Ashley Burns, May '02, BFA, Theater Design: Student Profile

Ashley Burns spent a good part of her time at Baylor behind the scenes, working on costumes in the theater arts department. Post-production, though, she's done anything but blend into the background.
"Overall, I'm a girl of passion," Burns says. Whether she's talking about her dreams of creating elaborate theater costumes on Broadway or her desire to see more diversity at Baylor, it's obvious she is a woman who likes a little color in her life. 
Burns, who graduated in May with a BFA in theater design, says she gravitates toward things and people who aren't just like her, a tendency she attributes as much to her creative side as to her lifelong struggles with dyslexia.
"I've always been intrigued by things that are different ... because I've always felt different," she says. Burns' parents and teachers noticed her problems with reading when she was in kindergarten. To the determined young girl, it became a challenge, not a setback.
"As someone who has struggled with dyslexia all my life -- who was told I'd never be able to read -- I don't give up," Burns says. 
During her senior year at Baylor, Burns focused much of her energy on trying to further race relations on campus, an undertaking that led her to organize a group of minority student leaders that discussed diversity issues.
"Ashley seeks to make a difference by investing herself in relationships," says Dr. Dub Oliver, dean for student development. "Learning from these relationships, she shares her commitment to greater understanding and celebration of different cultures and experiences with the campus community."
And celebrate she did. She was the only Anglo woman to participate in a Hispanic fraternity's scholarship pageant, and she served on an issues-focused forum for an African-American group. She also spent a night each week with the Latin Dance Society, a club she joined purely for fun. But, she says, being 5-feet 10-inches tall and a nonminority often made its own statement. 
"I don't mind being the tall, white girl who stands out in the middle of a crowd of darker-skinned people," Burns says. "It's our human nature to be in our comfort zone, but if we could just try a little ... we'd realize that we might have more in common with someone than we may even know."