Roselie Bellanca Posselius’s association with the Academy began over forty years ago, when her parents brought her for her admissions interview to what was then the Academy of the Sacred Heart. She was going into first grade. Four years later she was a part of a major transition in the school’s history.

Recalls Roselie: “I was entering the fifth grade when the school became The Grosse Pointe Academy. It was so exciting! The faculty was for the most part new, and there were boys, which was a major shock to the system. The school had just been saved by a group of parents led by Carole Peabody and Toni Robinson, and there was this incredible energy generated toward making it all work. The group was dedicated to carrying on the mission of the Sacred Heart in a new way.” Several of the teachers who came that year are still at GPA today, including Marion Chrisner, Mary Jo Johnson and Scott Tily.

After graduating from the Academy, Roselie attended high school at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield Hills. She received her bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s College and an M.F.A. from Pratt Institute in New York City. She reconnected with the Academy in 1987 when her close friend and GPA classmate, Catherine O’Brien McCuish, asked her to join the Alumni Association Board. Roselie went on to serve on the Board for the next six years, the last four as president.

In 1988, she married another Academy alum, Peter Posselius ‘72, representing the first marriage of GPA alums.

After having served the school for so long on a volunteer basis, Roselie returned in 2000 in a new role as a parent when her daughter, Giovanna, entered kindergarten. In 2003 she rejoined the Alumni Association Board and has served for the past five years as president. Next year will conclude yet another term of leadership on the Alumni Association. She is proud of the Association’s many accomplishments, such as raising funds for two partial scholarships, the Helen Healy Scholarship and the Alumni Scholarship, both of which are given to the child or grandchild of an alum. The Alumni Association also hosts the Day of Recollection, All Saints’ Day mass, Christmas Eve mass, Blessing of the Babies, among other events, and contributes to the Annual Fund and Action Auction. Several years ago Roselie coordinated an Alumni History Day for the students, which she hopes to repeat every three or four years, and in the last two years the Association has gotten current
families and young alums involved with such events as the Alumni Association Halloween Party.

“Our goal is to have a more visible presence in the school so that current students know who we are and can continue the tradition. After all, they are the future caretakers of this school.”

Roselie reflects on her experiences at the Academy as follows. “The Academy gave me a really strong foundation on which to build. I was prepared academically, I felt supported by everyone there, and I am very grateful for the fact that I have always felt that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. I credit the Academy for that feeling.”