It’s a traditional autumn celebration across Posses — reuniting, recommitting and celebrating milestones toward college graduation.
Among the smiles, picture taking and opening of gifts that are no surprise, it’s hard to tell who’s prouder at the UW-Madison’s Posse Program annual fall awards banquet — the students, the staff, or Posse’s best patrons, Wade and Beverly Fetzer. At this event, where students who have earned a 3.0 GPA or better for their first two semesters are awarded laptop computers by the Fetzers, it’s a Badger Giftmas.
It’s a traditional autumn celebration across Posses — reuniting, recommitting and celebrating milestones toward college graduation.
Among the smiles, picture taking and opening of gifts that are no surprise, its’ hard to tell who’s prouder at the UW-Madison’s Posse Program annual fall awards banquet – the students, the staff, or Posse’s best patrons, Wade and Beverly Fetzer. At this event, where students who’ve earned a 3.0 or better for their first two semesters are awarded laptop computers by the Fetzers, it’s a Badger Giftmas.
“The Fetzer laptop awards are extremely important to Wisconsin Posse because they recognize great work and give the student recipients a valuable, functional instrument for organizing academic commitments,” said Posse Director Albert Muniz. “Mr. Fetzer’s contributions to our program are unique in the sense that he wants to go above and beyond the typical kinds of awards. Wade wants the students to come away with something tangible and useful to help them attain even greater success than they’ve already experienced.”
As always, Fetzer reminded students that Posse is a lifelong membership in a family.
Denise Leung, Los Angeles Posse 8, hugged her new laptop adoringly.
“I’m so thankful to Wade and Beverly Fetzer for making such a generous donation to the Posse Foundation,” Leung said. “They have given so sacrificially and generously, and words cannot convey how thankful I am!”
The autumn awards banquet also recognizes the winner of the John B. Roy Scholarship for Excellence and Leadership, which this year went to Saumya Deva, Los Angeles Posse 7, who is majoring in International Studies with a focus on Global Security. This award is given annually to a junior or senior Posse scholar from Los Angeles who maintains a minimum 3.5 GPA while demonstrating excellence in leadership skills, a high level of campus involvement and commitment to serving others.
Deva is also a diversity coordinator with UW–Madison Center for Cultural Enrichment (CCE), based in University Housing. As a diversity coordinator, Saumya creates opportunities for her peers to interact and learn from each other in a way that embraces and respects differences, specifically among international students, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) students, and students of color (African American, Asian American, Latino/a, American Indian, Middle Eastern).
This fall’s winner of the Joseph and Esther Marie Zapata Scholarship was Farah Elakhaoui, Chicago Posse 6, who is majoring in Communication Arts and Spanish with certificates in LGBT Studies and Women’s Studies. This scholarship is awarded annually to a junior or senior Posse scholar who maintains a minimum 3.5 GPA while demonstrating excellent leadership skills, a high level of campus involvement and commitment to serving others.
Elakhaoui, a fifth-year senior came to the United States from Lebanon. Despite many personal challenges and setbacks, she has managed to excel academically while holding multiple jobs and tutoring a fellow Posse Scholar. Elakhaoui is on track to graduate from UW–Madison in December 2011.
This year’s laptop recipients were:
Carlos Bustamante, Los Angeles Posse 8
Kenneth Carter, Chicago Posse 9
Jordan Chacon, Washington D.C. Posse 2
Dantrell Cotton, Chicago Posse 9
Veronica Craig, Chicago Posse 9
Mariya Datsenko, Los Angeles Posse 8
I-ShaDavis, Washington, Posse 2
Travis Fearing-Kabler, Los Angeles Posse 8
Hadeel Hasan, Chicago Posse 9
Troy Huggins, Chicago Posse 9
Denise Leung, Los Angeles Posse 8
Gwendolyn (Lola) Omolabi, Washington D.C. Posse 2
Linda Sancen, Chicago Posse 9
Elisha Smith, Chicago Posse 9
Long Vu Tran, Washington D.C. Posse 2
