Alumni write letters to support, inspire students

Rachel Oliver ¡¯21 was puzzled when she received her letter. She didn¡¯t recognize who it was from and figured she had received it by mistake.

¡°But once I read it, I just remember being really happy,¡± said Oliver, a student-athlete from Fort Lupton, Colo. ¡°It was really nice and heartwarming to be remembered, and it made my day. Especially with everything being canceled and all my plans being put in the blender, the letter provided a nice break from the negativity.¡±

Courtney Bielis '13 from Bettendorf, Iowa, had written to Oliver as part of a campaign in which Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø alumni mailed handwritten messages to students after the campus closed early this spring because of the pandemic.

Loryann Eis '60, a member of the Alumni Board, provided the impetus for the letter-writing campaign. When campus closed, she expressed concern about the well-being of students and mentioned writing a note of encouragement to her scholarship recipient. That's how the letter-writing campaign started.

Nearly 500 alumni participated, including Thomas H. Johnson ¡¯69, Robyn Niessner ¡¯90 Rippel and Arsal Shareef ¡¯15, who all said they would have appreciated receiving a letter of encouragement and hope had they faced a pandemic during their college years.

¡°I am sure they did not expect their semester to turn out the way it did, but I encouraged them to remember some of the things they have learned at Augie, such as resilience, flexibility, positive attitude, determination, focusing on a continued growth-mindset, and so much more,¡± Rippel said.

¡°I also wrote that one thing that could never be taken from them is their ¡®forever connection¡¯ to Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø,¡± added Rippel, who met her husband, Kyle ¡¯89, on campus. ¡°As a student I knew that connection was important; yet 30 years later, I realize even more how special that connection is and will always remain with me.¡±

When Nadia DeCastris ¡¯23 of Freeport, Ill., received her letter, it reminded her of just how much Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø cares for its students. None of her friends who attend other colleges received a note of encouragement from an alumnus.

¡°I have felt so supported during this time, and the school has really set the bar high,¡± DeCastris said. ¡°I¡¯m so thankful for Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø and all it has done for me and our community.¡±

In his letters to first-year students, Shareef encouraged them to stay motivated and keep driving toward their goals. For him, writing the letters provided an opportunity to give back to Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø.

Johnson said his message to students ¡°highlighted the fact that we were all experiencing heretofore unseen changes in the world as we¡¯d known it, but that I knew from my Augie experience many years before that each of them would be well-prepared to face and help shape whatever the new normal world would look like.¡± 

Oliver plans to write back to Courtney Bielis, her letter-writer. 

No students have responded to his initial letter yet, Shareef said, ¡°but if they do, I would absolutely write back and build a connection.¡±