With our seniors looking forward to college and seeking scholarships, some started the process of applying for the selective Posse Foundation Scholarship at the end of their junior year. Alessia Constanzo was one of ten students in Posse New York selected for this scholarship to Lafayette College. 

The Posse Scholarship is offered to high school seniors who are leaders in their school and community, committed to their education, and have been nominated by someone in their school for being ambitious. Recipients of the scholarship have their full tuition paid to the school with which they match in their state’s “Posse.”

The selection process was months-long, with multiple rounds of interviews, Costanzo told The Pilot.

After being selected as a finalist for Lafayette College in late October, she attended a final interview that included the director of the Posse Foundation and the Dean of Admissions at Lafayette. 

“The final interview had three main activities and were more focused on who we were as people; what our roles are in family and academic settings, what we find important, what kind of background we have, what makes us ‘us,’” Costanzo said. 

Choosing from 11 different schools that Posse New York works with, Costanzo ranked Lafayette as her first choice because of the school’s engineering program and the vibrant student life. Part of Lafayette’s engineering program is a “fully Tesla-funded MotorSport Lab where any student, regardless of interest level in engineering, can help design real-life racing cars to then participate in racing competitions,” Costanzo said. 

Costanzo’s first experiences that pushed her to pursue a career in engineering were with her father. 

“As the youngest child, I was often underfoot and shuttled off to ‘help dad’ with projects around the house,” Costanzo said. “Although that really meant the role of flashlight holder, I began to accumulate this curiosity on the ‘why’ behind the way things were built or the way current flowed in the light switches around my house.”

As she prepares to enter Lafayette as a Posse scholar, the program continues supporting her and other scholars through the end of their senior year in high school. “This past Thursday, January 18th, we had our Posse Award Ceremony,” Constanzo said. “It was a sweet event in which all the scholars were called upon and congratulated for their achievements.”

As their freshman year at college draws closer, Costanzo and her Posse members have weekly pre-collegiate meetings and one-on-one meetings with their Posse mentors. 

For those looking at the Posse scholarship when applying to college, “my best piece of advice for anyone seeking to become a Posse Scholar is to be the best version of yourself,” Costanzo told The Pilot.