Washington-Lee High School seniors Katherine Mercado and Melissa Montes and Yorktown High School senior Flor Caceres-Godoy were selected to receive a four-year, full-tuition scholarship from The Posse Foundation to attend a partnering institution. The awards are worth more than $140,000 each.

Mercado plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Montes has decided to attend Sewanee: The University of the South and Caceres-Godoy will attend Lafayette College.

The Posse Foundation recruits and trains outstanding young people from urban high schools and sends them to top colleges and universities as part of supportive, multicultural teams or “Posses” of 10 students. In addition to the scholarship, students receive comprehensive programmatic support throughout their time in college. Students are nominated by either their high school counselors or a community-based organization.

Students participated in a rigorous selection process, called the Dynamic Assessment Process, from September through December. The process included three rounds of interviews.

At the end of the interview process, each student met with a team of representatives from the college or university of their choice, including the Dean of Admissions, tenured faculty and the school’s president. The students were then selected through collaboration between Posse staff and the partnering institutions.