Remembering Our Hope: Panel Discussion to Explore How Friendship Can Enrich Community and Cultivate Virtue

Discussion to be followed by Vespers and music service Friday at Roxy Grove Hall

Media Contact: Lori Fogleman, 254-710-6275

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WACO, Texas (Aug. 31, 2016) – Baylor University students, faculty, staff and alumni will explore how friendship can enrich community and cultivate virtues during a panel discussion, “Companions in Hope: Why Community Is Good but Friendship Is Better,” at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2, in Roxy Grove Hall. A Vespers and music service will follow the discussion at 3 p.m., also in Roxy Grove.

“While Baylor’s mission speaks of the cultivation of a caring community, how might our understanding of community life be enriched by a deeper understanding and practice of friendship? How might friendship help us cultivate the virtues of truthfulness, courage, wisdom, justice, faith, love and hope?” said Darin Davis, Ph.D., vice president for University Mission and director of the Institute for Faith and Learning at Baylor.

“Friends lift our spirits when we are discouraged, challenge us when we are off track and help us do countless things we can never do by ourselves. Our discussion provides us with a campus-wide opportunity to ask what it means for Baylor to be a Christian community comprised of friends who study, work and live in hope,” Davis said.

The presentation will explore friendship from the perspectives of the following panelists:

• Briceon Wiley, B.B.A. ’16, graduate student in statistical sciences
• Emmanuel Roldan, M.Div. ’16, pastor, Primera Iglesia Bautista, Waco
• Alice Knaeble, senior University Scholar, Great Texts/Premedicine
• Cheryl Gochis, B.A. ’91, M.A. ’94, vice president for human resources and chief human resources officer
• Darin Davis, M.A. ’95, Ph.D., vice president for University Mission and director of the Institute for Faith and Learning

The Vespers and music service will feature Baylor students, with a homily by L. Gregory Jones, Ph.D., executive vice president and provost, and led by Todd Still, Ph.D., dean of Truett Seminary, and Randall Bradley, Ph.D., The Ben H. Williams Professor of Music and director of the church music program in the Baylor School of Music.

Davis said the program emerged out of the University’s Spiritual Life and Character Formation Task Force, which was established to reinforce Baylor’s Christian commitment to developing men and women of good character for leadership and service.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 16,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.