Kimai McPhee ’25By Caitlin Antonios
College can be a culture shock, even if a student grew up near campus. For out-of-state students like Kimai McPhee ’25, adjusting to the move from North Carolina to California as a first-year student at Scripps was an even bigger challenge.
“I underestimated how difficult it would be,” McPhee says. “I really struggled not having that immediate community I’m used to.”
But her instinct to “lean in” to the Scripps community led to an incredible level of campus engagement. In the last four years, the senior has been involved with the Department of Residential Life, served as student organization commissioner co-chair for Scripps Associated Students (SAS), mastered her barista skills at Scripps’ Motley Coffeehouse, studied abroad in Japan, joined the Scripps Presents events advisory committee, and sang a cappella for two years despite never previously having an interest.
A large part of her ability to find and create community was just saying yes—to seizing opportunities, joining clubs, learning new skills beyond the classroom, and creating much-needed networking spaces on campus.
“I was able to find my own place and feel more comfortable here, especially navigating being Black at a predominantly White institution, which was always going to be difficult. But I felt so reassured by the people I was meeting and the communities I was becoming a part of,” McPhee says.
It became important to McPhee to help others feel like they also belonged at Scripps. As student organization commissioner co-chair for SAS, she has taken on event planning for her peers. The events she’s most proud of were putting on weekend art markets and collaborations with the Motley.
Earlier this year, after some members of the Scripps community were impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires, SAS partnered with Pomona College students to put on an art market that benefited those affected. Organizations in the Claremont Village offered donation matches, and the Scripps Cheese Club created a charcuterie board for the event.
“Everyone is so creative and has ideas on events they want to share, so it’s been nice to put on so many events throughout the year and have them be successful,” McPhee says.
In addition to her work outside the classroom, McPhee used her senior thesis to grow that sense of community by entering into a deeply personal conversation. As a digital media studies major, she expanded on projects she had worked on in her Africana studies and media studies classes. Blending what she learned from both disciplines, her thesis culminated in a video art installation paired with a 15-page paper examining the hypersexualization of Black femmes online.
“It was fulfilling to talk about something that was so important to me and close to my identity in a scholarly way,” McPhee says. “It felt reaffirming to know that academia is also interested in the things I’m interested in and that I could get support from the institution.”
As McPhee looks back on her time at Scripps, she hopes to encourage students to use their voices to come together and make an impact on campus.
“So much was lost during the pandemic, and some Scripps traditions were not being passed on to younger students,” McPhee says. “But we’ve made strides to rebuild through being engaged and just sitting down at the table to have conversations. Getting involved opens so many doors.”