By Esteban Ramirez

Editor-in-chief

As a way to support and encourage the freshmen at CSU Bakersfield through midterms and the rest of the quarter, CSUB had its third annual Freshman Letter Day on Oct. 14 at the Student Union Patio.

According to Associate Director of Campus Programming Emily Poole, there were 1,473 freshmen that received letters, which is the most in the three years that they have done this event.

“I think it was great,” said Poole. “We know that sometimes in our students’ freshmen year, they sometimes start doubting themselves. Maybe they can’t succeed in something or just need a little extra encouragement or motivation to do well.”

Poole was not sure how many letters there were exactly, but she said that every freshman received at least one letter. Some received multiple letters.

She said they partner with the campus community, faculty staff, student leaders and alumni to write letters of encouragement to the freshmen.

She added that on the first day they had over 800 freshmen that picked up their letters and there were 600 letters leftover. For those that didn’t get theirs because they weren’t on campus on Oct. 14, she said they would sort them in to the CSUB 101 classes.

There were over 150 faculty staff and student leaders that wrote at least 10 letters to CSUB freshmen students.

CSUB freshman biology major Estefania Mejia, 18, said her letter was encouraging her not to give up, to study hard, to pass the midterms, to have fun and socialize.

Physical education and kinesiology major Jose Gonzalez, 18, shared in that sentiment. He said that he feels more confident now going into midterms after reading his letter.

“It’s a good way to reassure the freshmen who need some help and encouragement,” Gonzalez said.

One of the writers for Freshmen Letter Day was Associated Students Incorporated President Mike Kwon.

He said that he wrote 12 different letters and he felt that it was very important to reach out to the students, encourage them and support them.

Poole also said she thinks this will get bigger and bigger each year.

“What I am hoping is that the people who didn’t know about it this year, will talk about it next year and get more people to join in on the efforts of writing letters and supporting,” she said. “It’s just a campus-wide effort. I can’t express that enough. As we get more and more students, we’ll need more and more writers.”

She added that she would like the first class, who will be seniors next year, to write to the freshmen.