The concept of Posse was a response to something a college student said: “ I never would have dropped out of college if I had my posse with me.” Posses are now being sent out of various cities throughout North America to the nation’s most reputable institutions. Posse trained us to hone our leadership qualities and to talk about difficult and sensitive subjects that you might not hear so much on campus. We want to extend this onto our campus when we are there, but we want to take our mission of sharing Posse even further. We invite students, faculty and staff off campus, typically to the Desmond Hotel in Malvern, Pennsylvania to talk about. Posses all over the nation voted on this year’s PossePlus Retreat topic, which was Gender and Sexuality. After the buses picked us up in front of the admissions building and we arrived at The Desmond Hotel, we placed our bags in a holding room. We filled out our nametags, and dinner awaited us. It was a lovely experience to be surrounded by fellow Bryn Mawr students, Bryn Mawr professors, faculty and staff, as well as Posse personnel. The PossePlus Retreat began, and we were in for a challenging weekend.
We stood up, shared our names, where we were from and what we identified as.For example, I said, “My name is Gabrielle, I am from Boston, and “she”.” After defining terms with regards to gender and sexuality, every one was given a chance to raise their hands, pose questions and share feelings. The night kicked off with a lovely video filmed in New York and group discussions surrounding the film.

We were encouraged to think about the weekend as a martini glass. The larger part of the glass being the worldview, the stem being more personal and intricate to each person’s life, and the base which returns back to the community of Bryn Mawr. We had a chance to bring up issues that were important to us. I personally brought up the matters of bullying early on in the retreat, and one of my friends wanted to revisit the matter in the “create your own group” activity. Another group targeted the matter of the television in Erdman Dining Hall, which is now removed. Other groups discussed transgender students on campus, and there was so much more. We divided ourselves into groups that we felt apart of, for example, I was part of the group called “heterosexuals and ready to mingle”. To this end, we discussed why might the Bryn Mawr Community pose challenges in being identifiable with this particular group.
What was most important to the retreat was that it was a safe space. This was a space where any attendee could feel open to dig deep into the grooves of their lives, without fearing that their personal experiences would be retold. Also, this meant that it was a place of respect. If you were to have ideas, you could expect for your ideas to be challenged, without any personal attacks.

To get you warm and ready to go back to Bryn Mawr, you were greeted with tons and tons of warm fuzzies! Fuzzies are little post-it notes where people write things, nice things about you and how you might have touched them that weekend. A fuzzy can go from-I really like what you said- to I love your shoes!

I totally grew from this weekend, and I learned many things. If you would ever like to talk with me about the retreat, I am always more than happy to ☺