Submitting plans with open hands
January 25, 2024There’s a truth God has taught me throughout college and I’m sure will continue to teach me as I get older. Two passages of wisdom the Lord has used in service of continually reminding me of this lesson are Proverbs 16:9 – “The heart of a man plans his way but the Lord establishes his steps.” – and James 4:14-15, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’– yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”
On Monday, January 15, people across America and in many places of the world will pause to pay tribute to the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Fake it until you make it.” While a common phrase in the leadership/business management advice genre, it’s genuinely how I survived my freshman year as a first-generation college student.
My grandmother could make the best biscuits ever over an open fire. My dad could tune a guitar to perfect pitch without a tuner. Those were just a few of the many skills they taught me. But there was one skill they could not teach me: navigating the world of higher education.
My maternal grandparents grew up in the Depression-era poverty that surrounded the lumber mills around Ashdown, Arkansas. When World War II ended, and my grandfather came home from the front lines in Europe, there was no work in the Texarkana area. He and his young family moved to northeastern Oklahoma where he found a job at the newly opened BF Goodrich tire factory.
This year marks my fourth and final year of college. It seems just like yesterday I was walking up the stairs of Francis Crawford Hall, too many bags in hand, to embark on my educational journey.
The Legend of the Lady in Black: 100 years later
October 31, 2023As Cone-Bottoms Hall celebrates its centennial birthday, stories arise that were passed down from generation to generation surrounding the iconic building on campus. One urban legend follows the story of Jane and her mysterious death.
“Welcome to Ouachita,” they’ll say. You’ll drive through the parking lot of Francis Crawford Hall or Flippen-Perrin Hall or O.C. Bailey Hall; your car will be loaded down, and perhaps your parents’ cars will be loaded down, too. Or you might be planning to be greeted from the passenger seat of a U-Haul that your family insisted on renting.
Creating community, one amazing dish at a time
February 08, 2023Ouachita Baptist University has been a home away from home for students from all over the world. Although Ouachita was founded in 1886, the first international student only stepped onto campus in 1923 and came all the way from China. In 2023, we have reached 100 celebratory years since Ouachita’s first international student arrived, and our campus continues to value the attendance and presence of international students.