Faithful in His Calling: Graduate School Alum Breon Dennis Jr.

What does it mean to leave something better than you found it? This phrase is often used as a motivator to do your best work where you are at and excel at it. For Breon Dennis, Jr., it involves lots of hard work, flexibility, unity, and passion.

Breon is from Shreveport, Louisiana, and came to Dallas Baptist University in the late 2000s to pursue his undergraduate degree in Business Administration and subsequently stayed to complete his Master of Science in Kinesiology. One of the most memorable things for Breon was his portfolio class with Lynda Zackary due in large part to their similar upbringing in Shreveport. Along with Zackary’s class, Ben Copeland’s class influenced Breon to think critically, a valuable practice that still impacts Breon today.

While at DBU, Breon began working at the Rangers Baseball Club during his time as an undergraduate student. Following this, while earning his Master's degree, Breon moved to his current job, where he works as the Vice President of Community Development and Executive Director of the RoughRiders Foundation for the Frisco RoughRiders. Breon has been with the RoughRiders for 6 seasons and already is seeing his impact in the community.

Leading With a Purpose

As the VP of Community Development, his ultimate desire is to mentor others and see others mentored, both professionally and personally. As a leader, Breon has the unique opportunity to help others reach their full potential while allowing them to feel comfortable in their own skin and empowering them to grow in leadership themselves. Through the events he puts on, such as food drives and environmental outreach, Breon seeks to leave everything better than he found it.

"I work for the people," Breon says. "I want to serve in my ministry to the best of my ability and serve others well."

Embrace Your Failures

A key part to Breon's philosophy in helping others to grow is to embrace their failures.

"Experience is key­­—baseball players that go 3 for 10 (a .300 batting average in baseball terms) are still in the Hall of Fame," Breon explained. "They failed 70 percent of the time yet still made the Hall of Fame."

Learning to embrace his failures and grow from them has been a life changer for Breon and encourages him to pass along this wisdom to others.

Through his time at DBU, Rangers Baseball Club, and now the RoughRiders, Breon's foundational values of servant leadership and intentionality have guided him to lead others to be the best they can be, embrace their failures, and use the growth they experience to help others do the same.