*This press release is being resent with an updated number of scholarship recipients 

Eight MCPS students have been named recipients of full-tuition, four-year college scholarships from the Posse Foundation. The Posse program identifies public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential that may have been overlooked by traditional college selection processes.

Nationally, 56 colleges and universities each offer full-tuition, merit scholarships to students throughout the country and create multicultural teams—called Posses—on each campus. These student teams receive professional guidance before and throughout college and provide support to one another.

On campus, these students serve in important leadership roles. The MCPS students were honored at a ceremony on Jan. 9 at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C.

This year’s MCPS recipients come from six high schools and will attend four different colleges.

The 2018 Posse Scholars from MCPS and the colleges they will be attending are:

Rockville High School

Stefan Piedrasanta, Sewanee: The University of the South

Emily Weerasinghe, Sewanee: The University of the South

Christian Melgar, Bucknell University

James Hubert Blake High School

Kendi Aaron, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Gaithersburg High School

Bubakar Oscar Sy Garcia, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Northwood High School

Alvin Huynh, Bucknell University

Watkins Mill High School

Andre Tulloch, University of Rochester

Walter Johnson High School

Yonathan Mesfein, University of Wisconsin-Madison