By Lauren Mar ’25
During The Giving Season at Scripps, we’re highlighting student leaders as they share how their Scripps experience helped them use their voice and act on new ideas.
After attending an all-girls high school for a semester, Rosy Weber ’23 knew Scripps would provide her with a nurturing academic experience. “I found the environment of a women’s college to be very comfortable and I wanted to be on the west coast, so Scripps College was the perfect fit for me,” she says.
On campus in Claremont, Weber has found a greater sense of belonging and community through involvement at the College. She plays on the women’s frisbee club team, a space in which she says she found the agency and autonomy to step into leadership roles. Weber has also found confidence and belonging through art. “I decided on an art major because my art classes are where I feel most like myself and where I do the things I genuinely want to do,” she reflects.
Expressing Herself at Scripps
During the pandemic and consequent year of remote learning, Weber taught herself print-making in her parents’ basement. She now pursues this interest at Scripps, and in 2020 was awarded a Community Action grant from Scripps’ Laspa Center for Leadership, a program designed to advance gender equity and expand the global influence, power, and impact of Scripps student leaders.
With donor-funded support for projects helping a student’s home town community better cope with the effects of the pandemic, Weber developed a newsletter with her newfound printmaking skills, sending letters and handmade linocut prints to a list that grew to 130 recipients by the project’s completion.
“In monthly issues, I wrote about what life was like in those moments during the pandemic lockdown, so I wrote a lot about where I was finding hope and connection,” Weber says. “With each newsletter, I also included a poem, quote, or work of art that inspired me and that I wanted other people to see. I just got to write about whatever I was interested in and send it to people.”
Laspa’s Community Action grant covered the costs of materials for Weber’s newsletter, including art supplies, envelopes, and postage, allowing her to connect with old friends, family, and even strangers.
“I knew that people all throughout the world were suffering in ways that I could not alleviate, and this project allowed me to focus on something small that I could do,” she says.
Future plans and the importance of giving
Thanks to her time at Scripps and external support from the College community, Weber has been able to express herself and incorporate art into her future endeavors.
“Mindfulness plays a big role in my life, and I love having conversations about it. I could see myself becoming an art teacher or creating my own mindfulness art program,” she says. “When I was coming into myself in middle and high school, having spaces in which I could be mindful and present, and someone to lead me through that, was really valuable.”
Weber adds that giving to Scripps is important, especially given our current point in history, when people are facing global systemic issues.
“Giving opportunities to women, especially women of color, is the best way to navigate this time,” she says, “because people who have been marginalized are the ones who are going to be leading us through it.”
Now through December 31, we invite Scripps College alums, parents, and friends to make a gift to set students like Rosy up for success in 2022. To give today, please click here. Thank you for your support!