By Matthew Muir | Staff Writer
Baylor’s School of Education hosted their centennial birthday party last Friday afternoon as part of its year-long centennial celebration honoring its founding in 1919.
The event was held in the Marrs McLean Science Building and featured a wide range of attractions. Food consisted of George’s catering, popcorn and cupcakes, and live music was offered by In10City Band. Other attractions included games, a photo booth and giveaways.
San Antonio senior Hannah Player is part of the School of Education and said she was enjoying the event and looked forward to the giveaways in particular.
“I’m excited about them, I hope I win something,” Player said.
The party was as much about educating attendees about the School of Education, as it was providing a fun event for the Baylor community, and a pair of attractions stood-out among those featured at the party for this reason. The first was a timeline of the School of Education’s history which began on the first floor of Marrs McLean with the chartering of Baylor University and wrapped around the staircase. The timeline concluded on the third floor in 2019 with the school-wide launch of the Masters of Arts in Teaching program.
The second was a trivia challenge that sent participants on a hunt around Marrs McLean to learn about the history of Baylor and the School of Education. Participants answered questions ranging from the basic “In what hall is the Education LLC located,” to the more obscure ones like, “How many people are wearing glasses in the Kappa Delta Pi picture?” Participants who achieved a score of at least 12 out of 15 were entered into the final drawing of the afternoon for the chance to win an iPad, AirPods or an Apple Watch.
Cece Lively is the assistant director for the School of Education’s Online EdD program. She attended the party with her daughter, Teegan, and said the pair enjoyed the attractions.
“We had fun doing cornhole, and we’re about to go get a cupcake, but the timeline trivia challenge has been quite fun,” Lively said.
Dr. Terrill Saxon, interim dean of the School of Education, said he was impressed by the trivia challenge.
“I looked through some of the questions on there, in order to answer those you’ve gotta walk through the building and the exhibit,” Saxon said. “I like that because people can go look around a little bit.”
Saxon added that the party as a whole provided an important chance to look back through the School of Education’s first hundred years of history as well as looking forward to the next century.
“It causes us to look back at how we got to where we are today and the importance of the people who have played a role in the development of our school,” Saxon said. “It causes you to think ‘Okay, well, where are we going next?’ It’s fascinating to think about the next hundred years.”
Player said she’s known about the historical significance of the School of Education’s centennial year throughout her time at Baylor.
“I know they told us about it as freshman, they were like ‘hey as a senior you get to be part of the centennial class,’” Player said. “It’s just a big deal celebrating one hundred years of the School of Education at Baylor.”
As for the remainder of School of Education’s centennial year, Lively says she knows more events are coming, but she can’t reveal more than that.
“There are several other events, they kind of unveil as they get closer and closer, so I don’t have a detailed calendar,” Lively said. “I just pay attention as we send emails out.”
