By Maggie Meegan | Reporter
As graduating seniors prepare to say goodbye to the campus they called home, saying goodbye to their favorite professors becomes a reality. The Collins Outstanding Professor Award is one example of a thank-you to the people who have impacted students during their time at Baylor.
One professor who has taught, mentored and left a mark on their students’ lives often receives the Collins Outstanding Professor Award from the graduating senior class.
This year, the senior class elected Baylor alumnus Dr. Walter “Sparky” Matthews, honors clinical professor and pre-med mentor, to receive the award.
After serving 28 years in the Air Force and Space Force, Matthews said he felt it was God’s calling to answer his dream of teaching at Baylor.
“God made it clear to me that he was done with me in the Air Force,” Matthews said. “It was time to move on, and I absolutely love what I do here.”
This year, Matthews completes his sixth year at Baylor, and he said he can’t believe his students found him worthy of the award in such little time.
“The reason I came back to teach is not that teaching is something I have always aspired to do — I teach to support my mentoring habit,” Matthews said. “I love mentoring students; I love to help people become the person they want to be. That’s what I see my mission, my role here is not just to pass on information but to help students succeed.”
Phoenix senior Carlos Alvarado-Richter, who took a class with Matthews three out of his four years at Baylor, greatly admires him for the type of professor and mentor he is to his students.
“He was in charge of running hospitals and making sure that the Air Force members that served for him were well taken care of, that their health was looked after,” Alvarado-Richter said. “One thing that I really valued was his honesty and the stories that he shared and the ways in which he was open about how they shaped him and how they made him a better man, a better leader.”
For students who are considering healthcare or the medical field as a profession, taking a class taught by Matthews is valuable, Alvarado-Richter said.
“It is really valuable to go to a school like Baylor and get to interact with a professor who has a career as he has had,” Alvarado-Richter said. “He has been very willing to interact with students and teach all that he knows.”
