Multicolored strips of paper decorate multiple walls in the Language Arts Building of Bakersfield College. Each strip bears the statement “I am (above)” with a variety of words on each paper.

The strips of paper are part of a project that was introduced by the Above the Influence Campaign, a national organization created to raise awareness of negative influences through community involvement and local efforts.

The Department of Mental Health as well as the Kern Stop Meth Now Coalition are having students work with these organizations. Dori Gutierrez and Breanna Preston, two Human Services majors at Bakersfield College, are students participating in the project and spoke positively about it.

“It opens peoples eyes to what influences are out there. It’s all around students,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez and Preston have been walking across campus for several days during school hours asking students if they would fill out the colored slips of paper, describing what each student feels they are “above.”

Gutierrez said that she believes the campaign will have an overall positive effect, as she has noticed many people stopping to read the papers that are posted on the walls on the second floor of the Language Arts Building.

“I think overall and in the long run, it will make them aware of things they didn’t know could be a negative influence,” said Gutierrez. Preston agreed, saying that the papers will help “make (students) see the consequences, too.”

The strips aren’t limited to drugs and alcohol, as Gutierrez stated. The strips name things such as GMOs, closed-source networking and suicide.

You can contribute what you feel you are “above” on the Kern Stop Meth Now Facebook page, as well as find other information involving the group.