STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
FAITH McKIE Faith D. McKie is a senior in the Alice Carson Tisdale Honors College at Claflin University. She majors in Sport Management with a minor in Spanish. McKie is the daughter of Amelia and Stacy McKie and the sister of Christian B. McKie. McKie is from Columbia, South Carolina, where she was a part of a state championship record breaking women’s track team at Ridge View High School. Her team broke a record that had been in place for over twenty years; their new record still stands, years later. She enjoyed a family-oriented, nurturing, high school where she served as Miss Ridge View 2014-2015. When McKie first stepped foot onto the beautiful campus of Claflin University during a college visit, she knew that it was where she needed to be. Faith has enjoyed becoming fully immersed in the “family” that is Claflin University, while maintaining a 3.96 grade point average and five consecutive 4.0 semesters. Her academic performance is important to her and because of it, she has been blessed to have been inducted into the Alpha Kappa Mu National Honor Society as well the Chi Alpha Sigma
National College Athlete Honor Society. She has also been fulfilled by volunteering as a tutor to student-athletes on campus and giving back to her community by supporting voter education, spending time at the local SPCA, and many more community outreach projects. While “hitting the books” is important to McKie, she also balances her time as a collegiate track and field athlete, winning a Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship in the 400 meter hurdles, being recognized as a Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Indoor Track and Field Runner of the Week, and being named a 2019 CIAA Essay Contest Grand Prize scholarship winner. She also finished the 2018-2019 school year by being selected as a Minor League Baseball F.I.E.L.D Program participant.
Omega Psi Phi on her campus in 2018 and by none other than God’s grace, was blessed to be named Miss Claflin University 2019-2020 one year later. As a part of her Miss Claflin platform, McKie is using her own passions to encourage students to strive for excellence and balance in their lives - particularly emphasizing the importance of physical and mental health. McKie has also been a member of several campus organizations, including the StudentAthlete Advisory Committee, A.Bevy Collegiate Group, Honors Council and is a 2019 initiate of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Gamma Nu Chapter. She firmly believes that attending an HBCU is the best decision she has ever made and has transformed her into the woman who she is today.
McKie believes that “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” As such, she has worked hard to accomplish every goal that she made for herself during her collegiate career. She competed for and won the title of Miss
HBCU Times Special Fall 2019
49