A sneak peek at the 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!