With each year that passes there are more and more BIC graduates doing great work all over the world. Each year we publish brief Alumni Updates where our alumni can tell us some about their post-BIC lives. In addition to these annual updates, we post interviews with our alumni. Today we are excited to post an interview with Noah Ward (’19). We hope you enjoy, and if you are interested in being interviewed for a future blog post, email us at BIC@baylor.edu.

What year did you graduate from Baylor? What did you study?

I graduated in 2019 majoring in Political Science with a minor in philosophy

Tell us some about your career and journey since graduating from Baylor.

After graduating from Baylor I went on to earn my Masters of Divinity (MDiv) degree from Emory University as a Robert W. Woodruff Fellow. During my time in the program I studied pastoral care and practical theology using these fields to gain a deeper understanding of the history and care of nonreligious communities. Through this program I served as an interfaith chaplain in a hospital ICU, retirement living community, and cancer center. The program and these experiences gave me great insight into the nature of community building, interpersonal care, and crisis management.

Since finishing my master degree I have stayed in higher education now serving as the assistant director of admissions at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business wherein I oversee the Booth Scholars Deferred MBA program. Through this program I engage with undergraduate students as they begin to plan their postgraduate career journey. I also work to foster a sense of community among the hundreds of students in deferment as they work through the first few years of their career.

How has your BIC education influenced your life and/or work since leaving Baylor?

One of the biggest influences the BIC has had over my life and work is the importance of collaboration.

We live in thought worlds that naturally bend toward our own experiences, which never shows the whole reality. Whether we are working, learning, or simply living, we do so in community. This means our default position is to understand other people’s actions according to our personal experiences. This can present a number of pitfalls ranging from simple miscommunication, to the danger of treating others as objects rather than full persons (Think Martin Buber’s I/Thou, or David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water”). Above all else it can trap us in our own traumas and struggles, making it difficult to imagine a world where we are free of those experiences.

Through the collaborative nature of the BIC program we learn how to look beyond our own worlds. Whether it is in the curriculum where we jump into different cultures and times, or in the pedagogical method of the classroom wherein we listen to one another’s interpretations of these texts, we are constantly challenged to hear a perspective other than our own.

I have taken this perspective into my work as a care giver in medical and higher education spaces. In such work I inherently cannot know everything my careseekers have experienced. Yet, this does not mean that I cannot be there to provide support for them. Rather, thanks to the BIC, I am able to challenge myself to see my interactions with patients and students not as a one way relationship wherein I come and solve their troubles, but rather as a as a collaborative work in which we determine together what, if anything, is needed. This is not an easy thing to do. I have fallen short of this goal more times than I can count. Yet those moments where we have been able to bridge our differences and see one another are some of the most beautiful and impactful of my career. I am told by careseekers in those moments that it really made a difference for them, and I certainly know those moments made a difference for me. I have the BIC to thank for that.

Do you have any favorite memories from your time in BIC?

I have tons. As my last answer highlighted they often have to do with the community I fostered in the BIC. From big events like the first BIC at Cameron Park and the BIC bowl, to the more personal moments sitting with professors like Dr. Nogalski and Whitenton in office hours, it is the human connections which I remember most. I think some of the strongest memories are the ones I made with the BIC Leadership council, as we began to carve out more intentional time to get to know one another and become friends. This led to the creation of a D&D group with some of them my senior year which still gets together to this day!

Do you have any advice for current BIC students?

Ask professors for book recommendations during the summers.

During the two summers I worked for the BIC as a student recruiter, I was seeking some sense of meaning to life (I know it’s very dramatic, but it is true). I took the risk of asking Professor Moore for some recommendations of books to read to help me with some of the questions I had. He went over to his shelf of books and pulled out Christ on Trial by Rowan Williams and handed it over. I would come in to his office at least once a week and we would talk about the book. To this day it is one of my favorites. When I finished reading it he went and pulled another from his collection, and then another. Through each book I felt myself not finding answers so much as becoming more comfortable with the questions that troubled me.

Professors often have had similar questions and more time to collect different people’s answers. Don’t be afraid to hear what they have to offer.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

I look forward to meeting with the BIC students and if they have any questions about divinity or business school, I am always happy to chat.

With each year that passes there are more and more BIC graduates doing great work all over the world. Each year we publish brief Alumni Updates where our alumni can tell us some about their post-BIC lives. In addition to these annual updates, we post interviews with our alumni. Today we are excited to post an interview with Shanna Van Wagner (’07). We hope you enjoy, and if you are interested in being interviewed for a future blog post, email us at BIC@baylor.edu.

What year did you graduate from Baylor? What did you study?

I graduated from Baylor in 2007 with a B.S. in Forensic Science and minors in Biology and Chemistry.

Tell us some about your career and journey since graduating from Baylor.

After graduation, I moved back to California and tried to get a job in the field of forensics. The field was incredibly competitive. I remember testing for one job as a criminalist with Orange County and there were over 100 people testing for one position. At that point, I knew I needed a back-up plan.

I had enjoyed some of the texts we had read in BIC and I thought law might be an interesting area to explore. I signed up for a condensed paralegal certification course through University of San Diego, which I completed in three months. Shortly after completing the program, I was hired by a small firm where I ended up working for nearly ten years. While I enjoyed working as a paralegal, I quickly grew bored and wanted more of a challenge. I had capped out in my current position as a senior paralegal and realized I was doing everything an attorney was doing in terms of preparing the cases, I was just unable to officially appear for the clients.

I ended up going through the part-time program at University of San Diego, School of Law. Because I had to work to support myself financially, I was working a full day while attending school at night and commuting. For four years, my days began at 5:00 a.m., I drove an hour to the office to start work at 6:30 a.m., worked until 3:00 p.m., and then attended classes until 9:00 p.m. and then drove another hour back home. To this day, I do not know how I did it.

After graduating law school and passing the bar, I got a job with an international law firm where I stayed for about a year. The managing partner I was working for asked me to join him and open up the San Diego office of another firm and I gladly accepted. I have been working there since 2019 and was promoted to senior associate last year. I am also now on the partnership track.

How has your BIC education influenced your life and/or work since leaving Baylor?

My BIC education actually led me into my current field of law, an area I was not previously considering. The texts and discussions we had in social world stuck with me more than I thought! Additionally, the emphasis on going to the source documents themselves as opposed to any secondary authorities has been particularly appropriate in my law practice. Why read about something when you can go directly to the source? Similarly, if you are looking for legal support for an argument, go to the cases themselves versus a secondary publication that contains only snippets of information. Having a thorough understanding of the background of a case as well as context for the holding of that case is so much more beneficial.

Do you have any favorite memories from your time in BIC?

I enjoyed the field trips. Sure, you can read about other cultures, but actually immersing yourself into the culture provides a firsthand experience that is unparalleled. I met many lifelong friends in the program and continue to keep in touch today – 15 years after graduating. I loved being able to meet so many different people in different majors that I ordinarily would not have met, simply because we were on different career paths. I believe that further enhanced my education because it exposed me to different perspectives and different ways of thinking that I would not have received had I stayed only in chosen major of science.

Is there something you learned in BIC that still sticks with you today?

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” It sounds very cliché, but it is true. I am in a high conflict field and often deal with incredibly difficult opposing counsel on tough cases and the BIC experience has helped me. I have a greater appreciation for differing opinions, which has been helpful in getting along with other attorneys, finding common ground, and working cooperatively. Being able to understand and respect someone’s position goes a long way, even if you do not agree with it.

Do you have any advice for current BIC students?

Do not limit yourself and be open to the experience. I was very nervous and hesitant coming to Baylor from Southern California, simply because I did not know what to expect. It ended up being such a rewarding experience and in hindsight, I should have embraced wholeheartedly.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

Give new things a chance. Take risks. You never know what could end up happening or where something may lead you. Ask questions and enjoy this time. You will meet lifelong friends in the program who will continue to impact your life long after graduation.

With each year that passes there are more and more BIC graduates doing great work all over the world. Each year we publish brief Alumni Updates where our alumni can tell us some about their post-BIC lives. In addition to these annual updates, we post interviews with our alumni. Today we are excited to post an interview with Matthew Pierce (’09), who is also a member of our inaugural BIC Alumni Advisory Board. We hope you enjoy, and if you are interested in being interviewed for a future blog post, email us at BIC@baylor.edu.

What year did you graduate from Baylor? What did you study?

I graduated from Baylor in the spring of 2009 with a degree in Finance from the Hankamer (business school).

Tell us some about your career and journey since graduating from Baylor.

Beginning in the summer after my freshman year through the start of my senior year, I had the opportunity to intern with Chevron in Houston. This experience and the relationships I built within the company were essential in me getting a job offer my senior year. This was just as the financial crisis hit and removed me from a lot of the stress my classmates were feeling.

At Chevron, I spent most of my career in the Global Supply & Trading group. I started in the international products finance group supporting gas and jet fuel traders. I then made the switch to accounting for deepwater exploration. It was during this time that I took advantage of Chevron’s education reimbursement benefit and got my Master of Finance degree from Tulane University. I ended my career at Chevron working on the natural gas trading floor in downtown Houston before taking a leave of absence to accept a full-tuition fellowship at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School to study full-time as a graduate student in the Accelerated One-Year MBA program in 2014/15.

While a student at Emory, I specialized in data analytics and corporate finance, made life-long friendships with my classmates, especially the international exchange students—from France, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, Italy, and Denmark. So deep were these connections that I delayed my graduation to study abroad at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. I got the opportunity to make even more lifelong friendships and travel across Europe to reconnect with my old friends. To this day, I make a point to go to Europe once a year to reconnect.

After graduating from Emory, I joined a management consulting firm ScottMadden in Atlanta, where I worked on a wide range of projects both in the United States and internationally. This is where a good portion of my BIC experience came into play—research, analytical methods, and critical thinking skills. The early part of my work was working with utility companies as they reviewed major capital projects, evaluated executive performance, and developed competitive strategy plans. Much of my later work at the firm was spent in Boston working on billion-dollar rate cases.

I left ScottMadden in 2017 to take a role at Delta Air Lines, Manager of Financial Analysis. My role centered on developing a valuation methodology for jet engine trading and brokerage. In my time there I valued well over 500 million USD in assets around the world and developed a series of white papers on best practices in circulation at Delta today.

My next role took me into banking with Citigroup in Atlanta. I served as a Vice President in private label credit products. This role, like my time at Delta, was focused on financial analysis and modeling. I was responsible for coordinating with a marketing team to evaluate their interest rate programs and promotional financing. I developed Pro-forma financial statements, return on capital analysis, and special initiative valuations—with an annual budget of 90+ million USD.

Late last year, I left Citigroup for an exciting opportunity in a newly formed bank: Truist—the result of the merger between SunTrust and BB&T banks. The company created a new, very specialized executive leadership program under the CFO and executive vice president of the bank. In this new accelerator program, I enter the bank at the Senior Vice President level. Most of my initial assignments involve working on the strategy for key industry banking consulting and further shaping cross-functional strategic priorities curated by our Executive Leadership Team.

How has your BIC education influenced your life and/or work since leaving Baylor?

It’s been over ten years since I graduated from Baylor, and the most valuable things I learned while at Baylor came from my time in BIC. I truly believe that my preference to critical thinking in a diverse world started in classes like Rhetoric and World Cultures. In the workplace when dealing with clients and coworkers, even the most basic of perspectives in understanding the roots belief and culture have been critical in building relationships—especially leading teams and working internationally. And the practice of critical research and reading past the noise has become the true advantage I’ve seen in myself and my classmates.

Do you have any favorite memories from your time in BIC?

My favorite experiences and the ones I still talk about today are our excursions to the religious centers (the Hindu temple, synagogue, and the mosque in World Cultures). Like I said before, being exposed to so many different perspectives and even things like having a meal with someone creates an appreciation of diversity.

The second, most grueling part of my BIC experience: the two-semester game of assassin the entire 2005/6 BIC played my freshman year in Alexander, Memorial, and in large-group. It got so intense that the professors had to establish large group as an immunity zone.

Do you have any advice for current BIC students?

1) Stick with it

You’ll be tempted when the classes get harder and your friends in other programs seem to have it easier—but don’t quit! The family you develop in the BIC will be greater than most any other connections you’ll make at the university. The very exercise you’re giving your mind through your writing and reading of primary texts are leaps and bounds more constructive to you long-term.

2) Embrace the Socratic method

Another temptation for you might be to sit quietly in class (large or small group) because you feel you have nothing to add to the discussion or just want to relax—but don’t. Embrace the discussion and the Socratic method. Even stating the obvious is better than saying nothing—it’s the practice of speaking up that’s most important.

3) Don’t be afraid to adjust your plan

Part of the reason I joined the BIC was because I thought it would be good preparation for my ultimate goal—law school. Almost everything I did up until my first master’s degree was with that intent. Then, I realized that wasn’t something I wanted to do—and this was after accepting admission to University of Houston Law Center and being 2 months out from the first day of classes. I realized I had enjoyed the life I built and the career path I started in business more.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

Don’t be afraid to start something (a project, a job, a leadership role) when you don’t know what to do or how to do it. One thing I learned being in the BIC was that you grow in a role more than before it. If you think you’re highly prepared for a job, you’re probably overqualified and undershooting.