SoCal, Carlisle

Members of first LA Posse create their own legacy at Dickinson

April 28, 2009

The first Los Angeles Posse. Front row (from left): Glenda Garcia, Krizzha Reyes, Shaka Tafari, Judith Lopez and Yazmin Watkins. Back Row: Posse mentor Joyce Bylander, Adekunle Adeyemo, Llamilet Gutierrez, Francisco Mendivil and Valeria Carranza.

Among the nine graduating seniors in Dickinson's first Los Angeles Posse, one is a Bonner Leader and another is a member of Scroll and Key. There also is a Fulbright finalist and an inductee into Psi Chi, the national honor society in psychology. They intend to become doctors, public defenders, art therapists, community organizers and international business leaders.

Dickinson began its relationship with the Posse Foundation in 2001, with its first cohort of students arriving from New York City. The foundation identifies high-achieving students from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C., and works with partner colleges and universities to ensure that they reach their full academic potential.

After several successful years with New York, Dickinson expanded its outreach and, in 2005, became the first college on the East Coast to partner with the Los Angeles Posse program.

"[The foundation] recognized us as a strong Posse partner and decided if anyone was going to make this work, we would," said Joyce Bylander, special assistant to the president on institutional and diversity initiatives and Posse mentor.

Campus trailblazers

The Los Angeles Posse members have taken on a wide range of interests and leadership positions at Dickinson. Bylander sees this particular group as real trailblazers, not only for other Posse students but for the entire community.

Francisco Mendivil, who majored in biology, served as president of the Latin-American Club and was inducted into Alpha Lambda Delta, a first-year honor society. He plans to pursue a medical degree at Loma Linda University School of Public Health.

Llamilet Gutierrez, a law & policy major, served on Student Senate, reinstated the Dickinson Law Society and logged 450 volunteer hours as a Bonner Leader, an intensive community-service and social-justice program. She interned in the Washington, D.C., public defender's office for a semester, which became the impetus for her career choice. Gutierrez will attend Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore.

Adekunle Adeyemo, a sociology major, served in several executive positions in Alpha Phi Omega, the only co-ed service fraternity on campus. He recently performed in Katrina: The K-Word, a Dickinson production that raised funds for Serve the World, a student organization that coordinates local, national and international service trips. He will begin training to become an emergency-medical technician and plans to attend medical school.

Yazmin Watkins, an American studies major with a double minor in film studies and women’s studies, excelled in the classroom and in women’s track and field, breaking the school record in triple jump and earning third place in triple jump at the 2008 centennial conference. She was a charter member and vice president of the Upsilon Delta chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, a historically African-American sorority, and is a founding member of Silent Poets, Dickinson’s spoken-word poetry group. Watkins plans to work in film and television.

The Posse Los Angeles Scholars "represent something very special," Bylander said. "They could have gone to any college or university in California, but they chose to come here. They've really re-shaped the campus culture."

'Testing things out'

Judith Lopez considered biology with an eye toward medical school when she first arrived. At Bylander's urging, she began "testing things out" and took a drawing class.

"I had done [art] before but didn't take it seriously," she said, adding that Bylander was instrumental in getting her to see art as a viable option. Further encouraged by assistant professors of art Todd Arsenault '99 and Tony Cervino, Lopez rediscovered her talent and decided to double major in studio art and psychology.

The decision was a complicated one. Many Posse students are the first in their families to graduate from college and often are expected to have more "practical" career plans. To balance the practical with the artistic, she chose Norwich, England, for her study-abroad experience, where she spent a lot of time in museums and theatres.

Lopez, who was inducted into Psi Chi, plans to work in art therapy or a community-arts program, preferably in New York City or Boston. She's fallen in love with the Northeast and said that when she's home, she finds herself missing Carlisle. She'll continue to make art on her own and is considering a master's in fine arts program.

Next generation mentor

Glenda Garcia has focused on women's studies from the beginning and declared her major shortly after taking her first-year seminar, Class Matters: Women and Inequality.

She also plans to continue her education after graduation, citing Amy Farrell, professor of American studies, as a key influence. "I just loved her in the methods class, and she challenged me. She taught me how to be a good scholar."

Garcia spent a semester in Dickinson's partner program in Hyderabad, India, and participated in a Mosaic trip to Venezuela. She also did a spring internship with the Feminist Majority Foundation in Washington, D.C., and has taken the time to mentor some newer Los Angeles Posse members.

"For the second posse, it was hard to know what I could provide," she said. "With the fourth posse, now I know what to do. I know what advice they need."

Garcia, a Fulbright finalist, plans to spend a year working in community organizing and advocacy before applying to a graduate program at the University of California-Santa Barbara, where she will pursue a Ph.D. in women's and gender studies.

"My goal is to be like Joyce Bylander," she said. "She just gives off this wisdom. I couldn't have asked for a better mentor."

Other Los Angeles Posse graduates are: Shaka Tafari, American-studies major and member of Scroll and Key, a Dickinson leadership society dedicated to service and philanthropy; Valeria Carranza, international-studies major; and Krizzha Reyes, international business & management major.