Meredith Casas

After transferring from McLennan Community College to Baylor, senior Meredith Casas says the best thing she did was get involved on campus.
"Inside, if you're a transfer student, you feel awkward because so many of the other students have been here for awhile, and they know the routine," she says. "But I think that the opportunities that they gave us in class to get involved with certain programs that relate to your major helped me become more comfortable, and I felt a belonging at Baylor."
Casas, an education major focusing on middle school math, credits her professors at Baylor for helping her with the transition.
"The School of Education professors and my math professors--they're there to teach you and to help you out. They want you to succeed in whatever goals you're trying to reach."
Casas, a Waco native, grew up always wanting to go to Baylor. But out of high school, she decided to begin college at MCC, "because they paid the tuition," she recalls. "If you were in the top 10 percent [of your high school class], they would pay for your first two years in college."
But after taking her core classes at community college, she found plenty of scholarships available to her at Baylor when it came time to transfer. This year, she has received funds from the Lou Crete Dawson Endowed Scholarship Fund, the Sharon Daly Mansfield Endowed Scholarship Fund in Education, and the Gene and Ruth B. Royer Endowed Scholarship Fund.
"I actually got assistance from the math department this past semester, so that helped me this year," she says. "It's gone really well here at Baylor financially. [My parents] like that I'm going to Baylor, and they haven't really seen any major expenses from my attending Baylor or anything like that."
This year, her schedule revolves around the four days a week she spends student teaching at G.W. Carver Academy in Waco. But she still finds time to teach Sunday School at her church and lead a Bible study through Baptist Student Ministries as part of a Hispanic student ministry called Tu Segundo Hogar ("your second home" in Spanish).
"I like the atmosphere, the Christian atmosphere," she says. "Some universities, maybe they kind of drift away from the Christian environment. But Baylor has stayed with what they believe in for so many years."
She's also been able to work with her target age group, middle school students, in a variety of situations.
"At Baylor, there are so many opportunities that they offer to help you become more prepared with the career that you have. I've had a lot of experience working with the middle school students, with the education department at Baylor. Like the GEAR UP program [a federally funded program that helps prepare students for college]--I've spent my summers working in Project STOMP [part of GEAR UP focused on math]. I've also helped out at a workshop with one of my professors in the math department. So I think I've had a lot of experience here at Baylor."
All because she chose to get involved.