• A sneak peek at the Class of 2017

    Class of 2017

    Orientation for this fall’s freshmen is almost complete, and Line Camp is already underway. But what are Baylor’s newest students like? Here’s a sneak peek at some of the faces that are part of Baylor’s Class of 2017:

    * Mary Kujak wasn’t just a straight-A student at her high school outside Tampa, Fla.; she was valedictorian of her high school. And she wasn’t just a standout athlete; she was an all-county honoree in four sports. And she did all this after she and her mother were victims of abuse. Kujak (pictured above on the left) will enter Baylor as a pre-med major and hopes to become a medical examiner. “I just want to be able to say, when I look back, that I made a difference,” she says.

    * At age 8, Garrett Lessman was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder that affects the body’s ability to fight infection. But the disease — and the regular treatments that took Lessman (above, center) out of school for a day each month — didn’t stop the Oklahoma native from lettering in football, basketball and baseball and graduating as valedictorian and student council president. A National Merit Scholar, Lessman will study business at Baylor and hopes to go on to law school.

    * Cadie Hanes is one of 1,000 students nationwide to be named a 2013 Gates Millennium Scholar, part of a scholarship program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that covers undergraduate college expenses for low-income minority students. Hanes (above, right), a member of the Cherokee Nation, graduated fourth out of about 400 students this spring; she will study speech language pathology and minor in religion at Baylor.

    These three students — and 3,000 or so more freshmen — will sit down at their desks for the first time as Baylor students exactly two months from today.

    Sic ’em, Class of 2017!