Baylor University's Global Network

Brent Edwards

Director of the Global Network

and

Special Projects

(Image from Baylor University)

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a certain Mr. Brent Edwards, the Director of Baylor University's Global Network, who wanted to let me know that he would be spending a couple of days in Seoul between an official trip to Harbin, China and his return to Waco, Texas. Although our time as students at Baylor overlapped, I didn't recall him, nor he me, but we figured out that we must have actually spoken to each other sometime during my final year because I was working in the Music Library at the same time that he was using it for some of his research.

We met for lunch yesterday in Seoul along with my wife, who selected Pulhyanggi, an excellent traditional Korean restaurant near Danguk University. The name means "Fragrance of Greens," or so I read online somewhere.

Mr. Edwards has an enviable Baylor job that takes him around the world to make and follow up connections to Baylor alumni. According to the Global Network's mission statement:

The mission of The Baylor Network is to develop an extensive network of constituents who:

are knowledgeable about Baylor;
see their connection with Baylor and other Baylor constituents as meaningful; and
find any number of ways to contribute to the success of both.

To achieve this mission, we provide a variety of opportunities for the Baylor community to come together across the globe. We encourage you to explore our website to discover ways to get involved.

A few years back, I began to re-establish links to Baylor, a place that -- despite my rebelliousness at the time -- I've always looked back to with a great deal of warmth. Apparently, that's a common Baylor alum feeling, for Baylor University has always been a student-centered institution that provides a sense of community. For me in my circumstances at the time as a penniless, naive, ignorant hillbilly, Baylor provided a soft transition into the world outside the Ozarks and prepared me for my emergence into a more competitive, at times harsh academic world . . . not that I've ever gotten fully used to being here. I sometimes wish that I were still a Baylor student.

Anyway, the three of us spoke for about three hours, and I must say that Baylor has the right man for the job. Personable. Intelligent. Knowledgeable. Energetic. He told me about the transformation of Baylor since my last visit there in 1984, when I returned for Homecoming to attend the annual event as celebrated by the NoZe Brothers, the only club that I ever belonged to after high school. That's probably not an unmixed recommendation for me to the average Baylor alumnus, who will recall the NoZe as an unruly if somewhat humorous satirical group of underachievers who wore Groucho Marx glasses to hide their identities as they interrupted official events . . . like Homecoming, for example.

Mr. Edwards didn't seem fazed by the NoZe detail, but perhaps he already knew. He's been with the Global Network at Baylor for about seven years, and part of his job entails knowing about alumni and their quirks. Be that as it may, I reckon that I'm now part of this 'Global Network' . . . albeit unofficially I suppose.

I therefore 'unofficially' encourage any Baylor alumni -- or people simply interested in Baylor who happen to read this blog entry -- to contact Mr. Brent Edwards and his staff through Baylor University's Global Network, whose email address can be found online at the official website.