The Young People’s Project (YPP) at Hamilton College was featured in the Posse Foundation’s summer 2010 newsletter.
The mission of YPP is to use math literacy as a tool to develop young leaders and organizers who radically change the quality of education and life in their communities, so that all children have the opportunity to reach their full human potential.
The program began at Hamilton in 2007 through the efforts of Hector Acevedo ’08, a Posse student from Boston. He had been involved with the national YPP program in Boston from the time that he was in 6th grade. The Posse Foundation identifies, recruits and selects student leaders from public high schools to form multicultural teams called “posses,” which are then placed at top colleges nationwide.
In 2009 YPP at Hamilton expanded by creating a core team composed of Posse Boston students, Leide Cabral ’11 serves as site director and Hannah Roth ’11, Denise Ghartey ’12 and Tiago Correia ’12 are coordinators. They train fellow Hamilton students to serve as College Math Literacy Workers who facilitate workshops for middle school students in Utica. The Hamilton team has grown to 17 members and has raised $45,000 to sustain the future of the program.
YPP has been able to bridge the gap between math literacy and social justice; the organization has started many initiatives across the country that will one day improve the quality of life for low-income communities.
Hamilton has partnered with the Posse Foundation since 2001, when the college enrolled its first posse of students from the Boston area. It expanded its partnership with the Posse Foundation this fall when it enrolled 10 students from Miami in the class of 2014.
