Senior uses scholarships for new experiences
Charlie Draughter Jr., who hails from the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans, attends Tulane University with a Posse Foundation scholarship. With a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, he had a six-week summer internship in Costa Rica. (Photo by Ryan Rivet)
When Charlie Draughter Jr. won a full scholarship to Tulane University from the Posse Foundation in 2011, he vowed to take advantage of everything Tulane had to offer, academically, socially and experientially.
A senior political science and philosophy major, he has maintained a 3.0 grade point average, all while working as a resident adviser, serving as president of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and volunteering as a mentor in the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Earlier this year, Draughter won a travel-abroad opportunity from the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program. This U.S. Department of State program provides study and internship experiences to students who have been traditionally underrepresented in education abroad, including those of limited financial means and diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Draughter, 20, used his scholarship for a six-week summer internship at Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano, the leading institution for English teaching in Costa Rica. He worked on a team that organized workshops for Costa Rican students interested in attending American universities.
“We taught them how to apply to American universities,” says Draughter. “We did presentations on the interview process, entrance exams, how to write essays.”
He also took Spanish-language classes and volunteered at a center for at-risk teenage boys.
Draughter is using his experience, both in Costa Rica and at Tulane, to apply to law school Tulane as well as Georgetown, Northwestern, Loyola and Louisiana State universities.
Draughter attributes his success at Tulane to the Posse program, which was founded in 1989 to identify, recruit and train exceptional young leaders from urban high schools and send them in teams, or posses, to top colleges and universities across the United States.
“Coming into college in general, you experience so many different things, so many new things,” he said. “I feel like I matured so much, and Posse contributed tremendously to that.”
