Alumni Spotlight
We’re proud to shine this month’s Alumni Spotlight on Maurice Tiner, LINK Class of ’13. A graduate of Holy Trinity High School and a Posse Scholar, Maurice went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies from Connecticut College and his Master of Arts and Religion from Yale Divinity School. After several years in the northeast, he has now come full circle, coming home to Chicago and returning to Holy Trinity three years ago as Dean of Students.
Maurice enjoys working closely with two other LINK Alumni at Holy Trinity: Principal Nara Mahone as well as security director and sports coach Cortez James. “I’ve been best friends with Cortez since our freshman year of high school together here,” Maurice shared, “and it’s so neat to now work with him at the place where we met and became friends. We love showing the students here that high school friendships and brotherhoods can last the test of time and that this is a place where you may meet a person that you’ll be friends with for the rest of your life. Cortez and I are vocal about that, and I think the students appreciate it.”
Holy Trinity High School has partnered with LINK Unlimited Scholars for more than 20 years, with varying numbers of Scholars attending the high school each year. LINK also holds numerous events at the Holy Trinity facility, including the crucial Saturday Academy sessions throughout the school year.
When asked to describe LINK Unlimited Scholars, Maurice said, “LINK is an empowerment and enrichment program for African American students that is truly geared toward giving them holistic support to navigate their high school experience and get them to a great college afterward. There is a lot of intentional programming that LINK expects Scholars to participate in, which may feel cumbersome at times, but at the end of the day, it is absolutely worth every program they put together. The program is truly giving Black students in Chicago the opportunity to be exposed to a plethora of different things that may spark their interest and really put them on the path to their purpose and who they’re supposed to be—in collaboration with Mentors and sponsors who know the success of the program and are willing to invest their time and resources into it as well.”
“I would encourage students to go for it!” he continued. “ It is a privilege to be selected, and that privilege should not be taken lightly or taken for granted. So, if you are selected and you decide to go through the program, give it all you have! And my promise and guarantee is that you will succeed and earn your reward.”
“I chose to be a LINK Scholar in high school because I wanted to be part of a program that was truly invested in pouring into young people and giving us opportunities to attend high schools that we likely wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise,” Maurice explained. “LINK put me in a space that was a great fit for me, where my talents could flourish and I could receive a high quality education. Karron Hurks was my Mentor, and he did so much to pour into me. I still have a phenomenal relationship with him, and we connect on a semi-monthly basis.”
Maurice believes two of LINK’s greatest strengths are the intentional programming and the emphasis on mentorship. “The very intentional programming continually pushes Scholars to be prepared for the next level—whether that be from middle school to high school, from one year of high school to the next, or from high school to college and beyond,” Maurice described. “There was no shortage of hard work along the way, but I always felt equipped to move on to the next stage of my life.”
“And the mentorship program exposes Black students to new things they’ve never experienced before,” he added. “It puts Scholars in positions to trail a new path. It gives them opportunities that may change their perspective on the world—in ways that will change their world and their reality. I would recommend that everyone who has the capacity become a mentor to a student. It’s definitely worth it—I’m a testament of how much it works, and I will scream that to the mountaintops!”
Learn more about becoming a LINK Mentor.
