Making Much Of What's Been Given

Two Baylor seniors, Lauren Hughes and Cleyera Martin, have been selected to receive prestigious Fulbright Scholarships, bringing the number of Baylor students who have received the honor since 2001 to 14.
Hughes, an international studies major and German minor, and Martin, a German major, will both teach English in Germany as part of the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships (ETA) Program. The program places U.S. students as English teaching assistants in schools or universities overseas, improving foreign students' English language abilities and knowledge of the United States, while enhancing the Fulbright recipients' own language skills and knowledge of the host country. ETAs may also pursue individual study/research plans in addition to their teaching responsibilities.
While at Baylor, Hughes studied abroad at the Goethe Institute in Germany, the Florence University of Arts in Italy, and with the Baylor in Thailand program, where she also traveled to Hong Kong and Cambodia.
Martin applied for the Fulbright, and particularly the ETA program, after serving as a German tutor, assisting Germans with their English language skills during her Baylor study abroad experience at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg, Germany. 
Both Hughes and Martin said they chose to attend Baylor mainly because of the personal support of Baylor faculty.
"While corresponding with Baylor throughout the application process, I definitely felt that I was important and not just a number on a long list of applicants," Martin said. "While at Baylor, I have had the chance to experience that first hand."
"There are so many instances when Baylor faculty and staff really went out of their way to help me and to advise me on normal life challenges as well as career choices," Hughes echoed.
Another senior, Juan Yaquian, was awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the premier undergraduate award in the U.S. in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. The Goldwater Scholarship will provide for the cost of tuition, fees, books, room and board, up to $7,500 for one year.
Yaquian, an electrical and computer engineering student, has traveled to Honduras with Baylor's Engineers with a Mission, a Christian organization for engineering students who feel called to serve developing communities with their technical skills. There, he helped engineers install a micro-hydro electric generator for a small village, providing electricity for the first time.
Yaquian hopes to continue his studies in electronic design and signal processing at a national laboratory or in a university setting. He is set to graduate from Baylor in May 2009. This summer, he will gain additional research experience as an intern at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
"As a strong believer of the motto, 'To whom much has been given, of them, much is expected,' I believe it is my responsibility to serve my community," he said.