Leonard Ortiz, assistant professor of history, is taking students back to where Baker University began for his senior seminar history class.

Ortiz knows there is rich history at Baker and came up with the idea to teach senior seminar in Old Castle Museum so the students could experience what it was like at Baker in the beginning.

“That building is where it all started, and I thought, what better way for our history majors to complete their careers at Baker, have their senior capstone where it all began.” Ortiz said.

Ortiz’s class meets at 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays in Old Castle. Students have walked through the building for many years and Ortiz was hoping to add to the history by making the classroom switch. He said he wants the building to become something more to the campus because it isn’t being utilized effectively.

“The building has promise,” Ortiz said. “To me, this is a step into making it more of a center piece for campus; not only have classes in there.”

Ortiz said it would be neat to make the museum into a seminar room for guest speakers or a study lounge.

The first classes at Baker were held in Old Castle, but the building hasn’t seen a full class since 1871. Some of Ortiz’s students were reluctant to move classrooms at first, but found it to have more value than they thought.

“It is really awesome being able to be here as a senior seminar class and kind of experience what the first students at Baker got to experience,” senior Kayla Anderson said.

Senior Kassie Miskho has been in Baker’s historical buildings multiple times throughout her four years on campus, and is curious about looking into the past of some of the artifacts in Old Castle.

“For my methods class my sophomore year, I researched a Victors Record Machine that most people didn’t know about,” Miskho said. “I wanted to research it because I am into things that people throw to the side, like antiques, and found it cool to look into something that not a lot of people know about.”

Ortiz is hoping to teach in this building each spring semester. He feels that teaching his class in Old Castle gives the students a vision of the founders of Baker, and the students get a look into the perspectives of the first students who sat where they are sitting now.

“I hope this becomes a tradition for the senior seminar history majors,” Ortiz said. “Wouldn’t it be a cool tradition, that as they leave Baker, they exit through where it first began?”