Posse Foundation Establishes First Program in Puerto Rico

 Experienced scholarship evaluator Amy Kennelly Viellieu holds a degree from the Purdue University Krannert School of Management and a credential from the Academy for College Admission Counseling. Amy Kennelly Viellieu has been involved with Posse Foundation since 2014 as both an employee and volunteer. For more than 30 years, the Posse Foundation has connected thousands of promising scholars with partner universities across the United States. The organization provides academic training and scholarships to eligible students. In 2021, the Posse Foundation started a program for art students in collaboration with the California Institute of the Arts, Bard College, and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. The initiative was spearheaded by Hamilton writer Lin-Manuel Miranda and former First Lady Michelle Obama. Starting in the fall of 2021, Posse began accepting students from Puerto Rico into its arts program cohorts. Over the next few years, the Posse Arts program will recruit 300 students from the island every year and collaborate with three more arts colleges.

Posse Foundation Identifies Leadership Potential in Veterans

A graduate of Purdue University, Amy Kennelly Viellieu holds a bachelor of science in industrial management and engineering. Amy Kennelly Viellieu maintains an interest in educational access for underserved populations and has volunteered with organizations such as the Posse Foundation, where she evaluated applications from eligible veterans.

The Posse Foundation operates on the premise that a diverse, small group of talented individuals can create positive change in communities. To that end, the organization identities and trains young adults with leadership potential, providing them will full-tuition leadership scholarships from partner schools such as Vassar College, Wesleyan University, and the University of Virginia.

The Posse Veteran program looks specifically to military bases and community colleges to recruit students with not just outstanding test scores, but also leadership and academic potential. Veterans bring a unique perspective to leadership roles, representing the country’s diversity as they step into leadership roles across fields ranging from law and education to business and technology. Students who attend college as Posse Scholars graduate at a rate of 90 percent, compared with 59 percent in general.

Big Shoulders Fund’s Viellieu-Studdert-NES Scholarship

An educational professional in the Chicago area, Amy Kennelly Viellieu most recently served as an auxiliary application reader with the Office of College Admissions at the University of Chicago. Earlier in her career, Amy Kennelly Viellieu was a scholarship committee founder and patron for the Big Shoulders Fund.

Created to enrich the academic experience of underrepresented students, the Big Shoulders Fund serves low-income elementary and middle school students from Catholic schools in Chicago through a robust scholarship program. The organization sponsors more than 60 different scholarships to serve students who are 82 percent minority and 66 percent low-income.

For example, the Viellieu-Studdert-NES Scholarship was created to start with 4th and 5th graders and has helped several students. Big Shoulders Fund students gain access to high-quality Catholic education since 1994. Along with financial aid, students were engaged in service projects to support students both in the US and Haiti as outlined by scholarship founder(s) Viellieus and Studderts.

 

Most US Colleges Accept the Majority of Applicants, Pew Reports

An experienced education professional, Amy Kennelly Viellieu recently concluded a 7-year tenure with the University of Chicago as an auxiliary application reader in the office of college admissions. Amy Kennelly Viellieu expanded her college admissions knowledge by completing an Academy for College Admission Counseling program in 2019.

A 2019 study conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that most American colleges admit the majority of students that submit applications. Out of 1,364 four-year colleges surveyed for the study in 2017, only 17 had an acceptance rate of 10 percent or lower. These schools included the nation’s most prestigious academic institutions, such as Stanford and Harvard, which had acceptance rates of 4.7 and 5.2 percent, respectively.

That said, only 3.4 percent of surveyed schools, or about 4.1 percent of the national enrollment, were described as “extremely competitive.” On the other hand, approximately 53.5 percent of schools admitted at least 66 percent of applicants. A number of notable schools fell into this group, such as Virginia Tech’s 70.1 percent acceptance rate and Quinnipiac University’s 73.9 percent rate.

It should be noted that overall admissions rates have decreased in recent years. Nearly half of the schools featured in this study had lowered admissions rates by 10 percent or more when compared to 2002 enrollment. A good deal of this change, however, can be attributed to the fact that more students are applying to more schools: 4.9 million college applications were submitted in 2002, compared to 10.2 million in 2017.