15 Baylor Bears earn prestigious global scholarships

Fulbright and Goldwater are two of the more prestigious names in higher education, thanks to the incredibly competitive scholarship awards that bear their names. It’s become commonplace for Baylor to win multiple such awards — last year, nine Baylor students were awarded either a Goldwater or Fulbright, building on successes over the the last few years.

This year, three students (plus one BU alum) earned Fulbright Awards, while two more took home Goldwater Scholarships. In all, 15 Baylor Bears have claimed a variety of highly-competitive awards that will, as you’ll see below, enable to them to fling their green and gold afar as they continue their studies. Their honors are also honors for Baylor; this year marks the second straight year Baylor has celebrated multiple Goldwater Scholarship winners, the first time a Baylor student has earned a Rangel Fellowship or Schwarzman Scholar Award, and just the fifth Marshall Scholarship in school history.

Meet this year’s winners:

• Maren Brady (BA ’20), a communication sciences and disorders major from Sandy Hook, Conn., earned a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) award to work in Malaysia.
• Daniel Burch, a senior political science major from St. Louis, won a Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State to study Farsi and Tajik in Tajikistan.
• Rahul Dadwani (BA ’17), a University Scholar now in graduate school at the University of Chicago, earned a Fulbright Study/Research Award to the University of York in England.
• Kyle Desrosiers (BA ’20), a University Scholar from Arlington, earned a Fulbright Study/Research Award to pursue a masters in Middle Eastern studies at Tel Aviv University in Israel.
• Cat Haseman (BA ’19) (pictured above left), a University Scholar graduate and prior Fulbright winner, will use her Pickering Graduate Fellowship to pursue a degree in Arab studies at Georgetown.
• Annie Huntington, a senior University Scholar from Alpharetta, Ga., earned a Freeman-Asia Scholarship that will provide language study in Thailand and the opportunity to continue her sustainability research at the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute.
• Carter Anne Jones (BA ’20), an international studies/Russian major from Tyler, Texas, won a Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State to study Bahasa Indonesian.
• Stephanie Lefthand (pictured above right), a Baylor social work master’s candidate who identifies as Taos Pueblo, will serve a Udall Foundation Native American Congressional Internship in 2021.
• Gabbi Mucerino (BA ’20), a political science major from Lakewood, Colo., will use her Charles B. Rangel Graduate Fellowship to pursue a master’s in law and diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
• Andrew Munoz, a senior biology major from Seattle, will utilize his Goldwater Scholarship to support his current research on cancer-related fatigue.
• Micheal Munson (BA ’20) (pictured above center), a University Scholar from San Jose, Calif., and past Goldwater winner, earned a Fulbright Study/Research Award to the University of Liverpool.
• Lawson Sadler (BA ’20), a University Scholar from San Antonio, will utilize her Marshall Scholarship to study comparative U.S.-U.K. immigration policy at the University of Sussex in England.
• Emily Schultz, a junior biology major from Plano, will use her Goldwater Scholarship to support her current research of emerging viral diseases.
• Anne Walker, a junior economics and international studies major from Walnut Creek, Calif., was named a Boren Scholar; she will attend a virtual language program through the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute before studying Indonesian next spring at the Indonesia Flagship Language Initiative.
• Zane Zovak (BA ’18) of Waco was named a Schwarzman Scholar and will pursue a master’s in global affairs at Tsinghua University in China.

Some will study abroad, others will continue their studies on campus, and still others have had their opportunities adjusted in some way due to the coronavirus pandemic. But wherever their awards take them, these honors serve notice of the quality of Baylor students who compete with top students around the globe and make us proud with their sense of mission and dedicated scholarship.

Sic ’em, Bears!