Senior Sarah Houston will attend Pepperdine University next year on the prestigious Posse scholarship, which offers full-rides to groups of 10 students from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and D.C, who all attend the same college as a “posse.”

Created for inner-city minorities, the Posse scholarship selects students who best represent the demographic of their city, rather than those with the greatest financial need. After a rigorous interview process that includes individual and group sessions, Houston became one of 10 students to receive the D.C. scholarship, selected from a pool of over 2,000 students from the area.

Up against applicants who work three different jobs or are valedictorians of their schools, Houston said that she got through the process by being herself and being honest.

At the final stage, a panel of people, including the head of Pepperdine undergraduate admissions and a professor of Arabic at the university, chose Sarah as the recipient of the scholarship. It was the professor who notified her of her success in the application process—he called her one evening in December while the head of Posse and other selection committee members were on speakerphone, and greeted Houston with a word in Arabic: “تهانينا”

“He said, ‘do you know what that means?’ and I said, ‘No, I don’t,’” Houston recalls. “He said, ‘it means congratulations!’ and I screamed, ‘you just made my life!’”

The Posse foundation threw an awards ceremony for students who received the scholarship in early January at the Lansburgh Theater in D.C. Posse alumni, news crews and county superintendent Jerry Weast all attended.

At required weekly meetings from January until August, Houston’s posse will do team-building exercises, plan for their future in college and grow closer as a group.

Houston says she has already grown close to her posse and enjoys the diverse character of the group.

“It’s such a different experience for me,” she says. “The dynamic is so cool; it’s not like Whitman, which isn’t that diverse.”

Houston is looking forward to the unique college experience that this prestigious scholarship offers.

“I never, to be honest, in a million years thought I would get this,” says Houston. “It was mind blowing. It still hasn’t sunk in.”