• Fulbright honorees credit Baylor profs for fueling their successes

    Baylor Fulbright winners 2013Four Baylor Bears were selected this spring to receive the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship, bringing the total number of Baylor recipients since 2001 to 36.

    This year’s honorees are:

    • Leigh Ann Ganzar, BS ’11 in biology and a master’s candidate in community health education, who was selected for the English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) to Brazil.
    • Randall Fowler, BA ’12 in religion and communication from Abilene, Texas, who was selected for the English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) to Jordan.
    • Taylor Kohn, a senior University Scholar from Wichita, Kan., who will pursue a masters of philosophy in instrumentation at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
    • Brent Salter, a senior international studies and journalism major from Bulverde, Texas, who was selected for the English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) to Moldova.

    All four spoke glowingly of their Baylor experiences, and of their professors in particular. Here’s just one example, from Ganzar:

    I owe much of the selection for a Fulbright scholarship to Baylor faculty, and I am very thankful to be surrounded by such a wonderful community. Dean Elizabeth Vardaman was so supportive and encouraging during the entire process; this would not have been possible without her. Dr. Kirsten Escobar spent many hours with me refining and pouring over every detail of my essays, and I am very grateful for her dedication. Dr. Eva Doyle is not only the Master of Public Health program director as well as an outstanding mentor during the last year and a half, but she and her husband, Dr. Robert Doyle in biology, were the Baylor in Brazil program directors. As role models to the students they took on the trip, they encouraged growth and sparked passion within us all. The support and guidance that Dr. Renee Umstattd-Meyer (HHPR) has given me has also been an important influence during my graduate program. Finally, though I never had Dr. Blair Browning (communication) as a professor, he and his wife have been mentors, role models and family to me throughout my time at Baylor.”

    To read more on each of the honorees, where they’re headed, and what they had to say about their time at Baylor, click their names above.

    Sic ’em, Fulbright honorees!