Lake View HS Senior Heads To College On Posse Scholarship

Tiyamika Williams, a Lake View High School senior, will start her next chapter this fall at Agnes Scott College. Thanks to a full-tuition Posse Scholarship for exceptional leaders, she’ll be able to focus on her Public Health major.

With her strong leadership experience, she says she was a candidate that stood out.

“They always said that they’re trying to find leaders [and so] I showed my true self, my personality,” she says. “It was amazing to get chosen.”

Her counselor recommended Williams for the prestigious scholarship after recognizing her involvement in extracurricular activities and leadership positions. As both an Honors and AP student, she balances running her school’s Black Student Union, which she founded, and the Sexualities and Gender Program.

The student president says that if you would have met her before she became a student at Lake View HS, chances are, you wouldn’t recognize her for who she is now.

When Williams reflects on her younger self, one description comes to mind.

“I was very quiet and very shy,” she explains, adding that she’s nothing like that today.

Leading is the role Williams says she is most comfortable in these days.

“I love leading people,” she says. “It’s a little bit stressful, but I love it. I’m really good at organizing too.”

Williams first began her leadership journey when she founded Lake View’s first Black Student Union, or BSU.

There wasn’t as much diversity as she would’ve liked to see in her Honors and AP classes, she says. The desire to create a space where African-American students could feel “less discouraged” was something she couldn’t shake.

“Black Student Union was founded to have a space where we could comfortably talk about things that may be bumming us out, or our hopes and dreams,” says Williams. “I felt that it was very important to start [BSU] for the small population of black students who attend Lake View.”

Williams made her next mark in Lake View’s Sexualities and Gender Program. Realizing that she did not identify as heterosexual, Williams joined the program junior year to “find a community.”

That same year she became president.

Implementing and leading the group to change, she says, was at the top of her agenda.

“The first year I was president, we advocated for gender-neutral bathrooms,” says Williams. “It used to be that trans students and non-binary students had to out themselves to ask for a key to go to the teacher’s bathroom, and now teachers aren’t allowed to ask why the students are in the bathroom. It’s more of a safe space.”

Making changes and having an impact in her high school is great, but she says she’s already thinking on a larger scale.

Williams plans to make her way back to Chicago after graduation to make a difference in her community. Her focus: mental health.

“I think, especially in the black community, we have a major public health issue,” says Williams. “In the black community, there is a stigma around mental health services and mental illnesses. There’s an education that needs to happen within and for our communities so that we can get the help that we need. Public health is something I really want to change and make better.”

With her counselors’ constant support, Williams says she is ready to lead in the world. She encourages those who wish to follow in her footsteps to do the same.

“Always find your support system in and out of school,” says Williams. “I have great counselors, two counselors, who I check in with daily. They are the sunshines of my life. It’s nice to have support so I don’t feel so alone. You should find someone you can confide in, and someone you can rely on.”

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