Transformational Student Life: 10 Ways the Baylor Student Experience is Different

Show Notes

Mind, body and spirit—the Baylor student experience is distinct in higher education, with nationally recognized resources to help students grow as leaders, provide avenues to serve others, support their physical and mental health and promote spiritual growth. Sharra Hynes, Baylor’s Vice President for Student Life, presents 10 areas in which the Baylor student experience shines.

The conversation highlights 10 ways the Baylor student experience is different:

· A perfect size: Baylor offers world-class academics and athletics alongside small class sizes and faculty who know your name.

· Resources like Baylor Line Camp and Welcome Week that connect students to the Baylor Family before they ever take a class.

· Baylor’s intentional fostering of community where students live

· Spiritual development: Chapel and other resources support spiritual growth, no matter where they enter Baylor

· Developing friendships with classmates in student organizations, Greek life and more. 

· Intentional leadership development  

· Elite undergraduate research opportunities earlier than those found at many R1 institutions

· Intercultural engagement and a focus on helping students navigate interactions with others of different backgrounds, political views and more

· World-class resources for physical and mental health, both in-person and virtual, alongside nationally recognized programs for intramural sports and activities.

· A focus on life after Baylor in personalized career services to help students master the job search and find the right job, internship or grad school appointment in the field of their calling

Transcript

Derek Smith:
We are talking all things Baylor Student Life today with Sharra Hynes, Baylor's vice president for Student Life. She assumed this new role on July 1st. She's been at Baylor since 2020, so she's seen a lot of the things that make Baylor unique and distinct and we're just a few weeks into a new school year. Sharra, thanks so much for joining us and taking the time to share with us today. What makes Baylor Student Life so distinct?

Sharra Hynes:
It is great to be here, first of all. Thanks for having me. And when I think about Baylor Student Life area, I think what makes us distinct is that we are very holistic in the way we think about walking with students, developing them in mind, body, and spirit. Many of my colleagues around the nation think a lot about the mind and the body, but they don't always get to integrate the spirit. So the fact that we are a Christian institution grounded in our shared faith is a really special and distinctive way that we get to work with students in Student Life.

Derek Smith:
You've worked at other institutions, large state universities, small private universities, and all of them have great students, certainly that you've, I know, enjoyed serving in different ways. I want to ask you specifically about Baylor. What do you find most life giving about being able to interact with Baylor students and really pour in to helping them have the best experience possible?

Sharra Hynes:
No, I think it's twofold. One is I think our students are incredibly curious. They are curious about their discipline, their academic discipline, what they're studying, what they want to do with their talents and gifts and abilities. And I feel that's a little bit sharper here than maybe in some of the other contexts that I've worked in the past. And the other thing is they bring a character, a deepness of character to their Baylor experience. They want to lead, they want to serve. And so, when we think about our mission to equip men and women for worldwide leadership and service, they come ready. They come ready and excited and poised for us to do that work with them. And so, for me, that makes my work so much easier because I have the opportunity to work with students who are anticipating what their Baylor education will bring and give to them, and to have a small part in that is really a great privilege.

Derek Smith:
I certainly say it's a small part, but it's an important part of the Baylor experience. When you think about when I visit the Student Life website, there's a lot of departments and a lot of divisions under that purview that, as you alluded to earlier, work with students to connect with other students, develop them spiritually, help them connect to service opportunities. We're going to try to paint that picture. We'll say it's hard to paint that picture in about 20 minutes, isn't it? Because you've got such a great team doing great work.
But again, you look, I think the proof is in Baylor students and also accolades. Baylor has been recognized by US News as being a top university for first year student experience. It's been a top university for undergraduate research and teaching, a Time Magazine, best college for leaders. And how do we paint that picture? How do we help people see why that's the case? Let's look at maybe 10 different ways, if you will, that you can take us inside. What makes Baylor unique and distinct in the Student Life realm? Let's just start with the institution itself. It's distinct in its size and scope, what it's able to do as a university that's big enough to be R1 and offer great athletics, but also small enough to be relational.

Sharra Hynes:
Yeah, and that's the niche I think that Baylor so uniquely holds is that when students come to us, they know that they're going to go to a football game and cheer on a division one athletic football team who's really fun to watch and really fun to support and the electric environment of a game. They know that will be part of their experience. They also know they're going to sit in classrooms that have a great faculty student ratio where they will get to know their faculty by name and they will be known by their faculty. And outside the classroom, that's our ambition as well. We want those students to be known by those of us who work in Student Life.
I always tell students, "There's only one of me and there's a lot of you. So please remind me of your story. Tell me your name again so that I can know you personally." I won't know all of them, but I'll sure work hard to know as many as I can. That niche is really special for Student Life at Baylor, and because we are holistic in the way we walk with students, we encounter them in their spiritual growth and development through things like chapel and on and on. So like you said, 20 minutes is probably not enough time to talk about it all, but we are a very unique place and one that I think is worth celebrating and one that's worth attracting even more students going forward.

Derek Smith:
You talk about knowing students and them knowing you, even as we were walking into this studio about to head up the elevator today, a student recognized and you all had the chance to interact, and I thought that was a nice picture of some of the things that we're discussing here. First year experience, Baylor is really recognized as a top national university by US News for that first year experience, whether that's incoming freshmen or transfer students. How is Baylor intentional about pouring into students as they prepare to become a student and in that first year?

Sharra Hynes:
It happens even before they get here, Derek. The work we do in the summer to orient students in our traditional orientation programs as well as through Baylor Line Camp sets the tone and foundation for the rest of their first year. We help them understand the value of our traditions, the importance of our mission, the way we want them to live together in community. And so, those experiences are really pivotal. And most of our students get to come to in-person orientation and get to come to Baylor Line Camp. We love for all of them to come, but for some of them the circumstances just don't warrant it.
And so, I would say once they're through orientation and Baylor Line Camp, then it's really about for 95% of them or more, it's about the residential experience in the first year that maybe for the first time for many of these students, they might be sharing a room with someone and of likely someone they don't know or maybe not know well, and certainly probably someone they've never lived with before. And so, that experience of having authentic Christian community in our residence halls is really foundational and gives them a great platform through which to build relationships both with whom they live, but also relationships across the residential community. They eat together, they go to chapel together, they experience life together, they go to athletic events together. There's a lot of community that's built.
And in our living learning programs, we have a lot of times upper division students who choose to stay on campus and be a part of pouring into those new students and helping them cultivate a great academic interest in the area of their living learning program. So whether that is our pre-health programs that are living learning communities or our lead community that focuses on leadership development in Allen-Dawson, there are so many ways that students build community. We also have traditional first year residence halls. That's all first year students except for a few upper division CLs. And those are really unique as well because they're building life together. And those communities really change a lot year-over-year based on who lives there and the different characteristics of who's living there. So we focus a lot on the first year by design because we want them to have a strong foundation from which to build the rest of their Baylor experience.

Derek Smith:
When you really painted such a great picture as you described that, of building community where students live and it's not just those first years, you said it's in the different living learning communities, and how have you seen in the time you've been here just that shared sense of culture that you talk about the CLs and when you've got faculty in residence, that culture that's built that's very intentional about helping students connect with the people around them organically but also programmatically as well?

Sharra Hynes:
It really is a layered approach, because there won't be one solution that meets every student's need or one strategy or one program. And so, when we layer in lots of different opportunities for students to interact with a faculty and residents or to get to know a resident chaplain who will have meaningful conversation with them about their faith or their curiosity around faith, it helps us to know that it doesn't matter who the student is or where they're from or what their background is, they will encounter and have an opportunity to interface with a whole host of support people who live with them and around them.
And I think that's part of our success and why so many students are wanting to continue to pour into the Baylor experience through leadership roles, through being a CL, through being an orientation leader. We are so fortunate that we have this pipeline that starts when they're an entering student. We literally start recruiting for those positions within the first week of the fall semester because we catch them while they're curious as entering students. And it's again, part of the strategy of how we continue to cultivate really rich community.

Derek Smith:
We've seen that play out in a number of ways and certainly you see that in the spiritual development side, Baylor Christian University. And what's interesting is, Sharra, there's that recognition that students all come in at different places in their lives and certainly that's the case spiritually. Even students who have been Christians for a number of years may come in at a different spot on their spiritual journey and Baylor works in a lot of ways to meet them where they are. What's it look like to effort to do that but also have that common goal as you work walk alongside them?

Sharra Hynes:
The spiritual journey for our students is something that's very personal. It's very unique to each individual and we want to respect that and honor it. And so, the ways in which we try to do that is, number one, we don't ever make assumptions about where a student is or what their belief system is. We start from some foundational things in chapel that every single chapel at Baylor is intended to expose students to the gospel message. And when you start at that base foundation of exposure of making sure that everyone knows the truth of the redeeming power of Jesus Christ, there's some real beauty in that. That's where we begin. And even if students come to us from other faiths or other religious backgrounds, it's important that they know what we believe at Baylor and what our institution is grounded in and our shared Christian faith.
And so, chapel is a really important way in which we do that. And chapel has changed a lot at Baylor over the last five years. We have turned our chapel model on its head in a post-COVID world where no longer do we just all gather together in Waco Hall, there were beautiful things about that chapel model, but now we have 60 different options that students can choose from in something like 90 different sections of chapel. So there's truly something for everyone. And I think that has helped us in that journey and seeing students where they are, meeting them there, but not being satisfied that that's where they stay. We are cultivating in them more curiosity around their own faith and what they believe and why they believe it.
And so, chapel is just one way that we have vibrant campus ministries. We have over 40 different campus ministries on campus and partner a lot with the folks who are from all around the country who send representatives here to Baylor through groups like Crew and Inner Varsity and so much more. And so, that adds a whole other dimension to the spiritual growth and development. And then, the local church is really critical how we help connect students to being attenders and participants and members and people involved in discipleship in the local church. We don't want them to lose that while they're here at Baylor. And for some of them, we want them to experience it for the first time. We want them to get connected to the local church here at Baylor to build a foundation for them in their post-graduation life.

Derek Smith:
Exciting to see all the ways that people work together to demonstrate that, to live that out, and to encourage students in their faith walk as we visit with Sharra Hynes. And Sharra, I think when we talk about Student Life, there's some areas that probably come to mind for most people, it's student organizations, it's campus groups, it's Greek organizations. What does that look like at Baylor?

Sharra Hynes:
Always vibrant and more than 400 of them. And when I say that to people, they're like, "That's a lot." And I'm like, "And it's growing all the time." I have the opportunity to review their charter applications when new groups are trying to form. And sometimes I think when will we reach the end of their creativity? And I don't know that it will be ever, but there are so many ways that students can gather and be together around shared interests. A lot of those can be pre-professional student organizations that are putting on them on track for what they want to do in their post-graduation life. And some of them are social and some of them are service. Some of them are around their shared political ideas.
And so, it's wonderful to see the breadth and diversity of those student organizations and to see a lot of the good that they do around their philanthropies and the things that they care deeply about. I am amazed at how much time and commitment that our students give to those different organizations and the leadership that they get to develop when they stand in front of a room of their peers and they talk about what are our goals? What do we want to do together? That to me is one of the really special elements of Student Life that we get to be a part of.

Derek Smith:
Sharra, you just use the word leadership and that's one of the questions you look, Baylor's been recognized three years running as a Time top 100 best colleges for leaders. And that's an incredible list to be a part of and it doesn't happen by accident. You've mentioned some of them already when you talk about cultivating student leaders and you paint that picture now, but are there other ways that stand out to you and some of the tremendous ways that students can develop leadership skills?

Sharra Hynes:
Absolutely. And really uniquely here at Baylor, we don't espouse a leadership model that is about command and control and authority. We espouse a leadership model that's based in virtues like wisdom and patience and kindness and responsibility and collaboration. And those skills are cultivated very aptly through student organizations as well as through some of our classes. We have a minor here at Baylor that is a leadership studies minor, and we do a lot, even though it's not housed in Student Life, we do a lot in partnership with that leadership minor that teaches students the discipline of leadership development.
And so, I love to watch students grow and one of the neat things about sitting in my seat as I get to see them across their four years, so to watch a brand new student come in and begin to cultivate their leadership is really neat. But to watch them as a senior walk across the stage at graduation and to know from once they've come is amazing. It's absolutely amazing. And you look back and you're like, I don't know how we got here, but I'm really glad we did. So I love that part of my job. It's super exciting.

Derek Smith:
You can see a lot of growth that takes place between the ages of 18 and 22, 23.

Sharra Hynes:
That's right.

Derek Smith:
A lot of fun to see. Baylor last year added Pro Mundo to its university motto. For the world, students who have that ability to engage in meaningful ways around the world. What does intercultural engagement and understanding look like in the ways that you give students opportunities to engage?

Sharra Hynes:
That is such a critical part of what we are inviting students into at Baylor. If you think about drawing students from all over the world, all 50 states, I think 50 different countries, you are inviting the world to come to Waco. And so, we want our students to get the practical experience of encountering people who are different than who I am, indifferent than who they are. And in that encounter, it is bound to create opportunities for learning new things, potentially for disagreement, potentially for I see the world this way and you see the world that way, how do we work towards some shared understanding of how we all maybe should see the world?
And so, we work a lot on civil discourse in our intercultural engagement space and being able to hold tension well with each other when we see the world differently. And also being able to celebrate those differences and in a time and space where sometimes that's not as encouraged, we want that to be a critical part of the Baylor journey is that we are inviting students to know and understand people who are really different from themselves, and to do so in a way that honors the other person and who they are and who God created them to be.
So it all is foundational that we are formed in the image of God and how we encounter each other if we come at it from that place of respect and place of honoring the other person as an image bearer. You can overcome a lot of difference if you start from that base foundation of understanding. And so, I find that students really love to think about it that way, and it is an encouraging thing to see them encounter difference through that lens.

Derek Smith:
It's a real way to be a light, the world that needs it. We had, in the final few moments of the show, I want to ask you about a couple others as we wind down one, Baylor offers very robust physical well-being, mental well-being, opportunities to engage in activities, athletics. What does health and wellness look like for our students?

Sharra Hynes:
That's probably one of the areas of Student Life that's most multifaceted and rich in the array of offerings. So maybe we'll start at the base level of when students aren't well, when they don't feel well physically, when they're struggling with some sort of specific mental health challenge or consideration, we have, I think, world-class services for those students. We have a full health center on campus with a pharmacy. We have psychiatric care. We have amazing medical providers and students can get all of that without leaving the boundaries of campus, which is pretty amazing in today's day and age. And so, we want them to be, well.
We also want them to be well in their mental health. And so, we offer robust counseling services. We do group therapy. We have really strong telehealth programs that even if a student is studying abroad and they're not on campus, they can access mental health services. And so, certainly we have a lot of ways that we intervene in students' lives when they're not doing well. We also have a tremendous amount of ways where we're trying to keep students well, the proactive steps. And those are everything from inviting them into fitness classes for a really low cost. A student can have all access to every fitness class that we have available at Baylor, which is amazing, better than any gym that they're going to go to probably for the rest of their life.
And then we do lots through play and recreation. So we offer intramural sports and we have a really tremendous involvement on Friday night or Saturday night, I was here for late night watching students play dodgeball and such fun and great physical movement. And we find that when students move their bodies, when they're involved in competitive play, when they get to do things that they care about from a recreation standpoint, they do better. They do better academically, they're better physically, they retain at a higher level. And so, all of those things are part of the proactive ways that we want them to stay well and not reach a place where they need some of those kind of direct services that we provide.
So I love what we do proactively. And then, the last thing I'd say around how we care for students is we really work through a networked approach, a network of care. So from our resident chaplains who are living with students to our care team that receives referrals of students who are not doing well, to the proactive things we're doing in spiritual life where we're offering them the chance to do mission trips and travel the world and serve globally, all of it creates this network of care that surrounds the student experience and I think sets Baylor apart from so many other institutions.

Derek Smith:
In our 10 areas, the final one I want to ask you about is looking ahead to students in their careers, where they go when they're done at Baylor. Our placement rate is fantastic. We have 92% in the first 180 days have a job or a place in graduate school, and that's tremendous among national universities. So I'm curious, I know not all of these areas are literally within Student Life, but what does that look like at Baylor?

Sharra Hynes:
Yeah, we work so collaboratively with career services as well as the colleges because they do a lot of that creative career preparation for our students through things like connecting them with internship opportunities, helping to make sure they get great field experience. And so, we want to encourage students to take advantage of those things. I often say to students, "We will set the best table for you. You have to come to the table and eat." And so, that's the way I know that our career colleagues think about their services and the things that they offer to students. And if any students are listening, start early. Don't wait until you're a senior to visit career services. They want to know you as a freshman so that they can walk with you through those four years and help you build an exceptional roadmap to great opportunities in your graduation experiences.
And for some students, it's not a job right out of Baylor. For some, it's graduate school. And so, we also want to be sure that we're helping them be ready to write those personal statements and be highly sought after for graduate programs. And they are. And it's so exciting to watch students launch from Baylor and know that they're going to go fling their green and gold and do it with excellence no matter if they're in school, if they're serving in the Peace Corps, if they're going on the mission field, if they're in their first job. There's so many different ways that they can use their Baylor education to make a difference in our world.

Derek Smith:
They make us proud for sure in a lot of different ways. Well, you've told us about 10 different ways. As we close here, I want to ask you bringing it all together again, there's different steps of the journey for students. You talked about that first year experience, but state the obvious. There's also sophomores, juniors, seniors, and beyond. What does it mean to you to make each step of the Baylor journey meaningful in different ways?

Sharra Hynes:
That's a great question around the long arc, because they aren't here just for one year. They're here for four years. And so, how we create milestones that we encourage them to be meeting is a really important part of the student experience so that they have a roadmap to understand. It isn't just about surviving year-over-year, it's about flourishing and meeting those milestones. That's one of our commitments in Baylor in Deeds is student flourishing. And so, we invite students into those milestone experiences. And one of the things we're working on in Student Life this year is a more robust set of experiences for second year students. We don't want them to feel like after they finish their first year that they're being ignored or they're not being cared for well. And so, we're working hard to identify beyond what a lot of them do with regard to student leadership, what else can be part of a second year experience? And so, I'm really excited about working on that.
And then, we're also working collaboratively with others on campus to think about the junior year and the senior year. Last year, we did a really neat program with campus partners called the Senior Celebration. It was on the last day of their final exams of their senior year, and we invited them all to come to McLane. Then we sent them out from here and it had a commissioning moment feel to it. And so, those are more of those signature moments that we want to have for our students where they can mark their Baylor experience, not just by things they remember from their first year, but by things that are important in every subsequent year.

Derek Smith:
Well, Sharra, we certainly wish you all the best in this 2025-'26 school year as you go forward working with this group of students and beyond. It's exciting to see students come together in so many different ways and want to thank you really for helping us take some terms that we hear, like Student Life or we hear these awards and honors and really helping unpack what that looks like here. Thank you for that.

Sharra Hynes:
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Derek Smith:
Great to have you here. Sharra Hynes, Baylor's vice president for Student Life, our guest today on Baylor Connections. We appreciate you being with us. Don't forget, you can subscribe online. You can find video and audio of these online archived as well. Thanks for joining us on Baylor Connections.