Baylor was 3-9 in 2023 – the second consecutive losing season and third in four years of the Aranda era. The other season was a historic 2021 campaign that resulted in a program-record 12 wins and wins in the Big 12 championship game and the Sugar Bowl. That season was led by a strong group […]
“The beauty of living in a community where small businesses thrive,” said Oh My Juice owner Denitia Blount, “is that it sets a place apart. Whenever I go to a town or city, I want the local flair,” she said. “I want to feel like I’m somewhere different. When you go to a chain, you aren’t seeing what makes a place great. You aren’t tapping into the people. In Waco, people are drawn by what’s homegrown and the diversity of our small businesses.” Inroads have been made in recent years to support that diversity in Waco, even though the challenges for all small business owners everywhere are significant: Inflation. Supply chain issues. Renovation costs. Demands for a quick return by lenders. The Bureau of Labor reports a third of new businesses close within their first two years. It’s worse for minority and women business owners. Blount couldn’t secure a loan to start her business in 2013 unless her husband, who has a successful nationally-recognized business, co-signed. People of color face even more discrimination and other inequities. According to a recent Bloomberg Report, eight out of ten Black-owned businesses fail within the first 18 months.
A Commitment to Inclusion: Empowering Waco’s Minority and Women-owned Small Businesses Read More »
For a time in the 1950s, Baylor graduate John Paul Stapp was the holder of the land speed record and was as famous as Col. Chuck Yeager. Once featured on the cover of Time magazine, Stapp is considered the “Father of the Seat Belt” in the United States and is even credited with coining one
Col. John Paul Stapp: There Was Much More Than Speed to the Fastest Man on Earth Read More »
Candi K. Cann calls herself a death scholar. Technically, the associate professor in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core of the Honors College is a thanatologist, though she allows that most people don’t know what that is. For the record, a thanatologist is a specialist who studies death, dying, grief, and loss. It’s no secret that Americans have been remarkably averse to talking about death, but a 2018 survey released by The Conversation Project suggests that a huge cultural shift may be under way. “We have begun to break the taboo around talking about death,” Ellen Goodman, founder of The Conversation Project, reported at the time.
Named after the historic year Mexican women were given the Right to Vote, the 1953 Tequila company keeps social justice at its core and empowers women at every level: from the Jaliscan Highlands agave farm that sources its ultra-premium Anejo Tequila, to the unionized Mexican distillery that makes it and beyond.
Going to college in the United States is a fraught topic for pundits and politicians, who continually raise doubts about the value and purpose of a higher education. It’s too expensive, it’s for elites, it doesn’t deliver needed job skills, and students and families can end up saddled with crushing debt—whether or not the student actually graduates. But recent polls reveal that graduates still value a diploma. A Harris Poll survey conducted among 2023 college grads revealed that nine out of ten were glad they went to college. They also agreed that a degree is the best way to secure their futures.
Losing Faith in College | The Cost of College: Tuition Read More »
In fall 1957, just 5’9” weighing only 129 pounds Theodore Otto “Ted” Uhlaender journeyed from McAllen to Waco and asked to try-out for the baseball team. As a non-scholarship walk-on, he led the freshman team in hitting. By his junior year, Uhlaender was one of the Southwest Conference’s leading hitters, batting a sizzling .365. Ted was all-Southwest Conference in baseball three times. After graduating, it wasn’t long before he began an eight-year major league career with the Twins, Cleveland Indians, and ending with the Cincinnati Reds.
In May 2023, the most awarded professor in Baylor’s history retired. A year later, he’s working more than ever. Reflecting on his time at Baylor, Robert Darden (’76), master teacher and emeritus professor of journalism, public relations, and new media, has not only left an impact on the university at large but also on the thousands of students who walked into his classrooms for over 30 years. Having had such gifted professors when he attended Baylor in the 1970s, Darden said it was these passionate and informed mentors who he tried to emulate in his classroom, as he desired to carry on their legacy.
Shaping Minds to Sharing Stories: A Professor’s New Journey Read More »
Joe Gage III grew up on the water, his summer days occupied by buoys and the never-ending pursuit of the perfect gliding technique. His father was part of Baylor’s fledgling club water skiing team in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, and the younger Gage — an avid athlete — quickly adapted the elder’s love of the sport. “I’ve played a lot of other sports, but there’s nothing else like this,” Gage III said. “There’s a unique rush with waterskiing, and I’ve always been chasing that rush. I guess you could say it’s in my blood.” His father added: “I can remember going to my tax class with dripping wet clothes because I just came from practice and didn’t want to leave that time with my friends. So, to see Joe fall in love with the sport that gave me so much, that’s really special.”
Her name was Cindy Campbell Brown. Her age was 26. She was a Secret Service agent whose office was on the top floor of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. On April 19, 1995 at 9:02 a.m., Timothy McVeigh, 26, a U.S. Army veteran poisoned with anti-government hate, set off a truck bomb in front of the building where Cindy worked. McVeigh had designed and built the bomb by hand along with his co-conspirator Terry Nichols. The blast sheared off the front of the 9-story, glass front federal building, reducing it to rubble. The ensuing devastation killed 168 people, including Cindy.
Her Name Was Cindy Campbell Brown. She Died In 1995. And It’s Time You Knew Her Story. Read More »
