Friends,
The newest issue of The Baylor Line Magazine feels like the culmination of my career. It was a labor of love, and one of the most fun projects we’ve ever pulled together, from CEO Jonathon Platt’s first mention of “something on critters” to the book in your hands.
To explain why, I have to go back to my senior year at Baylor, when my Behavioral Neuroscience course plucked me out of the classroom to apply what I’d learned in the real world. My group created marketing materials for Reach Therapeutic Riding Center in McGregor (yes, for a neuroscience class, I spent weeks editing a feature-length video; the writing was on the wall, people), and my fascination with equine-assisted services was born. I hope you catch the same bug reading staff writer Katie Mitchell’s Horse Power.
Later, as a young reporter, I was pitched what felt like a silly assignment: What’s up with bird migration in Waco? As someone who was mildly afraid of birds, I bit off more than I could chew. I still remember my hour-long phone interview with Anna Dunbar (whom you’ll meet in Birds of a Feather). She told me to download Cornell Lab’s Merlin Bird ID app, and now I’d consider myself a novice birder. It’s just what happens when you meet the birding community.
So naturally, I sent our wonderful writer Roger Munford to investigate on Baylor’s campus. He found it may start slow, but once you tap into the birders, they all come flocking (pun intended). I’m happy to report that his article, The Birds at Baylor and Beyond, helped spark Baylor students’ interest in chartering a campus Audubon society.
There’s so much more inside. John Kern Strecker’s legacy has been on my story list for years, and staff writer Rebecca Chapman’s piece is funnier and more unexpected than anything I could have written. Curtis Callaway needs no introduction, but the adventures behind his photographs keep me coming back. And let’s face it: Everybody hates mosquitoes, but for the wrong reason, writes student writer Juliana Vasquez.
It may seem frivolous to cover critters — there’s so much else going on at the junction of religion, university culture, and higher education that surely deserves this moment’s attention. But caring for creation is part of that conversation, which is why we begin with Jonathan Hal Reynolds’ reflection on what it means to be a good steward of the land we call home. I hope it helps you see all of God’s creatures a little differently. Yes, even the mosquitoes.
All my best,
Kourtney Nering (’22)
Editor-in-chief, The Baylor Line
