Campus Leaders' Care on Campus

When new students walk onto Baylor’s campus, they’re met with an entirely new experience. It can be overwhelming, exciting, nerve-wracking—thankfully, Community Leaders (CLs) are there to meet incoming students where they’re at.

“It’s a busy time; you're transitioning and it’s a new chapter in your life,” junior corporate communications major and CL, Abigail Morgan said. “It’s a time where I encourage freshmen to give themselves some grace—you’re figuring everything out and it’s all new.” 

CLs serve the Baylor community via Campus Living & Learning’s residence halls. Through leadership, cultivating relationships, mentoring residents and facilitating learning through efforts that integrate aspects of diversity, faith development, academics, and relationships, CLs play a major role on Baylor’s campus.

“I think a lot of my reasoning behind wanting to be a CL came from wanting to help new students find their community and get them plugged in,” senior marketing major and CL, Adam McCoy said. “I feel like I've been given a lot by Baylor, so this is my way to give back and help others out in the same ways that I've been helped.”

As a part of Campus Living & Learning at Baylor, CLs carry out CL&L’s conviction that living and learning are inseparable pursuits and that the best learning occurs through intentional efforts to create an atmosphere of academic pursuit in the residence halls.

Samuel Simonian is a junior majoring in electrical and computer engineering and serves as a CL in North Russell Hall, a Living-Learning Community (LLC) with students who come from all over the country and the world, and who represent many different majors.

“We have a lot of residents that come from a lot of different cultural backgrounds that aren't all Christian and aren't all from America; I think that finding community is very important, especially for people that aren't in the majority of Baylor students,” Simonian said. “As a CL, I get the opportunity to connect students with resources or with communities that they feel they can be a part of—and I’m constantly learning from others too.”

As students get plugged into the Baylor community, they often hit their stride.

“I love being able to meet students where they are at; watching them become independent and more confident in themselves,” Morgan said. “It’s amazing to see them enter Baylor in the fall and who they are when they go home that spring. So much growth happens, and I love to encourage them throughout it!”

And, sometimes, CLs impact their residents without even realizing it.

“My first year as a CL, I wanted to be a positive influence, but never felt like I’d done much that would leave an impact,” McCoy said. “Then, I ran into a resident a year later and he said, ‘Adam, I never told you this, but I just want to say I feel like you're one of the only people that cared for me during my first year.’ And that meant the world to me – knowing that just by caring for my residents, I made a small difference.”

As incoming students begin to prepare for the move onto campus in the fall, they can know they’re in good hands.

“Being a CL is what I feel called to,” Simonian said. “I love intentionally being a part of the community and I can’t wait for students to get back to Waco.”