• Five Bears headed abroad in 2018 thanks to prestigious Fulbright Awards

    2018 Baylor Fulbright winners

    [5/8/18 update: Two more Bears received Fulbright honors after we published this piece; the headline has been updated, and their information added at the end of the original story.]

    The fact that it’s become commonplace for multiple Baylor students to earn Fulbright honors in a single school year — see herehere, here and here for examples — might make you think such honors are no big deal. Quite the opposite, actually; the Fulbright Award is one of the most competitive and prestigious honors a college student can receive, and the fact that more than 50 Bears have earned such recognition since 2001 says a lot about a Baylor education.

    This year, three five more Bears — senior biology major Sofia Sonner, senior international studies major John Ryan Isaacson, 2017 nursing graduate Amanda Ward Braswell, senior neuroscience major Alexa Larsen, and senior University Scholar Rebecca Voth — have been honored by the Fulbright Program (so far). This year’s winners plan to use the awards in a variety of ways (click their names below for more info on each):

    Amanda Ward Braswell, BSN ’17, earned a Fulbright grant to India, where she will live on the Bangalore Baptist Hospital/Rebekah Ann Naylor School of Nursing campus. There, she will study ways of reaching poor and illiterate people with information that can help reduce non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease.

    John Ryan Isaacson received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship that will take him to Germany after graduation — a homecoming of sorts for Isaacson, who previously spent a year as a Rotary Exchange student there. After his assistantship is completed, he plans to attend law school and eventually work for the U.S. State Department.

    Sofia Sonner also earned a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, and she will spend next year teaching in Taiwan — a location she says she chose because of her interest in marine biology and her assigned city’s connection to the Pacific Ocean. After the Fulbright, she plans to earn a master’s degree in marine biology and work to educate others about the Pacific Ocean.

    Alexa Larsen & Rebecca Voth

    [UPDATE] Alexa Larsen will use her Fulbright U.S. Student Program award to pursue a master of science in global health at the University of Southampton. After the Fulbright, Alexa hopes to attend medical school and work as a primary care physician, perhaps in pediatrics, family medicine or obstetrics/gynecology, and also participate in global health work and medical service abroad.

    [UPDATE] Rebecca Voth was accepted into nine different law schools, but that will wait as she heads to Mexico for a year on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. After that, she plans to attend Pepperdine School of Law and later work in international human rights in Latin America.

    Three Five Baylor Bears, all finding ways to study and serve abroad through their own unique callings at their own unique stages of life — worldwide leadership and service, indeed.

    Sic ’em, 2018 Baylor Fulbright Award Winners!