May 24, 2011 | Just south of San Antonio’s historic downtown district, the interstate highway is an unlovely stretch of used-car lots, fast-food restaurants and industrial parks. After a few miles, the urban sprawl starts to fade and the rural character of San Antonio’s Southside starts to emerge.

A sign for Baptist University of the Américas (BUA) directs visitors off the highway and into the neighborhood where the school has been located since 1964.

The main 12-acre campus is a tidy group of two-story red brick buildings with white columns. Hurricane fencing defines the perimeter, and a guard station sits next to the main entrance.

With no quad or greenbelt to shield it from the busy highway traffic, BUA is both highly accessible to the general public and, some would say, hidden in plain sight.

Unless you grew up Baptist in Texas, chances are you have never heard of BUA or any of its historical  identities: the Mexican Baptist Bible Institute, the Hispanic Baptist Theological Seminary or the Hispanic Baptist Theological School.

The school’s fortunes have waxed and waned during its history. But with a renewed commitment to high-quality education that began in 1999, this low-profile school is beginning to have a big impact.

Although BUA is the smallest Baptist school in Texas, with about 225 students, it enrolls more Latinos in B.A. degree programs in theology than the other eight Baptist-affiliated schools in Texas combined. Many graduates are the first in their families to go to college, and almost one-quarter of the student body is international.

“Our story is inspiring, but not if it’s unknown,” said Vice President for Development Teo Cisneros, at a recent fundraising dinner, where school officials told BUA’s story to listeners both familiar and new.

It’s a story that is unfolding today, as BUA strives to live into a new vision as an accessible, community-focused and evangelical institution of higher education deeply rooted in Latino culture.

“For years and years, this school was very content with being a close-knit, closed institution that nobody knew about,” said BUA President René Maciel, who came on board in 2007. “That’s changed quite a bit. That’s only going to help us. It’s going to provide more opportunities for our students to be ministers of the gospel.”

‘Every day…I’m preaching the gospel’

Viviana Triano, a 2004 graduate, is both exceptional and typical of BUA students. A native of Colombia, her first year at BUA was spent in an English as a Second Language program. Later she went on to Baylor University for masters’ degrees in social work and ministry.

Triano now works at an advocacy center for crime victims and children in Waco. She is the center’s only bilingual counselor, and her days are filled with crisis intervention, counseling, court visits and supervision for counselors-in-training.

Though her center is not faith-based, she has a strong feeling that her work is her ministry.

“I feel every day that I’m preaching the gospel, because I’m bringing good news to people in such a desperate time of life by telling them that we are there for them, that they are not alone,” Triano said.

Triano reflects the goals Maciel has for BUA students: that they receive a high-quality education and that they serve God.

“I always tell our students, ‘God calls us sometimes to the church, but sometimes God also calls us to ministries outside the church,’” Maciel said. “You don’t have to serve God just in a church setting.”

Community service and outreach

BUA registered 233 students in the 2011 spring semester, the majority of them enrolled in one of three B.A. degrees -- biblical and theological studies, Spanish and business leadership. It also offers an associate degree in cross-cultural studies.

The school also serves as the headquarters for the Spanish-language diploma programs known as the Instituto Biblico Bautista. The BBI includes locations within the U.S., Latin America and South Africa.

That modest enrollment belies BUA’s steady growth over the past few years, as well as the changing character of its student body, which is growing younger and becoming more typical of a college campus.

Under Maciel’s leadership, BUA has embraced community service and outreach, while continuing to emphasize cross-cultural competencies for its increasingly diverse student body.

“I want our students to graduate with an understanding of how that connection to the community allows us to have ministry as well,” Maciel said.

BUA students are required to complete a Christian service component; Maciel himself mentors a student at a neighborhood high school.

“When I got here four years ago, it was really important for me to connect this institution with the community,” Maciel said. “We only become better ministers by involving ourselves in the community.”

Many of BUA’s students arrive unprepared for college-level work. They may not have a good command of English and may lack a high school diploma; many begin their studies by earning a GED. About 40 percent come from households below the poverty line, enrollment statistics show.

“Our students are different from the students at Hardin-Simmons or Baylor,” Maciel said.

Yet BUA holds onto its students. Marconi Monteiro, dean of academic affairs, said the semester-to-semester return rate has been between 81 and 86 percent for the past six years, and students find support that’s often lacking elsewhere. Tuition is typically about $4,500 per semester.

“They come here and find a nurturing community. People pay attention to them. Students will find their own mentor, then keep working with them,” said Nora Lozano, associate professor of biblical and theological studies.