Ouachita Stories

From the "Ouachitonian": Kirsten Swanson

As high school graduation grew near for Kirsten Swanson, a dietetics and nutrition major from Canyon Lake, Texas, she struggled to make a college decision. After realizing she was unsure of what she wanted to do career-wise, Swanson decided to take the year off and started her journey for what would become a seven-year gap period.

From the "Ouachitonian": Julianna Parsons

Julianna Parsons, a freshman business entrepreneurship major from Celina, Texas, is Madame Pastry. Parsons has baked recreationally and professionally in her time as a baker and has drawn her inspiration from the sweeter things life has to offer.

From the "Ouachitonian": Hunter Swoboda

TikTok took the world by storm in 2020 as a social media app that allows users to create and share fun videos. Each video can consist of dancing, comedy or anything in between.

From the "Ouachitonian": Hannah Pilcher

Hannah Pilcher, the resident director of Frances Crawford Hall, found a unique opportunity for ministry within her job in the freshman girls’ dorm. Pilcher is originally from Little Rock and has spent the past eight years pouring into the lives of freshmen girls and resident assistants, as a student and as an RD. Her time at Ouachita inspired Pilcher to build relationships with others that directly parallels her experience as a student.

From the "Ouachitonian": Eric Phillips

When going home in the Spring 2020 semester became a reality for students, staff and faculty at Ouachita, one of the greatest challenges became how to continue to feel motivated and inspired while in isolation. For Eric Phillips, chair of the Department of Theatre Arts, specializing in light, stage, costume and prop design, this reality was one he felt he could help bring some inspiration and encouragement to. Luckily for Phillips, roughly a year before being sent home due to the COVID-19 outbreak, he decided to take a season on sabbatical.

Ouachita's Dr. Nathan Reyna receives national Innovation in Education Award

Dr. Nathan Reyna, associate professor of biology at Ouachita Baptist University, has won the first Innovation in Education Award from the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB).

Turning from fear to hope

I had a front-row seat to Ouachita’s approach to pandemic planning as a member of several administrative groups on campus. I remember feeling fear, anxiety and discouragement starting in March 2020 at the challenge ahead of and all around us.

Equipping leaders

With its strong history of producing worship leaders who serve in well-known churches in Arkansas, Texas and beyond, Ouachita’s School of Performing Arts has been on the radar of local churches for decades.

Ouachita launches graduate Dietetic Internship during pandemic

To say you started anything new in 2020 would, well, raise eyebrows – especially launching something as involved and hands-on as an academic program including clinical healthcare. But that’s exactly what Ouachita did during the 2020-2021 academic year, launching its first graduate programs in more than 20 years.

Hope by way of lament

“Back to normal.” Since the middle of last March, those words have felt like an impossible dream. As illness disrupted life for many and restrictions disrupted life for all, we longed for things to just be the way they used to be.