We’ve moved — update your bookmarks!
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Just for Fun
We’ve moved! If you have this page (homepages.baylor.edu/baylorproud) bookmarked, you’ll want to change your bookmark; Baylor Proud now lives at www2.baylor.edu/baylorproud. (Or if you want an easier address to remember, www.baylor.edu/baylorproud will also get you to the right place.)
The move also affects those of you using RSS readers to follow the Baylor Proud blog; you’ll want to update your reader with the new RSS feed link.
With the move also comes a new look for the blog, as well as a new form where members of the Baylor family can submit their Points of Pride! Look for the link in the top right corner of the new page and share your good news with us so that we in turn can help keep the Baylor family up to date with what’s going on!
Sic ’em, Bears!
Much of Baylor is among magazine’s ‘51 Reasons to Love Waco’
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Just for Fun
We noted a couple of months ago the growing level of interaction between Baylor and the rest of the Waco community, and the city is starting to take note. For instance… I picked up the latest issue of the Wacoan at a doctor’s office last week and was reading through what they label as “51 Reasons to Love Waco.”
Almost 20% of the entries on that list were things that bring the community to Baylor, such as the Bear Habitat, Big 12 sports, museums like BU’s Mayborn, youth summer camps, the Texas Collection, and even the city’s college atmosphere. Others were examples of how Baylor heads out into the community, like KWBU radio and Mission Waco (where over half the volunteers are Baylor students). It’s a healthy interaction that is only growing as downtown Waco develops and more students move into lofts and townhouses in the heart of the city.
Sic ’em, Baylor-Waco interaction!
What do students have to say about Baylor?
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Just for Fun, Student life
A friend sent me a link to this video that he found on YouTube; apparently this group, CollegeClickTV, has gone around and interviewed students on college campuses all over the U.S., asking what the students think of their college or university.
It’s interesting to hear what students say about Baylor without much prompting; many of them reiterate the same sorts of things I would have said about my time as a student here. For instance, they talk about how Baylor is both a large and small university — large enough to offer plenty of opportunities, but small enough that you can really get to know your professors. They talk about their classes, their social activities, and of course the Christian atmosphere they’ve found at Baylor. For unedited “man-on-the-street” interviews, the students generally come across very well, and to a person, speak very highly of Baylor.
Sic ’em, Baylor students!
A sneak peek at this fall’s freshman class
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Student life
As graduating high school seniors make their final choices on what university they will attend this fall, Baylor is already gearing up to welcome in the next group of freshman — the class of 2013. Here’s a quick glimpse at some of the faces that will be gracing campus in just a couple of months:
* Nigerian-born Mosope “Tom” Soda grew up near Houston and graduated last weekend from B.F. Terry High School in the top 10% of his class. An Eagle Scout, Soda was also recently recognized with the President’s Volunteer Service Award for the time he has spent serving his community. He will enter Baylor as a pre-med major and hopes to become an orthopedic surgeon.
* Megan Atchley spent four years as a cheerleader at Union High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but still found time to serve as president of Amnesty International and Young Democrats of Tulsa. She plans to double-major at Baylor in Spanish and political science, then attend medical school to become a reconstructive plastic surgeon.
* Matt Mackay was not only an all-district linebacker at Amarillo High School; he also will graduate No. 8 in his class of 496 and scored a 34 out of 36 on his ACT. High school football coaches are stereotyped as tough men, but Mackay’s coach, Brad Theissen, speaks highly of the senior: “Matt was a dream to coach and is such a good guy to be around. I can’t say enough nice things about him.”
* Sisters, Oregon, native Courtney Acarregui has always been a competitor, whether that’s participation in 4-H (where she was one of the top youth rabbit breeders in the nation four years running), raising funds for charity (she helped write a grant that netted a local neonatal intensive care unit $10,000) or riding horses (she will join Baylor’s varsity equestrian program this fall).
Sic ’em, Tom, Megan, Matt, Courtney and the class of 2013!
Ventriloquist’s many voices make Dunham America’s best-selling comic
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Alumni
Since graduating from Baylor in 1986, ventriloquist Jeff Dunham has become one of America’s most popular comics. Dunham has not only the No. 1 bestselling stand-up comedy DVD on Amazon.com — he has the No. 2 and 3 best-sellers, too (No. 4, you might note, is Bill Cosby). Comedy Central recently signed Dunham and his cast of characters (grumpy old man Walter, the purple-skinned Peanut, redneck Bubba J, and of course, Jose Jalapeno on a Stick) to a massive deal that includes a series order, another stand-up special, a DVD release and merchandising. Oh, and he’s featured in the current issue of Time magazine.
Dunham has put his Baylor telecommunications (now film and digital media) degree to use, self producing his three Comedy Central specials. (See clips on his YouTube page.) In fact, my first introduction to Dunham came through his former professor, Dr. Michael Korpi, who showed some clips of Baylor alums in the field during an intro to mass communications class my freshman year.
For a Baylor grad to “inspire a minor ventriloquism renaissance,” as Time says, proves that unlike his puppets, Dunham’s no dummy.
Sic ’em in the world of comedy, Jeff!
Social Work grads use skills to help countrymen back in Thailand, Liberia
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Alumni
Walai Jantawiboon, a first-generation Chinese born in Thailand, saw firsthand the devastation brought by the tsunami that struck Thailand in 2004. Gracie Brownell suffered in her home country, too, often going hungry and enduring homelessness as a child in Liberia during her native land’s civil war.
In time, the tragedies led both Walai (pictured) and Brownell to Baylor’s School of Social Work, from which each graduated this spring with a master’s degree. Both aim to use their degrees to help their countrymen back home.
Walai hopes to use the skills she learned at Baylor to develop a community for those who were orphaned or abandoned after the tsunami. Brownell hopes to return to Liberia one day to help ex-combatants transition back to normal life. Until it’s safe to return, however, she will continue her studies on how former fighters — many of whom were just children when forced into rebel armies — can be helped and share those studies with groups like the United Nations who can organize the necessary programs.
Sic ’em, Baylor School of Social Work graduates!
Summer more than just vacation for Baylor professors
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Academics, Honors, Research
I never really thought about this when I was in college, but university professors don’t just take the summer as a time to sleep in and lay on the beach for three months. With an open schedule, many professors are able to use the summer months as a time to learn new skills or brush up on old ones.
For example, mechanical engineering professor Dr. Kenneth Van Treuren will be spending eight weeks this summer at Boeing, getting a firsthand look at the practical application of engineering as it relates to ongoing research at the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft.
Van Treuren was one of just nine university professors selected for Boeing’s Welliver Faculty Fellowship program. As a result of his experiences this summer, Van Treuren will be better equipped to help his students this fall develop the right skills to be successful in their careers.
Sic ’em, Baylor professors, for so valuing your students’ educations!
Softball places pair on Academic All-America teams
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Academics, Athletics, Honors
“Anything you can do, I can do better.
I can do anything better than you.”
So Baylor baseball gets one Academic All-American? The Lady Bears go out and get two. Senior first baseman Alex Colyer earned first team Academic All-America honors while junior outfielder Tiffany Wesley was named to the second team. The duo are the fifth and sixth Baylor softball Academic All-Americans in program history, with all six coming during the tenure of current head coach Glenn Moore.
Colyer has compiled a 3.90 GPA as a pre-med/health sciences major while at the same time earning All-Big 12 honors this season, thanks to her .360 batting average (ninth-best in the Big 12), four home runs and 26 RBI. Wesley was also an All-Big 12 selection this spring after hitting .318 with 10 doubles and 25 stolen bases (fifth-best in the league). In the classroom, she has a nearly perfect 3.98 GPA as a pre-med/health sciences major.
The two Lady Bears were important factors in the program earning its third Super Regional appearance in five years. At 40-22, Baylor reached the 40-win plateau for the fifth time in school history, all during Moore’s nine years at the helm.
Sic ’em, Alex, Tiffany and Baylor softball!
Baseball’s Miller earns program’s 7th Academic All-America honor
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Academics, Athletics, Baylor 2012, Honors
Exactly a week after receiving All-Big 12 honors from the league’s coaches, Baylor junior Aaron Miller became the seventh student-athlete in Baylor baseball history to earn Academic All-America honors, following in the footsteps of pitcher Pat Combs (1988), first baseman Charley Carter (1998), pitcher Jason Jennings (1998-99), outfielder Jon Topolski (1998-99), first baseman Ross Bennett (2003) and catcher Zach Dillon (2006). All but Combs were so honored during head coach Steve Smith’s 15 seasons at the helm of the Bears.
Miller, a management and entrepreneurship major, has been the epitome of “Winning with Integrity,” excelling not only in the classroom but also at the plate and even on the mound this season. As the Bears’ right fielder, Miller is batting .328 with 12 home runs and 47 RBI in 53 games; he also has compiled a 3-3 record on the mound, with 59 strikeouts in 47.2 innings. The junior also earned his sixth selection to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll, one of a school-record 223 student-athletes to be so honored this spring.
The Academic All-America announcement also came just one day after the Bears learned they would be making their 10th NCAA appearance in 12 years, heading to Louisiana for the Baton Rouge Regional. Baylor will face 21st-ranked Minnesota Friday at 6 p.m. CT; host LSU, the national No. 3 seed, and SWAC champion Southern round out the regional field.
Sic ’em, Aaron and Baylor baseball!
Baylor Law School’s successful approach includes attitude of service
Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in : Academics
Stumbled across this article today in Texas Lawyer about the role of faith at religiously affiliated law schools. The article talks quite a bit about Baylor Law School, and while we’ve often read about how Baylor Law focuses on preparing students for the courtroom in very practical ways, there’s another angle to the preparation as well — that a career in law is really a career in service, and should be approached as such.
Baylor Law Dean Brad Toben, JD ‘77, (pictured) told the writer that while speaking in an introduction-to-law course this spring, he discussed with students “the concept that your life will make a difference, and you will be remembered only if life is lived outwardly to serve. If they view themselves as lawyers, no matter what venue they find themselves in, they need to ask themselves, ‘Am I meeting the needs of people who have problems?’ because that’s what, fundamentally, lawyering is.”
Yet another example of how students at Baylor — whether undergraduates or graduate students of the highest level — are prepared for both worldwide leadership AND service. Are they successful in the “real world?” You tell me.
Sic ’em, Baylor Law!
