Hub of Support

Audrey Yadon was appointed to the Truett Seminary staff in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the University evaluated unfilled positions and considered resource optimization, current staff were shifted to fill in high-need gaps. From this initiative, Yadon was placed at Truett in the role of Coordinator of Enrollment Management.

Though her method of arrival was unconventional, Yadon was quite familiar with Truett Seminary. Her husband is a graduate of the Master of Divinity program and her father is a graduate of the Doctor of Ministry program. She is a two-time Baylor graduate with a bachelor’s in Language and Linguistics and a master’s in Spanish. Prior to arriving at Truett, she served in Baylor Continuing Education and as a Temporary Lecturer in Spanish in Baylor’s Modern Languages & Cultures Department.

Grad school is hard. It’s just tough. Every student needs to know that someone on staff is ready to listen to their story and is rooting for them to succeed.

AUDREY YADON

In addition to her familiarity and experience, Yadon also brought to Truett a particular passion for a particular part of her job—student support.

“When they said that this role would include student support and that I would get to build some of those systems, that really made me want to take the role,” she said. 

Student support and success initiatives have existed at Truett, but Yadon brings a renewed energy and enthusiasm to this significant need. 

“Truett started very small and has grown quickly over the years. Everyone cares for students, but it has been distributed throughout the building—Student Services, Academic Services, individual professors, and even the Dean’s Suite,” she said. “It’s the coordination and the follow up that I think our office can really add to that equation.”

Since coming to Truett, Yadon has worked diligently to create a hub, a centralized location, for seminary students to seek out support resources and to ensure that students receive follow up to prevent them from falling through the cracks. She explains how important it is for students to have a point person to help them navigate the many resources available at Truett and at Baylor.

“When you feel overwhelmed, seeking out resources feels like another to-do list item. That’s when you most need an advocate. You need someone who is going to make those resources easy to find and accessible,” Yadon said.

By reaching out directly to Truett Student Support, students will be relieved from website searches and exploratory emails and, instead, will be directed straight to a solution. When students connect with Student Support, Yadon and her team are also alerted to their need and can follow up appropriately and consistently. 

One of the first tasks Yadon tackled in building this hub of support was researching, confirming, and organizing the wide variety of resources available to Truett students. From the Counseling Center to The Store food pantry to study strategies for families to budget consulting and more, Yadon has explored and cataloged these tools and programs to be better able to refer them to Truett students. This has also given her the opportunity to identify gaps in the available options and to strategize how to fill those gaps.

At New Student Orientation this fall, Yadon hosted two brand new initiatives. First, she invited campus partners to participate in a resource fair. Over a dozen representatives from programs like the Counseling Center and Student Coaching were available during specific times of the Orientation schedule for new seminary students to meet them, learn more about their programs, and walk away with helpful materials.

At the end of Orientation, incoming students had the opportunity to participate in Truett’s inaugural Writing Workshop. Designed to provide assistance to seminary students with nontraditional academic backgrounds, the Workshop helped students to understand better the level of writing proficiency needed at the graduate level, connected them with resources, and offered practical experience through “real life” seminary writing assignments.

Outside of Orientation, Yadon has hired two student workers to build up the Student Support team. Truett student Emily Barton assists Yadon in helping seminary students navigate support resources. In addition to being available through appointment, Barton hosts office hours, sitting in the Truett lobby with a basket of snacks and a sign that indicates her availability. Abby Lee, the Student Support team writing tutor also holds office hours and is available by appointment to assist students with the writing process and writing skills, regardless of course or discipline. 

While many of these resources are housed in Waco, most are available to students of all three campuses—Waco, Houston, and San Antonio. 

“Almost all of our resources are available digitally. COVID got everybody online. You can visit the Writing Center entirely online. You can visit the Counseling Center entirely online,” Yadon explained. “All of these people are really comfortable with virtual meetings, which makes them very accessible. I think even our Waco students will choose the virtual option half of the time.”

Of the resources that are tied to a physical location, Yadon and her team have identified duplicates to provide for students at other campuses. For example, The Store address food insecurity on the Baylor campus, so Yadon discovered and confirmed that Tallowood Baptist Church, which houses Truett’s Houston campus, has a food pantry available to seminary students.

“Students in Houston, in San Antonio, in Waco, send an email to Truett_StudentSupport@baylor.edu. If we don’t have a resource in place for your need, we will do our best to find one and get you connected,” Yadon emphasized.

As the Student Success team looks to the future, dreams of expansion and enrichment abound. Yadon notes her desire for a technology system to help coordinate care across campus as well as hiring a Master of Divinity/Master of Social Work intern to participate in the student care process.

With Yadon’s passion for student support and the encouragement and assistance of the Truett faculty and staff, the future for continued and enhanced student care at Truett Seminary is bright. 

“Grad school is hard. It’s just tough,” Yadon said. “Every student needs to know that someone on staff is ready to listen to their story and is rooting for them to succeed.”