The Phi Theta Kappa-Beta Alpha Nu Chapter’s first Community College Completion Challenge that took place Oct. 15-18 in the Free Speech area at Bakersfield College was a success.

The event consisted of students filling out pledge cards to commit them to a time frame as to when they expect to reach their educational goals. The goal of the Phi Theta Kappa-Beta Alpha Nu was to get 500 students to make a pledge, which was exceeded significantly.

The secretary of Phi Theta Kappa Koathar Hussan, 18, said that the reason they wanted to do this pledge was because they wanted students to challenge themselves.

“Obama’s goal was to increase the graduation rate by 50 percent, so we wanted to make that more of a reality by encouraging students to graduate on time and also show them the steps to do so,” said Hussan. “We took pictures of the students in a cap and gown, I think that was everyone’s favorite part because it got them really excited.”

Vice president of public relations for Phi Theta Kappa, Stacy Dalere, 22, said that they got more students than usual and that the turn out was good.

“We had 102 pledges the first day, then it picked up Tuesday by us getting 165 pledges, it progressively got higher each day of the week,” said Dalere. “I think that once people actually realized what we were doing they were more willing to make a pledge. We had a really good turn out so we are really excited.”