The Posse Foundation is a nonprofit organization that partners with select colleges and universities in the United States to provide student scholarships and leadership training. The organization is centered on a cohort-based model that admits students to attend college as part of a "Posse" of 10 peers.

Vanderbilt University is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1 million endowment in the hopes that his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the American Civil War. Vanderbilt is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and has been the conference's only private school since 1966.