Helping Students Cross the Finish Line

When Tim Davis couldn't afford to finish his senior year of college, a president's advice changed his life - and inspired a scholarship fund.

At 6 a.m., President Robin Baker laces up his running shoes, just as he has nearly every morning for the past 26 years at George Fox. It’s his discipline, his meditation, his way of preparing for the day ahead.

“My dad always said, ‘You don't have to sign up, but once you sign up, you cannot quit,’” he relates.

It's a principle his father, a coach, instilled in him as a young athlete – one that has shaped his approach to leadership, faith and life. It’s also the principle that inspired George Fox parents Tim and Barbara Davis to create an emergency scholarship fund in President Baker’s honor.

The story begins decades earlier, in a different president’s office, when Tim was the student who couldn’t afford to finish college.

A Meeting That Changed Everything

Tim’s senior year at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota, should have been a celebration. Instead, his scholarship money disappeared. When he met with President Bob Holtz, uncertain about his future, Holtz gave him advice that would shape the rest of his life.

Holtz advised Tim to transfer to the University of Minnesota for a business degree, explaining that “the mission field in the world of business is much bigger than the mission field in the church.”

But he added one crucial instruction: “Remember that when you go, you also have a responsibility of generosity to give back.”

For nearly 30 years, Tim has honored that charge. Whenever a Concordia president calls about a senior unable to afford his or her final year, Tim writes a check. No questions asked.

‘This Will Be Fun’

Tim Davis talks with President Baker about the emergency scholarship fund he and his wife Barbara founded to help students facing financial harship finish their education at George Fox.

Years later, when Tim’s daughter Lana came to visit George Fox as a prospective student-athlete, he asked to meet President Robin Baker.

Admissions kept calling back, asking why.

“I really just want to have a conversation with him,” Tim replied. “I wanted to understand the culture of the school ... and I wanted to understand his heart.”

President Baker's response? “This will be fun.”

“A lot of parents want to talk to me about where their daughter parks," President Baker remembers, “or how close they can get to the residence hall. I’m always willing to spend time with someone who wants to talk more deeply about the mission.”

That first conversation began their friendship. And that friendship, along with President Baker’s nearly 20 years as university president, inspired the Robin Baker Endurance Fund.

Why ‘Endurance’ Matters

“With the word endurance, it means that I struggle not only to survive, but I struggle to succeed,” Tim explains. “The Endurance Scholarship is really for those students who are in that position I was in as a senior in college and couldn't finish.”

Tim thinks about students who’ve worked hard, sacrificed much, and proven their commitment, only to hit a wall they didn’t create and can’t control on their own. He wants to equip them to finish strong, to show them that their efforts matter. It’s a message Tim has shared with his own children.

He remembers teaching this to his daughter Lana, who persevered through challenging weekly mile runs during middle school. Every Wednesday at Santa Fe Christian, students had to run the mile and finish faster than the week before. “She would come home and she would complain,” Tim recalls. “But I explained to her, ‘Lana, it’s about finishing. It’s not about the race, it’s about finishing the race and enduring through the process that you’re learning.’” Tim’s coaching and Lana’s endurance paid off. Today, she plays Division III lacrosse at George Fox.

Lana Davis is a First-Team All-NWC lacrosse player for the Bruins. In her senior year, she is studying to become financial advisor.

The Robin Baker Endurance Fund is Tim’s way of sharing this message with George Fox students who need more than a pep talk. “I really believe that students who start this shouldn’t be penalized because they can't financially make it to the end,” Tim says. “That's not really their fault. When a student has put their heart into becoming something more and done all the things they need to, and then something happens — maybe a death in the family or a job that's lost — that's not their fault.”

What a Scholarship Can Do

For President Baker, a scholarship does more than cover tuition – it empowers students to pursue the calling God has placed on their lives. “You have to envision how education at a place like George Fox can empower in that person the heart of God, so that he or she not only becomes excellent in their field, but that they contribute to the Christian mission.”

He thinks of Gustavo Vela-Moreno, a George Fox graduate whose story illustrates exactly what’s possible. His parents immigrated from Mexico when he was a young boy. Twenty years earlier, his family could not have anticipated his journey at George Fox, where he received a full scholarship. He graduated as an engineer, went on to work for major firms, attended graduate school at Stanford, and returned to serve his community on the school board.

A scholarship – whether it launches a first-generation student at the beginning or helps a senior cross the finish line – invests in someone’s calling. It says, “We believe in what God is doing in your life” at the exact moment when students need to hear it most.

A Vision Beyond Four Years

Tim and Barbara’s vision extends beyond their initial gift. “What I’d love to see from this fund is not just the money, but the parents enduring beyond the four years that their children are here. When the children leave, the parents stay,” Tim says. George Fox parents and friends of the university have already begun participating in the Davis’s vision. To date, the fund has raised $150,000 to help juniors and seniors facing financial hardship.

“God asks us to prepare ourselves to lay aside every weight or problem that encumbers us so that we can run the race effectively,” President Baker reflects, “but we run it in community with other people. We’re assigned a particular role in this story, and all of us have an aspect or something that God has given us to play.”

The Robin Baker Endurance Fund is an invitation to run together – to be part of a community committed to helping students finish strong. Students who are this close to graduation shouldn’t have to quit. Because of this fund, and because of donors who join in this mission, they won’t have to.

“It's not about the race, it’s about finishing the race and enduring through the process." – Tim Davis