When he designed the cover of MiraCosta College’s student planner, Makhi Williams-Kent wanted it to represent the diversity of the campus that he had grown to love.

“I wanted the planner to represent everybody,” he said. “I wanted to put the fist up of different colors to represent everybody and everyone’s pride and togetherness of everyone.”

As a Black student, Williams-Kent said he had struggled to fit in at his high school in a predominantly white neighborhood in San Marcos while being raised by his mother, an economics and Black studies instructor at MiraCosta and Palomar colleges.

He said his mother took him to poetry slams at MiraCosta College, leading him to decide to major in English when he began attending the college after graduating from high school in 2020.

“I wanted to be at MiraCosta from seeing the diversity and seeing people from different origins just walking around and being together,” Williams-Kent said. “It was a place I wanted to be.”

He described MiraCosta as a generous and inclusive campus.

“It’s really nice to see everybody smiling anytime I walk on the campus,” Williams-Kent said. “I like that everyone is different and not trying to be a version of themselves so that everyone likes them.”

He said he has been impressed by his professors, particularly English instructor Tyrone Nagai. “He helped me find my creative output when it comes to writing. He very much encouraged that,” Williams-Kent said. “He was a breath of fresh air as to what college could be and what I could be as a writer.”

Williams-Kent has been active on campus, particularly as a student advocate who promotes volunteering and working with community partners. This year, he is working on a project to encourage father figures to be more active in their children’s lives.

“I want to encourage more minority father figures to speak up and talk to kids in the community,” he said. “I want to create activities for father figures and kids so they can learn and bond.”

Williams-Kent plans to graduate at the end of 2023 and is planning to transfer to a four-year university in the San Francisco area. He hopes to pursue a career as a songwriter and poet, carrying on his message of inclusivity.

“I hope to encourage a lot of people to know that once they get into college, being a true individual is the best thing to be,” he said.