A letter in the mail. Every senior knows what that means, but for the members of “Dear U.S.”, it means something else entirely. Not a letter of rejection or acceptance, but a note from a pen pal living somewhere else in the U.S..

“[My pen pal] lives in Michigan and I thought that we were going to  be very different, and then as we talked and sent more letters back and forth, we’re actually pretty similar,” senior Maeve Andrews said.

“Dear U.S.” is a pen pal organization started by senior Genevieve Raushenbush. She said that she thought of the idea a long time ago, but it took her the summer to get it moving.

“It was really the political polarization that made me think that we need to learn how to communicate,” Raushenbush said.

Raushenbush said that the program is really self-directed and that it is just a platform to help link high school students who want to talk about issues, such as current political and social events.

“Lives can differ just based on geographic experiences,” Raushenbush said.

Raushenbush said that “Dear U.S.” is important because it humanizes people living in other places.

“[‘Dear U.S.’] is really an exercise in being empathetic and maybe even being uncomfortable or just making new connections,” Raushenbush said.

Raushenbush said that she wanted high schoolers to get to know people in other parts of the country who had different beliefs and find ways to connect to them.

“It’s really meaningful to humanize other points of views and remember that you can have a personal relationship with others, even if they disagree,” Raushenbush said. “While you still reserve the right to not be friends with someone, you don’t need to automatically equate disagreement with ‘Oh, we can’t be friends.’”

Raushenbush said she believes that today’s culture struggles with relating to people who have differing opinions.

“We always think we equate friendship and having a personal connection with someone that agrees with you,” Raushenbush said.

Andrews said that having a pen pal with a similar view allows both of them to get into more philosophical conversations and dig deeper as they exchange letters.

“It makes it so interesting,” Andrews said. “You get to further your knowledge of yourself through someone else.”

Raushenbush said that it was really hard to get people across the country involved right away.

“It took awhile to go out, but it was very helpful to meet people from other camps, and it was definitely based on already knowing someone from another state,” Raushenbush said.

Raushenbush said that “Dear U.S.” has been up and running for about a year, although how much pen pals correspond is up to the individuals.

“People can get so caught up in their own little section of the world and ‘Dear U.S.’ is a way to step back and see the bigger picture of our country, and a reminder that there is more out there than your own bubble,” said Michigan high school student and member of “Dear U.S.” Hailey Powers.

Raushenbush also said that handwriting the letters makes it easier to connect and humanize other people. It is much easier to see a person behind the handwriting.

“I think writing letters is an art form,” Andrews said. “It’s not the same as writing an email because you put more thought into it.”