Kelsey Sullivan, the Druid Hills High School student who set up a tutoring program for GVS students there, has won a four-year full scholarship through the Posse Program to Boston University. The Posse foundation uses non-traditional ways of identifying public school student leaders to award full scholarships to private universities. Students are nominated by their schools for their leadership qualities and community service, and then they go through lots of group and individual interviews, they get recommendations (GVS's Julia Levy wrote one about her work for GVS) and then they're named one of ten members of a "Posse" that go together to a university from a regional area. President Obama donated a portion of his Nobel winnings to the program.
Kelsey says a large part of her success in achieving this came from what she's done with GVS students (Paw Boe is shown here) and the tutoring program for them that she's developed over at Druid Hills High School--one that's now formally aligned with the IRC's tutoring program. She has put in the hours and shown enormous beyond-her-years initiative in working with our girls, and there is no doubt that at least one of them is now college-bound largely due to her efforts and consistent, whatever-it-takes support.
GVS is so proud of this unique ability as a school to provide important educational opportunities not just for 30 refugee students but for the high school and college kids that work with them--extending our mission. Kelsey wants to study international relations now and go out there and dedicate her life to working with underserved populations. She credits her work with Paw Boe for inspiring her to do this.
