Mary Dickinson
The Honors College shaped my Baylor experience by putting my ideas in conversation with other students and professors who are passionate about truth, goodness, and beauty. Often, as a scholar, it can feel difficult to find “kindred spirits,” as Anne Shirley would say, but in the Honors College, I found a community of people whose virtue inspired me and whose conversations continually challenged and sharpened me. Especially through life in the Honors Residential College, I encountered friendships that shaped not only my intellectual growth, but also my spiritual formation.
The Getterman Scholars program gave me opportunities that deeply influenced both my academic and personal development. Through close mentorship relationships, I strengthened my interpersonal skills and grew in my desire to pursue teaching as a lifelong vocation. The program also gave me the freedom to explore new academic interests and vocational possibilities. While at Baylor, I shifted from a pre-med track to studying language, linguistics, and Classics, with plans to pursue graduate work in the field. I will always be grateful for the ability to make that transition with such support and freedom. The scholarship also allowed me to study abroad in Italy during my freshman year, an experience that would not have been possible otherwise.
Some of the most meaningful moments from my Baylor experience were the ones that pushed me outside my comfort zone. A mission trip to the Philippines with the Baylor Religious Hour Choir transformed my sense of courage and confidence in ways I did not expect. I also loved traditions within the Honors Residential College like Humans versus Zombies, which somehow brought together heroism, whimsy, friendship, and complete commitment to the bit all at once. Those moments captured something special about the HRC community and the joy people found in loving and supporting one another.
Academically, I was deeply influenced by courses like Dr. Scott Moore’s Modern World Capstone, where I first read Crime and Punishment, and Dr. Alden Smith’s seminar on Virgil’s Georgics, which deepened my love for poetry, the natural world, and what I can only describe as the tragic loveliness of humanity’s longing for Christ. I am also incredibly grateful for Dr. Dan Hanchey, my thesis mentor, whose love for Cicero inspired my own work and whose guidance made my thesis possible.
One of the biggest surprises of the Getterman Scholars program was how deeply student-centered it was. I expected strong faculty mentorship, and I certainly found that, but I did not anticipate how meaningful the relationships with fellow scholars would become. Some of my closest friendships came through this community, including my roommate during my junior and senior years. From dinners with older scholars during my first semester to exchanging favorite books at Christmas, the Getterman community became one of the greatest gifts of my Baylor experience.
After graduation, I will move to Saarland, Germany, on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant award. After teaching English for a year, I plan to pursue graduate study in Classics, most likely at the University of Cambridge.
If I could offer one piece of advice to future Getterman Scholars, it would be the advice C.S. Lewis gives in Mere Christianity: “Aim at Heaven, and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’; aim at Earth, and you will get neither.”
