thanked me for my time.

I am now waiting about a month to see if I make it to the next interview in New York.


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## x SF med (Oct 5, 2015)

Well done, brother....  btw, to veterans you are not black, you are green, just like the rest of your military family.  And a crisis of faith is a normal course of events for any intelligent, thoughtful and motivated person - letting a crisis of faith ruin you is no good, but turning it into a way to build spirituality in your life is the positive. 

Oh, choose Dartmouth - they have a killer Leadership and Management Program.


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## Lefty375 (Oct 5, 2015)

x SF med said:


> Well done, brother....  btw, to veterans you are not black, you are green, just like the rest of your military family.  And a crisis of faith is a normal course of events for any intelligent, thoughtful and motivated person - letting a crisis of faith ruin you is no good, but turning it into a way to build spirituality in your life is the positive.
> 
> Oh, choose Dartmouth - they have a killer Leadership and Management Program.



Appreciate the kind words and thoughts. Will keep this thread updated when I get call.


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## 8654Maine (Oct 6, 2015)

Good luck, Lefty.

Did I mention Dartmouth '98 here?

The future is in your hands.

I worked my after-military-to-college-then-grad years as a continuation of SMEAC, BAMCIS, KISS, and FRAG order.  Hasn't let me down, yet.  

I had to soften my edges while keeping the core of my self anchored.

Don't lose yourself.

You are not a color.  You are the result of your actions, behavior and deportment.  

Again, good luck and drive on.

Go Green!


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## Lefty375 (Nov 9, 2015)

Funny enough, I got an invite to do a final interview with Dartmouth. @8654Maine 

I should be getting more information soon, but needless to say I was/am very excited.


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## Marauder06 (Nov 9, 2015)

Congratulations, and good luck!  Don't forget about the Warrior Scholar Program, there are at least three long-term members of the site who have been through the program.


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## x SF med (Nov 9, 2015)

lucky l3fty said:


> Funny enough, I got an invite to do a final interview with Dartmouth. @8654Maine
> 
> I should be getting more information soon, but needless to say I was/am very excited.



Drive the fuck on, Ranger.   Make that OBJ yours.


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## Lefty375 (Nov 9, 2015)

Marauder06 said:


> Congratulations, and good luck!  Don't forget about the Warrior Scholar Program, there are at least three long-term members of the site who have been through the program.



I plan on applying still! I wouldn't miss an academic kick in the nuts for the world haha.


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## Salt USMC (Nov 9, 2015)

If you do end up at Dartmouth, I'm pretty sure that you'll double the number of former Regt. guys there.  Hope it works out for you!


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## Lefty375 (Dec 18, 2015)

Glad to say that I'm going to be attending Dartmouth College. There were a lot of great people at the final interview and the admission personnel from Dartmouth were top notch. This community has done so much for me, and I hope to be able to give back more as time goes on.


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## Marauder06 (Dec 19, 2015)

lucky l3fty said:


> Glad to say that I'm going to be attending Dartmouth College. There were a lot of great people at the final interview and the admission personnel from Dartmouth were top notch. This community has done so much for me, and I hope to be able to give back more as time goes on.



Dartmouth is an amazing school, I'm so glad to hear you will be attending.  Remember where you came from, and who you are now.  There may be classmates who are smarter than you, or have more money than you, or who have more opportunities than you, but there should NEVER be anyone who outhustles you.  Don't fall victim to the "imposter syndrome," you belong there just as much as anyone else.  You still have a mission, you just wear a different "uniform" now.


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## DasBoot (Dec 19, 2015)

lucky l3fty said:


> Glad to say that I'm going to be attending Dartmouth College. There were a lot of great people at the final interview and the admission personnel from Dartmouth were top notch. This community has done so much for me, and I hope to be able to give back more as time goes on.


Hell ya bro! Congrats- have fun up there.


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## 8654Maine (Dec 19, 2015)

Stop the presses!!.  Did you just get into Dartmouth College as an Undergrad?!

Whoa!!!!

Awesome!!!

There's a great truck diner not too far away.

The outing club is a great place.

If you want any more info on the place, let me know.


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## Red Flag 1 (Dec 20, 2015)

Congrats', Lefty!


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## LibraryLady (Dec 23, 2015)

Awesome! Not going to wish you good luck cuz that is for the lottery... :-"

I will say hard work and perseverence got you this far, and they will get you where you want to go in the future.  

LL


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## Viper1 (Dec 27, 2015)

Congratulations!


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## Salt USMC (Jun 9, 2016)

@lucky l3fty how did you first semester at Dartmouth go?


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## Lefty375 (Jun 9, 2016)

Deathy McDeath said:


> @lucky l3fty how did you first semester at Dartmouth go?



Starts in Sept!


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## Salt USMC (Jun 9, 2016)

Ah, gotcha.  Well I'm eager to hear how it goes!


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## Brill (Jun 11, 2016)

Makes me proud to see you all going to these great schools!


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## SpongeBob*24 (Jun 11, 2016)

Good luck buddy....


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## racing_kitty (Jun 12, 2016)

Sam I Am misspelled "ghost." He can fuck himself in the face with a rusty chainsaw that's been lubed with HCl, powdered fiberglass and capsicum in the white lithium grease.


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## SpongeBob*24 (Jun 12, 2016)

Sorry, I saw this and thought it was funny:


> Geisel started using the pen name Dr. Seuss after he was forced to resign from his post as editor-in-chief of the Dartmouth humor magazine, _Jack-O-Lantern_. He was caught throwing a party and drinking gin with his friends in his room, and because this was back during Prohibition, he had to pay the price. He managed to keep writing for the magazine, but under the pseudonym “Seuss,” which was his mother’s maiden name. He started using “Dr. Seuss” after he graduated college, as a consolation to his father for never pursuing medicine.



Since it tied into Dartmouth and this thread....


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