MSU grad student channels life experiences into mentoring job

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C.J. Quinney first learned what it meant to have a role model from the close relationship he shares with his father.

“My dad was the cool one, the one who would take us to the movies and drop us off and pick us up … and my friends didn’t have that,” the 25-year-old said. “I kind of understood at a young age that I was blessed enough to have that situation.”

Knowing that this bond wasn’t common among his friends, the family community services graduate student said he “owed it to the community” to give back what he had learned growing up. His passion for mentoring others has grown into an award-winning career path.

First through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, and now through the Advantage at MSU and nonprofit organization Break the Cycle, Quinney said he saw the impact he could have on a young life and found his career path.

“So many kids these days, especially African American men, they grow up without their father, and that’s why I do what I do,” he said.

In his senior year at Lansing’s Sexton High School, Quinney was paired with a boy named Marton, who he said he has become close with in the past several years.

“(Marton) is my little brother, and I just look out for him in every way, so it’s really turned into something I wasn’t exactly expecting, but it was definitely a blessing,” he said.

Eric Thomas, who has been working with C.J. Quinney for about three years, currently with the Advantage and Break the Cycle, said he has seen Quinney grow in terms of his leadership.

“Before, it was just C.J. — he was going out mentoring kids. But now he is mentoring other young men and really creating leaders in them,” Thomas said.

Quinney’s father, Carlas Quinney, said he can’t see his son doing anything else.

He said his son sets his work to a higher standard.

“I’ve seen him grow as far as he’s always been mature for his class or age or peer group,” he said.

In the past year, C.J. Quinney’s mentoring work has earned him the Outstanding Mentor Award from Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the national Heroes in our Midst award in June and the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

“It’s really not what I’m in it for at all, but it was nice to be awarded those different things over the course of just a few months,” Quinney said.

When Quinney played football in high school, he blew out his knee twice, which shot his chances of playing Big Ten football in college.

“I always … tell myself I couldn’t believe when football was taken from me, and I didn’t understand why,” he said. “I thought I was a good guy, and (it was a) ‘Why is this happening to me?’-type deal, but just the reward that I feel from just being acknowledged for the work I’m doing now — I definitely have a true purpose.”

Carlas Quinney said he continued to encourage his son.

“He was a really good athlete, and I told him when he got injured the last time that God had a different plan for him, that he would shine somewhere else in life,” Carlas Quinney said. “And this is definitely where he’s doing it.”

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