A senior interior design major from White Oak, Anna Dusek, chose Baylor before she chose her major. As a fourth generation bear, Anna says that she never felt pressure from her family to attend Baylor; they just simply showed her the kind of experience she could have that they had experienced themselves.
Anna first visited Baylor for the Spring Premiere as a junior in high school and recalls first hearing about the interior design program. As someone who has always found creative hand-on projects to be the most engaging, this program seemed perfect for Anna. She eventually came back to campus senior year to talk to the department and tour the Goebel building and decided this was the program for her.
After graduation, Anna will be working at an architecture/interior design firm in downtown Dallas; Hoefer Welker. This firm specializes in healthcare design but does a wide variety of large commercial projects. Anna knows that she will be working with other Baylor alumni at this firm.
Anna credits her education at Baylor to preparing her for a career in interior design. She believes that Baylor did so much more than provide her with class credit. She says her education gave her people to look up to, admire, and aim to be more like. It showed her a culture that she had never experienced before.
“Witnessing the truly joyful spirit and selfless nature of my friends and peers is something that I am forever inspired by and exactly what I want to take out into the world after graduation,” says Anna.
Anna looks back on her time with professor, Elise King, in the interior design department. Anna says that Professor King does such a fantastic job of explaining the material and giving students the tools they need to be successful.
“I can recall a specific studio class in which we learned how to create a concept design and the way in which you can pull inspiration from almost anything just sort of clicked. It was through her teachings that I learned that interior design is more than an aesthetic and what ‘looks good’ as that is so subjective. The way to truly be successful in this field is to design for the well-being and health of others to where everything you choose serves a purpose,” says Anna.
Anna has heard stories of her family members preparing for their careers at Baylor, walking away with unforgettable college experiences in addition to a degree. Coming from a long line of Baylor graduates, Anna explains how connected her entire family is to Baylor. With so many Baylor graduates in her family, she believes that Baylor shaped her as a person before she even started college.
Anna says that Baylor has connected her family generationally as they have been able to experience it in different time periods. Anna’s great-grandparents (’43 and ’44) were high school sweethearts and went to Baylor together during WWII. Her grandparents (’65 and ’70) attended during the Civil Rights Movement and Anna’s parents (’91) when the Berlin Wall came down and during the Gulf War. Anna attended Baylor through the course of COVID and her brother will graduate in ’26.
“It is so interesting to consider all the history that has occurred during our college years and how different each era was but yet the love and passion we have for the Baylor experience remains the same. Many of the traditions that I get to enjoy now are the same ones my family experienced before me. I particularly enjoy calling my grandmother while on campus because sometimes she can hear the Pat Neff bell ring in the background and then she feels like she is on campus with me,” says Anna.
The older parts of campus make Anna feel especially connected to her family because they almost always contain a memory. For example, Anna and her grandmother both lived in Collins, and her grandmother remembers getting to know her grandfather while singing in the BRH choir together. Similarly, Anna says that walking on the stage of Waco Hall for Pigskin for the first time was unforgettable. She had watched old Sing videos on Youtube of her mother standing in the same spot of the stage.
“It was so surreal standing in that same spot myself and imagining my mom there at about my age 30 years before that. I have without a doubt always known that Baylor is where I would be. There is just no place that I have a connection to like Baylor or that means the same thing to me,” says Anna.
Anna also explains how her time at Baylor shaped her as a person. Coming into her freshmen year, she already knew all about the traditions, the history, and the campus but she did not expect how impactful her fellow peers have been on her life. Anna says she encountered so many students that serve with a selfless heart and approach life in a joyful spirit.
“I witnessed an atmosphere where people were walking so earnestly with the Lord, it showed just through their actions as they take each opportunity to display the love of Christ to others. The influence this environment had on me was substantial and something I always strive to be better at. I am so grateful to have been surrounded by this type of atmosphere as I have developed over my college years and am equally thrilled to see how it is already influencing my brother in the short time he has been a student here,” says Anna.
