Nearly two dozen students took a break from the morning hustle Wednesday to pray publicly. More than 15 students gathered to mark the 25th annual See You At The Pole event to pray. The event was led by Chi Alpha, a Christian ministry on campus. “We have different topics like pray for our campus and pray for our city so students have something they can pray for,” said Rebecca Gonzalez, sophomore computer science and business double major who organized the event. Although the day is recognized nationally by many schools, Gonzalez was instrumental in bringing it to TCU last year. “It’s something I did in high school and it is something that I wanted to bring here to TCU where it wasn’t just Chi Alpha,” Gonzalez said. “It’s all religious organizations and anyone else who wants to come and pray.” Gonzalez said it was important to build community and come together. She said building community on campus is Chi Alpha’s main goal.

Prayer during the event included topics such as student safety, professors on campus and first-year students. Sophomore speech pathology major Barrett Ray said she participated in See You At The Pole at her high school. “It’s cool to see that it’s come to college,” Ray said. “It’s something that I think we should be doing. There’s so much going on that I think everyone needs a little bit of prayer.” Chi Alpha’s campus minister Andrew Youngblood said, “I think prayer is important in general. I think that getting together and offering a place where multiple people can come together from different areas and pray creates a special unity.” Although the See You At The Pole event catered mainly to Christian denominations, Youngblood said it’s important to pray with everyone. “The heart behind See You At The Pole is that interdenominational Christian denominations can come together and pray,” Youngblood said. “It’s predominantly Christian, but it’s open to anyone and everyone who would like to come.”