Around the State: Baylor receives $2 million gift, Houston approves grant to Buckner

Singletary named dean of Baylor’s Garland School of Social Work — Jon Singletary

Baylor University’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work received a $2 million gift from a California family to support its Global Mission Leadership program, whose purpose is to contribute to Christ-centered international development through culturally informed education. The gift will provide programmatic support and create an endowed chair in global leadership. The Global Mission Leadership program identifies, recruits and sponsors leaders from communities around the world to study at Baylor. These individuals provide international perspectives on campus while they are students, and as graduates, they return to their home countries for transformational service. “Our alumni are working in government, in medical settings and in nonprofit organizations in Uganda, Cambodia, Myanmar and many other nations, providing advocacy, social services and education to their communities,” said Jon Singletary, dean of the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work.

The Houston City Council approved a $100,000 grant to Buckner Children and Family Services. The grant will help the Buckner Family Hope Center of Houston at Reed Road provide case management and social services for 30 families with open Child Protective Services cases who live in a housing project for low- to moderate-income households located next to the center. Services will include family coaching, parenting classes, General Equivalency Diploma courses and children’s programs. “By working to keep families together, we are keeping children out of the system, helping parents become financially self-sufficient, creating better opportunities for future generations, and overall strengthening the community of Houston, said Shawna Roy, senior executive director for Buckner Children and Family Services of Southeast Texas.

Dallas Baptist University will host a Congreso Experience on March 2. Jay Harley, DBU vice president for student affairs, is the keynote speaker. The free Congreso preview event will be held at various locations across Texas, providing Hispanic students opportunities to gather, worship, and hear from speakers who will challenge them to surrender their lives to Christ and seek to serve others. Up to 200 participants also can attend a variety of workshops and breakout sessions.

Ana O’Quin, a junior at Baylor University, is one of three students nationally awarded the Shared Justice Student-Faculty Research Prize from the Center for Public Justice, a Christian civic education and public policy research organization based in Washington, D.C. O’Quin—a social work major with a minor in social justice—received the prize for her proposal to research teenagers’ access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Waco throughout the spring. She is a social work major at Baylor University, with a minor in social justice. She shares the award with her faculty adviser Stephanie Boddie, assistant professor of church and community ministries in Baylor’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work.