By Bernadette Cooper

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

August 2015: senior year in high school.

This was the year I promised my daughter Savannah that I’d work even harder at not saying “we” each time I described an experience that was solely “hers”:

We’re a senior in high school, graduating in 180 days.

We’re applying to colleges up and down the eastern corridor.

We’re majoring in journalism and French, wherever we land.

Although I’m her biggest cheerleader and along for (most of) the ride, this experience was and would be uniquely hers and ready or not, I was going to have to come to grips with that.

Savannah visited her share of colleges and universities. As a matter of fact, the count was lost sometime after campus visit #50. She had the idea of starting her college search during the summer before her freshman year of high school (in order to get ahead of the game). Learning what the schools wanted and getting a glimpse into the respective admissions process prior to starting high school allowed her to proactively become the ‘master of her fate’. Instead of scrambling in her junior year of high school to fit certain classes, interests or extracurricular activities into her schedule, she was able to focus instead on honing her likes, enjoying senior year (and enjoyed she did) and planning accordingly.

When crunch time arrived and it was time to apply to colleges after all those visits, she was ready. Almost. Enter Baylor University. I vividly recall when I first heard those words. At the beginning of senior year. Baylor University.  Where is that? Texas. Oh no, ma’am. Not even a contender. While we are big travelers, both domestic and international, the deal was Savannah would attend college no more than 6 hours from home by car. My rationale—if she phoned me at 6 a.m. with a crisis, I could easily be to her by lunch time. Perfect. Baylor University. They found Savannah—due to the number of lists she landed on as a minority student with competitive grades and a rigorous course load.

February marked the arrival of the first of many acceptance letters. College interviews came and went. Things calmed down for a month or so and then seemingly out of nowhere, more information from Baylor kept flooding our mailbox. Alright, Savannah, I said. Let’s talk about Baylor. I began doing my own homework on what this school and town had to offer my only child. My female child. I was instantly turned off by the distance, the price tag, the lack of diversity and the scandal. Sigh. However, I was most impressed that my teenager was considering a Christian institution. Upon further research, I learned the school had quite a bit to offer. She was looking for a strong program in journalism, a Division 1 school that enjoyed sports but didn’t worship them, a mid-sized student population and far enough from home to spread her wings.

After reading testimonies from students and continuing to comb through the website, I thought that at the very least, we could pay Baylor a visit. I also received my first contact, a letter, from the Baylor Parent Network, who introduced me to Frances George of Raleigh, North Carolina. She’s the Baylor liaison in the Tarheel State. I immediately reached out to her and she phoned me back shortly after I left a message. Our initial conversation lasted 60 minutes. I found her to be delightful, upfront, enthusiastically Baylor and a lover of Christ. I liked her right away. At the conclusion of the phone call, I still had a few questions that Fran couldn’t answer. I phoned the Baylor Network folks looking for another Baylor parent that was a little more like me: a minority, single parent, and one who might benefit from the school’s payment plan for tuition payments. The Network didn’t have anyone that fit my criteria, but I was sure I’d find someone in the coming weeks….

A few weeks later, Savannah and I landed at Dallas-Fort Worth International airport, rented a car and headed down I-35 toward Waco. It was Thursday, April 28^th and Savannah had until May 1^st to let Baylor know if she would accept their offer of admission for the Fall 2016 semester.

As expected, the Baylor staff were on their game. Based on prior campus visit experience, we expected the red-carpet treatment. The school tells the prospective student what they want to hear while simultaneously trying to sell the parents on what they are while glossing over what they aren’t. The Welcome Center had fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies. I’d not eaten since I boarded the flight at 5 a.m. so that was a sweet plus. Cookies aside, the staff spoke to us and answered all of our questions. The students hosting the tours were mature and seemed genuinely fond of Baylor. Again, quite willing to answer any and all questions. The campus was well kept and looked magnificent.

As I looked around, I came to the sudden realization that I could see Savannah here in another four months and for the next four years. Beyond the tour, Savannah had tried scheduling appointments with the head of the departments she was most interested in—Journalism and French. There was no one available from the Journalism department but the French department chair was on hand. He not only met with us for a full hour but invited us out for the evening to a local eatery with him and some of the students. He provided the best of advice to the soon to be graduating senior on how to wrap up senior year and how to prepare for classes in the fall. Even prior to her commitment, he invited us to sit in on a 2^nd level French class the next day. We accepted.

The next day we met with Financial Aid and the admissions counselors. It was a full two-day visit and by the beginning of day #2, we already knew that Savannah would become a Baylor Bear and join the ranks of the class of 2020. Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, we were able to connect to some African-American Baylor alumni through LinkedIn. Still asking the hard questions of race relations, scandal, and life on this predominantly white campus, everything came back positive. Yes, Savannah was heading to Baylor.

The NC Baylor Parent Network hosted three “meet & greets” this summer. Savannah met nearly two dozen NC Baylor sisters and brothers and real friendships were forged in the living room of the George home as well as the Henry home in Charlotte. I met scores of families with several things in common—a love for this school, the school community, our children….and foremost, Christ. She hadn’t yet started her first day at Baylor and had only visited campus once, but we both knew this was the place, the best fit for my little bear cub.

High school graduation came and went. Savannah enjoyed a summer vacation with some of her high school class in Europe and returned to Charlotte to work for the remainder of the summer to save up spending money for school.  Before we knew it, she was saying farewell to friends and family, near and far and receiving all sorts of well wishes for this new adventure she would soon be starting.

Stay tuned for more stories from “our” Baylor journey. My hope is that I’m able to speak to you—parent to parent—and offer encouragement and insight from having just gone through the process you’re embarking on now.

Sic’em Bears!

By Frances George

One daughter graduated from Baylor last May and is successfully launched in Dallas.

One daughter is a freshman at Baylor, finding her way in this wonderful new world called college.

And I? I am in North Carolina learning that the best lessons in life happen to our children when they are on their own. I am watching and learning much from afar.

A few weeks ago, we traveled from North Carolina to Texas for Family Weekend at Baylor. The weekend also dovetailed with our elder daughter’s birthday…in Dallas. Mary Scott, the elder, had requested dinner at the top of Reunion Tower in Dallas, where an iconic restaurant sits 50 stories high, slowly rotating a full 360 degrees while you eat, offering spectacular views of Dallas and beyond. After having the dinner reservations arranged, we were excited about a family dinner in Dallas with our two girls! One problem, our younger daughter had her first concert at Baylor in the Women’s Chorus that same night. Oops. I made the (hard to secure) reservation before checking the calendar.

Catherine, the younger, said, “Mom! It’s college. I’m okay. I’ll get one of my friends to record the concert with me singing in it and I’ll show you Saturday. Have fun celebrating Scottie (the elder).” Catherine? Is that you? Our youngest, you see, really revealed in the reality of a few years at home as the “OC”…Only Child…when Mary Scott went to college. We never missed anything she did. And now this? But we will take it! So, my husband and I traveled to Dallas Friday night and with the thrilled Mary Scott, rode the elevator to the stratosphere while Catherine sang notes in the stratosphere at her concert… but as a first, without us in the audience. Mmm. Something is happening here. I can’t quite see it but a transformation seems to be taking place in our new Baylor freshman.

Meanwhile, as Catherine sang, we enjoyed dinner with Mary Scott and as the restaurant slowly turned, telling the story of Dallas, we heard the story of post-graduate life, her amazing job in marketing and events (thank you Baylor Corporate Comm degree!), the new church she’s found in Dallas and how the transition from college life to “real life” is a transition more significant than that from high school to college and one for which no one can really prepare you. She told us of how she treasures her now golden friends from Baylor and the supper club in Dallas they enjoy each week. She told us how her time at Baylor was the season that defined the person she is today and that she has no regrets of the time she spent at Baylor and how she spent it. “It made me who I am and my faith, it’s mine! Who I am, is uniquely me!”

As the night progressed and the restaurant high above the Dallas skyline continued rotating its slow 360 degrees, not only did I find myself enjoying the exquisite sunset, the birds-eye view of the place where part of our country’s history unfolded, where highways intertwine like ribbons below, and where the faint outline of the new Cowboy stadium highlights the distance, now I found myself enjoying something new and even more exquisite in my Dallas view: a young Baylor alumna who will make a difference here as she did at Baylor.

Over dessert, as the evening began to wind down, Mary Scott asked us for the one best piece of parenting advice we would give her to file away for another chapter in life yet to come and the one best piece of general advice we would give her for right now. After we gave our advice, I then asked Mary Scott what would be the one piece of advice she would give us about our parenting and about life in general. And as the sun set on our unparalleled view of Dallas, Mary Scott answered our query and I realized that the real unparalleled view was not the cityscape on the other side of the glass but the daughter sitting right across from us. She told us, “Mom, Dad, you taught us well. But now as you let us go and you look back on the life we had together at home, don’t beat yourself up over the 1% or even the 5% you did wrong. Be grateful for the 99% you did right. You did so very much right. I am grateful. I am half of you (dad) and half of you (mom) and all me and I like who that person is.”

And suddenly I saw it. A lovely transformation had taken place. An intangible transformation.

The next morning, bright and early, we headed to Waco to see our younger daughter. First sighting since August and move in, first return trip to Target with Mom and Dad for just a few more things, fill up the car with gas, get the car washed, meet new friends and more new friends, treating Catherine to dinner along with a few of her friends from NC and Georgia whose parents could not make the trip, church on Sunday, brunch and before we knew it, time to say goodbye. A few tears? Yes. Confident that Catherine had made the right choice? Without question. But, is there an intangible transformation taking place among this one too, I wondered?

The answer came a few days later in a text. It had been a week of tests and meeting with professors and still settling in academically. Catherine texted, “My devotion was so great this morning. It was about priorities. It’s easy to think about all that some have and compare it to what I have or don’t have. Now I know to just be myself. I’m really loving I can just be me at Baylor! Oh Mom, thank you for sending me to this place, my new home, where I can just be me.”

“I can just be me.” Don’t you wish you had known that the first month of college? How grateful we are that our youngest has found the key that will unlock so many doors. Our daughter is just beginning her journey, traveling the first few degrees of her own “Reunion Tower” experience, and the view is lovely so far. Not without tears. Not without disappointments. But her sights are properly set, thanks to Baylor.

I realized when I read Catherine’s text, that in our youngest, an intangible transformation had taken place, just as the transformation had begun in her big sister just a few short years before when Mary Scott was a freshman.

Parents, are you looking for a place where students graduate with a sense not only of who they are but with a deep appreciation of who you are as parents and are grateful? Then look no further than Baylor. In a world of universities where so many students graduate with a degree in ‘dismissing parents’, Baylor is unique. At Baylor, parents are held in high esteem all four years and beyond!

Parents, are you looking for a place where students are encouraged to look in the truth of the Word and find that they are fearfully and wonderfully made and that the priority is knowing Christ and in knowing Him they find themselves? Then look no further than Baylor. At Baylor, students are encouraged to be the young men and women God created them to be.

So the next time you drive through Dallas, look up at Reunion Tower on the south end of town as you head to Waco. And think of Baylor. Think of the slowly turning sphere that represents the slowly turning chapter in the circle of life that happens in college, when young students look out in this big new world and explore the question “Who am I?” and discover, “I can just be me” and watch the world unfold before them as they settle in this newfound confidence. Look at Reunion Tower and think of Baylor, where they grow into men and women who, when they come full circle, are not only confident in who they are but are grateful for who you are, and are ready to live well, thankful for a place where this lovely intangible transformation took place. And to think, it all happens in a place called Baylor.

And that’s the Baylor difference.

As the Baylor Class of 2020 arrived on campus last week and began settling in for their first week of class, I knew I could write about many things.

I could write about the phenomenal Move-In Day experience, where there were no fewer than 2000 students, faculty, staff and administration on campus, greeting new students, with 200 of the 2000 at our daughter’s dorm, waiting on the sidewalk as we drove up, surrounding our car and unloading everything (and I do mean everything – I carried up a lampshade), taking every box up to Catherine’s room, all the while saying, “Welcome to Baylor!”.

I could write about the countless sorority young women who volunteered their time, stopping by my daughter’s room and every other room on the hall at two to three minute intervals, asking if there was an empty box they could carry away for us (there were about 40 in our room alone!) and then happily carting them away only to return a few minutes later for a quick picture with Catherine and then taking down another load. We didn’t carry a single box up or down a single flight of stairs.

I could write about the way top administrators stopped by our daughter’s room (and the rooms of many others) just to say “Welcome to Baylor” and hug our daughter’s neck, asking if Catherine needed anything, genuinely grateful she was there.

I could write about the third generation Collins Hall freshman who made cookies for the girls in my daughter’s dorm, wrapped them beautifully, put her room number and name on the cookies and said, “Be sure and come visit!” Those cookies said to me, “I’m at home here and I want you to feel at home, too!” And yes, the cookies were delivered by all three generations!

I could write about my new friends Nana and Afia, a mom and her Baylor freshman daughter, stranded at the DFW airport with no way to campus from Dallas except via a Greyhound bus, as every single car at the airport was rented! The mom saw my Baylor Parents Network bag on my shoulder and asked if I was going to Baylor. Yes! And suddenly I had new friends in Baylor Nation and we had a delightful ride to Waco!

I could write about the ice cream social at the Fountain and the food trucks and the music and banners and signs printed for students and family to hold up in pictures – “First Day of College” and “Sic’em!” and the hundreds of freshmen meeting new friends, taking pictures, NC Baylor Nation gathering for a Fountain Photo, and the joy that was permeating the air and the rain that stayed away.

I could write about a big sister, just graduated in May from Baylor, who drove down from Dallas after work,  just to stand beside her freshman little sister and say, “Welcome Home to OUR campus!” and then turn right around and head back to Dallas in the driving rain. Or that she had asked her six best friends, also Baylor graduates, to give one piece of advice to her little sister and then took the time to come back to campus two days later and take her little sis out for coffee and read the advice, and then hang the requisite twinkle lights in little sis’s dorm room…

Yes. I could write about all of those things and more but the most outstanding memory I had that brought the biggest tears of joy came when I returned home – 1200 miles away – as I read a text on Sunday afternoon from our freshman daughter, Catherine. You see, on Sunday evening just before classes began on Monday, the freshman class gathered in the Ferrell Center for a final “Welcome Week Worship Service”. Catherine had texted off and on about events of the weekend and the new friends she was meeting at every turn. I hoped all was well but you know, you can’t really read emotions in texts but this one came through loud and clear:

“I love my family and am so grateful for your support and prayers and now I am so pumped for the service tonight. I might call you sometime later….”

Those words and the happy emotion came through loud and clear, saying to me, “Mom, I’m grateful and Mom, I’m ready and Mom, this place is now my home and a place where I will easily encounter Jesus coming and going in the lives of my friends and the faculty at Baylor.”

How do I know this to be true? Because I saw it at the airport when I met a new member of Baylor Nation in need. I saw it on Move-In Day with countless students and staff showing us something very unique and wonderful in their welcome. I saw it in my alumna daughter who took the time to be with her little sister and remind her that she chose well and Baylor will be the most wonderful home for her too.

As I flew home and read my devotion from The Daily Light, there was a sense of calm and “right” about leaving our youngest at Baylor. I looked out the window at 30,000 feet and saw the vast expanse before me and then I read this: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.”

An amazing, vast, and unfathomable experience beyond what we can imagine awaits our Baylor students in the days, weeks, and four years to come. How great is our God? How blessed we are to have Baylor being woven into the lives of our students.

So, for all of those reasons and a million more to come, that is the Baylor difference. Welcome Baylor Class of 2020. It’s going to be (another) amazing year.

By Frances George

When you fly on cloudy days, isn’t it amazing the dramatic perspective shift you experience from the moment just before take- off, when you look up, seeing nothing but dark foreboding clouds above and within just a few short but “cloudy” moments after take- off, you break through and find yourself happily looking down on the same sea of clouds? When I fly from North Carolina to Texas (which I do multiple times a year with one May 2016 Baylor graduate and now with a new freshman Class of 2020 arriving this fall) I still marvel at this spectacular transformation. As the plane takes off, the ceiling seems so low, the sky so overcast, the future a little uncertain. And then you “pass through” and suddenly, there is nothing but blue sky. And all of those dark ominous clouds, are under your feet, a veritable sea of harmless white marshmallow fluff. “Mmmm,” you think, “not quite as bad as I thought. Quite lovely, in fact. We made it through.”

Perhaps this somewhat describes the emotions your son or daughter may be feeling right about now. Orientation is either right behind you or just ahead and Line Camp is coupled with a lot of “news”: a new roommate and a new campus in a new town and perhaps a new state. Even for the most confident of students, there is probably a tinge of Julie Andrews’ emotions playing in their hearts and minds from “The Sound of Music” as the character Maria walked out of the Abby, boarded the bus, singing with more than a little anticipation mixed with hesitation… “What will this day be like? I wonder. What does my future hold? I wonder”…

But just as Julie Andrews sang and just like the plane bursting through the clouds, those clouds, which at one time seemed so intimidating and perhaps a bit scary – the unknown almost always is, at least to some degree – there stretches before you a vast blue sky ahead (well, let’s pretend it’s green and gold! Sic’em!) with endless possibilities all waiting to be discovered and explored. “I have confidence!”

How do I know this? Because I’ve seen it over the past four years with our elder daughter, Mary Scott and now I am excited to watch it unfold for our younger daughter, Catherine, Class of 2020.

For me, I’ve always said I like having a daughter who will graduate in 2020…when all things become perfectly clear, like 20/20 vision. I feel this will be true for this class. The Class of 2020 will be a special one and many things in their world will become clear over the next four years.

They may enter feeling a bit like they are in the clouds, trying to find their way in the haze but I know from experience that there are faithful friends (called upperclassmen) ready to greet them and unlock doors and mentor this new class. Because at Baylor, we do all things – even the cloudy things – with eternity in view, knowing that all things –even the first cloudy days of freshman year – work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called. You see, doing all things with eternity in view is the Baylor key – even with the clouds – a hopeful eternity still stretches before them with endless possibilities.

The next chapter of Baylor will unfold for the class of 2020 in full force in the fall of 2016 and with it will come 3,000+ new students, ready to find out just what the Baylor difference is. They will come with high expectations, some trepidation, and a little anxious anticipation. They will bring new notebooks (the kind that need charging each night) and new sheets (the kind that never need ironing). They will come with hopes and dreams, some to be reached, others to be modified along the way as they grow up and discover new likes and loves, but all with a desire to make a difference, find their life’s calling and perhaps even a life mate. There will be friends, new and old, there will be heartbreaks and joys unimaginable that will shape young lives and grow mature young adults. There will be new beginnings that soon will become beloved old traditions that will bring happy tears to their eyes and warm memories to their hearts whenever they hear the strains… “That good old Baylor Line…”

All in a few short weeks. What will they remember from Baylor Day 1 on August 17, 2016 that will stay with them until that day Baylor Day Last in May 2020 when they walk across campus one final time donning cap and gown, preparing to say goodbye to a place they will happily call home. In a few short weeks, your son or daughter will begin what will become, in a few fleeting years, a season of life that will leave an indelible mark on their minds and hearts. It will shape them into better and stronger and wiser people. It will mark you too, as it has me. I know. I just graduated my first Baylor Bear and am preparing to head to Orientation with my second Baylor Bear next week. She can hardly wait for the chapter to begin.

Just a few weeks ago at her older sister’s graduation, I snapped a picture of the Pat Neff building and sent it to my daughter, as she prepared to fly down to meet us for graduation. I sent the picture via text with this message, “Your school. Your beautiful university is waiting for you! Hurry down to Baylor!” She replied, “Mom, “You called this ‘my university!’ For the first time, you called it mine. I can hardly wait to be there!”

And so we begin again. Baylor 2.0… New and old, mingling with goodbyes and hellos, firsts and more firsts. Steps, though timid at first, will grow confident with time and mentoring and learning life lessons will begin from those older and wiser who will walk alongside our freshman, the Class of 2020 and the beautiful transformation will begin.

Get ready Baylor! Here they come with hopes and dreams. Walk beside them upperclassmen, and teach them the way, remembering someone did that for you. And why? Because storm clouds may gather but breaking through on the other side is a vast blue sky with endless possibilities. New beginnings. At Baylor they are beginnings that start with taking the long view, one full of hope. That’s the way we do things at Baylor. It’s the way it’s always been done. It’s the way it will continue to be in cloud or sun, we always remember that just on the other side, not far at all, is an endless beautiful horizon.

And that is the Baylor difference.

By Frances George

Pachelbel’s Canon in D

…and at Baylor

While cleaning the breakfast dishes and listening to the classical station on the radio just now, Pachelbel’s Canon in D began playing its familiar strains. You know the piece. It’s the one that begins with a cello and one violin, playing a simple and repeated musical phrase – a repeated short harmonic variation. With each repetition of the phrase, more strings are added. The composition becomes complex yet retaining an elegant simplicity but all the while the steady repetition and rhythm of the main musical phrase prevails. As the piece moves towards its highest point of complexity, the music incorporates chord progressions and measures that round out the piece to a full concert of strings creating an exquisite canon. Finally, the piece, softens and all the strings converge upon one final chord resolution.

If Mary Scott’s four years at Baylor were a musical piece, Pachelbel’s Canon in D would be her signature concert piece.

As I listened, I thought of the decision to go far from home to a place where she was a “single string” knowing no one. Move- in day arrived, and a few more strings were added.  Freshman year, walking to class added more strings to a now quite pleasant piece. Spring, summer, fall repeating the beautiful familiar strains of “That Good Old Baylor Line”… Fall brought football season and even more joy and winter ushered in Recruitment, the full complement of a beautiful string section created such amazing music. Friends, friends and more friends! Chord progressions occurred as they settled on their major, fell in and out of love, wept together over the too-soon death of a mother, laughed together, opened care packages from home together, traveled the world together, all the while creating a musical piece that would become a high mark of their life. The one constant: their love for Jesus that remained their steady rhythm, undergirding four years of growing from gifted young girls to dignified young women. It was the steady beat that you hear in Pachelbel’s Canon and you see in their life. It does not change and yet it changes them as the music rises and falls to its conclusion. The strings display their beauty and demonstrate their potential as the piece progresses. So too, with our daughters and sons at Baylor.

And then, as fast as it climaxed to one of the most beautiful and recognizable and pleasant pieces of life, it must have its musical denouement.

Last night I received a text from Mary Scott following the house’s final Senior Meeting: “Getting sad about graduation. It went too fast.”

Following was a picture from Mary Scott of the six best friends, six individual “strings” who determined that as a group they would be stronger together than as individuals – pledging the same house and leaving a legacy. And they were. And they are. And they have.  A canon is a “device in which several voices play the same music, entering in sequence.” That aptly describes our young women (and men) at Baylor. Many voices springing from the same beautiful music, entering on cue with the same lovely theme throughout. Individuals who realize together they are stronger and will make a difference on their campus and in their culture, continuing long after their days at Baylor are over.

Suddenly, in just two weeks, our Pachelbel’s Canon in “B” (Baylor) will strike its final chord and resolve with one lovely last note for the Class of 2016. Too fast. Too wonderful. Too many memories to count.

But just like Pachelbel’s Canon, Baylor will always be a most pleasant chapter of life and whenever you “hear” it in your mind, you will want to turn it up and listen over and over again to its familiar and comforting strains. Thank you, Mary Scott, for bringing this mom joy.  Thank you for choosing Baylor. 1200 miles from home, yet right around the corner. Not only have you made a difference at the university our family loves and calls our own now, but you’ve made a difference in me.

And that is, as always, the Baylor difference.

By Frances George

Here at Baylor, once before fall semester finals and once again in the spring before finals, North Carolina Baylor parents gather with many multiples of items to share and send to our students who are preparing for final exams. The Care and Prayer Parties are a great Baylor tradition! Included in the boxes are lots of fun and food…silly putty, cracker jacks, gift cards to Target and Starbucks, coffee mugs for late night caffeine, beautiful individual cards lovingly signed by all the parents with a word of encouragement. After enjoying packing our boxes, snacking on a few refreshments (which generally include custom Baylor cupcakes!) and a cup of coffee, we gather and pray for our students.

Last night was our final 2015-2016 Care Package Packing Party and Prayer for our NC Baylor Bears. For four sets of parents in the room, it was our final college care package. You see, for us, we have seniors, graduating in May from Baylor.

Last night was an amazing night of laughter and tears (for senior parents packing their last college care package), a night of prayer and lots of “care packed in a box” for our NC Baylor Bears. The care packages, as you can imagine, will be HUGE. But beyond that, the bond we have formed among these friends (none of whom we would have known except for Baylor) is even BIGGER. Our tie is strong and lasting and real.

For example…

Not only did we pray for our students represented at the party but for Molly Gibbons, NC Baylor Tumbler, defending the National Title this weekend. I spoke with Molly’s mom earlier in the day to get her prayer requests for the tournament. So even in their absence, we are a family. And I would only know Molly and her mom through Baylor. One senior mom drove more than two hours in 5:00 traffic to join us because her daughter, a senior, is graduating and she wanted to be with family one last time. We first met this family, the Johnsons, in our home at the Baylor Summer Send- Off Party when her daughter joined a large group of NC Baylor Bound Bears for the annual Baylor Send- Off in the summer of 2012. We are joined each summer for this event by upper classmen, alumni, and Judy Maggard, the Baylor Parents’ Network Director, who flies in from Texas to join the fun of Send-Off! At Baylor, we take welcoming new family very seriously. We have Baylor friends (another precious senior parent) who has recently remarried and as newlyweds unexpectedly received a cancer diagnosis. Immediately the NC Baylor family prayed. We had prayed through their happy wedding and now we are praying through this, more somber but hopeful part of the journey.

That’s what family looks like at Baylor.

Additionally, one of the parents of a prospective student, with whom I have been talking, through a new opportunity I have been given to “fling my green and gold afar…” texted me last night just before we prayed, to report that he and his son had arrived on Baylor’s campus after a visit to another college earlier in the day. They were now HAPPILY on Baylor’s campus and ready for the Baylor Premiere Weekend.  My senior, Mary Scott, is planning on contacting them to hopefully seal the deal as she says to them “Welcome to Baylor” as only a Baylor Senior can!

Who would have thought that four years ago when I sent my daughter to Baylor, not only would Mary Scott gain close friends for life but that also her Mom and Dad would too. Through joy and sorrow, laughter and tears…. The unintended but very happy result of choosing Baylor is that we – as parents- now have a network of Baylor Nation family friends across the state, friends with whom we pray and laugh and pack care packages and then welcome a whole new crop the following year!

So, from current NC Baylor students to future NC Baylor students to tumbling for another National Title NC Baylor students (UPDATE: They won that title!!) , Baylor Nation is a strong family, full of fun and under- girded in prayer here in the Old North State and across the nation.

Oh, and the great joy for me? Well, Mary Scott’s little sis said it best last night after the party and seeing the care packages, “WOW! I can’t believe it! Next year that care package will be for me!” Yep, Catherine George, Baylor Class of 2020. Sic’em!

By Frances George

What kind of upperclassmen? What an odd question, you might say, for parents of admitted students, who are trying to make a decision for college before the May 1^st deadline. However, it is an important question to ask. I normally blog once a month for Baylor, however, just now while spending a few quiet moments alone before starting my day, this most recent story in the life of my senior daughter Mary Scott, struck me as so significant that I knew I had to write it down to encourage parents, as you are facing a most significant decision with your student…college choice. Perhaps this word is for you.

This morning I received a text from our daughter, Mary Scott, a senior at Baylor, graduating in just a few weeks, heading to Dallas to begin the next chapter. She has had the most amazing four years at Baylor, academically, spiritually, socially. I have blogged about it for three years each month – the great times, the hard times, the lessons learned along the way. This morning she happily texted and said, “Mom, I’m ordering my cap and gown today.” It is a marker in her young life’s road that this chapter is about to close. And yet, it is not over, not at all. She is still pouring in to the lives of her underclassmen friends in ways I don’t think you will find at other colleges and yet, at Baylor, it is common.

Baylor upperclassmen care in a most unique sense.

You see, our daughter has a freshman friend who has hit a rough spot in the road. Rough spots, for all you first time college parents reading this, are common on all campuses among freshmen. Something unexpected happens in the fall or spring semester and your student will hit a wall. Frustration, disappointment, heartache hits – from academics, social disappointments, unwise decisions that bring consequences. It happens to most every college student at some point and oftentimes during freshman year.  The way the hard place unfolds and what the resolution looks like is significant and impactful in the life of a young freshman. Those students who care enough to walk with your student through this season of disappointment have the opportunity to model much and leave a lasting impression on how to “do” life.

That’s when an upperclassman can make a difference. You see, this disappointment and heartache fell upon one of Mary Scott’s freshman friends and her young friend needed lots of encouragement to get through the final weeks of the semester. While home for Easter break, over an extended mother/daughter breakfast, Mary Scott relayed to me the things she was doing to encourage this younger student. (Heretofore, I had no knowledge of this interaction. I thought our daughter was simply enjoying her final days of college with joy.) This young freshman was having a hard time even getting up to go to class. Mary Scott told me, in the most, casual “this kind of love is nothing out of the ordinary, who wouldn’t do this for someone I care about” way, that each morning, our daughter would go to this freshman’s dorm room and encourage her to get up and go to class, walked with her across campus, encouraging her along the way. She did this for more than a few days, actually an extended period of time, to get her friend over the hump and to help her see that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Coffee breaks, encouraging texts, long conversations… all to a freshman whom she had only met this year. All while our daughter is preparing for interviews in Dallas and soaking up the last carefree days of college.

I must admit, I sat there in stunned silence and with tears in my eyes and a full heart, at all my daughter had done for this young friend and she said it as matter- of- factly as if was the most natural thing in the world. And you know what? It was.

Because that’s who Baylor students are. Students who care beyond themselves. Students, upperclassmen who are willing to go the extra 100 miles for a friend in need – even (especially) for a freshman.

Think back to your last weeks in college…did you spend your early mornings getting in your car from your lovely and comfortable off campus house and driving to a freshman dorm, gently encouraging a young freshman, “You can do this! You’re going to get through!” I know I didn’t. Rather self- absorbed, I was, enjoying things that made me smile. And yet, at Baylor, being an upperclassmen who helps make a young freshman smile and find her joy again is the point because they know they are leaving a legacy and a model for another freshmen yet to come. As Mary Scott poured into a life, this young freshman will pour into another’s life down the road…”The road goes ever on”, as Tolkien said.

So, as you decide where your son or daughter will spend the next four years living the ups and downs of college life, take a look at the upperclassmen. For what are you looking? At Baylor, upperclassmen are a unique group, shaped and molded, mentored and taught by professors and an administration who model how to look out for the underclassmen, bringing them along, strengthening them for their journey. When Baylor students graduate, they walk away with more than a diploma. They graduate with a sense of having made a difference in the life of those who will one day make a difference in the life of others. A Baylor diploma represents more than a degree. It represents a lifestyle of sacrificial giving.

What kind of upperclassman are you hoping will walk alongside your son or daughter across campus? A Baylor senior is a rare and wonderful breed of young adult…and one that your son and daughter will become.

It is simply, the Baylor difference.

 

By Frances George 

2016. My Baylor senior Mary Scott graduates in just four months. Four months, that will fly by as quickly as the last four years have.

Four years ago, we wondered what she would wear on her first day of class. Four months from now, Mary Scott will don cap and gown and receive a diploma which will represent so much more than four years in a classroom, papers, midterms, finals and a degree. Mary Scott will receive her degree for life. Here at Baylor our middle child has grown up into a lovely young woman, full of life, intentional in relationships with friends, and loving the Lord in a deep and uniquely Mary Scott way. Her faith is her own. Her cap and gown will represent the beautiful metamorphosis.

Four years ago, our daughter came to Baylor, knowing no one. Four months from now she will graduate with friends, too numerous to count, with whom she has lived life to the full, traveled the world, experienced the Texas State Fair, attended concerts in Austin, traveled to San Antonio, eating dinner on the Riverwalk, spent spring break with girlfriends and their mothers on Destin Beach, spent summers in North Carolina introducing Texas girls to Carolina girls, known the joy of first love in college and the heartbreak of burying a mother of a close friend in her sorority who had also become a precious friend to me.

Four years ago, Mary Scott called frequently to share with me her victories and disappointments in the classroom, of the joys in her new social world, and in life. Four months from now, I think she’ll do the same…she will always be my Mary Scott, quick to respond to a text or send me a picture of a Baylor sunset while out on a run because it is so beautiful. She’ll write one last time, as she has multiple times, “Mom, thank you for sending me to this place.” Some things do not change.

Perhaps one of the sweetest confirmations of God calling Mary Scott to Baylor four years ago was revealed to me just four weeks ago in a rather unlikely fashion. Four years ago, Mary Scott decided to become a part of a house. When she started the process, she knew no one. Over the course of recruitment, six (new) close friends said to one another just before Pref Day, “We feel that God is going to use us in some way in this house. We are all going to pledge together.” They could have pledged other houses, pledged separately, leaving their individual mark on each house but together they chose to be used as a strong group of friends in one place and make a difference. In the end, this has been true. Four years later, Mary Scott was one of two sisters, asked to compose and read a letter to the new girls going through recruitment, a letter addressed to Mary Scott’s Pledge Class from freshman year, a letter composed by a young North Carolina girl whom no one knew four years ago but who now represents her class. When Mary Scott read her letter to me before heading back to Baylor, I listened to my daughter’s words and stories. My daughter, I realized, has grown up over the past four years, through joy and sorrow, success and disappointment, having made friends who will be friends for life, who will laugh together, be in each other’s weddings, celebrate the joys of life and hold each other’s hands in the sorrows that will surely come. As she read, I realized most profoundly that it was to Baylor specifically that God called Mary Scott. He had something unique that He wanted her to do here on Baylor’s campus, an imprint He wanted her to leave here at Baylor Nation.  I realized as she read, that the Baylor experience imparts to students not only what they can gain personally over four years but the responsibility to pass that wisdom and insight and joy to the next generation of students.  She read a letter that leaves not only a legacy but a challenge to the young women who will do the same over their next four years. Four years ago I wrote letters to Mary Scott with wisdom for life. Four weeks ago, Mary Scott wrote a single letter to a new generation of sisters filled with hope for tomorrow.

Four years ago Mary Scott came to Baylor a young girl plotting out the path to class. Four months from now she will graduate, a young woman,  properly  prepared for life, more uniquely fashioned in His image, more deeply in love with Jesus, and very much someone I want to call friend as well as daughter.

Four years went by so quickly. Four months will fly by as well. And I am certain, as she has over the past four years, Mary Scott will live these last four months to the full.

And that is the Baylor difference. So much life packed into four short years. Four incredible, indescribable years. Join us, for the adventure of a lifetime that prepares your son or daughter for life.