by Clara Ann Bagnoli | Special to the Courier

Emmy-nominated screenwriter, filmmaker and 2014 Scripps alum Catherine Schetina will be the featured speaker at the school’s May 16 commencement.

Schetina is best known for her writing on FX’s acclaimed show “The Bear,” which has won multiple Emmys and Golden Globes. Her episode “Napkins” was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for episodic comedy. Schetina’s screenplay “Pure” was named the top script on the 2022 Black List, an annual survey of Hollywood’s most well-regarded unproduced scripts. Currently, she is a writer and producer on the upcoming Netflix drama series “The Body.”

In the email announcing the selection, Scripps President Amy Marcus-Newhall described her career as an example of “creative excellence, intellectual curiosity, and unique narratives that resonate with audiences and peers alike.”

The invitation came as a surprise.

“It was a huge honor,” Schetina said. “I was very, very flattered.”

2014 Scripps College graduate Catherine Schetina is the school’s 2026 commencement speaker. Photo/courtesy of Catherine Schetina

Schetina graduated from Scripps with a degree in English and a minor in religious studies. She credits her liberal arts education as a source of inspiration in her professional work.

“A lot of my stories end up being about belief, in one way or another, what happens when the people you put your faith in turn out to be fallible, what happens when your belief systems are challenged,” she said. “All these interdisciplinary tools allowed me to create complex characters and people from all these different cross sections of lived experience.”

Storytelling has been a driving theme in her life.

“Storytelling has just been the way I understand the world,” Schetina said. “And even before I really knew I wanted to be a professional writer, storytelling was how I made sense of things.”

She plans to focus on Scripps students’ embrace of creativity in her commencement address, especially amid uncertainty about the future of artistic and creative pursuits.

“I do think that there’s enormous power in storytelling, and I think there’s enormous power in creativity,” she said. “What I want to talk about is sort of resisting the narratives that we’re being told right now and resisting the dominant societal narratives and encouraging people to challenge that and to stay connected to humanity, their own humanity, through creativity.”

Though it’s been a decade since her graduation, Scripps students still benefit from Schetina’s four years on campus; she was one of the founding members of Scripps Advocates, an organization that provides support and resources to survivors of sexual assault and harassment. It currently has 25 student volunteers and has expanded to hosting events that promote and facilitate conversations about healthy relationships.

Continuing her service beyond Scripps, Schetina helps run Mutual Aid Los Angeles Network, which serves 700 meals to unhoused residents of Los Angeles every week.

“I can’t single-handedly change the political realities of the moment or all the injustices I see globally, but I can make sure that some people in Los Angeles who wouldn’t have had a meal today will have a meal today,” Schetina said. “That very much was part of the Scripps education: you focus on what you can do, and you focus on who you can help today. That’s the best way to move through the world and be a person by being in community and of being in service for others.”

Scripps senior class co-presidents Bella Guizler Bonilla and Sophia Farrand led the search for a speaker, alongside the school’s board of trustees. The presidents wanted the speaker to reflect Scripps’ liberal arts identity and emphasize the relevance of the humanities in contemporary culture.

“The class of 2026 is so widely varied that what ties us all together is being in a liberal arts school, and it’s our common ties to how we go out in the world and tell stories,” Farrand said. Schetina “rang true to this idea of going out in the world and how we tell stories and how we understand stories around us.”

To gauge interest, they polled peers at other class events early in the fall. Schetina came to mind for Bonilla after she spoke in Adam Novy’s Core III class, “How to write a book.”

“As a whole [we] are a very creative class, so it was a goal to seek someone else who was creative and who also understood the tight-knit, special uniqueness from being in this good community,” Bonilla said.

Graduation weekend is less than two months away, but Schetina hopes the class of 2026 will slow down and be grateful.

“Take advantage of the community, the friends there, and the other perspectives and the diversity of experiences at the colleges,” she said.

Clara Ann Bagnoli is a sophomore writing and Spanish student at Scripps College and a proud Minnesotan.