I will admit, eight years ago I was one of those kids running around campus with my blue jacket on. My sister was a freshman here and she took me to Medary to eat lunch. Good thing it was near the end of the semester and she still had a lot of money because I ate my weight in campus food. I participated in Livestock Judging and was a member of the Centerville FFA Chapter. That was eight years ago. As many of you now know, when the “blue plague” is around it makes it tough to get from class to class or even drive down the street, but having high school students come to campus for State FFA, Little International and 4-H events is a positive for SDSU.

Don’t know what I mean? Let me explain. Each student that comes to SDSU sees the Blue and Yellow, the Jackrabbit, our facilities and our faculty. These might be junior high students all the way up to seniors and I know that when I was looking for a college to go to, seeing the campus was a must. When I was a sophomore, it was my second time being on the campus of SDSU. I hadn’t even thought about college, because at the time it seemed like a million years down the road. But when I became a senior I went with the school I was most familiar with.

Every chance we get with students is a time to help recruit them. Sure we can’t get them all, in fact that might be a good thing seeing as we don’t have the room for our current students, but as colleges increase their tuition SDSU is still very affordable, especially when looking at other land-grant institutions in our neighboring states. I will admit, SDSU wasn’t my “top pick” for schools. I wanted to go to Iowa State. But when it came down to the cost of schools, SDSU just beat out the others.

As you all continue your education at SDSU, take the time out of your day to welcome students to campus. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the reason they join our Jackrabbit family.