![\"Baylor](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/downtown-alum-may17.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve visited Downtown Waco recently, chances are you\u2019ve seen a new business or building and thought, \u201cThat wasn\u2019t here last time,\u201d or \u201cA lot has changed downtown since I was a student!\u201d That even happens with those of us who live here.<\/p>\n
Downtown Waco is hot right now, and countless Baylor alums are at the forefront of growing it into a vibrant spot for locals and destination for visitors. Chip (BBA \u201998) and Joanna (BA \u201901) Gaines<\/a>\u00a0aren’t the only ones leading the renaissance (although they\u2019re certainly a\u00a0driving force behind Waco’s\u00a0nearly 2 million visitors last year<\/a>). Even before Magnolia Market opened in 2015, Downtown Waco was on the rise thanks in large part to the many\u00a0Baylor graduates who chose to stay in Waco (or return) after graduation\u00a0to change the way people think about our Baylor’s hometown.<\/p>\n Baylor Magazine<\/em> examined the impact of \u201cDowntown Bears<\/a>\u201d in their spring issue; here are just some of the Baylor alumni and faculty they found who are working to shape the future of Waco\u2019s downtown:<\/p>\n A common thread for all of them is a desire to build something lasting downtown, that will attract residents who choose to make downtown their home and inspire Baylor graduates to pursue their calling in Waco when they\u2019re done with school.<\/p>\n \u201cEven from the time that I started at Baylor to now, there is a shifting perspective,\u201d Renois says. \u201cWe can make it cool to be a young adult in Waco, and more and more talented people are sticking around. Whether we\u2019re in Waco for the rest of our lives or for a short time, I think all of us want to make something incredible happen while we\u2019re here, to give back to the city that\u2019s become a second home or building the city for ourselves in a way that we feel is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n Sic \u2019em, Downtown Bears!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you\u2019ve visited Downtown Waco recently, chances are you\u2019ve seen a new business or building and thought, \u201cThat wasn\u2019t here last time,\u201d or \u201cA lot has changed downtown since I was a student!\u201d That even happens with those of us who live here. Downtown Waco is hot right now, and countless Baylor alums are at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n