VCU news

By Mary Kate Brogan
School of Pharmacy

Virginia Commonwealth University senior Micah White has spent years working to empower those around him, from his study of psychology, to his internships and extracurriculars – even in his interactions with friends from as early as middle school.

“Ever since I got my first little 4-inch Nokia phone, I remember texting all of my friends, listening to them about their relationship issues and, as an 11-year-old, trying to give advice – as if I had any experience or anything,” White said.

White, who is graduating this month with a B.S. in psychology from VCU’s College of Humanities and Sciences, is among the first graduates of a program designed for students transferring from Richmond-area community colleges into VCU. And he is preparing for graduate school at the university this fall and a career as a clinical psychologist, giving people the tools to help themselves individually and collectively.

“When I was presented with the opportunity to go back to college full-time, I said, ‘I want to do something meaningful, something worthwhile. I want to be able to put something out there into the world that can be useful to people,’” White said.

White, who grew up in Murrieta, California, first went to college at the Art Institute of California (Inland Empire) in San Bernadino to study music production. In 2016, he withdrew, moved to Colonial Heights just south of Richmond, started working and later decided to return to school, attending what is now Brightpoint Community College in Chester.

While serving as president of the Black Student Alliance there, the group hosted a representative from VCU’s Mellon Pathways to the Arts and Humanities Program, an initiative that supports students at Brightpoint (formerly John Tyler) and Reynolds Community College as they transfer to VCU. White was intrigued by the research, work and internship opportunities available through the program.

“They helped me transition into VCU, which was honestly something that I really wanted to do even aside from being in the Pathways program,” White said. “I remember when I was in community college, my dad and I would often go up to Richmond. We’d drive through Richmond, and I felt like a little kid on Christmas, pressed up against the glass watching all of these students just en masse walking throughout campus. And I was like, ‘That’s so cool. I want to be one of those students,’ because it just felt like an authentic college experience, one that I had never had up until that point.”

White joined the first cohort of the Mellon Research Fellows program, working with faculty at Brightpoint and VCU on a yearlong research project before transferring into VCU. His project, “Communication and Meaning,” focused on “how we derive meaning from our surroundings, from within ourselves, and how we use language as a tool to facilitate that process.” The courses he took, activities he joined and jobs he held while at VCU would further that exploration.

“I remember when I was in community college, my dad and I would often go up to Richmond. We’d drive through Richmond, and I felt like a little kid on Christmas, pressed up against the glass watching all of these students just en masse walking throughout campus. And I was like, ‘That’s so cool. I want to be one of those students,’ because it just felt like an authentic college experience, one that I had never had up until that point.

Micah White, a VCU senior graduating this month with a B.S. in psychology

Just before starting at VCU in 2021, White joined a new program called The Warmth, a reading- and writing-intensive workshop for young Black adults ages 18-25 during the week of Juneteenth. The program, led by Nikki Fernandes, an instructor in the Department of Focused Inquiry in VCU’s University College, connected many of White’s experiences around psychology, communication and meaning.

“It was a really eye-opening and, honestly, life-changing experience to connect with like-minded students, people who are just searching for some sort of purpose or trying to make sense of the world, and it was all framed around the Black experience,” White said.

Fernandes invited White back as an intern for The Warmth last year and this year. She said White has been a tireless advocate for helping others find a way into the program.

“Micah has been a big part of instilling The Warmth with a lot of worth because of his willingness to give of his talents, his perspectives, his time, his inquiry and his skill in order to make opportunities available to others through this program,” Fernandes said.

Seeing how White helps others get a great experience out of The Warmth has been encouraging to Fernandes – and she sees how it connects to his interest in working with others in psychology.

“He really cares about the promotion of healing within our Warmth community, and he really wants people to have internal strategies that equip them with the personal agency to move toward healing,” Fernandes said. “I feel like Micah even embodies that desire for healing in how he communicates with people: the ways in which I see him ask people questions, check in with them, ask them follow-up questions. He’s very mindful of the language that people use and makes it clear that he wants that person to feel understood and also wants to understand them.”

White has had a chance to demonstrate those skills in other ways as well. His participation in the Mellon programs led him to jobs in his field doing care coordination for a clinical psychologist in Chester and serving as a residential counselor to children in a group home. White gained experience administering tests to patients in his role at the clinical psychologist’s office and found the connection between the concepts he learned in class and their real-world application “enriching.”

This fall, White will become a Ph.D. student in VCU’s Department of Psychology, after which he hopes to go into private practice and eventually start a nonprofit to build community and help address the root causes of mental health challenges, equipping people to better solve their own problems.

Joining the VCU community has helped White deepen his understanding of the importance of communication and mutual support – and how it offers people, himself included, the room to grow.

“You have to connect with people that you feel are worthwhile, and if you are genuine and give of yourself to those people, they will give back to you. Because I definitely didn’t do it by myself. Every step of the way, I have had people to support me who have been my backbone, people who have cared for me and pushed me and provided me with opportunity after opportunity,” White said. “It’s possible to do it by yourself, but it’s very lonely and unfulfilling doing it that way. And I’m happy to say I haven’t done it by myself. I’ve had great people with me every step of the way.”