By Emma Whitaker | Reporter Recently, since the Buzzfeed News article “‘Fixer Upper’ is Over, but Waco’s transformation Isn’t” the Baylor community and Wacoans have both positively and negatively responded. The article criticized Magnolia, Antioch Community Church, Waco Tours and other Waco developments.The article was written by Anne Helen Petersen, a senior culture writer for BuzzFeed News. In the article, she said she has always been impressed with Chip and Joanna Gaines’ home renovating dynasty, which she witnessed through the HGTV show Fixer Upper (2013-2018). Petersen said Waco is more than what meets the eye on public television. She also…
Author: Emma Whitaker
Students are deciding their summer plans, and Waco does not seem to be part of the picture.
By Emma Whitaker | ReporterWhile a student’s academic energy may wane as finals season approaches, students’ creative energy never takes a break. The Department of Art and Art History invited Baylor alumnus Humberto Saenz to lecture and provide a printmaking demo to students this past week in Hooper Schaefer Fine Arts Center.Saenz, who was an architecture major going into college changed his major to an art after a professor showed him the work of M. C. Escher, a renowned Dutch lithographer’s work.Lithography is a process of printing artwork, where ink is repelled in any place it is not wanted. Humberto…
When a typical Baylor student goes through four semesters of college classes, it’s inevitable that many pass through the mind and become forgettable. Only a few stand the test of time. Only a few become classes the student will remember forevermore.
By Emma Whitaker | Reporter As graduation and final exams approach campus, summer isn’t the only thing on people’s minds. According to students and faculty, the end of the semester brings heightened anxiety because of looming test grades and future plans. Temple senior Tristan Coffee is graduating in May and she admits to experiencing anxiety about her job plans but also plans to finish her college career strong. “Anxiety is kind of an unsaid normality of senior year. Instead of thriving, I feel like when we ask each other how we’re doing, seniors are just like, ‘Oh, I’m making it,’”…
By Emma Whitaker | ReporterBaylor has long had a reputation of a “ring by spring” culture. Many students push back against this stereotype, and many believe the dating culture is changing dramatically.“Since dating has become more social media based, I feel like the dating culture is much more casual than it used to be, even within Christian, conservative circles,” San Antonio freshman Donese Cole said.San Juan sophomore Michael Salazar said he feels the changing culture has inspired people more to put themselves out there.“I feel comfortable, casual, when going up to meet someone, without it seeming formal at all,” Salazar…
John Lee Hancock appeared in Castellaw through Skype Thursday night to answer student questions about the filmmaker lifestyle and process.
“Heart, I will not lose you.” Those simple words have become my symphony these last few months
By Emma Whitaker | Reporter While most students after spring break are now looking forward to summer, Baylor students are still thinking about their trip down to Tijuana. Over 100 students from Baylor and various Texas universities went down to the border to better understand the conflict of immigration. Here in Waco, the Waco Immigrant Alliance is trying to help immigrants. Hope Mustakim, director of the Waco Immigrant Alliance, faced the challenges of immigration policies in 2011 when Immigrant and Customs Enforcement officers knocked on her door to arrest her husband, Nazry Mustakim, for a drug crime that happened four…
By Emma Whitaker | ReporterImagine a campus of big hair, bow ties and Ray Bans.The ’90s at Baylor not only brought new styles, but also new ways of thinking, as a fresh collegiate identity was being formed. Controversial topics such as dancing on campus and technological advances like the first computer lab on campus arose within the decade.Perhaps different from the settings of “Friends” and “Seinfeld”, Baylor in the ’90s was conservative and tradition saturated. Alumna and graduate of the class of 1995, Jonelle Tucker explains the mixture between traditional Baylor and national culture back in the ’90s.“The culture was…
By Emma Whitaker | ReporterExperience with the freshman 15? Well, it is found that college students struggle with eating well in college. Away from home and high school track coaches, many students treat their body unhealthily those first months, and even years, of college. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, your skin is your body’s largest organ. What goes on within your body is often paralleled in the appearance of your skin. Dr. Elena Villanueva, a holistic doctor whose practice is in Austin, explains that your skin is one of the first platforms toxins are revealed. Villanueva has a…
Some join sororities and all their dreams come true. Other struggle to find their way.
By Emma Whitaker | Reporter Since “Green Book” won Best Motion Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, and Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars, the film has sparked serious conversation nationwide about segregation. In the movie, Mahershala Ali plays a talented black musician who hires a rough, white driver to escort him on a tour in the South. Filled with Jim Crow laws and deep segregation, Ali’s character Don Shirley is forced to stay in black-only establishments, mentioned in the “Green Book.” Waco itself had a “Green Book,” which included establishments such as College View Court-Hotel…
By Emma Whitaker | ReporterDr. Charles Ramsey challenged Texan pastors to shift their way of thinking while speaking at the Ministry Guidance Conference on Wednesday. He discussed “radical evangelism,” a kind of evangelism that is more relational than instructional. George W. Truett Theological Seminary hosted Ministry Guidance Conference from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Fellow pastors, not just within the Waco community, but also of Dallas, Austin, Killeen, and more, were invited to gather for a day of encouragement and pastoral ministry. Louine Adams, the administrative associate of ministry guidance, facilitates the annual event. She says the event…
By Emma Whitaker | Broadcast ReporterMany young adults enjoy YouTube to pass the time. In fact, I have a graduated friend who has a desk job but says he really has just become a professional YouTube watcher. YouTube is said to be the second largest search engine, secondary to the obvious king of kings, Google. Processing more than 3 billion searches a month, YouTube is a well-oiled machine.YouTube can bring together community. I had recently been looking into health vloggers and stumbled across a gigantically interconnected cyperspace community. Veganism thrives on YouTube. Vegan vloggers encourage their fellow cyber friends to…
Vegans and vegetarians can sometimes feel isolated in a typical college environment. Their lifestyle, admist a huge dining hall, can be a challenge.
Baylor’s Martin Museum of Art is always thinking of new and inventive ways to engage with the Waco community.
By Emma Whitaker | ReporterThe Honors College encouraged textual knowledge of literature’s classics on Friday, Feb. 8, in Armstrong Browning Library with the event titled — Ovid, Rhetoric and Freedom of Speech in the Late Augustan Age: A Symposium on the Poet Ovid and his Milieu. Scholars and students alike listened to speakers, who included Carole Newlands, professor of distinction at University of Colorado, Eleonora Tola, from the University of Buenos Aires, Alden Smith, professor of classics at Baylor, Laurent Pernot, of the Institute of France.Lovers of the classics listened to disabilities, ambiguities and possibilities within the text of Ovid…
Picking up your family and moving them overseas is no small task.
By Emma Whitaker | Reporter Waco’s two female Baptist pastors had a long journey to discovering their calling to ministry. Lake Shore Baptist Church lead pastor, Kyndall Rae Rothaus, and Calvary Baptist Church lead pastor Mary Alice Birdwhistell Both, who are graduates of George W. Truett Theological Seminary and received their masters of divinity, discuss the journey it took to discover their calling. Birdwhistell grew up in a Southern Baptist church in Kentucky, where female pastoral roles were virtually nonexistent. When she discovered her desire to lead a church, questions about the stigma around female church leaders arose in her…
By Emma Whitaker | Broadcast ReporterI love boba. My friends and I love 1102 Bubble Tea & Coffee, Waco’s staple boba shop. There we share our deepest thoughts and greatest ideas. 1102 has wonderful service, always smiling and welcoming its customers. My friend Alicia and I were, at one point sophomore year, going weekly to get boba.We’re not the only ones. A drink that was once widely unknown in the United States has, in recent years, become a booming business. In many parts of Austin, boba tea stores are as common as coffee shops. We laugh about it now, but…
By Emma Whitaker | ReporterDr. Mia Moody-Ramirez has accepted the position of new department chair for the department of journalism, public relations and new media. She is starting her new position this summer after Dr. Sara Stone retires on May 31. The application process, while tough, was worth it when Moody-Ramirez received notice Jan. 16 that her appointment was official. “I am very excited. Anyone who knows me knows that I love the journalism department, my students, my colleagues, and am so excited for this next step in my life,” Moody-Ramirez said. As the previous Graduate Program Director, she is…
By Emma Whitaker | Broadcast ReporterHigh school graduation came at just the right time. By the time senior year ended, I was so exhausted I did not have mental capacity to be sentimental. All my mind could envision was moving on — I wanted to know God better. I wanted to be known. I became involved in a community that was more life giving than my wildest dreams could believe possible. However, the forever dilemma of life is how to keep up with old friends as seasons change. My high school friends were a part of me. In our graduating…
By Emma Whitaker | Broadcast ReporterHomecoming is a time where alumni have the opportunity to show their children their alma mater. Baylor’s Bonfire Extravaganza included band performance, mascots, the cheer team, the spirit squad, baton twirling, Hamilton tunes from Virtuoso, food trucks and more.“We helped construct the bonfire and then we helped lights and control the fire during the actually bonfire lighting,” said Broken Arrow, Okla., sophomore Jada Holliday, member of Baylor Chamber. From a child’s perspective, the night is a magical time. When asked what homecoming is, kids say it is a huge party for adults. Baylor is a…
The enneagram personality test is making an impression on Baylor students this year.
It’s not everyday one accidentally creates a sorority.
By Emma Whitaker | Broadcast ReporterRecently, I sat through a talk given by millionaire Grant Cardone for my marketing class. My friend and I sat in our aisle, surrounded by hundreds of business students as the man in front of us went on and on about wealth. His charm was inexpiable, his moxie contagious. Yet, what was his message? Regardless of what you believe, money is simply the best. Chasing money and gaining money will stand the test of time.Instead of people questioning him, he was met with absolute awe. Business students’ eyes were glued to him in adoration and…
By Emma Whitaker | Broadcast Reporter Rosie Garcia, Starbucks barista, has been cheering up people’s lives at Baylor for 11 years now with conversation and compassion. Garcia and her best friend Belinda Olivares originally worked at the previous Starbucks within the Dutton Avenue Parking Garage, which used to be the only Starbucks on campus. The two have since moved to the Moody Memorial Library location.Garcia said she is teaching others daily, from training new employees to teaching students kindness and engagement within the community.Garcia graduated from Howard College, where she was a Phi Theta Kappa. Since then she has worked…
By Emma Whitaker | Broadcast Reporter Frisco junior Jordan Bringe has been working in special education for ten years, and said she fell in love working with kids special needs early on. She also said she loves finding creative ways to teach her students. “Seeing it click is the best thing ever,” Bringe said. All education majors share the same building. However, general education and special education have several differences in regards to direct instruction. Bringe said sometimes people can misunderstand these children or get nervous teaching them. San Jose junior Alicia Chamberlain said she tries to emphasize the importance…
By Emma Whitaker | Broadcast ReporterAshley Futris, owner and co-creator of Bolt Boutique, has brought Austin vibes to Waco. Futris said Bolt is unique in the way it appeals specifically to college students, and that it stemmed from her and her sister’s metal art company called Cactus Rose.”This location was showed to us, and all the piece fell into place, and we were like ‘OK, it’s a sign, let’s just do it,'” Futris said. Surrounding Bolt’s new location downtown are multiple new stores. Waco is brimming with new activity, and Futris said she is excited to be apart of it.While…