McNeese welcomes academic signees

Wearing gold and blue backpacks, more than 475 high school students, many with family and friends in tow, took part on Tuesday in McNeese State University’s first Academic Signing Day.

The students heard from speakers, including McNeese President Philip Williams; met with advisers; retrieved registration information; toured the campus; and had lunch.

Afterward, the students, with pens in hand, sat at tables and — similar to athletes’ scholarship signings — officially accepted their academic scholarships to the university.

Jalen Adams, of Beau Chene High School, said the “friendly atmosphere that I found at McNeese is what originally attracted me to attend here.”

With plans to major in marketing, Adams said he is looking forward to being a “very involved student” when he begins his freshman year at McNeese in the fall.

“The recruiting process really appealed to me as well because they were very handson and I was made to feel that McNeese really wanted me as a student.”

Jolee Beauchamp, a student at West Feliciana High School, said, “I really like the size of the campus and the atmosphere as well. But I have been involved in rodeo in high school, and I’ll be participating in rodeo here at McNeese. So it was the fact that the university has such a good rodeo program that ultimately made me choose McNeese.”

McNeese spokeswoman Candace Townsend said the day was a “tremendous success” and that there are plans to make it an annual event.

The signing day brought students from all over Louisiana and Texas, as well as a student from Colorado.

Kourtney Istre, who works in admissions and recruiting for McNeese, said, “We really wanted to celebrate the academic side of McNeese and today was just phenomenal.”