F&M and Posse in Miami: Launching the Scientific Leaders of Tomorrow

This past weekend, I was privileged to travel to Miami, Florida to celebrate the selection of ten students who will study at Franklin & Marshall College in the so-called STEM fields—science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

We selected these students in partnership with the Posse Foundation, with which we have worked for eight years. Founded by Deborah Bial, Posse is a leadership development program that identifies extraordinary students in underserved communities, engages them in a one-year seminar to prepare for college, and sends them to great institutions in cohorts, or “posses,” of ten. I’m a huge admirer of Posse and am proud that they have helped us bring roughly 70 students to F&M from New York City, including Fulbright-winner Maribel Vasquez ’09 and another recent graduate, who now holds a coveted federal position in national security that is paying for his graduate work in security studies.

Why did we choose to invest our resources in creating a STEM posse from Miami? For two reasons.

First, because they earned it. These are highly accomplished, public-spirited students who stood out among more than a thousand talented Miamians who applied to become Posse Scholars. Their academic achievements and demonstrated leadership put them at the top of high school seniors nationwide, just like the 11 equally talented applicants we selected to comprise next year’s New York posse.

The second reason is competitiveness. To sustain its global leadership, America needs a robust number of STEM-educated professionals to work in critical areas like public health, economic development, information technology, aeronautics and energy. And to compete successfully, we need to find talent across the full spectrum of American society and give those students an empowering education, so that our future leadership is truly reflective of and driven by the full American mosaic. Every national study for the past 30 years has noted that women and people of color are significantly underrepresented in STEM disciplines at the undergraduate and graduate levels—an imbalance that threatens the prosperity of our country as a whole and of particularly communities that have so much to gain by launching students into STEM fields.

Working together and in partnership with innovative and high-performing K-12 programs, American higher education can meet this national challenge to educate an increasingly diverse group of future science and technology leaders. I believe that institutions like F&M have a special responsibility to do so, because we are so good at producing scientists; the top liberal arts colleges educate proportionally more students who go on to obtain science and engineering doctorates than research universities. [1] We provide the kind of individualized learning environment with small classes and abundant opportunities for hands-on, faculty-mentored research that enables all students to develop their talents and meet the challenge of graduate study with confidence.

Spending time with F&M’s first STEM Posse students only reinforced for me the value of our commitment. All show the kind of intellectual ability and curiosity that has driven them to learn as much as they can about the natural world and the ways in which the sciences can help us explore it and improve the human condition. And all desire to continue their studies not for their own benefit, but so they can employ their extraordinary talents for the common good. By teaming up with Posse to recruit these STEM students to F&M, we are sending a message to the entire country about the vibrant role liberal arts schools can and must play in strengthening our country’s future competitiveness.

Carolina Giraldo is a great example. Colombian by birth, she was brought to the United States at the age of seven by heroic parents who sacrificed their careers to raise their two children in a safer environment than the civil conflict in their country allowed. An honor student whose proud science teacher and mentor accompanied her to the ceremony, Carolina is passionate about the life sciences. She is especially excited about the opportunity she will have at F&M to study genetics and undertake research at the Clinic for Special Children. This unique facility combines cutting-edge genetic research with public health outreach to advance our understanding of inherited metabolic disorders and serve the Amish and Mennonite communities in Pennsylvania. At the end of the conversation, Carolina pulled me aside and looked me in the face with the kind of determination that reminds us why we are educators and said, “Dr. Porterfield, I will not let you down.”

I’m inspired that Franklin & Marshall has doubled its commitment to the Posse Foundation this year and that we have chosen Miami and STEM as the next phase of that partnership. I can’t wait to welcome the New York and Miami posse students to campus next fall as members of the Class of 2016. What a great opportunity for these students, for F&M, and for America, which will benefit from their discoveries and leadership in the years ahead.