Each year, the College of Arts and Sciences welcomes around 1,000 students who identify themselves as part of the prehealth program. This means that they’ve indicated an intent to go on to medical school or a medically related professional program. It is simply a way of indicating a path or a trajectory for the future, but it is important to note that it is not a major. Majors from all schools at Baylor are represented, but the vast majority are from the College of Arts and Sciences from both the sciences and humanities. Prehealth also has emerged as a term that covers much more than the familiar pre-med program.

We also offer prehealth programs in dentistry, occupational therapy, optometry and pharmacy among others. In many ways, the prehealth program functions very well as a program running parallel to the traditional academic major. We can identify and coach a student on many levels—academically, socially, spiritually—so they may be prepared on many fronts. This includes preparation for not only medical school and the profession, but also for the lifestyle of the health-care provider. As the home of Baylor’s core curriculum and liberal arts experience, the College of Arts and Sciences is a natural fit for

all the complexities of a prehealth program. In this issue, you’ll meet several students from our prehealth program who have made a difference. They represent our program well as individuals who are academically fit while demonstrating an awareness and concern for the world around them. That is truly an embodiment of the mission of the college and the university. What we sow into these individuals will surely come back to us and our communities. That’s important to keep in mind as the health-care profession advances. Health care is a topic that spans into social and

economic conversations. Practicalities such as the supply of health-care professionals and the demand for their services further complicate the years ahead. For this and many reasons, we give full attention to the recruiting and retention of our prehealth students. As you read the story and the others in this magazine, we hope you recall how our students' pursuits—as well as those of our faculty—often involve a personal calling coupled with an academic interest. That remains the very heart of our mission in Arts and Sciences.

Lee Nordt, Dean

One Bear Place #97344Waco, Texas 76798AS_Magazine@baylor.eduwww.baylor.edu/artsandsciences/

College of arts & sCienCesD e an o f t h e Co lleg eLee Nordt

a ss o C i at e D e an f o r h um an i t ie sFrieda Blackwell

a ss o C i at e D e an f o r u n D erg r aD uat e s t u D ie sBlake Burleson

e x eC u t i v e a ss o C i at e D e an Robyn Driskell

a ssis tan t D e an o f u n D erg r aD uat e s t u D ie sCarrolle Kamperman

a ss o C i at e D e an f o r s C ien C e sFrank Mathis

a ss o C i at e D e an f o r s peC i al pr o g r a m sElizabeth Vardaman

arts & sCienCes magazineeD i to rWill Crockett

a ss o C i at e eD i to rSherrie Voss Matthews

D e si g n an D ar t D ir e C t i o nwww.McKinleyBrown.com

Co n t r ibu t in g W r i t er sCharis DietzTerry GoodrichLori FoglemanMatt Pene

ph oto g r aph yRobert RogersMatthew Minard

Departments in arts & sCienCes:ar t s an D h um an i t ie sArtClassicsChurch-State StudiesEnglishHistoryModern Foreign LanguagesPhilosophyReligionTheatre Arts

n at u r al s C ien C e s BiologyChemistry and BiochemistryEnvironmental ScienceGeologyMathematicsPhysicsStatistical SciencesPsychology and Neuroscience

s o C i al an D b eh av i o r al s C ien C e sAerospace StudiesAnthropology, Forensic Science, and ArchaeologyCommunication Sciences and DisordersCommunication StudiesFamily and Consumer SciencesJournalism and Media ArtsMilitary ScienceMuseum StudiesPolitical ScienceSociology

Contents – a place for everything & everything in its place

/4 /Ed Burger: Disciple of Creativity“Mathematicians are simultaneously artists and explorers. We‘re trying to understand nature and discover truth, but we‘re doing that in an artistic way that involves being creative.”

/6/The Normal Para- normal“I wouldn’t have any problem saying this is the most comprehensive study of the paranormal ever done by social scientists.”

/8 /Love and Conflict“I don’t teach people how to avoid [conflict] or get rid of it, but how to resolve it to make the relationship stronger.”

/10/A Promising Prognosis“It’s no longer only about grades and test scores. Medical schools want to know that the students they admit have displayed an affinity for working with others and have the strengths they need to become physicians.”

f e a t u r e s

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1 News & Notes — Baylor Professors Receive $1.46 Million Grant from National Institutes of Health for Cancer Research— Men with Testicular Cancer Who Write Positively about the Experience Show Improved Mental Health, Researcher Finds

— Baylor Accepted into Largest Particle Physics Research Laboratory in the World— Study Finds Bones Degrade and Fracture Differently Under Certain Environmental Conditions— Endings Is Beginning for Students in Film Production

— Baylor Programs Ranked in U.S. News Grad School Survey

3 A View from a Burleson Window “Required: Six Hours of Religion” by Blake Burleson

13 Martin Museum of Art Enjoys Landmark Year for Art Donations and PurchasesThis has been a record-breaking year in terms of art acquisitions and donated art created by well-known artists.

the 2 0 10 Fa ll issue / 1 /

everything & anything going on around hereBaylor Professors Receive $1.46 Million Grant from National Institutes of Health for Cancer ResearchThe National Institutes of Health has awarded two Baylor University researchers a $1.46 million grant to research and test new compounds that could help fight cancerous tumors. The grant will allow Dr. Kevin G. Pinney, professor of chemistry and biochemistry and Dr. Mary Lynn Trawick, an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, to design, create and test several potential new cancer-fighting compounds that may disrupt solid-cancer tumors and target any remaining tumor cells that grow after the tumor is treated. The work will be done in collaboration with University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who will serve as a subcontract on the grant award. The study will take about five years to complete. “We are one of the few programs in the world working with these particular compounds and with the collaboration

with UT Southwestern, I think this research project was very attractive to NIH,” Pinney said. “This project will give us some deeper insight into these compounds that, in the future, might lead to clinical trials.” In the first phase of the research, Pinney and Trawick will test three new compounds known as Vascular Disrupting Agents (VDA). These compounds have shown promise in preliminary tests. An emerging area of cancer treatment still in the experimental phase, VDAs target the flow of blood to solid cancer tumors and other abnormal blood vessels while leaving healthy cells intact. The researchers will test these three compounds to see how tolerable they are in animal models and how well the compounds actually disrupt blood flow to the tumor. The second phase will consist of designing, creating and testing a carefully selected small group of potential new cancer-fighting compounds that may disrupt solid-cancer tumors. The Baylor researchers say the focus will be on the mechanism that makes the new compounds work.

Pinney and his research team will be involved with the synthesis and purification of the new potential anti-cancer VDAs. Trawick and her research team will evaluate the biochemistry and cell biology. The final phase will look into the cell mechanisms of each of the new compounds. The Baylor researchers said many questions remain unanswered in

how VDAs function on a molecular level in terms of cell-signaling pathways. “We will be comparing and studying the cells and proteins to see just how potent they are to cancer, which could eventually lead to new drug discovery,” Trawick said. “We are looking at selectivity: how do they disrupt cancer tumors and how well do they do it.”

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Men who channeled positive thoughts into a five-week writing assignment about their testicular cancer showed signs of improved mental health afterward, in contrast to men who wrote negatively or neutrally about their condition. This discovery results from a pilot study conducted by Dr. Mark Morman, associate professor of communication studies.

The findings are encouraging for those with testicular cancer who are seeking mental and emotional therapy as well as physical treatment, said Morman. “There’s a lot of research that takes this writing-based approach and in a number of varied contexts, but we applied this line of research to the testicular cancer

context for the first time that we are aware of,” he said. “We think writing about the experience could add to the therapy and can help with recovery and quality-of-life issues after treatment, as the men try to get on with their lives.” In the study, 48 men were randomly divided into three groups, with one group assigned to write positively about their cancer experience; one group to write negatively; and one to write about innocuous, unrelated topics. The effect

of the writing was measured at the beginning and end of the study, with men responding to 68 questions in which they assessed their mental health, general feeling of well-being, sexual health, and performance and traits of assertiveness and responsiveness. Participants in the positive expression group reported improvements in their mental health as a result of their writing. Those in the negative expression and neutral groups did not.

“With our approach, we move from simply thinking to performing,” Morman said. “We asked our participants not to just imagine or contemplate, but rather we asked them to engage their thoughts by processing them and then putting them down in print. “We want to get the message to doctors and therapists that our preliminary data indicates this worked and can help alleviate a lot of concerns about embarrassment, body image and masculinity.”

Men with Testicular Cancer Who Write Positively About the Experience Show Improved Mental Health, Researcher Finds

Baylor Accepted into Largest Particle Physics Research Laboratory in the WorldAs the world’s most powerful subatomic particle collider gathers data, physicists in the College of Arts and Sciences will now be there to analyze the information. Baylor has been accepted into the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland. CERN is the world’s premiere particle physics laboratory and houses

the Large Hadron Collider, which is the largest, most complex and powerful particle accelerator ever built. CERN has gained recent notoriety in its search for the Higgs Boson, a particle predicted to exist that could explain how the universe came to be, how it functions and the origin of mass. “Being accepted into this collaboration is a big boost for Baylor and its research into high-energy physics,” said Dr. Kenichi Hatakeyama, assistant professor of physics, who helped present the proposal to the CMS collaboration board. “Through our proposal, I think they could see that we are a serious group that can contribute strong new ideas, and we can fulfill a

need. There are numerous prominent universities from the U.S. involved in this, and Baylor and its students will benefit greatly from it.” More than 1,700 U.S. scientists, students and technicians from nearly 100 academic institutions participate at the Large Hadron Collider. There are several experiments currently running at CERN. In addition to searching for the Higgs Boson, the CMS experiment seeks to understand what dark matter is and how the universe came to be. Baylor researchers and their graduate students will be involved in data analysis, but also will conduct data monitoring. They will be assuring

all the data coming from the collider is accurate. While Baylor researchers and students will travel to Switzerland to conduct research, a significant part of the computations will be done at Baylor. “This is very important to us because it is going to be a long-term research project,” said Dr. Jay Dittmann, associate professor of physics, who helped present the proposal. “Joining the CMS Collaboration at CERN is the future of our high-energy physics research program here at Baylor. We expect the CMS experiment to run well into the next decade.”

Endings Is Beginning for Students in Film Production Even though Chris Hansen, assistant professor of film and digital media, filmed Endings in the summer of 2008; it was released just a few months ago. Making its debut at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival and also screened at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival and the Dallas VideoFest, Endings is a 97-minute drama that follows three strangers who meet and

discover they are all dying on the same day. While the cast included a few paid professionals, a large part of the production team consisted of Baylor students and faculty. Thanks to hands-on learning experiences such as these, many alumni are enjoying careers in the film industry. The film credits at the end list who does what, but often, viewers may have wondered exactly what that job does. Here’s a list of common behind-the-scenes roles in film and what their part entails:

Director of Photography (John Franklin, BA '89): Also known as the cinematographer, this person works to achieve the director’s “look” for the film using types of lighting, film stock and cameras.

First Assistant Director (Cameron Weed, BA '07, MA '09): A highly skilled individual who keeps the entire process on schedule. Working closely with the director, Firsts (or First ADs) coordinate all production activity and logistics. They serve as the primary link among the director, cast and crew.

Editor (Simon Tondeur): The film editor must balance technical skills with an artful eye for creating the structure and tone of the film. This individual brings together raw footage and sound, digitally cuts the files to establish sequencing and develops a rough cut of the film. The editor consults closely with the director to make sure the final version tells its intended story.

Sound Designer (Kelley Baker): Done well, the work of this job should be hardly noticeable. Sound designers match the action on the screen with what the viewer hears. This includes

enhancing sounds from the action of the film, creating new sounds such as a monster’s roar or making sure the dialogue is audible.

Script Supervisor (Josh Chance): An important component to this job is ensuring continuity. The script supervisor makes lots of notes in the script from position of the actors to the kind of lens used in the camera. This person also maintains the latest version of the screenplay. It’s one of few positions involved in preproduction, production and editing of a film.

Key Grip (Andrew Gerhards, BA 2010): The key grip is in charge of the camera rigging on the set. They manage the placement of the camera when it involves cranes, tracks or complex locations such as mountain sides.

Gaffer (B.K. Garceau, BA '09): A gaffer in the motion picture industry is the head of the electrical department, responsible for the physical execution of the Director of Photography’s lighting plan for a production.

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Study Finds Bones Degrade and Fracture Differently Under Certain Environmental ConditionsA new Baylor study looking at the different fracture properties of bones at various stages of degradation has found that bones degrade and fracture differently under certain environmental conditions such as sun, shade or in water. The study also found that some postmortem fractures look like they occurred perimortem - at or near the time of death - under some specific environmental conditions.

“Forensic anthropologists see a lot of damage on bones from animals or people and we have to determine whether it happened perimortem or postmortem,” said Dr. Lori Baker, associate professor of anthropology, archeology and forensic science. She helped lead the study. “This study gives insight into when changes to bones are expected to occur because that helps us pinpoint time since death.” The study tested dozens of sheep long bones under a variety of environmental conditions such as full sun, shade and in water. The researchers left the bones, which were the humerus, radius and ulna, in differing environmental conditions for

times ranging from one week to four months. The researchers then applied blunt-force trauma to the midshaft of each bone using a custom-designed test jig, which could apply a repeatable and controlled force that simulated the bone being hit by crowbar or pipe.

The results showed: •Allthebonesdegradedover time, however the rate at which the bones degrade greatly varies depending under which environmental condition they are exposed. The bones left in the sun degraded faster than bones left in shade or in water. The bones left in water maintained their strength the longest, because they were less dehydrated.

•Thebiggestdegradation change to the fracture properties of the bones happened in the first two weeks after death, regardless of environmental condition. •Forensicanthropologistsknow that if a bone break occurs postmortem, there will not be any fracture lines. If there are fracture lines, the break occurred perimortem. However, the study found that at four weeks, if the

bones were left in the sun or shade, the breaks had fracture lines. This conclusion shows that even though the researchers knew the break happened postmortem, it appeared to have occurred perimortem. •Theboneswouldfractureinto a few large pieces up to four weeks. After four weeks, the bones would break into many, much smaller pieces.

Baylor Programs Ranked in U.S. News Grad School SurveySeveral doctoral programs in the College of Arts and Sciences were among those nationally ranked in the 2011 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” which are available in the May 2010 edition of U.S. News & World Report magazine. These are based on the results of surveys sent to academics in biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, earth sciences, mathematics, physics and statistics during fall 2009.

Baylor doctoral programs were ranked in several categories, including:

• Biologicalsciences,No.82, tied with 10 other universities • Chemistry,No.94, tied with 12 other universities • Earthsciences,No.108, tied with four other universities • Physics,No.113, tied with eight other universities • Psychology,No.117, tiedwith13otheruniversities • Statistics,No.64, tied with two other universities

The universe of schools surveyed in these categories consisted of schools that awarded at least five doctoral degreesfortheyearsfrom2003through 2008, according to the National Science Foundation report “Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards.” Several Arts and Sciences graduate programs in the health disciplines continue to be highly rated by U.S. News, although their categories were not re-ranked this year. The college’s Speech-Language Pathology program, which was ranked 62nd in the nation in 2004, moved up to 60th in 2008, with 11 other universities. The doctoral program in Clinical Psychology(Psy.D.)wastiedfor83rdin2008, with eight other universities.

BAYLor CoLLEgE of ArtS AND SCiENCES

48,956 Alumni 6,448 undergraduates647 Graduate & doctoral StudentS

27 academic departments

5,000+ Courses offered eaCh semester

So, what’s the number for how many ways you can support the College? Countless. Support the College

of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Excellence Fund or another area of the College of Arts & Sciences today at www.baylor.edu/give.

$

from my office in burleson hall, i can glimpse “uncle rufus’s” statue outside. rufus burleson was my great-great-great-grandfather’s nephew. Today I hold an office in the building named for Georgia Jenkins Burleson, his wife. The Bible that Rufus Burleson holds in his right hand is a visual reminder of the spiritual legacy of Baylor University. Since its founding in 1845, Baylor has required undergraduates to take religion courses as a part of their general education curriculum irrespective of the degree sought. The 3,000-plus freshmen entering Baylor in 2010 who are preparing for the fields of medicine, science, law, education, business, engineering, social work, nursing, government, the arts, and the humanities will enroll in “The Christian Scriptures” and “The Christian Heritage.” The majority of these freshmen have Christian backgrounds. A smaller percentage has spiritual roots in the traditions of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, or other religions; some students have no religious identity. All will enroll in these two religion courses taught by faculty in the Department of Religion. While Baylor’s spiritual mission is manifested in multiple and diverse ways—required chapel attendance; 14 residential chaplains housed in the dormitories; 12 designated chapels or sacred spaces on campus; dozens of scriptures chiseled into walls, memorials, and walkways; hundreds of

opportunities for service in local churches, missions, and social agencies—perhaps no component of the undergraduate’s spiritual preparation for global citizenship and leadership stands out as does the two required religion courses. In these two classes there is an expectation that students approach sacred Scripture in a critical and intellectually informed way, thus participating in a laboratory where both soul and mind are brought into the discussion. This can be disconcerting to some. On Day One of each semester in my “Christian Scriptures” class, I take my Bible, show it to the class, and then place it behind my lectern. I then ask the students how they would feel if I were to tear a page from the Bible. While asking this question, I slowly tear a piece of paper hidden from their view. It’s interesting to watch the responses of students who think I have actually desecrated Holy Scripture. I see faces of shock, anger, disbelief, surprise, and befuddlement. I use this sleight of hand to demonstrate the class’s deeply embedded and deeply embodied commitments to the Bible. The Bible is understood as a different sort of text; students would not react the same way if I had torn a page from Norton’s Anthology of English Literature. There are three reasons why we require these religion courses for our undergraduates. First, the general public, including our alumni, expects our graduates no matter what their field of study to be able to participate in

discourse from a Christian

perspective. Baylor graduates interviewing

for a place in medical schools might expect a question about how a person of faith reconciles creation and evolution. While some Christians envision science and religion as irreconcilable, Baylor graduates will have studied non-literalist readings of Genesis, which provide a basis for a theistic interpretation of evolution. Baylor graduates interviewing for positions as elementary school teachers in our public schools might be asked how they would reconcile their personal beliefs with professional and legal standards. Our students will have studied issues such as separation of church and state and freedom of conscience as articulated by the Free Church traditions. Baylor graduates interviewing for positions on the staff of state and national elected government officials might be asked how their theological views affect their understanding of health-care or immigration reform. Again, our graduates will have some basic tools to think critically and soulfully about important moral, political and social issues from informed Christian perspectives. These are difficult questions which have no easy answers. These same questions are discussed by our freshmen in these two required religion classes. Second, many foundational texts of the Western intellectual tradition are found in the classics of

Christianity. In a period when the curricula of many universities have become highly specialized and narrow, the principal undergraduate educational focus at Baylor remains liberal education. Traditionally, liberal education has been understood to fill an important gap between high school and professional training. Such an education exposes the student to “the best that has been thought and said” in their own culture and in world cultures. Familiarity with the Psalms, Job, the Sermon on the Mount, the Confessions of Augustine, the Institutes of Calvin, and King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” are an essential component of the education required to equip America’s civic, political, business and ecclesial leaders of the 21st century. A broad curriculum, which transmits and analyzes the best of human achievements in the humanities, the sciences and the arts, remains a cornerstone of the Baylor curriculum. In 2009, Baylor’s general education curriculum with its required religion course was one of only seven universities in the nation to receive an “A” rating by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. Finally, the students’ encounters with sacred text and with the lives of the saints and guided by their religion

professors—who are also faithful members of Christian communities—provide a dynamic opportunity for the genuine transformation of students’ lives. From a confessional stance, the wisdom of Jesus is not primarily informational but transformational. I see this transformation happen to students every semester. Students who have been to Sunday School all of their lives awaken when they hear the Word of God explored outside of the doctrinal perspectives of their particular denomination. A rigid student softens. A lukewarm believer is challenged. An agnostic becomes open to the Spirit. Creative doubt becomes the basis for spiritual growth. Students move from a life informed by ego-consciousness to a life informed by God-consciousness. Karl Bath observes that we come to Scripture with the question “What is this book?” but discover that this book asks us, “Who is this that reads it?” This observation sums up well how our commitment to faith and learning goes beyond merely training students to be good professionals. Instead, it remains a cornerstone for preparing students to be leaders, influencers and contributors in our global community.

the 2 0 10 Fa ll issue /3 /

“ our graduates will have some basic tools to think critically and soulfully about important moral, political & social issues from informed Christian perspectives. ”

r. Edward Burger, professor of mathematics and Lissack Professor for Social Responsibility and Personal

Ethics at Williams College, was named the 2010 recipient of the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching at Baylor University. He will teach the 2010 fall semester at Baylor. Burger is on a mission to preach the gospel of the power of creativity through and beyond mathematics – mathematics without borders – and he has amassed a large number of true believers.

A&s: Your values of creativity and fearless approach to learning are both a good fit for the arts and humanities. How do they apply as a mathematician?

BURGeR: Mathematicians are simultaneously artists and explorers. We’re trying to understand nature and discover truth, but we’re doing that in an artistic way that involves being creative. Being a research mathematician, I learned the art of being creative in any venue. One of the most powerful ways that we can be creative is by intent, to constantly look at the world and ourselves and see things that no one else sees. When we see connections and patterns, then [we] suddenly expand our net of understanding and begin to create new ideas, notions or interpretations.

A&s: Why are creativity and a fearless “no fear” approach important to mathematics?

BURGeR: Most people have this notion that math goes through calculus and that’s all there is. In fact, the amount of math that we understand is smaller than a pin head compared to the unbounded universe of mathematics that we don’t know. Research mathematicians are trying to travel to

the frontiers of our understanding of mathematics and then, ever so gently, move those frontiers outward and try to expand our sphere of knowledge. To get that expansion, we have to imagine an idea that has yet to be formulated. That process of trying to look at what we already know and extrapolate, generalize, or extend – that is the art of being creative.

A&s: Why do you think many students are afraid of math?

BURGeR: In this country, we have embraced a mindset for math [that] is diametrically the opposite of what it should be. We teach math as a collection of rules, formulas and procedures to be followed. It is unpleasant to have to deal with these formulas and rules that you will never use again. When you offer math that way, where it seems useless, beyond personal interest – in a language that is foreign – who would possibly like that? No one! I think that mathematics should be standing on the same pillars with the other great ideas of humankind, including the works of Shakespeare, Plato, Michelangelo and Mozart – the great ideas that have changed how we look at the world. If [only] we were to teach math as a collection of intriguing ideas that are not just used by dead Greek people, but rather by living beings, students, who can be the discoverers of the ideas. The ideas have power beyond the mathematics. The act of thinking about these ideas makes you a more interesting person because you can reason in a different way, whether about history or biology. All of a sudden, modes of understanding grow from experience through mathematics. Now that’s a powerful, persuasive, gripping story, and that’s what math is.

It is commonplace for Dr. Edward Burger to arrive in the morning at his office at Williams College in Williamstown,

Mass., and be greeted by envelopes filled with adoring letters from math students across the nation. One such envelope

included impassioned requests for Burger to visit on a specific day. Although he had a schedule conflict for the date,

he sent the class a video, in which he mentioned each of the students by name, along with words of encouragement

and something specific that each had mentioned. The students were thrilled.

Disciple of CreativityDr. EDwarD BurgEr, thE 2010 roBErt FostEr ChErry awarD winnEr

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A&s: What role can math play in liberal arts?

BURGeR: First of all, math was one of the original liberal arts, the Quadrivium. Math made up at least half, because you had arithmetic and geometry. It’s not going to inspire an 18-year-old, but math really has something to say. If you think of math as a way of challenging oneself – to see worlds that are difficult to see, to tackle challenges that are genuinely hard, and to use basic logic, reason, thinking about simple things deeply, in order to understand complex things – then you are learning a skill set that will not only help you in the liberal arts, but will transcend to your whole life.

A&s: What is it about teaching that you find most appealing?

BURGeR: I love the opportunity to share ideas with people, genuinely a two-way street. I learn from my students, and on good days, my students learn from me. That exchange of ideas, that interpersonal relationship, is something that I find very appealing, and is why I love teaching. The point of education is to change lives. So, if I’m in the position to offer my students an experience that really can change the way they look at themselves or their world – change their life in some way – that is the greatest prize.

A&s: Do you have a particularly significant teaching moment?

BURGeR: One of the most imaginative things I’ve done is offer a course called

Exploring Creativity, which was an interdisciplinary course that is cross-listed under philosophy, studio art, English and mathematics. It had twelve students, three from each of these majors, and they worked in those teams of three to craft mini-curricula in their areas. They had to think about what it means to be creative within those various realms. So, artists were thinking about how to create art, philosophers about how to create philosophical argumentation … . They taught their peers those insights in three-week intensive blocks. The whole point was for students to be at once teachers and students, teaching themselves to communicate and learning that these walls we build up in the academy are really artificial lines that we draw in the sand. They learn that philosophy, math, anthropology, music, English, history, biology involve the same types of thinking, if we open our minds, and that’s the part and point of creativity.

A&s: Within the profession of higher education teaching, in mathematical terms, what do you think we need to add and subtract?

BURGeR: We need to add a significant element in all classes of: “What will the ten-, fifteen-, twenty-year life lessons be?” If you take a course like calculus, unless that student becomes an engineer, scientist or mathematician – they’re going to forget all the technical details of the course. Now, if the point of education is

to change lives, and all I’m offering are basic ideas, concepts and techniques of calculus, then I’ve failed them. So, what we need to be doing across the university is to constantly be thinking about the real prize in education. How can we take the suite of ideas in such a way that it becomes life-changing? That is where we need to focus.

A&s: What are your teaching goals for Baylor?

BURGeR: I’m going to teach two classes. One will be mathematics for humanities. It’s a delight to connect with folks who either have had a bad early educational math experience, don’t like math or haven’t engaged in math, and entice them into seeing this as something that’s interesting and worthy of study. Then I’ll be teaching a more advanced class for math students, and I already see lots of energy, excitement.

A&s: What advice do you have for professors?

BURGeR: I don’t believe that there is any one formula for being a powerful instructor. I think the most important thing we can do is to know our subjects and be able to clearly express and articulate why we love [it]. Everything we teach grew out of human ideas. So often we remove that element and teach in a vacuum. We have to constantly show our students that these are human ideas that we care about, and express why we care about them. If we can open ourselves, be honest with our students,

and articulate the basic ideas in a clear, persuasive, passionate way, then I believe the students will receive an intellectually powerful and moving educational experience. A&s: What advice do you have for students that might enhance learning?

BURGeR: To challenge them to look into their professors’ minds and ask how those professors think [or] process materials – how they come up with ideas, theories and results, and to begin to think of mindset. Then, take the mindsets that seem to be the most appealing to the individual student and begin to embrace and modify their own mindset – that’s how we evolve and learn.

A&s: What is the greatest thing you’ve ever learned?

BURGeR: The first, if we want to be innovative and creative, is [to] fail. Fail as often as you can, and then learn from those failed attempts. We don’t teach failing. We should be teaching how to fail, fail better, move off that state, [and] learn from failure. I so believe this that five percent of my students’ final grade is based on the quality of their failure. That makes my students heads explode: “If I get it all right, I’m not going to do well.” It’s a real paradox, but that’s reality. I teach it, because it’s important. The second thing is the unintended consequences of an event. I know there will be some, and that is an interesting reality to embrace. The most significant outcome

is almost always the one you can’t predict and that’s an important life lesson.

A&s: What have your students taught you?

BURGeR: One is that you can set the bar to what some people may believe to be impossible heights, but if you feed enough inspiration, energy, encouragement and foundation to be able to build upon their own knowledge, they can realize any height you set, and that is a triumph of the human spirit.

A&s: If you weren’t teaching math, what would you be teaching? BURGeR: If I weren’t teaching math, it’s not clear I’d be teaching at all. I was destined to be a lawyer. I said, “Well, I’m just doing math because it’s fun, I like it, it’s entertaining, I like thinking about these abstract ideas.” I wanted to be rich. The law is a great profession, it’s well respected, and you get to argue cases in front of jurors and enjoy lots of visibility. The idea of quality of life would have eluded me when I was younger. My education messed up my plans. But that’s the point of education. It should challenge how you look at the world, and potentially change your entire life trajectory, as it did in my case.

A&s: Anything you would like to add?

BURGeR: Certainly, the association with Baylor, which is an enormous opportunity for me, comes from this tremendous honor of the Cherry Award. But even as great of an honor as the prize is, the real opportunity for me is to become a member of the Baylor community, to share an exchange of ideas with people interested in interacting, to having a wonderfully rich, multi-dimensional relationship with students, faculty, staff and alumni, and really become part of Baylor. I want to be a Bear for a semester.

DeGRees: B.A. in Mathematics from Connecticut College; Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin (but don’t hold it against me)

FAvoRite AReA oF mAthemAtiCs: Number theory

FAvoRite ColoR: Baylor green

lAst Book ReAD: It’s What’s Inside the Lines That Counts: Baseball Stars of the 1970s and 1980s, the latest book written by my friend Fay Vincent

FAvoRite qUote: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First InauguralAddress,March4,1933

FAvoRite AnimAl: Bear

FAvoRite mAth joke: “What did 0 say to 8?” (Answer: “Nice belt!”)

FAvoRite mAth sonG: Take It to the Limit (by the Eagles)

hoBBies: Hiking, jogging, going nowhere on an elliptical cardio machine, painting and poker

iF yoU CoUlD hAve A DinneR with one mAthemAtiCiAn FRom histoRy, who woUlD yoU invite AnD why? Euclid, the forefather of number theory, geometry, and rigorous mathematical proof. Sure we wouldn’t be able to communicate (since he wouldn’t speak English or Spanish and I do not speak ancient Greek), but at least I might be able to get him to autograph my copy of his seminal books The Elements.

E DB u r g E r

JUST ALITTLEMORE

The Normal Paranormalin amEriCa toDay, BEliEF in thE paranormal is, wEll, ExCEEDingly normal.

` S o C i o L o g Y 3

By Becky Aydelotte

\6 \ Bay lor Arts & Science s

ust how those paranormal beliefs and practices intersect with individuals’ religious

beliefs and practices is the topic of a new book, Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture. The book was written by Baylor sociologists Dr. Christopher Bader and Dr. Carson Mencken along with Dr. Joseph Baker, former graduate student

and now a sociologist at East Tennessee State University. The book provides a snapshot of Americans who believe in the paranormal. That’s 68 percent of the nation, according to their findings. Much of Paranormal America’s data was gleaned from the groundbreaking Baylor Religion Survey. This nationwide survey was conducted by the Gallup Organization in Princeton, N.J., and examined Americans’ religious values, practices and behaviors. Designed by the Baylor

Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR), the survey also included questions about specific paranormal beliefs and practices, including questions about Bigfoot, ghosts, UFOs, astrology, palm reading, haunted houses, telekinesis and other phenomena that lie outside the range of normal experience or scientific explanation. Research from the book came from the 2005 and 2007 surveys. “In terms of bringing it all together - the field research with

random data with an extensive body of questions about this subject - no one’s ever done a project of this scope before,” says Bader.

Understanding Beliefs

While based on extensive research, Paranormal America will resonate with both casual readers and the academic community. “We expect this is a book that someone could pick up at Barnes &

J

Your co-workers, your mail carrier, your doctor, the guy coaching your child’s Little League team - chances are they all

harbor a belief in at least one paranormal phenomenon, whether or not they’re willing to admit it out loud.

the 2 0 10 Fa ll issue /7/

the ohio howl It was December 2006, and Carson Mencken sat shivering and perched in a tree in the Sam Houston National Forest. It was 1 a.m. The temperature was 19 degrees. Mencken had accompanied a group of Bigfoot hunters as they set out to do “call blasting” in their quest for Bigfoot, of which some 800 to 1,000 specimens are thought to roam about East Texas. Giant tape recorders and speakers were set up in the trees to assist in luring the legendary creature. “The idea is to play Bigfoot sounds and, if there is a Bigfoot in the forest, to get that Bigfoot to respond to the sounds you are hearing,” explained one of the hunters. Those eerie recordings are known as the “Ohio Howl,” first captured on tape in Columbiana County, Ohio, in 1994. It is thought by believers to be the voice of a Bigfoot. Suddenly, the Bigfoot hunter in the tree with Mencken said, “Alright, here we go!” “He pushes this button, and the most horrifying scream went off from these big, ol’ speakers,” Mencken said. “As soon as that howl went off, every animal in those woods freaked out, as you can well imagine. “There were cows bellowing, there were dogs barking and there were thousands of critters we couldn’t see rushing by us because they were absolutely freaked out by whatever it is this sound is making. It was terrifying. “And I started to think, ‘I really hope that there’s not a Bigfoot, because if that’s what it sounds like, we’re in a lot of trouble.’” The Bigfoot hunters saw nothing that night but matter-of-factly assessed what data could be drawn from the experience, including examining weird smells and listening to recordings of wood knocks. Then, in a very businesslike fashion, they laid out an agenda for the next day, which included hunting for trace evidence along the creek beds.

Noble and read it and understand it and get what we’re saying and enjoy it,” Bader says. “We also think it’s a book that skeptics could read, non-believers could read. And we’re not making fun of people who believe in the paranormal. We’re telling funny stories, but they’re mostly about our own experiences. “This book is a research book about what paranormal beliefs are, who holds them and how they relate to other spheres. The culture that we are in right now is a majority Christian culture, so that’s what these beliefs are reacting to.” The sociologists’ data is interspersed with first-person interviews and extensive fieldwork, including hunts for Bigfoot (see sidebar), nights spent in haunted houses, visits to psychic fairs and meetings with members of an alien abduction support group. Each chapter tackles a different major issue the writers tried to answer within the realm of religion and paranormal. Unlike past surveys of Americans’ paranormal beliefs, this was not merely the questioning of a subset of people about one specific phenomenon - say, Midwestern Protestants’ belief in ghosts, or Southern Baptists’ beliefs in UFOs. Such previous, narrow methodology had left examiners believing Americans fell into one of two groups: believers and non-believers.

Along a Curve

The researchers learned belief in the paranormal is not black and white; the relationship can best be seen as a curve. People with no interest in religion have little stake in the paranormal. Interest in the paranormal increases as people become moderately religious, and it trails off as they become very religious or strictly religious. A continuum of belief exists; one that could be mapped on a bell curve. Some people believe in some paranormal some of the time, some people believe in paranormal all of the time, and some are skeptical of it all of the time. This revelation, Bader says, is truly a “find,” debunking previously held beliefs that practicing Christians were either highly involved in the paranormal, avoided it like the plague or had no relationship with it whatsoever. But “people who are extremely invested in a particular religious tradition - say a strict evangelical or a very conservative Baptist - they have no time for that other stuff,” he says. “If you want to think of it in very economic terms, they’ve invested all their religious capital in one place. They’ve got no other capital to spread around.” Furthermore, very strict religious groups actively discourage experimentation with the paranormal, Bader says. “If you go to very strict Christian groups you’ll see them talking about how the

paranormal is maybe the work of the Devil.” In their research, the sociologists discovered that conservative Protestants are more wary of paranormal beliefs than other religious groups. Conservative Protestants fear it may be contributing to decay in American faith. The irreligious are similar to the religious in this regard. “Someone who believes the Bible is just a book of stories, a book of fairy tales, will not be interested in the paranormal, either,” Bader says. “People who are atheists or disinterested in religion don’t have any interest in the supernatural or the paranormal, and that makes sense, because if you’ve got no time for God, you’ve got no time for aliens either.” The person most likely to believe in the paranormal is someone who believes the Bible is open to and deserves interpretation, the sociologists say. “Where you’re going to find paranormal experimentation is not among someone who never goes to church, or among someone who goes every week, but among someone who goes once a month,” Bader says. “That’s where the highest amount of paranormal experimentation is. It’s someone who has shown an interest in spiritual matters, but who has not put all their eggs in one basket.” Mencken describes them as “dabblers” and “spiritualists.”“They’re into everything,” he says. “They bring their Bible to the psychic fairs. The Bible is sitting there on the table when they get their palm read.”

lost in translation

A major finding to arise from the questioning is the understanding that belief in one paranormal phenomenon does not necessarily translate into a belief in all paranormal activity. For instance, someone who believes UFOs “are a bunch of hooey,” may believe ghosts are a reasonable thing, notes Bader. “Or they think they’ve had a dream that’s come true,” Mencken says. “Most people in this country believe in paranormal things, and they make fun of other paranormal things,” Bader says. “It’s just a matter of finding the one they believe in.” One of the stereotypes about those who believe in the paranormal is that they’ll look or act differently - that they will be wearing “flowing robes and tinfoil hats and talking about their chakras while roaming around the psychic fair,” Bader says. “That’s one of the key findings of the book - that these people who believe one paranormal thing can be hyper-conventional, and sometimes they are very, very conventional because they feel some sort of pressure to be normal because they believe in this one paranormal thing,” Mencken says.

People who believe in one paranormal phenomenon are much different from those who believe in all of them, the sociologists indicate. “If you find a Bigfoot believer, you think, well, they should feel some sympathy toward someone who believes in UFOs or ghosts,” Bader says. Instead, “these very conventional people who believe in one paranormal thing, they actually don’t want to associate with any of the other things because then, if they do, that just brands them as a kook in their eyes,” Bader says. In their travels, Mencken and Bader met many people who felt this conflict.

the Future of Beliefs

Is it reasonable to expect major religions to emerge from the paranormal beliefs and practices? Could belief in UFOs eventually become a dominant religious tradition, with churches and preachers and tithing congregations? Bader and Mencken note a paranormal belief becomes a mainstream religious belief once it develops rituals, doctrines and a body of followers. In order to be a mainstream religious belief, it must be defined as a legitimate religious belief by society in general. As Bader says, “A belief that is paranormal, there’s nothing saying it couldn’t become part of those (accepted religious) beliefs over time.” As for right now and beyond, Bader, Mencken and Baker have plenty to work on. They intend to continue research on this topic, and based on what they have found so far, there exists even more to understand about people and their beliefs in the paranormal. “If you’re thinking statistically, it’s no longer normal not to believe in the paranormal,” Bader says. “I guarantee you that in your daily interactions you are meeting people who think they’ve seen a flying saucer or think they’ve seen Bigfoot or think they’ve seen a ghost in their house.”

B E L I E F I N R E L I G I O N

BE

LIE

F I

N P

AR

AN

OR

MA

L A

CT

IVIT

Y

HIGH

LOW

HIGH

JUST ALITTLEMORE

Couples who argue about how to load soap in the dishwasher are quite possibly arguing about something

besides soap. The same goes for disagreements over when to feed the dog and who should do it, or whether to

attend a friend’s out-of-town wedding.

Love and Conflict-Can you havE onE without thE othEr?

` P S Y C h o L o g Y A N D N E u r o S C i E N C E 3

By Barbara Elmore

o how does a dueling duo know when fights about soap are really about something

else – or what to do about them? Get an expert to mediate? Or they could register for a free and private web program called Couple Conflict Consultant at www.pairbuilder.com. Once there, sparring partners can each spend 15 to 30 minutes taking an assessment to find out what the soap fight really means. “Because as long as

they are arguing about soap, they are not going to get anywhere,” says Dr. Keith Sanford, the researcher behind Couple Conflict Consultant. The study of relationships has fascinated Sanford, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, for more than two decades – even before he started his own evolving research on what makes couples tick – or ticked off. “Even as an undergraduate, I was interested in relationships,” he explains.

“They can make life beautiful if they go well and miserable if they don’t.” In his early quest to learn more about couples, more than 20 years ago, he read self-help books. “Now I look back and see that those are not based on research, or anything scientific,” he adds. He embarked on his own pursuit of knowledge while earning his bachelor’s degree at Seattle Pacific University. He researched psychology and relationships. This study led him to graduate school in clinical psychology

at Michigan State. His research continued when he arrived at Baylor in 2000. What he has learned is that there are actions that arguing couples can take to figure out why their conflict exists. Further, he has discovered what they can do about it and provided a way to help them. While the emphasis in most self-help books is on compatibility – whether, for example, Frank is the right person for Jan – the emphasis of the

S

\8 \ Bay lor Arts & Science s

the 2 0 10 Fa ll issue /9/

1 Couples with a high degree of motivation to discover the source of their conflict & how to resolve it. 2

Newly married couples, because they have not yet established routines of how to resolve conflict. 3

Couples with children. The program is based on research showing connections between the ways couples

resolve conflict and children’s outcomes.*

Couple Conflict Consultant is on the skills that Frank and Jan can build to strengthen their relationship: “It’s not so much destiny as trying to identify the underlying issues in conflicts.” His research has pointed him to two basic issues beneath the surface of such conflict: a perceived threat and a perceived neglect. A person’s status is threatened by a partner he or she perceives as critical, hostile or domineering. A person feels neglect when his partner is not making the investment in the relationship that the other half of the couple wants – “a failure to give you something you were hoping to receive,” Sanford says. His study of couples has revealed that conflict is not only not bad, but can help improve their connection. “A relationship without conflict can be a very shallow relationship,” he adds. “I don’t teach people how to avoid it or get rid of it, but how to resolve it to make the relationship stronger.”

what Conflict means

Conflict is a sign that the relationship is important, he adds, using an example of greeting a stranger who does not respond, and dismissing the lack of a return greeting. “But if I greet my wife and she does not respond, and I am upset, that’s a good thing. If I didn’t care, there would not be conflict. We have conflict with the people we care about the most.”

In this way, conflict helps couples learn more about each other and develop mutual respect. “If my wife says there is something she doesn’t like, I might not remember,” he says. “But if I do something that makes her angry and we have a conflict, it calls my attention to it. I will remember it. Conflicts managed properly can be good for relationships. “On a broader level, one component of conflict is being aware of oneself – what concerns do I really have? Part of conflict resolution is self-awareness. Another part involves tactful communication. How can I express myself, how can I listen to my partner, in a way that is instructive instead of destructive?” His ongoing research resulted in a grant that helped Sanford create the “pairbuilder” website, which went up in March 2010. More extensive than a previous website, it offers complex programs and an assessment that takes a person between 15 minutes to half an hour to complete. He found website developer Neil Luft, a Baylor graduate who is president of Internet Imagineering LLC. Luft’s firm built the new site, www.pairbuilder.com. Although the two did not know each other beforehand, Luft appreciated the work Sanford had already done and wanted to help him get to where he wanted to go. “He had a wonderful foundation. We took it and built a new website about 20 times more powerful, and let it loose.”

Resources on the site result from studies Sanford has done with thousands of people. The latest assessment examines a person’s responses in 14 areas, chosen from the research. Couples complete the assessment together or independently. Sanford recommends that each person answer individually. The questions center on a recent conflict between the couple, and although a single person can benefit, the maximum reward comes when both participate. Also, the site provides privacy. All test-takers are anonymous, and a spouse does not know how his partner answered unless the partner shares. “Keith needed to make sure the couple concept exists, but they can act independently,” Luft says. “He doesn’t want person B to see person A’s answers, because that would corrupt the study, but they still needed to be connected.” Once finished with the assessment, the test-taker can view results immediately, and then view a resource bank that gives scores to compare with the population and techniques to use when dealing with conflict. “There are a variety of things they can do together, and some by themselves,” Sanford says. “The unique feature is that it gives couples feedback and a range of options to work on areas they’d like to work on. It’s not a one-size-fits-all program.”

who should take the Assessment?

Although the assessment is designed for couples to use, individuals can take it. However, only someone in a relationship would find it helpful, Sanford said. He hopes that lay counselors also will find it useful, and he wants to develop a manual for clergy and couples both to follow. Another of his goals is making the best use of new technology. Reaching couples online is cheaper than offering retreats, and allows him to reach thousands of people with minimal effort at a time convenient to them. “People feel uncomfortable going to a program or retreat,” he notes. “The ones who are comfortable may not need the relief because they are pretty good communicators already.” Also, some people feel stigmatized by their need for help, he said. The website offers them privacy and lets them take the assessment when it’s convenient. Sanford’s lack of a profit motive gave Luft satisfaction: “Some (projects) are extremely ‘for profit.’ “ “This one had a deeper goal – to help the world out there. That was very gratifying.” In the next phase of his research, Sanford wants to evaluate how beneficial the assessment is to couples and to continue driving home his message that conflict in a relationship is not something to run from, but something to use.

Who is likely to benefit from the Couple ConfliCt ConsultAnt?

*Children’s behavior problems, emotional problems and issues at school are associated with living in a family where there is parental conflict.

JUST ALITTLEMORE

1Allow between 15 and 30 minutes to take the assessment. It is not necessary to ponder to get results. 2

Plan a time that is most convenient for you, and when you are most motivated to answer questions sincerely. 3

Plan to return multiple times to review the results; do not try to digest everything in one sitting.

tips for tAking the Assessment JUST ALITTLEMORE

4Read the examples. Real-life situations make analyzing your results more

interesting and understandable.5

Realize that you are not getting individual counseling or psychotherapy. 6

Recognize that a negative experience is possible. The assessment asks you to recall a conflict, how it made you feel

and what you did to resolve it.

7If you have questions or concerns about the program itself, get in touch with Keith Sanford. His phone number, e-mail address and mailing address are on the website.

www.pairbuilder.com

Even a slight name change signals the new approach to educating women and men for health-care professions.

The term “premed” once seemed to encompass all health-care-related fields. Now, prehealth is often the name given

to the area that houses many other “pre” areas. In the College of Arts and Sciences, this includes premed, predental,

prepharmacy and many others.

A Promising Prognosis

` P r E h E A L t h P r o g r A M S 3

By franci rogers

edical and professional schools are taking a fresh approach to admissions. Baylor is taking steps to help candidates be more successful. “In the past 10 years or so, attitudes have changed,” says Dr. Rich Sanker, Baylor’s director of prehealth science studies. “Medical schools are much more focused on students’ personal skills, like leadership and effective communication. It’s no longer only about grades and test scores. Medical schools want to know that the students they admit have displayed an affinity for working with others and have the strengths they need to become physicians.”

Not many people think of music when they think of medicine. Junior 1 lorraine Bautista, from Sugarland, Texas, thinks the two are a perfect fit. She is a music major who plays five instruments, including the viola. She plays in the Baylor Campus Orchestra. She entered Baylor as a music major, but on the premed track. She soon discovered dentistry was a better fit for her. “It’s almost artistic how dentists craft with their hands,” Bautista says, “It’s a good blend for me. Dentists’ work is like art, using manual dexterity, and still helping people improve their health. It’s a good blend of what I love to do. I love the fine details of both music and health.”* * * * * * * * * * * *

M

gonE arE thE Days that prEmED stuDEnts FillED thE stErEotypiCal molD: antisoCial, intEnsE Biology majors, nEurotiCally taking notEs amiD staCks oF Books, living anD Dying By thEir gpas anD nEvEr sEtting Foot outsiDE thE sCiEnCE hallways. toDay’s prEhEalth stuDEnts arE a wholE nEw BrEED.

Shadowing doctors is the way 2 orhue odaro hopes to gain experience before going to medical school. The junior biochemistry major was born in Nigeria, and she also lived in England and Ireland before coming to Baylor. She spent last summer shadowing a general practitioner in Sugarland. “I got to see first-hand how primary care works,” Odaro says. “I saw

and participated in everything from getting patient information by asking the right questions to making referrals to specialists.” But in addition to studying the doctor/patient dynamic, she also learned the basics of a medical office. She was able to observe how much time is spent doing things other than patient care, such as paperwork and billing.

Odaro also spends time volunteering at an area hospice.* * * * * * * * * * * *

3 whitney rochelle, a predental student who majored in health science studies and graduated in May, also found time to be involved at Baylor. She was a member of the dance team and a Bearobics instructor. She believes that those extra-curricular activities will help her to succeed.

“I joined the prehealth and predental campus organizations when I was a sophomore, but didn’t feel confident with leadership there,” she says. As an aerobics and cycling instructor at the Student Life Center, she gained a belief in her leadership abilities. “I didn’t know I was ready, and I was afraid I would fail in front of people,” Rochelle says. “And I did fail once or

twice, and people at Baylor helped and loved me through that. I could see people grow around me, learning from my mistakes and learning from my leadership. God had plans for me so much larger than myself! I came here as a homesick freshman who cried a lot and left a leader.” Rochelle has been accepted to Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas. She will begin this fall.

1 2

\ 10 \ Bay lor Arts & Science s

“ “I’m so grateful to have had a place to learn how to meet people and communicate,” she says. “The most successful dentists I’ve met are the ones with great interpersonal skills. They talk with people about normal, everyday stuff: the Super Bowl, golf swings, good movies. Greek life and

teaching aerobics at Baylor helped me to know how to do that, too.”* * * * * * * * * * * *

That kind of community involvement, says Sanker, will help medical schools see that the applicant is socially aware and has good interpersonal skills.

“In the torte issues of the ’90s, we saw a terrific rise in lawsuits in the medical field,” he says. “And one thing that came from that was the realization that many physicians were just not very good at communicating effectively. When you have to explain things like risks to a patient, you need good interpersonal skills.” Another factor Sanker says is changing the way medical schools view applicants is the country’s shortage of medical professionals, especially as the Baby Boomer generation ages. “There are not enough physicians to handle the demand,” he says. “So they are opening more medical schools and more seats in existing classrooms, but they want to be extremely careful about who they give those seats to. If a student changes his mind, that seat can’t simply be filled. It’s a missed opportunity.” To prevent losing precious spots in their

programs, medical schools are now looking for applicants who really understand what the profession is all about.* * * * * * * * * * * *

4 Ford okoli, a biology major and chemistry minor from Nigeria, is learning by volunteering. During his senior year at Baylor, he began volunteering at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco. “I volunteer in surgery,” says Okoli. “It’s a tremendous opportunity, and there are only about four

people who are in the program. I help in the operating rooms, and it has taught me very much. I’m comfortable in a hospital.” Okoli also volunteers at a local homeless shelter and as a tutor. He is taking time off after graduating this May to do more volunteer work here and in Nigeria. Okoli, who graduated from high school at age 15, wants to take a “gap year” before joining his older peers in medical school.* * * * * * * * * * * *

Sophomore 5 anmol wadhwani is getting even more of a

hands-on introduction to medicine. He recently passed his paramedic exam and became EMT certified this summer. The neuroscience major with minors in chemistry and medical humanities returned to his hometown of Brownwood, Texas, this past summer for a job as part of an ambulance crew. “It’s teaching me more than shadowing ever could,” says Wadhwani. “Even the basic paramedic course gave me experience in a little bit of

everything. It touches on pediatrics, cardiology, geriatrics … pretty much everything.” The experience is also helping him to narrow down his choices of a medical specialty. “It’s really made me think about maybe becoming an emergency physician,” he says. “But I haven’t ruled out family practitioner or maybe neuroscience.” * * * * * * * * * * * *

For 6 kara klott, it’s not her major that sets her apart, but what she does in her spare time. The senior from Houston, Texas, is a biochemistry major with

a biology minor. She is also a Baylor cheerleader. “I’ve always wanted to do something in medicine, and I’ve always loved sports,” says Klott, who participated in competitive cheer and on the swim team in high school. “I chose Baylor because of science and not sports, but I couldn’t imagine not being involved in cheer.” Klott was a Baylor cheerleading squad member for three years. She traveled to many events, sometimes missing classes to do so.

“Academics always come first, but I try to find a good balance,” she says. “It isn’t always easy, but it is worth it.” Klott also participates in volunteer events with the cheerleading squad. Her favorites are those that involve visiting local elementary schools. Visiting schools and her work teaching swimming lessons to children with mental and physical disabilities are among the reasons she is considering pediatrics.* * * * * * * * * * * *

To Sanker, the students he sees in diverse majors and

extra-curricular activities—and those expanding their medical knowledge during the undergraduate studies—are amazing. They are not the exception at Baylor. “This is just a small sample of what I see every day,” he says. “Our prehealth programs are filled with some of the most amazing students—and student leaders—on this campus. They’re really going to make an impact, not just here, but in the world.”

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”

in the past 10 years or so, attitudes have changed. Medical schools are much more focused on students’ personal skills, like leadership and effective communication.

the 2 0 10 Fa ll issue / 11 /

prehealth programs fast facts:

\ 12 \ Bay lor Arts & Science s

Han finished his junior year as a biology major with medical humanities and chemistry minors, when he became involved in Baylor’s Academy for Leader Development and Civic Engagement. This program fosters leadership among students by creating ways for them to collaborate. The Academy includes the Fellow Program, Leadership Living-Learning Centers and a Leadership Lecture Series. Han was part of the Fellow Program — a series of courses, mentorships, civic engagement projects and active campus leadership — and saw an opportunity for other prehealth students.

“I felt like there were so many premed students who could benefit from something like that,” says Han. “They want to be leaders and make a difference here in Waco. There are so many underserved people here, especially in health care.” Han began to wonder: Could a Fellows Program be developed and geared specifically toward the prehealth community? “I met with Dr. Sanker last summer and just brought my idea to him,” he says. Sanker was impressed.

“The goal is to create a culture of premeds who will go back to their student groups and create programs for the community or bring programs to Baylor,” Sanker says. “If you can empower students to leadership, they end up doing great things. Imagine teaching and leading as an undergraduate, learning what it’s like to work in and create partnerships. It’s going to be remarkable.” Together, Sanker and Han created the Community Health Fellows. The program will officially begin fall 2010 with about 10 Fellows. The program aims to expand to 25 students once established.

“It’s one thing to say what should be done. It’s another thing entirely to find the resources and the partners to do it,” says Sanker. “It’s what they will learn though the Fellows program, and it’s what Sam did to help start the program. He’s already an agent for positive change. He’s an all-star.”

BAyloR’s ACCeptAnCe RAtes to meDiCAl sChools hAs Been Consistently ABove the nAtionAl AveRAGe FoR the pAst seveRAl yeARs.

imagine teaching and leading as an undergraduate, learning what it’s like to work in and create partnerships. it’s going to be remarkable.

“

” Dr. Rich Sanker

is amazed every day at

the leadership roles taken

by the prehealth students

at Baylor. As the director

of prehealth science

studies, he sees Baylor

undergraduates taking

on roles as campus and

community leaders. But

Sam Han was unique.

He led the leaders.

ABoUt 1/3 oF BAyloR’s inCominG FReshmen enteR some type oF pReheAlth tRACk.

BAYLor’S PrEhEALth ProgrAMS iNCLuDE:premedicine mEDiCal humanitiEs Predentistry Prenursing Preveterinary Medicine Predental HyGiene Clinical Laboratory Science PrePharmacy Pre-occupational & Prephysical TherapyPre-optometry PrePodiatriC mediCinep r e p h y s i C i A n A s s i s t A n t

t wo Baylor study-abroad programs are

designed specifically for pre-health

majors: Baylor in Maastricht (a semester

at the University of Maastricht in the

Netherlands), and Straw to Bread (a medical

and public health Maymester in Kenya).

JUST ALITTLEMORE

littlestoRy

BiGnews

the 2 0 10 Fa ll issue / 13 /

Reginald Rowe, Sanctuary II, oil on canvas, 1974, Gift of the AT&T Corporation.

Martin Museum of Art Enjoys Landmark Year for Art Donations & Purchases

“Word is getting

out,” says Karin A.

Gilliam, director

of Martin Museum

of Art. “We’ve had

many inquiries

regarding donating

artwork to the

museum, and we

have had to be very

selective.”

Among the

donations accepted

in the past academic

year are 32 prints and

etchings by the late

John Winkler, a well-

known printmaker;

three oil paintings

by the late “Lone

Star modernist”

Michael Frary; an

oil painting by John

Guerin, a family

portrait by Wacoan

Kermit Oliver,

and three pieces

of art from AT&T,

including two works

by Robert Kipniss,

known for oil and

print contemporary

landscapes, and a

large painting by

San Antonio artist

Reginald Rowe.

In a typical

year, the museum

may purchase one

or two works of art,

and it may have

one or two donated

to its permanent

collection, Gilliam

says. The collection

has more than 1,000

works of art.

Besides being

known for the

quality of its art, the

museum is known

for its reflection of

community and area

history, including

works by Baylor art

faculty and other

area artists.

Located in the

Hooper-Schaefer

Fine Arts Center and

administered by the

department of art,

the museum has two

galleries, each about

1,000 square feet.

Much of the archived

art is in conservation

flat files.

The museum,

with the generous

support of the Martin

Museum Art Angels,

the Webb Estate Fund

and the Getterman

Endowed Fund,

serves as a valuable

tool for students

and faculty. It offers

exhibitions that

complement courses

in art history and

studio art.

By terry goodrich

This has been a record-breaking year for the Martin Museum

of Art at Baylor University in terms of art acquisitions and donated

art created by well-known artists.

littlestoRy

BiGnews

Robert Kipniss, Untitled, print, Gift of the AT&T Corporation.

Michael Frary, Red Apartment House, oil on board, 1952, Gift of Dorothy and Terrell Blodgett.

“”

We’ve had many inquiries regarding donating artwork to the museum, and we have had to be very selective.

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