Up-and-coming Baylor scholars win prestigious awards in their fields
Baylor professors represent our school well on the national level — sharing expertise on political rhetoric, rescuing black gospel music from obscurity, developing a life-saving app, etc. — all while guiding their own students toward that same level of success. This semester, three young Baylor scholars — one a graduate student, one professor, and one who’s served both roles here — have proven their potential by winning prestigious awards in their respective fields.
Laura Phipps, a Baylor School of Education graduate student specializing in school psychology, was awarded the 2016 Outstanding Graduate Student Award by the Texas Association of School Psychologists. Let that sink in: out of all the Texas graduate students studying psychology, Phipps was named the best! Her professors, who nominated Phipps for the award, describe her as highly driven and intellectually curious. “I was genuinely happy about the nomination and did not expect to be selected for the award,” Phipps says. “I know that no matter how far I want to go as a professional, all of the school psychology professors here will help me get there.”
Dr. Erin Dixon, BS ’04, MSED ’08, PhD ’15, visiting lecturer in the School of Education, wasn’t always on the education track. After getting her undergraduate degree in nutrition from Baylor and becoming a dietitian, Dixon decided to make a shift and enroll in Baylor’s School of Education. She began teaching high school science, but, like many high school science teachers, struggled to keep her students engaged. It was through this struggle that Dixon began comparing two methods of teaching science: direct teaching (concept explanation, then hands-on experiments) and inquiry teaching (hands-on experiments, then concept explanation). Eventually, she decided to pursue a doctorate from Baylor, and this year was honored with a national award from the School Science and Mathematics Association for her dissertation.
Dr. Kayla Rhidenour, a lecturer in Baylor’s Department of Communication, has been advocating for the veteran community for years. She was happy to see the media take an interest in the wellbeing of veterans re-entering civilian life, but began to notice that veterans themselves were not often being interviewed. Out of this curiosity came her dissertation “The Mediated Veteran: How News Sources Narrate the Pain and Potential of Returning Soldiers,” for which she received the 2016 Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the National Communication Association.
Sic ‘em, Baylor grad students!