Southwestern hosts ‘record-setting’ Preview Day

Prospective students and guests coming from across Fort Worth and Texas, from the east and west coasts, and from as far away as Pakistan, Korea, and England attended Preview Day Oct. 21, said David S. Dockery, interim president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Baptist College (TBC) as he welcomed a “record-setting number” of attendees to the day-long event.

“When you come to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary or Texas Baptist College, you are coming to a place that is indeed a national and international community,” Dockery said, speaking in Truett Auditorium on the seminary’s campus. Stating that part of Southwestern’s heritage has always been to bring both academic scholarship and practical application, Dockery added that since its founding in 1908, “more men and women have graduated from this place to serve the Lord around the globe as global missionaries than any other institution in church history.”

A prospect for the doctoral program, Vanlalfela Hnial-um, holds a Master of Divinity degree from a school in India and came to the United States in 2020 to attend a different institution of higher education in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. However, after attending the first half of Preview Day, he said he planned to enroll at Southwestern Seminary, adding he was impressed with the “academics and spiritual life of students together so that students would grow in God. That really captured my interest. It drew me to pursue my studies at this seminary.” 

Brianna Claprood Tellez currently lives in Belvidere, Illinois, and is a Cedarville University graduate, where she recently earned her nursing degree. She had “great expectations” about Southwestern Seminary prior to attending Preview Day. “Everything I saw was everyone, students and professors, were following God’s will in their fields. I am excited that God is again and again providing for me and my husband to come to Fort Worth,” said Tellez, who also was the recipient of the seminary’s $1,500 scholarship that was awarded to one individual who attended Preview Day.

She said she currently plans on earning a Master in Theology degree, but that may change that to a concentration in women’s studies. She met her husband, Julio, a native of Nicaragua, while she was on a mission trip. They married five months ago and plan to return to Nicaragua as missionaries following graduation. He plans to enroll in the 5-year program at TBC for combined degrees of Bachelor of Arts in Christian studies and Master of Divinity.

Tiger Tompkins, a senior at Anardko High School, Anardko, Oklahoma, attended Preview Day with his parents, Jeff and Laci Thompkins. He said he was excited about the day’s events and looked forward to “being around godly people and a godly environment,” if he were to come to TBC. By lunchtime, having met with professors and seeing the overview of the campus, and hearing from a panel of six current students, Tompkins said he was committed to enrolling at TBC to earn the combined bachelor’s and master’s degrees in five years in Christian studies courses.

Ellen Haynes, a high school homeschool junior from the Houston area, decided to participate in Preview Day after attending TBC Worldview Night at Sagemont Church in Houston on Sept. 22. While she is not sure what degree she would pursue, she came early and sat in on two TBC classes the day before Preview Day. 

“It was a God-thing,” Haynes said about deciding to visit TBC as well as her attendance at the worldview event. She added that she hoped for “God to speak and give clarity on what direction to do with my life,” while she was at Preview Day. She added that she is not certain which direction she will go in her education, she is interested both children’s ministry and Islamic studies if she enrolled as a student and planned to find out more about the Texas Baptist College’s Academy of Dual Enrollment classes for both college and high school credit which are offered online at TBC.

Following worship and welcome by Armando Hernandez, Southwestern’s director of admissions, and a message from Dockery, prospective students attended two academic preview sessions and an organizational fair that included information about the World Missions Center, the Women’s Center, and other organizations on campus. 

After lunch, Benjamin M. Skaug, associate professor of theology in the School of Theology, addressed parents of prospective TBC students, encouraging them to trust the college to partner with them “to never … erode the faith of your children. Every single class will build into your faith, far from eroding it. That is our pledge to you.” Skaug underscored TBC is committed to being “Christ-centered,” “Scripture-driven,” and “student-focused.”

To prospective Southwestern students, Skaug said, “One of the beautiful things about this faculty is that a majority of them have already been where you are going,” he said, explaining further that many of the faculty have been in the field as practitioners in the churches, on the mission fields, and in the classrooms, as well as being “preeminent scholars.”

A panel of six current Southwestern and TBC students, who represented degree programs ranging from undergraduate to doctoral degrees, answered questions about classes, faculty and student relationships, campus life, and housing posed by the host of the panel, Chandler Snyder, associate vice president for student services. Throughout the day, students had opportunities to ask questions about admissions, financial assistance, academic path options, and other inquiries about the two institutions. 

Matt Queen, interim provost and vice president for academic administration for Southwestern Seminary, highlighted several reasons to consider coming to Southwestern Seminary and TBC, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area as “opportunistic” for churches and jobs, the beauty of the campus, the affordability of tuition and availability of scholarships, a rich Christian community of staff and students, a historic seminary, the second oldest in the Southern Baptist Convention. 

Queen, who has been on the faculty for over a decade and serves as associate dean of the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions, professor of evangelism, and L.R. Scarborough Chair of Evangelism (“Chair of Fire”), continued, “But I want you to know the number one reason why I believe each and every one of you who are here today ought to come to Texas Baptist College and Southwestern Baptist seminary,” Queen said, asking the faculty of the seminary and TBC to stand. “This is why you should come. This is the only place you can get this [faculty].” 

Following the day’s events, which included a tour of the dorms, and an ice cream social with the professors and other administrators, Snyder said, “This was a record-setting number of prospective students and participants for a preview day, since tracking these numbers beginning in the spring of 2019. It was an incredible day.” The day culminated with a campus-wide fall festival which was attended by nearly 650 people, Snyder said.