Posse scholar preps for life after Tulane
In 2009, Chris Hanuscin entered Tulane University after receiving a full-tuition scholarship from the Posse Foundation. This spring, Hanuscin and 11 other students from public high schools in the Los Angeles area will become the first Posse class to graduate from Tulane.
Chris Hanuscin, who is in the first Posse Foundation class to graduate from Tulane University, will enter medical school this fall. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)
The Posse Foundation rewards public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential by giving them the opportunity to attend elite colleges and universities in multicultural teams called posses. The organization believes sending a group of students to college together allows them to serve as a support system for one another.
In the summer of 2008, Tulane partnered with the Posse Foundation to increase the diversity and quality of its undergraduate student body.
Hanuscin, a cell and molecular biology major, says his posse provides a home away from home.
“For the first two years, we were required to meet as a group with an adviser, kind of as a family,” he says. “Now we just meet informally, and I have gotten to know some of my best friends through this group.”
In addition to excelling academically, he also earned a spot on the Green Wave football team as a walk-on and played for four years. He is now preparing for the next step in his academic career medical school.
“Currently I am going to attend the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine,” he says. “I am still waiting to hear back from UCLA's School of Medicine, and if I get accepted there, then that's where I'll go.”
Greg Thomson is a Tulane sophomore studying communication.
