• Six-man football star, Big 12 starting lineman — and Baylor MBA graduate

    Quincy and Ashley Jenkins

    Quincy Jenkins came to Baylor in 2003 from tiny Trinidad, Texas (population 1,091), as a pre-med major. After walking on to the football team under head coach Guy Morriss, Jenkins went on to earn a scholarship and appear in 40 games as a defensive tackle for the Bears — all while earning his degree in biology.

    Last December, he added another Baylor degree — his online MBA — and he now works at Google as a senior strategist, living in Southern California with his wife, Ashley (BBA ’12), and three-month-old daughter, Zoe.

    So, you might say Jenkins, BS ’09, MBA ’16, knows something about taking on a challenge.

    “I’m still the only six-man (football) player to get a scholarship to a Division I university and play all four years,” he says. “I’m pretty proud of that.”

    Jenkins had never played a traditional 11-man game of football until he was playing in the Big 12 Conference, appearing in 10 games as a walk-on true freshman in 2003. You’d expect a big learning curve, coming from the small-town game to the Big 12. But early his freshman season, Jenkins earned a starting spot on the defensive line, and a year later, he was on scholarship for the Bears.

    After earning his undergraduate degree in biology in 2009, Jenkins eventually decided that medicine wasn’t right for him. He spent several years in sales for Sherwin-Williams, and two years ago, felt a desire to grow his business and leadership skills. Now 32 years old and married, he needed to balance work and family (he and his wife learned they were expecting their first child during his studies) with the desire to pursue a degree to better himself and his career.

    Baylor’s online MBA program proved to be a perfect fit. Students can complete their coursework in 12-16 months on the accelerated track from wherever they are working, like Jenkins did in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. That flexibility was a major factor, but not the only thing that drew him back to Baylor.

    U.S. News and World Report notes that Baylor online MBA classes are taught by the same “nationally-acclaimed faculty” that teach on campus. Jenkins and other MBA students credit the program’s “Define, Discover, Deliver” approach for helping advance their career. For students like Jenkins, who did not take business classes in college, that foundation helps build a better understanding of the principles and purpose of business to enhance what they’ve seen in their own careers.

    His work paid off quickly. In March, the life-long Texan moved to Silicon Valley as a senior strategist with Google.

    Sic ’em, Quincy Jenkins!