• Another sneak peek at Baylor’s Class of 2019

    Baylor Class of 2019

    Last month, we shared a first look at some of the freshmen who will be joining the Baylor family this fall. Judging from comments and shares on social media, it proved popular, so here we go with a few more fresh faces you might see more of over the next four years:

    * Best friends since second grade, Erica Bonham and Kayla Johnson, both of Cleburne, Texas, are headed to Waco this fall as roommates — and as co-recipients of the Ball Scholarship, established by a North Texas doctor more than 50 years ago. Bonham and Johnson each say they fell in love with Baylor as children; Bonham will major in accounting, while Johnson will focus on pre-med studies.

    Gabriel Zapien-Ybarra‘s mother was just a teenager when he was born, and his father was in and out of jail. But he found a home with his grandparents and learned to motivate himself in school. That led to academic success, which in turn led to the scholarships that will bring the Santa Barbara, Calif., senior to Baylor this fall.

    Maria Dell’Orefice, a Philadelphia-area native, has played piano since age 5 and violin since age 7; she joined her area’s most prestigious youth orchestra at age 8, and has already played Carnegie Hall three times. Not surprisingly, she’s headed to Baylor’s School of Music. (Watch her play here and here.)

    * A canceled flight forced the mother of identical twins Yifan Xu and Yixiu Li to miss their high school graduation in May. Hopefully the boys’ mother, who was flying in from China, will get another chance in four years, when Yixiu (the valedictorian at St. John’s Military School in Salina, Kan.) and Yifan (the school’s salutatorian) earn their Baylor diplomas.

    Sic ’em, Class of 2019!