At the start of a new year, President Livingstone examines a variety of topics on this Baylor Connections.

In his role as Dean of Intercultural Engagement and Division of Student Life Initiatives, Kevin Villegas works with students and colleagues to create more vibrant, inclusive, and supportive campus environment.

Baylor’s Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center has arrived, a spectacular new “front door” to Baylor University along I-35. The beautiful, technology-rich facility houses a variety of features and amenities—among them, four columns which offer unique interactive experiences to visitors, an alumni center, ballroom, auditorium, spirit shop, coffee shop, meeting spaces and more. Go inside the Hurd Welcome Center with Jason Cook, Vice President for Marketing and Communications, Toby Barnett, Interim Vice President for Advancement, and Ross VanDyke, Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management, Marketing and Recruiting, in this Baylor Connections.

Major General Joel Carey serves as director of operations, strategic deterrence, and nuclear integration of the United States Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, based in Germany. This year, he was recognized as Baylor’s 2023 Alumna of the Year.

BearAid is Baylor’s disaster relief outreach team, where students partner with Baylor Spiritual Life to meet needs in Texas and across the country after national disasters like tornadoes, ice storms and floods.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is NASA’S next flagship mission and offers significant technological advancements to explore the universe.

From a childhood in Nebraska to Baylor to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Richa Sirohi pursued her dreams and achieved significant goals as an engineer. A 2018 Baylor graduate, Sirohi is Baylor’s 2023 Young Alumna of the Year.

Baylor students are attaining jobs and grad school positions at an elite rate. The University’s most recent placement rate is 92 percent, and the Baylor University Career Center has played an important role in helping students build a successful approach toward their career. Ken Buckley serves as Assistant Vice Provost in the Baylor University Career Center.

When flooding in Yellowstone stalled a family vacation, Ryan McManamay turned his attention to those impacted by the disaster. McManamay, an associate professor of environmental science at Baylor, earned a grant to survey business owners around the park to determine the floods’ impact on their business. That data sheds light on the role of natural resources on the communities around them.

What constitutes a good workday break, and how can breaks impact both productivity and health? Cindy Wu and Emily Hunter from Baylor’s Department of Management studied these topics, and their research broke new ground in understanding and shattered a few long-held myths.