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EDITOR’S NOTE
Disruption takes many forms – the good, the bad, the changemakers, and the awakenings. Sometimes a chapter develops the story in a way which cannot help but color the rest of the story. Editor-in-chief Kourtney Nering reflects on blips that disrupted her timeline, and encourages readers to do the same.
features
The Baylor Line Staff
ROBERT F. DARDEN (‘76)
EDITOR EMERITUS
KOURTNEY NERING (‘22)
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
JONATHON PLATT (‘16, MA ‘19)
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
KASSIDY TSIKITAS (‘25)
DIGITAL EDITOR
NINA UM (‘23, MA ‘25)
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE CEO
SAPHIANA ZAMORA (‘22)
CHIEF OF STAFF
15 IT’S A NEW WORLD
In 2025, grad school rules as enrollment increases during an unstable economy where AI is looming.
19 OWEN LIND AND THE BIRTH OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AT BAYLOR
At age 91, Dr. Owen Lind vividly remembers the cacophony of righteous noise at the end of the tumultuous 1960s and how a different voice quietly emerged: a sudden awareness of the environment.
25
A LOOK INSIDE DR. FRANCESCA
PENNER’S LAB AT BAYLOR
How early parenting and child outcomes connect, and the woman behind the work.
29 ROD AYDELOTTE ON THE ART OF MOMENTS
After 44 years at the Waco Tribune-Herald and 16 years teaching at Baylor, photographer Rod Aydelotte pictures possibilities for students and life.
33 THE ARTS CELEBRATE OUR COMMON HUMANITY
Amjad Dabi’s journey from war-torn Syria to the Lone Star State was bittersweet, but a community of kind and caring people helped ease the transition for this Baylor alum.
Baylor Line Fellows
Kate Dusek (‘29)
Jaslyn Heald (‘26)
Kalena Jones (‘25)
Renne Olateru (‘28)
Ashley Yost (‘27)
Board of Directors
Officers
Chair
Karen Walden Jones (‘86)
Chair-elect
Sharon McDonald Barnes (‘78)
Secretary Lindsey Davis Stover (‘99)
Treasurer Robert Morales (‘93)
Chair of Editorial Committee
Robert F. Darden (‘76)
Directors
George Cowden III (’76, JD ’79)
Laura Hilton Hallmon (’96, JD ’99)
McKenzie Oviatt McEntyre (’20, JD ’24)
Jackie Baugh Moore (’86)
Tony Pederson (’73)
Stacy Mays Sharp (’76)
Maleesa Johnson Smith (’16)
Madeline Sneed (’16)
IN CONVERSATION WITH JOHN DAVID RAINEY
From small town Angleton, Texas, Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey’s life lesson of leadership begins with how you treat people.
TALES FROM THE GREEN ROOM
The Baylor Line’s flagship podcast The Green Room brings conversations by Baylor alumni, for Baylor alumni, about the Baylor Family.
CLASSIC: A TALE TOO TRAGIC
A final chapter is written to the international friendship of Gordon Wilkerson and Reza Emam
BEHIND THE COVER
The cover shot is our take on the cover of our Summer 1993 issue, featuring a character we’ve lovingly come to know as Summer Bear throughout this year’s content. Today a storm rips through, disrupting Summer Bear’s serene beach scene.
–Kourtney nering (‘22) editor-in-chief
Friends:
I cut my teeth as a young journalist the same way many Waco journalists do: reporting on whatever fell on my desk at the Waco Tribune-Herald. The beat was, at times, mundane. The hours were long. My car’s mileage was rising. And I often wondered what caused me to stray from my original bigwig plans to be a neurosurgeon that led me here.
Was it the genetics class I failed that dampened my confidence? Was it a journalism professor who opened my eyes to a career I’d never considered before? Was it just a wild hair? Perhaps it was a delicate combination of each — plus all of the moments in my life that seemed out of place at the time but led me here, right where I’m meant to be.
That’s what this issue of Baylor Line Magazine is all about –— Disruption. In fact, the very collection of pages before you went through its own series of twist, turns, and changes of plan before becoming the piece of art you see today. Early this year I set out on creating the Influential Issue, pondering the little things that ripple through life and the people who make a difference.
But we think Disruption — the title that stuck — more clearly defines the message we’re after.
And in rummaging through the archives for the perfect Classic article to close this issue, this quote from 1985’s A Tale Too Tragic stuck out to me:
When we read a chapter in a book, we cannot know in detail what is to come in following chapters — only what we have read so far. Certainly, in the case of Gordon Wilkerson, his family, and the family of Reza Emam, the book is not finished. But this chapter ... has developed the plot in a way which cannot help but color the rest of the story.
Disruption is the uncertainty of chapter one, and the grand adventure revealed in the final chapter that you never could have foreseen. It’s taking a stand against the status quo and coming out on top. It’s those moments and decisions — big, little, offhand, and intentional — that sway the trajectory of our lives. Sometimes it’s the kick you need to get your life together. And sometimes it’s just the beginning of the story.
When you’re on page one, you can’t foresee how the book will end. I hope as you flip through this issue and read the stories of the Baylor Family you take a moment to reflect on the moments of disruption and influence in your own life.
All my best, K ourtney n ering ( ‘22 )
Editor-in-chief, The Baylor Line
IN CONVERSATION WITH
JOHN DAVID RAINEY
John David Rainey leads with empathy, putting people over profit in the boardroom.
From small town Angleton, Texas, Walmart Chief Financial Officer
John David Rainey’s life lesson of leadership begins with how you treat people.
By Jonathon Platt, CEO
Editor’s note: In this episode of The Green Room , CEO Jonathon Platt headed to Bentonville, Arkansas, to chat with Walmart CFO and Baylor alumnus John David Rainey.
The two unpack Rainey’s career in three major companies: United Airlines — formerly Continental Airlines — during its time of transition in a post-9/11 world, PayPal in its transformation into a global tech company, and now Walmart. From throwing luggage with ramp workers to knowing every associate’s name, Rainey’s success story is rooted in his hands-on approach, family, perseverance, and creating communities in a corporate role.
I’ve made a few small edits to this transcript for readability, clarity, and brevity. If you’d like to hear this interview in full, jump over to baylorline.com/john-david-rainey.
Jonathon Platt: You’ve gone from earning your BBA and your MBA at Baylor in the early ‘90s to CFO roles at United Airlines, PayPal, and now, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. That’s a journey that’s taken you from flight decks to Silicon Valley to the Walmart headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. When you think back to being a young Baylor student walking across campus, if you were to draw a through line from that young man to the leader you are today, what would it be? What’s the same about these two men?
John David Rainey: Very clear to me is the emphasis on people and how you treat them. I never felt like I was the smartest person in the room or the most qualified, in some cases, but I always placed an emphasis on how you work with people, how you treat people.
I actually worked construction before college and during college, and you work with all walks of life there. There were a couple of summers where I was the only English speaker on the
construction crew, and I think that really informed me in terms of how I work with people and notably placing equal value on everyone regardless of your title, or where your parking spot is, or how big your office is. That’s been common from that young man all the way through who I am today. It’s important to me to know the janitor’s name and talk to them and greet them just like any other executive.
You’ve credited professors, like Dr. J. William Petty and Dr. Terry Maness, with shaping your leadership philosophy. Was there a class, or an assignment, or even just a single piece of advice from them that you still carry with you into boardrooms or your office every day?
I was very much an average student in undergrad, and I decided I was going to go straight through to grad school. I didn’t really have anything else going on at the time, so I applied and I did not get in. I remember that rejection letter and the punch in the gut it was
like it was yesterday. It was one of those seminal moments in your life where it’s like, “Wow, what am I going to do now?”
I went into the admissions office that afternoon, and I asked them to give me another chance. I said, “I think I’m the type of student that you would want in your program.” And the dean of the department said, “Look, you need to write a formal letter and apply for this.”
And I did. I wrote it that afternoon. About three weeks went by and they said, “We will admit you. We’ll give you that second chance.” And it was that point in my life where I sort of changed my academic trajectory. I decided that I am never not going to achieve something again in life because I didn’t work hard enough. And to be very clear, I was perfectly capable in undergrad, I just didn’t work hard enough. And I went on to make among the highest grades in my graduate class.
Dr. W. James Truitt, who was the head of the economics department, had the capstone class in macroeconomic theory – the class that everyone dreaded in grad school. And I think I made a 4.0 in that class. Because of my performance in that class, he actually asked me to work in the economics department selling Scantrons, and eventually to teach a few classes. I think that set me on a different trajectory.
Dr. Petty, importantly, in grad school was the one that really stimulated my interest in finance. We did a lot of valuation-type work
in his classes and that was the first time in my academic career where I felt like I really love this, and I would love to do this for a living. Up to that point, I had switched majors a few times, I didn’t know what I was going to do, and that was the crystallizing moment for me.
I had Dr. Maness in undergrad. We developed a great relationship after I graduated, and I have just huge respect for what he did as the head of the business school.
You rose through the ranks to CFO at United Airlines – which was Continental Airlines when you started – to the point where you were making billion-dollar decisions, while also learning the details of airport operations and aircraft maintenance. You approached it with what you described as a boots-on-theground approach. Where do you think you developed that leadership style?
I think there’s an element of servant leadership in there. I’ve never been afraid to roll up my sleeves and get into the details of things.
In fact, one of my favorite moments when I was at United was when I actually went out on the ramp and threw bags with the ramp workers, loaded a plane. I said, “We’re not doing this with cameras, this is not for publicity,” but I want to earn the respect of these people. And in the airline business, you largely have unionized workforces and that tend to have a more of a
Rainey sits alongside other Walmart executives at the company’s 2025 Investment Community Meeting.
Rainey was quoted on CNBC’s Cramer’s Mad Dash in July 2025.
combative or adversarial relationship with management, and I wanted them to understand that I’m no different than they are and that I want the same thing.
I think that came from my family, my parents, and even my grandparents – having that attitude that nothing makes you above any type of work or more special than someone else, and I think it’s important to demonstrate that with actions.
How do you think young leaders and executives can model your version of servant leadership?
I spoke to a group of students at Baylor several years ago, and I was telling them, “You’re getting ready to embark on this next chapter of your life and people are going to ask you, ‘What you’re going to go do?’” And I told them, “The more important question probably that will influence your career is how are you going to go do it?” It’s not the what, it’s the how, and I still believe that to this day.
I don’t think there’s anything particularly special about me that has enabled me to accomplish this on paper. But the way that I’ve comported myself, the way that I’ve operated with others over the years – I try to lead in a way that brings out the best of others and makes everybody feel like they have a voice. If you talk to my leadership team, they will tell
you a common trait that I have is when I’m in a meeting, I want to hear everyone’s opinion, even from the lowest rank in the room.
You mentioned leading by example. How do you balance being an example and also being mindful that they’re watching you all the time?
I think that is one of the hardest things for executives. Every single action that you take, someone is evaluating, and in our worst moments, people are judging us. If you show up to meetings when everyone’s watching and you’ve got the best version of yourself, that’s great. But people are also evaluating you by the water cooler, and how you speak to colleagues, and all of those things, and that’s what develops your brand over time.
Sometimes it’s difficult in a business environment to demonstrate your faith. Certainly, as a leader, I don’t want to push my faith on anyone else that may have a different belief. And the adage that I’ve always held to is a quote from St. Francis, “Preach the gospel at all times, use words if necessary.” And I think regardless of your faith or if you have faith at all, that’s actually a really good way to lead. Let people see who you are through your actions –in all times, at your weakest moments – and you actually don’t need to say a lot if you do that.
You spent nearly two decades in aviation before the opportunity presented at PayPal helped you realize you’d gotten comfortable and that you didn’t want to
fear new things. What goes through your head when you’re choosing to make those kinds of leaps, and how do you manage the learning curve of being in a new place – maybe being scared of new things –against losing confidence?
In 2015, I got an outreach from PayPal about becoming their CFO. And like a lot of us do, we list our pros and cons: What if I stay? What if I go? When I really reflected on what was motivating me at United Airlines, they were the wrong things, like what my next title will be, or how much money I’m going to make if I stay here. I realized that’s fleeting, you can go chase that anywhere. I wanted to get out of the car in the parking lot in the morning and be inspired to go into work and be excited about my job, and the idea of learning a new industry did that for me.
When I started at PayPal, the best way I can describe it is it was like learning a foreign language for me. I had become fluent in the airline business having worked there 18 years, and it’s humbling to be a senior executive and go to a new industry and have the lowest level people in the organization know far more than
what you know.
Honestly, I felt like for the first six months, I was dragging down every conversation at work because I couldn’t keep up, and I was simply sort of drafting off everyone else. It was about six months in when there was an inflection where I felt like I’m started to contribute a little bit. Then, not only did I learn it, but I also learned it well in a way that I could go out and communicate it to investors and get them to understand why they should buy the stock and things like that. And that experience emboldened me when Walmart called. I knew I can do this. It’s not easy, but I can go to the retail business now and do the same thing.
How are you staying well-balanced, happy, and healthy in life outside of work? I feel like I bring a better version of myself to work when I have that balance. There have been periods in my career where I’ve just worked ungodly hours and have no balance, and that’s not sustainable long-term. I like to work out, and I realized a long time ago I have to do that in the morning, because if I don’t then something else is going to get in the way later in the day.
The other thing that’s always been important to me is spending the right amount of time with my family. I’ve been fortunate enough that I have been able to prioritize and achieve always having
Rainey rings The Opening Bell at the New York Stock Exchange in January 2024.
Rainey served on Nasdaq’s board of directors.
dinner with my family through the years. I don’t mind working late, and we work all the time with mobile devices these days, but for me, I always wanted dinner time to be that time when devices are down, and we have all four members of the family there. I remember when I first became CFO of United, I was flooded with requests for people to want to have dinner with me. I told my assistant after a couple of weeks, “I’m not going to do it this way.” I said, “Look, I will have two business dinners a month, and that’s it.”
And I don’t care if the president of the United States calls – if they’re number three, then they can get on the list for the next month, because I want to spend time with my family. You have to draw some lines. You have to determine what’s important to you. I think having that balance is really important, and it enables us to bring that best version of ourselves to the work environment.
One of my favorite stories in researching you was when you were at PayPal and you and the other leaders, through a volunteer program, learned that some of the employees at PayPal were visiting and utilizing a food bank. Can you walk us through, one, what you felt in that moment as the CFO, and then how you and the leadership team and the other key stakeholders involved ultimately made the decision to invest millions in raising wages, cutting healthcare costs for employees, and providing stock to every team?
There was somebody that had been running customer service for us – PayPal’s largest group
of employees – and when the person leading that group decided to leave the company, I took it in addition to my CFO responsibilities, and I threw myself into that. It was humbling to run a group like that not having that experience.
As I talked to some of my leaders, there were stories about some of our employees that actually were needing to go to food banks, and there was actually one employee that had been sleeping in their car. And I was like, “How can that be?” This individual was in Omaha, Nebraska, and that didn’t seem right to work for a company that was seemingly that successful, but that success wasn’t flowing all the way down through its employees.
So I talked to my leaders in the customer service group. What could we do to make an impact here? And we decided that we could take a couple steps in terms of increasing wages and also giving them stock that would actually have an operational benefit to us. That was a group with a lot of turnover, and you spend a lot of time training an employee like that – all these things cost money. And what we did was take an analytical approach to this to say, “If we spend this amount of money to compensate them more, we actually think that we can reduce attrition and training costs by a certain amount to defray most of that cost.” From there, the CEO basically said, “We’re going to do this for all employee groups. We have an opportunity to pay people more appropriately than what they’re being paid today.” That really caught wings, and I was really happy to be on the leading edge of that.
THE GREEN ROOM
Hosted by CEO Jonathon Platt, The Baylor Line’s flagship podcast The Green Room brings conversations by Baylor alumni, for Baylor alumni, about the Baylor Family. Converging at Baylor, interviewees bring stories from all walks of life and diverge on journeys of extraordinary heights (literally), on the big screen, and across the world.
To hear full interviews with all the guests, visit baylorline.com/podcast/.
ALEXANDRA BENDA
Former United States Marine Corps Reservist; Deployment Strategist at Air Space Intelligence
“What was it like learning you’d be flying with the Marine One squadron?”
“When I was even at Baylor, I remember seeing that the first female that was ever a Marine One flew President Bush and President Obama. … It was in the news because that was a big deal. … I remember in the back of my head thinking, ‘Man, it’d be really cool to follow in those footsteps and get to fly the president someday.’ … Framing my career and perspective, I was able to be successful in my first six years [as a Marine], which enabled me to apply to go to the presidential helicopter squadron. … They don’t take just anybody.”
A podcast from
DR. JETER BASDEN
AMANDA HAYES ROARK
Booking Producer at Bloomberg TV
Q: “How do you make sure work and life stay in equilibrium while working in demanding positions?”
“That is the ongoing question. That’s something I’m always working on learning more about and fine-tuning. The example that comes to mind is this most recent election day, November 2024, with my fellow booking producers. They were talking about how everyone’s holding up with just a long day of anticipation. … I’m a believer in trying to stay calm, whatever way that looks like for any individual, even if the environment around you is stressful.
Retired Director of Ministry Guidance; Professor Emeritus of Religion
Q: “If you could go back and talk to that student on campus who’s finding his way, is there anything, any advice you’d give him?”
A: “I’d say try to figure out who you are, a student. Understand your strengths, understand your abilities, and play to those strengths. God created you uniquely. And then build on those strengths by your educational experiences. It’s not a one size fits all. Every student is unique. I would encourage them to explore right at the undergraduate level. Take courses that interest them and follow your interests. I think those are God-given as well. Follow your strengths, build on who you are.”
REV. DR. ERIC MATHIS
Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C.
Q: “Baylor prepared you spiritually for the work you do now. If there’s a student who’s experiencing some of the same curiosity, confusion, or even pain you were experiencing, what do you think they need to hear in order for them to know it’s going to be OK?”
A: “Truett was very, very Texas Baptist. What I wish I would’ve gotten more of there was a more ecumenical perspective, a more global perspective on Christianity and on the church than just Texas Baptist. The church is about much more than that, and I wish that bigger picture would’ve been painted a little more for me.
“I would also say I’m someone who came out as gay later in life and I think a lot of that and coming out later is my own challenge. … I do think that any institution does a disservice to its students when they don’t give them the space to name and explore fully who they are and also to set that in the context of the God who created them.”
DR. FELIPE HINOJOSA
John and Nancy Jackson Endowed Chair in Latin America; Professor of History
Q: “How did being raised in a predominantly Catholic, MexicanAmerican sanctuary church impact your approach to teaching, to scholarship, and even to advocacy?”
A: “I’m not your typical history professor that’s going to give you a timeline of dates and quiz you on ‘What date did this happen?’ I’m a person of faith. I’m a preacher’s kid. There’s probably going to be some preaching going on maybe every once in a while, not to proselytize or convert students, but to raise questions of morality and ethics in the history classroom. ... I want them to leave somewhat troubled, asking questions, and hopefully being able to go into different settings in their universe. I think that’s why people are trying to go after [history], or change it, or keep it from being taught, or exclude it from the curriculum. Because people know just how powerful it can be.”
Host Jonathon Platt brings The Baylor Line’s newly renovated podcast studio to life with heartfelt stories from the Baylor Family. | Photo by Sophia Malouf
DR. CORETTA PITTMAN
Vice Provost for Community Engagement and Belonging
Q: “What values did your predecessor Dr. Stephen Reid hold, and what are some of your plans to enhance those values even further in the Baylor Family?”
A: “One of the things I love about Steve Reed is that he’s a kind human being. I think sometimes in this fast-paced world that kindness is seen as a weakness, so I value the fact that when he’s engaging with people across ethnic groups or racial groups or gender or whatever, he’s just kind. … He also believes in grace. When people make mistakes, he extends grace to them. I want to keep that in mind as well. I’m not going to be perfect, and I want somebody to give me grace in my role or just as a human. … We ought to be looking out for each other, and that’s something that I have watched him do as well.”
AMBASSADOR DOUG SILLIMAN
President of Arab Gulf States Institute; Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq
Q: “You mentioned the high school teacher who really awakened your interest in political science in foreign service. What do you remember about their conversation with you?”
A: “Her name was Carolyn Hines. And I said, ‘Ms. Hines, I’m going to take Latin IV for my senior year,’ and she said, ‘That’s great. You’re the only Latin IV student, so you’re going to get an A and instead of studying Latin, you’re going to help me develop a curriculum and help me teach an English as a second language class.’ … She also called my father and said, ‘Mr. Silliman, when Doug graduates from high school, as a present you should send him on a trip somewhere outside the United States. He needs to see something other than the United States, just to whet his appetite for the rest of the world.’ Mrs. Hines and her husband paid for me to go on a three-week trip to Europe. …For all of you out there who are in education programs, who are teachers, who want to be good teachers in the future, you really can make a difference with your students.”
LISA HANNA
Head of Public Affairs and Policy Communications at
Delta Air Lines
Q: “Before working in government and policy in Washington D.C. you worked at a local Waco TV station. What do you remember most about being a young journalist navigating the news scene?”
A: “When 9/11 happened, I remember being in the newsroom that morning. I had just gotten to work and watched the plane fly into the second Twin Tower. … I remember going out to [President George W. Bush’s ranch in] Crawford … and just standing out there and witnessing the unbelievable situation that we were in – history. We had been attacked. Our president had just landed back in Texas. … Our world will never be the same. … Just realizing that you’re actually getting to cover history in the making and that day in that moment changed lives for eternity.”
IT’S A New World
By Leslie George
In
2025,
grad school rules
as enrollment increases during an unstable economy where AI is looming.
While there may be no signs that a tepid United States economy is abating this fall, enrollment in law schools and other graduate programs across the country is booming. Graduate enrollment in the U.S. reached over 3.1 million students this past spring, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, surpassing pre-pandemic levels by 7.2 percent. Some 4.5 percent of those are enrolled in law schools.
This trend is not new, said Dr. Ray Perryman, president and CEO of The Perryman Group, an economic research and analysis firm based in Waco. “We also saw it during the 2008 economic crisis,” Perryman said. “When uncertainty or an economic slowdown is affecting opportunities, the relative attractiveness of an additional degree increases.”
“The economy is normally a factor when it comes to graduate enrollment,” said Dr. Christopher Rios, Baylor’s associate dean for enrollment management. When the job market is down, he noted, those already in
the workforce who lose jobs or struggle to advance in their careers often see graduate school as a way to enhance their resume.
“At the same time,” he added, “many recent bachelor’s graduates see grad school as a good place to weather the storm.”
Unemployment for U.S. college grads between ages 20 and 24 is at more than a 10-year high, according to The Wall Street Journal, which also reported that entry-level hiring is down 17 percent since April 2019, and employers are increasingly demanding three to five years of experience for jobs that new graduates used to get. Encoura reports the unemployment rate for recent graduates nationally is 5.8 percent. That number jumps to 52 percent for four-year college graduates who are “underemployed,” defined as holding a job that doesn’t require a bachelor’s degree, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Another factor that makes graduate school attractive is that it’s a good investment, said Perryman. Graduates with advanced degrees in health, business, and law are not having the same problems as other
undergraduates when it comes to finding jobs, he noted. Baylor Law has proved exceedingly successful on that front this year, according to a Reuters analysis of data released in 2025 by the American Bar Association. Baylor Law achieved the thirdhighest employment rate in the nation for its 2024 graduating class. Some 94-95 percent of Baylor Law’s juris doctor graduates secured full-time, bar-passage-required positions within ten months of graduation. Baylor came in just behind Cornell Law School, which had a job fulfillment rate of 96.43 percent, and No. 1 Duke, which had a 97.83 percent rate.
Baylor Law School graduates have long been recognized as practice-ready, and that reputation continues to resonate strongly with employers. “While the national legal market is currently absorbing new graduates at an exceptional rate, we are also seeing sustained demand for experienced talent in our region,” said Jeremy Counsellor, dean of Baylor Law School. “Employers consistently seek out Baylor Law School graduates for their rigorous training, practical skills, and ability to contribute immediately in professional settings.”
Applications to Baylor Law School for fall 2025 have increased by nearly 40 percent year over year, and the applicants’ academic credentials have also improved.
Besides an uncertain job market, Dean Counseller offered an additional explanation for the drive in applications. “The recent change in LSAT format may have prompted some students to apply sooner than they otherwise would have,” he said.
Despite the increase in applications, Baylor Law is not expanding its overall enrollment beyond current levels. “We want to maintain our low student-to-faculty ratio and the collaborative, student-centered environment that defines Baylor Law School,” Counseller said.
In other news for law schools around the country, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ban on affirmative action in college admissions, racial and ethnic diversity among law school students remained stable
10-Year High
The current unemployment rate for U.S. college grads between ages 20–24
3.1 million
Students enrolled in grad school in the U.S. in spring 2025
40%
Percentage that applications to Baylor Law School increased for fall 2025
1 in 4
Number of jobs that could be impacted in the near future by generative AI
17%
Percentage entry-level hiring is down since April 2019
5.8%
Unemployment rate for recent college grads
52%
Percentage of four-year college grads who are underemployed
in 2024, with the percentages of Black, Hispanic, and Asian first-year juris doctor students nearly the same or slightly improved compared to 2023.
Another reason for the grad school surge, Perryman explained, is because of the way AI is impacting jobs. “It’s a nuance that didn’t exist in 2008,” he noted. “In 2025, we are seeing people who want to level up their skills to deal with the dramatic changes coming for some occupations.”
Current estimates indicate that as many as one in four jobs could be impacted by generative AI, Perryman said. “This strongly suggests that adaptability and continuous ‘upskilling’ will be absolutely critical,” he continued, “and schools should be preparing students with this inevitable evolution in mind.”
Consultant Dr. Mary Landon Darden, president of Higher Education Innovation, LLC, agrees. “We are seeing a shift into programs that offer higher education certificates that don’t require a traditional graduate education,” she said. “Sometimes employers want to keep the employee but want their skills in certain areas to be enhanced — and that is attractive to the student. A certificate program can be more user-friendly than a traditional graduate education.”
In that respect, Baylor’s Graduate School, where enrollment is up this year, Rios said, is on course: “The fastest growth area over the past five years has been in our professional, online, and hybrid programs specifically designed to meet the needs of working professionals.” Baylor is also beginning to offer graduate certificates based on credit-bearing graduate courses that give specialized education training in ten distinct areas, including business analytics, cybersecurity, learning design and technology, and RF and microwave engineering.
“Every major technological revolution in human history, dating back to the wheel about 5,500 years ago, has ultimately created more jobs than it displaced,” noted Perryman, “but it also made some skills
As the use of AI rears its head into learning spaces, how do students and professors keep up? Professors featured in The Baylor Line’s partner article, How AI Has Influenced Higher Education–And How Baylor is Hopping Onboard, chime in.
“As far as I know, the students are using [AI] for all kinds of things. Now if the question is, ‘What are they allowed to use it for?’ That’s a different question.”
Dr. Pablo Rivas, assistant professor of computer science
“If you’re using it as a tool, you can do more. And that’s great for society, I think. Baylor has reached a good balance in demonstrating that we’re thinking about these things
and actively investigating AI ... and at the same time, allowing professors to maintain their academic freedom.”
Dr. Andrew Freeman, assistant professor of computer science
“The more I used it, the more I started doubting myself as a writer and a thinker. You can’t bury your head in the sand anymore. You really have to educate yourself, because otherwise you’re just going to get plowed over and left behind.”
Dr. Kara Poe Alexander, managing director, Center for Writing Excellence
obsolete along the way.”
For example, he points out that while some legal firms may increasingly use AI for certain tasks, including contract analysis, e-discovery, and legal research, AI-related fields requiring legal expertise are simultaneously emerging, for example around data privacy, cybersecurity, the environmental impact of data centers, copyright law, and AI regulation.
Looking ahead, Baylor’s Christopher Rios noted that nobody knows if this surge in grad school enrollment will continue. Analysts predict that falling birth rates after the 2008 economic crisis have precipitated a potential steep decline in undergraduate applications starting this year, known as the “demographic cliff.”
“It’s just hitting colleges now,” he noted. “We’re all waiting to see how the demographic cliff may affect graduate enrollment. My guess is that the growing need for advanced degrees in the professions will mitigate the kind of headwinds undergraduate enrollment is facing.”
And the demographic cliff may not be an issue in every college. “From the reports I’m seeing, enrollment in graduate and undergraduate programs is way up for HBCUs and traditionally women’s colleges,” said Darden. Her explanation is simple: “Why would any student want to go to a college where they will be discriminated against,” she said, pointing to President Donald Trump signing executive orders against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts and his record of putting women’s health in danger.
“On June 27 of this year, the president at the University of Virginia, James E. Ryan, was forced to resign under pressure from the Trump administration’s Justice Department because of the university’s DEI efforts,” Darden said. “It’s monstrous. To me, it makes perfect sense that wherever you start legalizing racism, people who are impacted are going to avoid those places.”
Rios and Darden are concerned about other changes in federal policy that may impact enrollment. “Reductions in research
funding and student visas will have a large and immediate effect,” Rios explained. “Many research universities have already begun shrinking their incoming classes. And the recently unveiled efforts to end the federal GradPLUS loans could have a devastating effect — either by limiting the range of people able to afford graduate school or by exacerbating the existing student debt crisis.”
“Federal partisan meddling in programs like the Public Service Loan Programs (PSLP) will not only impact enrollment but, ultimately, society,” posed Darden. “The PSLP has made law school more affordable for public interest lawyers who want to get into legal aid, public defense, and nonprofit work,” she said. “As of March 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Education to exclude participation by nonprofits that he doesn’t agree with — those that work for women’s health or immigrant rights, for example.
“It’s outrageous. It’s flatly unconstitutional. And that’s just one.”
Looking ahead, Darden said her mission is nothing less than transforming higher education. “Fifty percent of college courses were already online before COVID,” she noted. Only 15 percent of prospective college students will be in the traditional 18 to 24 age range, she added. “Eighty-five percent of undergrad and graduate students in the future will be non-traditional.”
The enrollment demographic cliff can probably be made up for — institutions of higher education will just have to be proactive, not reactive.
“Those of us in higher education need to be curators now,” Darden continued, “and look at industry and technology as partners, and offer STEM programs along with how government should work, and have students also understand subjects like environmental protection law and how it all fits together. Our students are global now, and include working professionals, retired boomers, and folks switching careers, as well as teenagers. It’s a new world.”
OWEN LIND and the Birth of Environmental Studies at Baylor
By Robert F. Darden, Editor Emeritus
The building of a better environment will require in the long term a citizenry that is both deeply concerned and fully informed. Thus, I believe that our educational system at all levels has a critical role to play.”
–President Richard M. Nixon
At age 91, Dr. Owen Lind still vividly remembers the cacophony of righteous noise at the end of the tumultuous 1960s — Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement — and how a different voice quietly emerged, one that captivated the Baylor Family: a sudden awareness of the environment. Students and faculty alike turned to Silent Spring, A Sand County Almanac, Future Shock , and The Greening of America. And Baylor heard.
Lind remembers — because he was there.
The first official reference at Baylor to the “environmental movement” — a grab bag of very real concerns related to pollution, renewable energy, and overpopulation — appears in a press release citing a September 1969 report that detailed the University’s response to the need for “problem-focused education,” as outlined by President Richard Nixon’s Environmental Quality Council (EQC). The report strongly recommended that universities fund interdisciplinary environmental studies.
Baylor was one of the first schools to respond to the EQC’s request. President Abner McCall assembled a committee of some of Baylor’s
most respected professors, including David Pennington of the chemistry department, O.T. Hayward (geology), Victor Strite (English), W. Merle Alexander (physics), David McHam (journalism), Chuck Edwards (political science), Mike Morrison (law), Fred Gehlbach (biology), and Richard Scott (economics), headed by Dan McGee of the religion department. The committee was charged with creating the curriculum for what was called the Institute for Environmental Studies.
McGee’s committee proposed a new degree with classes drawn from various other majors. The degree, which also needed to be coupled with an existing major, was first offered in fall
1970. Lind, then assistant professor of biology, was named as the first director. And thus began a remarkable 50-year career at Baylor, keeping the school at the forefront of the new discipline internationally.
Lind, still exuding energy and confidence, remains engaged in the environment, particularly his lifelong passion, limnology, the study of lakes. He’s also got a mind like a steel trap, with an excellent memory for details, people, and places.
Lind grew up in Emporia, Kansas, graduated from William Jewell College with a major in biology in 1956, and soon found himself with the Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Company in the development and final test and distribution of the Salk polio vaccine, working primarily with monkeys as test subjects.
After four years, Parke-Davis paid for Lind to attend the University of Michigan. “They said, ‘You’ve moved about as far as you can go here with a bachelor’s degree,’” he recalled. “‘If you want, we’ll send you off to the University of Michigan for a master’s degree. Pick a master’s degree that’s quick and get back here.’”
In order to speed up his coursework, Lind said he chose to take classes at UM’s biological field station in upper Michigan on the Straits of Mackinac. After a few classes in the woods and fields surrounding Lake Michigan, Lind said
he realized, “Damn, this is fun. This is a whole lot better than being chased around cages by monkeys and getting nipped on your ankles. So why should I go back there?”
After two years teaching biology at his alma mater William Jewell, his mentors at Michigan recommended that Lind pursue a doctorate at the University of Missouri, where he studied lakes acidified by the toxic drainage from mines. When he received his Ph.D. in 1966, Lind received several offers to teach, ultimately accepting the position of assistant professor of biology at Baylor.
Lind’s advocate at Baylor was another legendary professor, Dr. Fred Gehlbach, a specialist in wildlife ecology and conservation. Lake Waco had begun to be refilled in 1965-66 and Gehlbach argued that Baylor needed a limnologist. “Nobody was studying the ecology and functioning of reservoirs — man-made systems,” Lind recalled. “So, this was a pretty good opportunity to start something new and build a program around an area nobody else was studying.”
Lind’s salary offer from Baylor in 1966 was a whopping $6,500, which was what he had
Dr. Lind and Dr. Dan McGee on the original committee that created the Environmental Studies major.
been making at Parke-Davis before he left for graduate school several years earlier. But just before he arrived in Waco, Lind received a letter from George M. Smith, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences: “The letter said, ‘Owen, we’ve got better enrollment than usual, so we’re going to raise your salary to $7,000. We feel it’s fair to do this for you.’
“So that shows you how my feeling was to these people,” Lind said. “There was no push, no drive on my part at all. And it was a good place to work, a good place to be.”
At the time, research was appreciated but not required at Baylor. Lind said he remembered an early statement by McCall to the faculty: “If a student ever comes to my office and says that they can’t find you to talk with about their course, and you’re in your research lab, I’ll fire you.”
Lind’s initial teaching load included classes in introductory biology, plant physiology, biological energetics, and a new course in limnology — with any research taking a back seat.
The arrival of President Herbert Reynolds, who offered his services to Baylor gratis as a research facilitator, changed things. Reynolds invited any professor who might be interested in research to visit him at his home in Fort Worth. Lind, who had been conducting research on nights and weekends, drove to Fort Worth to meet Herbert and his wife Joy and the two men immediately hit it off. (“I may have been the only professor who took advantage of Herb’s offer,” Lind said with a smile.)
Shortly thereafter, Lind said he received a note
from McCall: “I know you’ve been talking with Herb Reynolds. We’re thinking about bringing him down as executive vice president. What do you think of that?”
“So, that’s how Herb and I got off to a good start together,” Lind said.
Reynolds’ arrival as executive vice president in 1969 had an immediate impact on the two departments offering a Ph.D. at the time: biology and chemistry. Lind said he then “buried” himself in his research. So much so, he said he wasn’t even aware of the new committee that had been formed to investigate — then create — Baylor’s new multidisciplinary program focused on environmental sciences.
“The next thing I know, I get a call from Herb Reynolds saying, ‘I’d like you to consider taking on the directorship of this new program.’ I said, ‘What program is that?’”
That’s how in fall 1970 Owen Lind became the director of the degree-granting Institute of Environmental Studies, believed to be only the second such program in the United States (after the University of California, Santa Barbara).
Lind said the new program soon proved popular, with students double-majoring in environmental
Left: Joe Yelderman examines water collected from Waco Creek on campus, circa 1971. Right: President Abner McCall, Gus and Bonnie Glasscock, and Owen Lind at the future Environmental Studies Center.
COURTESY OF JOE YELDERMAN (L), OWEN LIND (R)
studies and any one of several other majors, including biology, chemistry, economics, geology, physics, political science, English, and journalism.
He was also able to re-double his research in Lake Waco and other bodies of water. Lake Waco, originally created in the 1930s, had become stagnant and nearly toxic from fertilizer runoff, wastewater, sewage, and other pollutants.
“You had a documented case of a very bad situation from the over-enrichment of nutrients that killed the old Lake Waco,” Lind said, “all of which is recorded in the lake sediments. When the Corps of Engineers came and built a new lake right on top of the old one, that gave us the opportunity to study the old lake by studying the history of its sediments. What nutrients are in there? What kind of pollutants were there? You get to study the evolution of lakes in rapid scale and in a human lifespan.”
In the early 1970s The Lariat frequently featured articles about Lind and his work — he was everywhere, promoting the new major; encouraging, addressing, and even hosting student groups interested in the environment; and taking students on field trips.
Students noticed, including Joe Yelderman. Yelderman, the son of a country doctor in tiny Needville, Texas, had originally enrolled at Southern Methodist University in geology, but was uncertain of his direction. After his father visited his daughter Cynthia at Baylor in spring 1970, he brought Yelderman a copy of an article in The Lariat reporting on Baylor’s new Institute for Environmental Studies.
“I was struggling to find exactly what I wanted
to do,” Yelderman said. “I knew it wasn’t the traditional dinosaurs or oil in geology. I set up an appointment with O.T. Hayward from the new major’s advisory board and that conversation was all it took.”
Yelderman said he was initially drawn to geology, the study of the earth in all of its aspects, because it was already the most interdisciplinary of majors. Environmental science was clearly highly interdisciplinary as well. “So, it fit well,” he said. “I was happy in my place.”
Yelderman, one of the new degree’s earliest majors, said the environmental studies office was a small room in the Moody Library basement, but the major was already having an outsized impact.
“Owen, of course, was the driving force,” Yelderman recalled. “Owen was also pushing and going toward his focal goal of reservoirs and lakes — limnology was his deal. He was very, very dynamic, very committed to his field, and wanted badly to grow the area of limnology and the environment. He was instrumental in recruiting donors to help support the program.
“Owen was also pushing a lot more for research and research grants, unlike the more traditional Baylor teaching faculty model.”
According to Yelderman, Lind’s passion extended to the classroom.
“He was good,” Yelderman said. “He was a rigorous professor. He was very serious and enthusiastic about his field and things he was teaching. He was a good professor, but you had to put some effort into it. I didn’t cruise through anything he taught!”
Inspired, Yelderman said he threw himself into the field and became one of the first two
Left: Gus Glasscock shovels at the groundbreaking of the environmental studies building.
Right: A Rocky Mountain biology classroom.
students on the institute’s faculty board.
By 1974, demand was such that when Baylor offered a master’s degree in environmental studies, the school quickly received more than 350 requests for information from across the United States. Baylor’s undergraduate program had also grown to such a degree that it moved to the Glasscock Environmental Studies Building — named after its donor, the Gus Glasscock family of Houston — near the Baylor Marina in 1975. The building, which cost $313,000, housed offices, classrooms, and research centers, including one for microbiological analysis. Lind told The Lariat at the time that students would be able to study the effects of pollutants, such as mercury, on fish in large water troughs, as well as using outside research facilities where he hoped to create model ecosystems.
Also making its first appearance in 1974 was the environmental studies van, a 1974 Pace Arrow bus, which soon became a familiar fixture around the Baylor campus. The van, paid for with a gift from the Cooper Foundation, took Lind’s students on field trips to the Rocky Mountains and elsewhere to study biological factors on lakes and streams.
While still at Baylor, Yelderman pitched longtime City of Waco planning official Bill Falco to hire him and create the first environmental atlas of McLennan County. Falco agreed and Yelderman did the work — and the atlas became Yelderman’s thesis. “They paid for it,” he said with a smile, “and they paid for me to do it.”
After graduation, Yelderman had a couple of jobs, including one working for a uranium mining company in South Texas, which sparked an interest in hydrogeology. He completed his
Ph.D. in hydrogeology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and accepted a position at Baylor in fall 1983, returning with the opportunity to work with Lind once again.
“I knew I wanted to teach. I wanted to be a professor,” Yelderman said, “and I liked Baylor. I liked the philosophy of it.”
By 1983, Lind, who had stepped down as chair of the environmental studies department several years earlier, was studying bodies of water from Michigan to Mexico, including the endangered Lake Chapala in Mexico, funded by a National Science Foundation grant. Accompanied by his wife, Laura Davalos-Lind — also a scientist — Lind traveled to Lake Chapala and took thousands of water samples in an attempt to unravel the “biological Gordian knot” of what was killing the lake.
Lind retired in 2016 to a host of awards and nationwide recognition, including Emeritus Professor. One of the honors he said he’s proudest of is being recognized as a Distinguished Mentor by the Association of Graduate Schools. The second was recognition by the National University of Mexico (UNAM), in Mexico City, for his contributions to the development of limnological science in that country. The relationship has meant that there has been a steady pipeline of students in environmental science from Mexico at Baylor. Other awards include becoming the Texas Academy of Science’s Distinguished Texas Scientist in 2009, and Outstanding Professor (Scholar) at Baylor in 2002, to go along with nearly 50 publications
The Glasscock Environmental Studies Building under construction.
and 31 dissertations directed.
How influential has Baylor’s legacy been nationally? Since 1973, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement has been akin to the Nobel Prize in environmental studies, a $250,000 gift awarded annually by Farmers Insurance Group founders John and Alice Tyler. Lind was on the award’s original executive committee and served for nearly 50 years.
Today the Department of Environmental Science is another legacy of Lind and the original institute. The department, with Dr. George Cobb as chair, is one of Baylor’s largest and includes research in environmental and human health, biomedical sciences, and environmental quality, and offers both master’s and doctoral degrees.
Another legacy from the earliest limnology classes and research is the multi-disciplinary Center for Reservoir and Aquatic Systems Research (CRASR), with biology professor Dr. Thad Scott serving as the director. Scott said he nurtured his love for the environment by “swimming and boating” on the rivers and lakes around Brownwood. “But as a first-generation college student,” Scott said, “I had no idea that these waterbodies of my youth were filled with tiny green microorganisms that would inspire my passion for biology.”
It was at Baylor, Scott said, that he discovered the endlessly fascinating intersection between ecology and water chemistry, with Lind as one of his mentors. After receiving his Ph.D. in biology and joining the faculty at the University of Arkansas, Scott returned to Baylor — ironically — when Lind’s retirement left an opening in the department. The Baylor position was a better fit professionally, but Scott said it was an easy call to make anyway because of the “strength of the program that Owen had left behind in water and limnology” that has become “so wellknown nationally.”
CRASR is internationally recognized for its research facilities on the 174-acre Lake Waco Wetlands environmental mitigation project on the North Bosque River that came about as the result of negotiations in 2001 by the biology department’s Dr. Robert Doyle, who was then the director of CRASR. The 6,000-square-foot facility’s Research and Education Center had its grand opening on August 27, 2004.
According to Dr. Bryan Brooks, the longest-
serving professor in the department, the Institute of Environmental Studies formally changed its name to the Department of Environmental Science in fall 2007.
Today, Owen and Laura have fully retired and continue their lifelong passion of travel — particularly “trying to whittle down the bucket list,” Owen said, “and cruising around the world as much as we can.”
Looking back on Lind’s ongoing impact, two of his former students — Yelderman and Scott — agreed that his life’s work is an indelible part of Baylor past and present.
Yelderman, who has also had a long and distinguished career, became chair of Baylor’s influential Department of Geosciences on June 1, 2021. Yelderman called Lind “a great early leader” of the department.
“As the first director, Owen was very instrumental,” Yelderman said, “because he had to convince people and get things started. His personality was that way and he was very good at that. As a limnologist, he stayed true to his area and really did everything he possibly could to grow these programs.
“And in the field of limnology, Owen’s impact has been phenomenal [in part] because he has mentored Ph.D. students that have gone on to make great contributions and his ability to direct Baylor’s emphasis in the CRASR program — more so than anybody else.”
Scott said that Lind, as one of the longestserving professors in Baylor history, has had an extraordinary impact on the University.
“He has had a huge, huge legacy in terms of the footprint he left behind at Baylor of just pursuing all sorts of different subdisciplines within ecology and limnology and environmental science,” Scott said.
“Internationally, his work on reservoirs is still extremely well-cited. He was a pioneer in studying man-made lakes — that’s a huge legacy in our field.
“Finally, every time his book, Handbook of Common Methods in Limnology, first published in 1974, comes up, people ask me about it. To this day, people will still ask me, ‘Do you have any copies of that book?’ and they want Owen to sign them.”
A LOOK INSIDE DR. FRANCESCA PENNER’S LAB AT BAYLOR
How early parenting and child outcomes connect, and the woman behind the work.
By Natalie Grigson
As any good clinical psychologist knows, the seeds of who a person will become are planted early on in life.
Dr. Francesca Penner, an assistant professor in Baylor’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, is well known for her work with parents and children — mostly researching the connection between parental mental health and children’s socioemotional development. But as big of a name as she’s made for herself in academia, she’s relatively new to
Dr. Penner grew up in Northern California, her family moving to Middle Tennessee during her high school years. Of course, then she was just known as Francesca, and she
was very much a younger version of who she is today. Already as a youth she was deeply focused on academics, dabbled in sports — “though I would not call myself athletic,” she laughs — and had already taken on the role of “therapist” among her friends.
She first wanted to follow in the footsteps of both her parents and become a teacher and even majored in English at the University of Chicago. But life had other plans for Penner. In 2009, just after she graduated, the workforce was in a huge slump and the country in a recession. In a backup plan that ended up lasting four years, Penner landed a job teaching not English, but math curriculum online.
“I actually learned from that job that I didn’t really want to be a teacher,” she said. “It just wasn’t the right path for me.”
“I knew I wanted to work with kids, though,” she added. “So that sort of pushed me in the direction of child psychology.”
Long story short, Penner ended up at Vanderbilt to get her master’s degree in child studies with a focus on child development and child psychology. She then went to the University of Houston for her Ph.D. in clinical psychology, then Yale’s Child Study Center for a postdoctoral fellowship before landing at Baylor.
Dr. Francesca Penner
Of course, as those in Penner’s field of psychology know there is no “long story short;” not really. There is always an underlying why
It’s Personal
When Penner was growing up in the ‘90s and early-2000s, the world was different. We didn’t have shows talking about mental health, we didn’t have TikTok “experts” giving us tips on anxiety, and there certainly weren’t many adults modeling vulnerability.
Fortunately for Penner, she said her parents were “very open about mental health,” and were a huge support for Penner in college when she felt emotionally under water and overwhelmed with her studies.
But in high school, Penner noticed a trend among her friend group and she seamlessly — almost instinctively — stepped into a part that she still plays today.
“A lot of the friends I had in high school in particular struggled with mental health,” she said. “And I sort of played the role of counselor to them sometimes.”
Several years later when Penner was getting her master’s degree it was in her clinical psychology research lab that her decision to work in clinical psychology, particularly with children and their parents, was truly solidified.
“I think clinical psych is exciting because of the possibilities for early intervention. If we intervene in childhood and adolescence, we can make things better for someone’s whole life,” Penner said enthusiastically, adding, “And I just really enjoy working with kids and teenagers.”
The PAIR Lab
Though Penner realized after college that teaching high school English wasn’t her dream job, she did ultimately end up teaching a little. These days Penner teaches one class per semester — specifically Psychopathology, a class for undergraduate neuroscience majors — but much of her time is spent in the lab.
When many of us imagine a laboratory setting, we picture some combination of a doctor’s office and Hollywood’s rendition of a mad scientist’s laboratory. And while some
Top: Dr. Penner’s studies often involve interviewing subjects in her downtown lab space.
Bottom: The PAIR Lab space is made up of assessment rooms with desks and chairs where Dr. Penner can interview people or have them fill out surveys comfortably.
labs certainly are filled with microscopes, vials, and white, sterile surfaces, Dr. Penner’s Parenting and Intergenerational Resilience (PAIR) Lab looks quite different.
“Psychology labs, I think, are a funny term,” she said. “It looks more like a clinic than a ‘lab,’ I’d say.”
Penner’s lab is located in downtown Waco,
so it’s more accessible to the public, and sounds a lot like a comfortable office space where you wouldn’t mind spending the day. The space is made up of assessment rooms with desks and chairs where Penner can interview people or have them fill out surveys comfortably. A big work room filled with students’ computers is usually bustling with three graduate students and six or seven undergrads.
And there’s a little open space dedicated to a future addition of EEG machines, almost like a parent clearing out a room for a future nursery and baby.
The EEG machines will eventually provide the team with a better understanding of what’s happening with parents and children on a cerebral level. But EEGs are expensive, and it will take a grant to add them to the lab.
“That’s another big part of what I do as a junior researcher,” Penner said. “I write grants.”
A Day in the Life
Penner starts out her day, like many people do, at home with her family. She has two daughters. Once breakfasts are done and things are in order, Penner heads off to campus to teach her class before spending the rest of her day in the lab downtown.
On a normal day during the school year, she’ll meet with her graduate and undergraduate students, advising them on anything from the data they’re analyzing to what courses to take. And then she’ll spend time working on her own manuscripts — and of course, the grants.
Currently, though, Penner is prepping for her first in-person study at Baylor, so days look like training her students, canvassing Waco with flyers to recruit participants, and a lot of “figuring it out” as they go along.
The Research
Penner, ever the academic, is juggling multiple research projects across two universities, all beneath the general umbrella of children and parental mental health. Her work with Yale, which is just wrapping up, is funded by a grant, and her current research at Baylor is funded by the University.
Maternal Opioid Use Disorder and Early Caregiving
This smaller study is a part of a much larger one at Yale and should wrap up sometime this year or next as Penner continues to work on this research from afar.
“This is looking at mothers who are in treatment specifically for opioid use disorder. So, medication-assisted treatment,” she said. “And we’re looking at their caregiving behavior early on — postpartum and the first year of life — and comparing that to a control group.”
Ultimately, she hopes to learn more about how parental addiction can impact children’s early development with this research.
Posts to Parenting
Though this study isn’t about opioids, it certainly has to do with another addiction: social media.
Penner describes a new age of mothers, many of whom rely heavily on social media for parenting advice.
“Social media is pretty unregulated, right?” she said. “So, there could be things that are from a pediatrician that are super evidence-based. And then there are just parents [on social media] who could be saying anything and it’s not evidence-based at all.”
This study will investigate how much new moms are relying on social media to parent, and how that’s impacting their young kids. As this will be her first inperson study in Waco, this will involve recruiting local moms and having them come into the lab to answer questions and interact with their babies.
Social Media Usage Across the Country
Related to the previous study, Penner and her team are zooming out beyond Waco and looking at how social media is being used by parents nationally. This one will rely heavily on surveys and online
Dr. Penner and students analyze data in the PAIR Lab.
communication — so there won’t be an in-person aspect to it — but the hope is to learn how social media is impacting parenting across the U.S
Social Media Hashtags
Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that Penner has a third smaller study going on right now about social media. After all, it is the water we swim in these days. Penner and her team are looking to understand how that’s impacting us — and particularly our children. In this study, her small team at Baylor is combing through social media hashtags related to parenting and coding them.
Baylor
Students Mental Health Check In
“We just finished data collection for this small study,” she said, describing a very simple survey that just went out to Baylor students. In the survey, Penner and her team asked students to answer some retrospective questions about their own childhoods and their current mental health.
What Does This All Mean for Parents and Kids?
What does this all mean? What does this research show us about parents and their kids? And moreover, what can we do about it?
Penner’s message is both straightforward and reassuring: “Parenting behavior is really important, and it has an effect from early on. In infancy, for example, is when the attachment relationship is being developed and where so much brain development is happening. Parents have a huge opportunity during this time.
“But I’ll also say,” she added, “that it’s not the end. Parents don’t have to be 100 percent perfect all the time, because that’s impossible. And that’s the other thing the research shows us.”
We asked her how her research has impacted her own parenting.
“Mostly my research has influenced me to think of my [girls] as independent little people and recognize they’re different from me. They’re different from each other. And that helps in understanding why they behave the way they do.”
She laughed, noting that even with all the data, of course, she doesn’t get it right 100 percent right all the time either.
ROD AYDELOTTE on the Art of Moments
After 44 years at the Waco Tribune-
Herald and 16 years teaching at Baylor, photographer Rod Aydelotte pictures possibilities for students and life.
By Leslie George
If you live in Waco, you’ve likely seen Rod Aydelotte (’77) and his camera: maybe at the dedication of tiny homes for the homeless; or the reading of the Declaration of Independence at the courthouse; or any protest, parade, art festival, high school clothing drive, or amid the frenzy of a breaking news story or a soaring, lastsecond score at a playoff game. Camera in hand, capturing images for the Tribune-Herald for 44 years, photographer Aydelotte’s images have also appeared on the front pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post
He’s covered the 51-day standoff between Branch Davidians and federal law enforcement agencies in 1993; George W. Bush at his Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, when Bush was governor and president; the West Fertilizer Plant explosion in 2013, and the trials following the 2015 Twin Peaks biker shootout — along with hundreds of other stories between and since. It’s possible there hasn’t been an event in the Waco-
Right: State investigators pose with a collection of hometown signs near a checkpoint leading to the Branch Davidian compound during the siege.
Middle: Members of the ATF line up behind cars and trailers during the opening moments of the raid on the Branch Davidian compound.
Bottom: Federal Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents help wounded fellow agents away from the Branch Davidan cult compound February 28, 1993, after gunfire erupted as the agents attempted to execute an arrest warrant. Four agents and five Davidians were killed during the two-hour shootout that turned into a 51-day siege.
Baylor ecosystem in the past four decades that Aydelotte hasn’t photographed.
For the past 16 years, Aydelotte has taught Photo II to 15 students per semester in his Baylor photojournalism class. They meet twice a week on campus and then get out into the field as much as possible. The point, he said, is that to take good pictures, you have to experience the world. “You’re going to be so much better at the end of my class than the beginning because you’ll be out shooting more than you ever have in your life,” he said.
When on assignment, he tells his students to be bold, instilling a list of guidelines, including: “First, get close to your subjects. Cherish who you meet. Understand your mistakes. Be wellrounded. Ask questions. Don’t limit yourself. Look for something different. Often you will also find great photos unrelated to the event.”
Years ago, Aydelotte notes, he and a group of students covered five events in one day, including an air show, a Wild West reenactment, and an art festival. “It was grueling,” he said, “but if you keep up with me, you’re learning something.”
That day, over a late lunch eaten outside, he recalled: “Here comes a man pushing a shopping cart, and there’s a pit bull sitting in the cart. Everyone looked at me and I said, ‘Well?’” They all got up and took the shot.
“That’s called finding a moment.”
That’s hard to teach in a classroom, he continued. “I want my students to learn that photojournalism is more than the photograph — it’s about capturing the moments that define a community. It’s about being part of a community and loving that community.”
Born in Spokane, Washington, Aydelotte was
in grade school when he moved to Waco with his family, and has spent most of his life here. He enrolled in law school at Baylor in 1973, but someone told him there were few jobs for lawyers then, so he switched to journalism. At Baylor, he found jobs working on the school newspaper and yearbook. “Being on The Lariat staff helped pay my rent so I didn’t have to live at home,” he said. Later, he met his wife, Becky, a Houston native, covering the 1989 Waco Creek flood. She was
working at the Tribune-Herald at the time. He helped her get her car out of a flooded parking lot. Becky now works for the city’s tourist board.
Photography techniques may have changed drastically since Aydelotte was developing film and color transparencies for The Lariat and The Round Up yearbooks back in the ‘70s, but the elements of a great photo remain the same today, he said.
Reporting on the Branch Davidian Siege
From the Waco Tribune-Herald ’s article “Branch Davidian tragedy at 25: How the story overtook the storytellers.”
The five stood by the car and stared at the scene 250 yards away: a militarystyle raid like none they had ever witnessed, with agents scaling ladders and breaking windows. Then, a fusillade of gunfire. An agent on the roof fell on his side. A bullet hit the silver Honda.
Today, both he and his students shoot with digital cameras. Aydelotte will accept images taken with a student’s phone if the subject matter is unique.
(“Sometimes you just don’t have your camera on you,” he acknowledged.) But for the most part, he advocates using a camera.
From an aesthetic perspective, composition, exposure, light, and angle are the elements that
Moments later, the five newspaper reporters were lying in a ditch, face down in the wet grass, where they would remain until a cease-fire more than two hours later. Bullets and tracers whistled overhead. From the house where [reporter Tommy] Witherspoon had knocked, an ATF sniper, perhaps the agent who had opened the door moments before, returned fire.
Witherspoon scrambled for a bricklike cellphone and asked photographer Rod Aydelotte how to work it. Another reporter turned on his cassette recorder. On the tape you can hear him hyperventilating as the gunfire escalates.
“Oh God. Oh God. Oh God,” he repeats.
“Get your Hail Marys going, man,” Witherspoon says to him.
“Should we, uh, try to get in the g----n car and get out?” wondered [Mark] England, the soft-spoken “Sinful Messiah” writer. [“Sinful Messiah” was a seven-part investigative series on
the Branch Davidians, published in the Waco Tribune-Herald in 1993.]
“No, stay where you are,” Aydelotte barked, still shooting photos as bullets flew by. “We’re protected from the line of fire. We’re down below.”
After cussing the cellphone repeatedly, Witherspoon finally got through to another car down the road, carrying Tribune-Herald employees, including “Sinful Messiah” co-author Darlene McCormick.
“Darlene,” he says, “you gotta stay where you are. We got some serious s--t happening. Yeah, it’s coming right over us. … We’ll just keep our heads down. All right. We’re all right, just a little shaken up, but all right.”
Before the tape cuts off, the sound of helicopters and bullets continues, and England mutters something.
“What’d you say?” Witherspoon asks him.
“We’re going to get blamed for this,” England says.
Left: Then Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott speaks during a press conference about the West Fertilizer Co. explosion.
Right: A home burns in West after an explosion Wednesday evening at a fertilizer plant.
make a good image, he said. “There are certain aspect ratios we go for but, for the most part, it’s just really important to shoot at an angle,” he explained. “We don’t want to shoot straight onto someone’s face. We want the subject to be shot at an angle, to show some background. I’ve stood on chairs and desks to shoot down and gotten low to shoot up for the right angle.
“When you create an angle,” he continued, “you’re telling more of a story because the viewer can see more.”
Just as important is feeling. “A good photograph will reach out and jump at you,” he said. “It’s that idea of capturing a moment. It happens in a split second, so you have to keep looking. We call it the hunt, and it can only come from experience. The student has to bring everything he or she has experienced and learned and is, or will be, to the forefront of themselves. It’s emotional.”
Aydelotte recounts an example of the hunt that ended up being profound for him and one former student. They were out shooting on a practice session some years ago. “We noticed a man lying down by the Brazos River. As we walked closer to the river we saw he was lying on his back and a goose was sitting on his stomach,” he said, adding that they took the shot. “Then, closer we got, the goose came at us, trying to run us off. The man couldn’t talk. We asked around later and found out he had befriended the goose to protect the goose from being teased and bothered by some teenagers. And now the goose was protecting the man.”
In his class, each student is required to produce at least one 10-image photo story — about either one theme, one idea, or one event — per semester, Aydelotte said. “Creating photo stories is how you get to be a better photographer.” The story is as important as the aesthetics of the image, he said.
It took him 20 years to learn, but that’s where the meaning comes in. “It’s not about the photographer; it’s about all these great people we are shooting. It’s about their stories,” Aydelotte said. “And after so many years, now I know a lot of these great people. I go places and I know I have to get the shot but I’m talking and shaking hands with folks more than taking photos.”
Aydelotte said he still loves his job at the Trib and, at 71, has no plans to retire. “I’m going to do it as long as I can,” he said. “It’s a great job; there is always something to shoot and every day is different. You have the seasonality of many events,
Top: The shootout at Twin Peaks restaurant on May 17, 2015, killed nine people and wounded 18 others.
Bottom: Bikers wait outside Twin Peaks as law enforcement investigates the deadly shootout between the Bandidos and the Cossacks.
year after year, that I enjoy, and then when there’s spot news you drop everything else.”
Aydelotte is so used to this unflinching schedule that he can be at a loss when not on assignment.
When asked about the images he has taken that he’s most proud of, he chuckles. “That’s history,” he said, bringing up his students again. “I’ve had some great students — students who go off on their own, shooting all day, telling stories with their pictures.” More than anything, Aydelotte hopes his students take away something they learn about their own humanity from his classes.
“You want to be a better photographer? Be a better person,” Aydelotte said. “Cherish the experience. Don’t be a fly on the wall. Talk to strangers — that’s how it all works.”
THE ARTS CELEBRATE OUR COMMON HUMANITY
By Marianne Dougherty
Amjad Dabi’s journey from war-torn Syria to the Lone Star State was bittersweet, but a community of kind and caring people helped ease the transition for this Baylor alum.
With a Ph.D. in bioinformatics and computational biology, Amjad will continue his studies at the University of Oregon.
Amjad Dabi was studying civil engineering in Damascus, Syria, when he met Dr. Bradley Bolen, who teaches piano at Baylor University, in the summer of 2010. As part of American Voices, a nonprofit cultural and diplomacy organization founded in 1993, Dr. Bolen spent six weeks in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon teaching piano to people who were hungry for music education.
“You know how they say music is the universal language? Well, I saw that firsthand during my time there. Students came to our workshops from all over the country, often at great personal risk,” said Dr. Bolen, who remembers Dabi as a serious student who hoped to use a music degree to get into medical school, which is not as counterintuitive as it sounds. Studies have shown that music majors are the most likely group of college graduates to be admitted to medical school, possibly because mastering an instrument requires a certain amount of focus and discipline.
In 1990, Syria established the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus as a conservatory for both
Western and Arabic music. Aside from studying music there, Dabi also attended the University of Damascus. When he met Dr. Bolen, he had a plan: to finish his civil engineering degree before pursuing a graduate degree in Western Europe or the United States.
“I was always fascinated by the idea of living in America,” said Dabi, who had been an exchange student in Charlotte, North Carolina, when he was 15 years old. Still, when Dr. Bolen suggested that he come to Baylor to continue his studies, he initially declined his offer. “I was so close to finishing my degree, and all of my friends and family were in Syria.”
Then in December, a wave of anti-government protests that became known as the Arab Spring took place in the Middle East and North Africa. When a car bomb exploded near his house and Dabi was injured, he decided that it was unsafe for him to remain in Syria.
Dr. Bolen sprang into action, securing living arrangements in an apartment in Thailand owned by Jim Ferguson, executive director of American Voices. For the next nine months, Amjad studied for the SAT, ultimately earning a full scholarship to Baylor where Seventh and James Baptist Church in Waco provided free housing.
“I was struck by how beautiful the campus was,” said Dabi, who was 23 when he enrolled as a freshman. What he loved about Baylor was that it not only had a great music department but that it also offered a rigorous curriculum in science. “Since I was on a full scholarship,” he said, “I was able to take some of those classes at no extra cost.”
Those classes paid off because after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in piano pedagogy in 2017, Dabi went on to earn a master’s degree in environmental science in 2020.
With civil war raging back home, Dabi found Baylor to be a safe place where he could focus on his education. “It was a difficult time for me because I’d left everyone I loved and everything I knew, but people here were so welcoming, which made the transition much easier.”
When retelling Dabi’s story during her remarks at commencement ceremonies in May 2025, Baylor University President Linda Livingstone said, “Amjad had to work through a very painful transition, probably more difficult than most of us will have to face, but he persevered even through his grief.”
Dabi is convinced that having a social network of caring people he could talk to and spend time with helped him become more resilient.
“I recognize that mine is a hopeful story, and I’m proud of what I’ve achieved,” he said. “But I never imagined that this is how my life would turn out. I loved Syria, but there was so much uncertainty about what was going to happen that I had to leave.”
Sadly, he lost his father in 2022, but it was too risky for him to go home for his funeral. If there is a downside to Dabi’s happily-ever-after, it’s that he has not seen his family since he started his new life in the United States. “If I’ve learned anything from [my father’s] experience, it’s that it’s folly to plan too far ahead,” Dabi said.
In a 2016 interview sponsored by Baylor
Top: Dr. Bolen and his wife, conservation biologist Lynne Baker, with Amjad, right
Bottom: Dr. Bolen spent six weeks in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon teaching piano to people who were hungry for music education.
University’s Institute for Oral History, Dabi shared his story with Zachary Wingerd, senior lecturer in Baylor’s history department, and journalist Brad Hoff. Their book, Syria Crucified: Stories of Modern Martyrdom in an Ancient Christian Land, was published in 2021. Raised Roman Catholic in a country where Christians are vastly outnumbered, Dabi admitted that as a child attending a private Christian school, he lived in a kind of bubble. In high school, most of his classmates were Druze,
an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion influenced by a range of traditions from Christianity to Gnosticism and a belief in reincarnation and the transmigration of the soul.
It was only during his last year in high school where a lot of his classmates were Muslim that he felt a keen sense of being a minority for the first time. While he didn’t experience any overt discrimination, he allowed that there were times when he felt a rift. Christians in Syria, especially those in cities like Damascus where they tend to be well educated, he said, lean a bit to the left politically, while Muslims tend to be a bit more conservative.
When asked if he’d sensed a rift between Orthodox Christians and Catholics like himself, Dabi pointed out that because Christians in Syria were a minority, they tended to coalesce around that identity, which became part of the culture. “I feel like in varying ways it’s very similar to the Jewish identity and how it’s related to ethnic identity,” he told Wingerd. “You know, a lot of Jews are secular Jews, but they’re still Jews, and that’s part of their identity.”
his aunts, uncles, and cousins fled elsewhere.
Reflecting on the complex and protracted conflict in his homeland, Dabi understands how easy it is to lose faith in humanity when you see how badly human beings can behave toward one another. But art, he said, offers an escape from our distressing circumstances and a way to enter a world that’s bigger than we are.
“Art is like a light they tried to put out, but there’s something about the human spirit that longs for beauty,” Dabi said. “The arts are also a reminder of our humanity, a way for us to connect. Think about me sitting in Damascus playing a piece by Beethoven, a German man who lived centuries before I was born and who had a completely different life experience from me. Still, he had his own struggles, and there’s something universal about our situation that comes across in the music.”
Art is like a light they tried to put out, but there’s something about the human spirit that longs for beauty.” “
Overall, Dabi said he believes that Christians had a good relationship with the state after Bashar al-Assad came to power. “We always had ambassadors coming from overseas from the Vatican,” he said. “I remember playing the organ at a Franciscan church in Damascus, the only church that had an organ.”
The impact of the civil war on the Christian community in Syria cannot be understated. In pre-war Syria, 1.5 million Christians accounted for 10 percent of the population, but that number began to fall precipitously after 2011. Estimates suggest that by 2022, only 300,000 Christians, roughly 2 percent of the population, were left. While Dabi’s parents remained in Syria, most of
Recently, Dabi earned a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in bioinformatics and computational biology, an interdisciplinary field that blends biology, computer science, mathematics, and statistics to solve biological problems. He’ll continue his studies in a post-doctoral program at the University of Oregon where he’ll study genomics, a branch of molecular biology concerned with the structure, function, evolution, and mapping of genomes. With enormous potential to predict disease, genomics is literally transforming healthcare as we know it.
“Amjad is one of the smartest people I’ve ever known,” said Dr. Bolen, “but he’s also extremely compassionate. He feels things very deeply as musicians often do.”
Now that’s a winning combination in a world that seems to be sorely lacking in empathy these days.
A TALE TOO TRAGIC
A FINAL CHAPTER IS WRITTEN TO THE INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP OF GORDON WILKERSON AND REZA EMAM
By Paula Price Tanner
Editor’s note: For now over 75 years, The Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. This November 1985 Classic article closes out this issue with a series of moments between two friends bound by fate.
It’s often hard for us to map out the interrelation of events in our lives; we’re usually too close to the action to perceive how one event fits with another. Yet occasionally we experience an episode which seems as clearly defined as a chapter in a book, with a definite beginning, middle, and ending.
Such was the case recently for Gordon Wilkerson, an ‘82 graduate of Baylor. For Gordon an episode in August completed a series of experiences over the last five years. Together these events form a story which challenges assumptions about college education and the importance of family ties — Gordon’s assumptions and our own as well.
Many of us learned the beginning of Gordon’s story in the November 1980 issue of The Baylor Line. There, in his article titled “Early Thanksgiving,” Gordon related an incident that made a great impact on his view of world politics and, on a more intimate scale, on his view of life as a college student.
The story began in mid-November of 1979, during the crush of preholiday exams that can make even the most enthusiastic student feel jaded. Rubbery dorm food, four major tests in one week, and homesickness had taken their toll on Gordon; the one week left before
Thanksgiving break seemed to stretch out interminably for him.
Then one evening at a meeting of Gordon’s weekly Bible study group, a foreign student whom Gordon had never met rose and asked the group to remember in prayer his home country of Iran. The quiet young man caught Gordon’s interest, and after the meeting Gordon paused to ask him a few questions about the political turmoil in his native country. Television broadcasts had been filled in recent months with news of Americans held hostage by Iranian extremists in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran; yet in ten minutes of talking with Reza Emam, Gordon said, he “learned more about Iran than I had learned from listening to hours upon hours of news broadcasts.”
The tyranny of the Shah, the overthrow by religious extremists led by the Ayatollah Khomeini, the current state of anarchy in Iran — all became clear as Gordon and Reza talked on into the evening. What really hit Gordon hard was Reza’s telling him how much he, too, was missing his family. “I can’t even call them,” he said, explaining that the operators were not letting any Iranian students call Iran.
Gordon asked if he might try to ring a call through for Reza. “Sure,” Reza said, laughing hopelessly and handing
him the phone number. Using his most “official” voice, Gordon gave the information to the Iranian operator. “Is it an emergency?” she queried suspiciously.
“Yes, more or less,” he replied. “As far as I was concerned,” Gordon recalls, “the call was an emergency call. It was an emergency for Reza anyway.”
After several minutes of silence, Gordon heard a phone ringing at the far end of the line. “Aaah-lo?” a voice answered.
“Hang-on!” Gordon yelled, jamming the phone on Reza’s car.
As Reza began speaking excitedly to his family, Gordon and other students who had wandered into the room went wild — they had beat the system! Up and down the hallways they spread the news: “Reza got through! Reza got through!” And though he couldn’t understand a word being said in Reza’s native language, Gordon needed no translation. The tone of the young man’s voice as he spoke with family members he had feared dead and the tears trailing down his cheeks said it all.
When the call was over, Reza thanked Gordon over and over for helping him contact his family. Gordon returned to his own room feeling good, he recalls, “but almost criminally lucky. … I had not been home all semester, but Reza probably had not seen his family in several years.
“I had been complaining about studying, reading, going to class, and taking tests. After talking to Reza I realized that I was lucky to be in such a position. I realized that I should have been grateful for the freedom to read books, for the chance to go to class, and for the opportunity to study whatever I wanted to study. … I went to bed that night looking forward to the next day.”
Gordon and Reza on campus in 1980
been through. I cried because I wished I had taken more time to talk to Reza and do things with him when it seemed that we were both ‘too busy.’ I cried because I had lost a good friend.”
It was only then that Mrs. Wilkerson put it all together: the young man traveling with his sister, the Baylor sticker on the rear window, the name of her son’s friend from Iran. Shaken, the family realized they had just witnessed the death of their son’s friend Reza.
Gordon recounts their reaction: “After discovering that Reza was involved in the accident, my dad knew he needed to do more, but he was not sure how to do so. He called several people he knew in the Amarillo area but got no answer. Finally he called Winfred Moore, pastor of First Baptist Church, Amarillo. Dr. Moore went immediately to the hospital to see Reza’s sister, Roshal. I think Dr. Moore helped Roshal more than anyone else could have at that time.”
Later that evening Gordon answered the phone and was surprised to hear his dad on the other end of the line. He could tell from his father’s tone that whatever the news might be, it was not good.
“Your friend from Baylor — Reza — the one who is from Iran — how do you spell his last name?” his father asked.
“My immediate response,” says Gordon, “was, ‘Why in the world is he calling to ask me that?’ Not knowing what to expect next, I answered his question.”
Gordon’s father relayed the tragic news and asked his son to call anyone he knew that would need to be notified about the accident. Once again an important, unexpected phone call brought tears to the eyes of the family members on each end of the line. But this time they were not tears of joy.
“I don’t remember much about what happened after that,” says Gordon, “except that I hung up the phone and cried. I cried because of what my family had just
On August fourteenth Reza was buried in Redwood City, California, the city where his sister Roshal now lives and attends school. A few friends and relatives attended the funeral. His parents could not obtain clearance to leave Iran in time to attend their son’s funeral.
Thus this episode drew to a close. Yet many unanswered questions remain.
“Why,” Gordon asks, “is a life with such great potential suddenly taken away in an instant? Someday, perhaps, we shall all understand why.
“Somehow I have always felt that God planned the events which led to the story I wrote several years ago about Reza. For similar reasons, I am convinced that He had a purpose for my family and Dr. Moore to be in positions to help Reza and Roshal after the accident. Sometimes, even when it is hard to understand the why of a situation, it is possible to see God’s hand in it.”
When we read a chapter in a book, we cannot know in detail what is to come in following chapters — only what we have read so far. Certainly, in the case of Gordon Wilkerson, his family, and the family of Reza Emam, the book is not finished. But this chapter of friendship between Gordon and Reza has developed the plot in a way which cannot help but color the rest of the story.
Reza’s mother, grandmother, and little brother were finally able to join Roshal in California in late August. They hope to be joined soon by Reza’s father, who has been working to obtain permission for a brief visit to America. Ironically, it has been through Reza’s death that his family has finally reached the freedom he prayed they would obtain.
For Gordon the effects are more subtle, yet just as real. “Reza was a unique individual,” he says. “Many students in America go through our country’s educational system expecting to go to college. In fact, many people consider a degree from a university ‘about average’ today.
“Reza, more than any person I have ever met, truly appreciated the opportunity for education Baylor presented him. He had a deeper appreciation for America than many of us who all of our lives have enjoyed the privileges this country affords its citizens. His feelings and attitudes made me more keenly aware of how truly fortunate I am.”