Dear CNAS Community,
Welcome to a new academic year at UC Riverside’s College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences.
There is always a special energy across CNAS at the start of fall quarter, and we have already seen it throughout Welcome Week. On Sunday, hundreds of our newest students and their families joined us for the CNAS New Family Welcome. On Tuesday, our new students gathered in the morning for their CNAS Majors Orientations and then came together in the Physics Courtyard for our New Student Welcome Luncheon.
These Welcome Week events do more than kick off a new academic year. They bring us together, create new connections, and remind us of the community we share at CNAS. Over the past few days, I have watched students meet their classmates, talk with faculty and staff, learn about campus resources, and ask our Science Ambassadors what it is really like to be a CNAS student. I have also seen our faculty, staff, and students come together to welcome the newest members of our community.
That sense of connection is part of what makes CNAS special. We bring together undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff from the life, physical, mathematical, and agricultural sciences. Each of us brings our own experiences, perspectives, and expertise to our shared mission.
And that community extends well beyond Welcome Week. We see it in faculty mentoring students in the laboratory, graduate and undergraduate students working side by side, and colleagues collaborating across disciplines. We see it in our staff supporting students and researchers, and in the many ways we share science with schools and communities throughout our region.
As we begin this new year, I encourage all of us to continue building those connections. Get to know someone outside your major or department. Attend a seminar or event. Learn about research happening in the college. Find new ways to collaborate and contribute. CNAS is at its best when we learn from one another and work together.
I am proud of the community we have built and look forward to everything we will discover and accomplish together in the year ahead.
Welcome back to CNAS. I wish you a wonderful fall quarter and a successful academic year.
Peter W. Atkinson, Ph.D.
Dean
College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences
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