From PCC To Vassar: Student-Veteran Wins Full-Ride Scholarship

Call it the equivalent of winning the lottery.

Comus Hardman, a Pasadena City College sophomore and United States Navy reservist, has been named the recipient of a full-ride scholarship to one of the premiere liberal arts colleges in the nation, New York’s Vassar College, courtesy of the Posse Foundation.

After a rigorous search, Hardman was handpicked from a pool of nationwide candidates to join the foundation’s Veterans Posse, an initiative the nonprofit organization formed in 2012 to increase enrollment and graduation rates of U.S. veterans at selective colleges and universities.

“It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities people talk about,” said Hardman, a 25-year-old biology major. “This is everything I could wish and hope for.”

With the scholarship, which equates to about $244,000, Hardman will join a group of other Veterans Posse scholars to form a cohort – or “posse” – at Vassar in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. this September. While there, Hardman plans to continue his biology studies. He hopes to one day become a researcher in the field of genetics.

“Our whole staff is thrilled that Comus received the scholarship,” said Patricia D’Orange-Martin, PCC counselor and coordinator of PCC’s Veterans Resource Center. “He is such a great and deserving young man. I think we will see great things from him.”

For Hardman, winning the scholarship couldn’t have come at a better time. He was set to graduate from PCC at the end of the spring semester, then apply to a four-year university (UCLA was one of his choices). He didn’t know exactly how he would pay for tuition, but he said he’d find a way.

“One of the reasons I joined the military was to help pay for my education,” he said. “That was the plan. Come to PCC and then transfer. It’s a cheaper that way.”

Those plans changed after a brief encounter with D’Orange-Martin early last year at the VRC. The counselor pulled Hardman aside and asked if he was interested in applying for the Posse Foundation scholarship. Members of the organization were on campus that day looking for regional candidates for first-round interviews.

“What they were looking for was someone bright, with strong leadership skills,” D’Orange-Martin said.

One of the primary goals of the Posse Foundation is to help identify students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential who may be overlooked by traditional college selection processes. “The scholarship was for students with great potential, but on paper didn’t look like the students the top-tier schools would pick,” she said.

Turns out, Hardman seemed to be a good fit for the scholarship. Only a few hours later that day, Hardman scored an interview. He did well enough to make it to the semifinals, where he joined more than a dozen other student-veterans – some of whom were PCC students as well.

The next few weeks were a whirlwind of sorts for the Covington, Ga. native, who moved to Los Angeles five years ago.

“I had no idea what the Posse Foundation was,” he said. “I really didn’t have any expectations, so I just tried to have fun with it. I told myself this was a great experience and we’ll see what happens.”

At the semifinals, the veterans convened at the Foundation’s Downtown L.A. office, where they were put into group activities designed to flesh out critical-thinking, problem-solving, and leadership skills.

Hardman and another PCC student, Joel Arredondo, stood out from the group and were chosen as finalists for the scholarship to Vassar. Last December, the two were flown to N.Y. for a personal interview and reception.

“It was my first time in New York,” he said. “I wasn’t really nervous. I just treated it as a new experience.”

While there, Hardman joined other veterans from the Posse Foundation for daylong group discussions ranging from broad topics like religion, politics, education, and poverty. “It was an exhilarating experience,” he said. “I met great people who were very intelligent and came from different backgrounds.”

The next morning, Hardman got the call that he won the scholarship.

“My family flipped out,” he said. “They were super excited, super proud.”

Hardman credits his instructors at PCC as well as the school’s resources for helping achieve his educational goals. “I wouldn’t have had this opportunity now if it weren’t for PCC. Growing up, I knew I wanted to pursue something in science. When I took a biology course here at PCC, it cemented my feeling of pursuing genetics.

“The VRC was extremely helpful,” he added. “You had other veterans there to share some life experiences with them. They weren’t your typical 18 or 19 year olds just from high school. They were students I could relate to.”

This summer, before heading out to Vassar, Hardman will fulfill his military obligations at the naval air station in Point Mugu. In the meantime, he has a message for other student-veterans: “Seek out those opportunities. There’s a lot more available to us than I thought possible. We serve the country, but the country can serve you, too.”

The Veterans Posse is one component of the Posse Foundation’s overall goal of identifying “non-traditional” students from various backgrounds who might contribute greatly to and benefit greatly from partner institutions. Through the Veterans Posse initiative, the foundation has formed partnerships with Vassar College and Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn.

The organization plans to expand its institutional partnerships to Dartmouth College in 2016, and 12 other top-tier institutions over the next five years.

For more information about the Posse Foundation’s veterans program, visit www.possefoundation.org.