For three days every year, members of Cornell鈥檚 Posse community meet off-campus with other students, faculty and staff to recharge and dive deep into a topic, usually one on the top of everyone鈥檚 minds.
This year鈥檚 PossePlus Retreat Feb. 17-19 was no exception, as the 65 people who traveled to a conference center in Painted Post, N.Y. discussed the theme of 鈥淯s vs. Them: Division, Community and Identity in American Society.鈥
The Posse Foundation founded the Posse program in 1989 to identify students from urban high schools with "extraordinary" academic and leadership potential who might have been overlooked by traditional college selection processes. Students are given scholarships to attend college in "posses" of 10. These groups serve as a support community for the students on campus and in their studies.
Cornell鈥檚 program began in the fall of 2013, so the first group of scholars are preparing to graduate this spring, making this year鈥檚 retreat particularly bittersweet for some of them.
鈥淣o matter how many people you do or don鈥檛 know at the retreat, by the end of the day, you are closer to all of them,鈥 said Mary Khalaf 鈥17, one of the original Posse scholars who has attended all four retreats.
While this year鈥檚 topic title could have led to a focus solely on the current U.S. political climate, Khalaf said organizers tried to make sure the conversation was broad and included the way our various identities shape us, from race to sexuality to eating preferences to musical tastes to politics.
鈥淭he retreat helped you to get to know yourself and understand that you belong in multiple groups,鈥 said Kndeya Gebrewahed 鈥18, an international student and member of the Men of Color Council who was invited to attend the retreat by friends. 鈥淚t helped to see where other people are coming from and discover what you might have in common.鈥
One of the first exercises group members experienced was a game where they were split into different 鈥渟ocieties鈥 which had secret rules about the game they were playing. Members visited each other鈥檚 societies trying to figure out the rules and find ways they could fit in. Some societies were more open and accepting of others, while other societies had complicated rules for their games and were not welcoming. The narrative around the game was that at one point, everyone had belonged to the same society, but over time, different groups had split off and isolated themselves from each other.
鈥業t taught us a lot about what it means to be an outsider,鈥 Khalaf said.
Students also brainstormed various 鈥淯s. Vs. Them鈥 pairings, including Republicans vs. Democrats, gay vs. straight, black vs. white, etc., which they put together on sheets of paper. By the end of the retreat, those sheets were cut in half and standing alone, which made students realize the validity of each group as its own entity, not only part of a conflicted pair.
鈥淭he PossePlus Retreat is a place to explore your individual identity or opinions, but even more so those of communities you interact with,鈥 said Carlo Lindo, Cornell鈥檚 Posse Program manager, who works in the Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives. 鈥淲hether it be the Cornell community, your familial community or one that is richly tied to an important but maybe invisible part of your individual identity, you are given the space to answer questions you don鈥檛 often think to ask. Everyone can benefit from that type of reflection.鈥
Some of the students who attended wished there could have been a broader representation of views, but thought this year鈥檚 political climate made that difficult to accomplish.
鈥淚t was a retreat but it was also a venting session of how people thought about their 鈥榯hem,鈥 but there was no 鈥榯hem鈥 there to represent themselves,鈥 said Anthony Halmon 鈥17. 鈥淕iven the political climate, how would I, if I supported Trump, come and explain why I did if everyone else here is saying why I shouldn鈥檛 have supported Trump. Look what he鈥檚 doing to different people and individuals. Even if I had a pro-business perspective, I wouldn鈥檛 feel safe in that space because everyone else is condemning him right now.鈥
The PossePlus retreats often spur students to return to campus and start new groups or become more involved in activism.
鈥淚t inspired me to be a better person, to try my best to learn from different people,鈥 said Tredarin Crumbley 鈥18, a member of the second Posse cohort. 鈥淭he idea is that through the retreat we move from 鈥榰s vs. them鈥 to creating a bigger 鈥榰s.鈥 鈥
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