Trinity's Summer Outreach Program Gets a New Name

by Anne Harrington
Trustee

SHINE, formerly known as Horizons, is the new name for Trinity's summer program for under-resourced students in Austin!

SHINE serves non-Trinity students who don't usually have access to the amazing resources we do. Each summer, we host about 100 kids on our campus, helping them close the achievement gap and minimize summer learning loss. SHINE is a great name for this program. It evokes the light that spills from every corner of campus during the six weeks of happiness participants enjoy! As a member of Trinity’s Board of Trustees, I have the honor of serving as liaison to the SHINE program.

The program was called Horizons for the first nine years of its history because it was a subsidiary chapter of the non-profit organization Horizons National. The program evolved in recent years, embedded within the special magic of Trinity. Last year, with overwhelming support from SHINE’s executive directors and faculty, the Board of Trustees amicably voted to part ways with Horizons National in order to focus on strengthening the program with Trinity’s values, proprietary testing, and other particular needs. In doing so, a name change was required, and so SHINE was born.

SHINE is led by Co-Executive Directors Chris Ernest and Diana Clemens. Chris is Trinity’s Middle School Dean of Students and has been with SHINE for several years, and Diana is a former AISD teacher. You can learn more about the program on Trinity’s website.