Faces of the Class of 2029
The Baylor Class of 2029 is jumping into their college experience with excitement and passion. Although every student’s path to applying for and enrolling in the University is unique, they share common themes in what they are seeking to experience over the next four years: they want to strengthen their faith and character, invest in a community of lifelong friends and mentors and take on rigorous academics to prepare them to excel in their future careers and grow as leaders.
Baylor University boasts the “just-right” fit that attracts some of the most academically prepared applicants. Consistently ranked among the top universities in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Baylor offers uniquely tailored opportunities for elite academics, is a Research 1 institution and emphasizes excellence in teaching. As if this wasn’t compelling enough, the University also has strong athletic programs, a not-too-big and not-too-small student body size and a beautiful campus that makes you want to stay around.
But what many incoming first-year students cite as the deciding factor that set Baylor apart from other schools is the welcoming community that says, “You’re home.” Baylor’s Christian identity undergirds values of service and investment in the whole-person that make both individuals and the whole community stronger.
Welcome to the Baylor Family, Class of 2029.
The Perfect Fit
Josue Mena described Baylor as having the just-right fit in size, location, community values, athletics and reputation in his chosen major.
“I wanted the experience of a bigger school,” Mena said, but he also wanted to live in a somewhat smaller town with access to big cities like Dallas. “Baylor is a good balance between being a bigger school and still having a Christian community, so that’s why I picked it.”
Mena also pointed out that Baylor is well-positioned to prepare him to succeed in his chosen major. He will study mechanical engineering.
“Since I was little, I always liked cars and motor sports like Formula One, and now I have an opportunity to study at a school that is really good with that.”
In addition to Baylor Engineering’s connections to the automotive industries that connect students with internships and learning opportunities, Mena is eager to get involved in Baylor organizations that will provide hands-on application of his developing skills. Baylor’s student organization for automotive engineering, Baylor Baja, designs and builds off-road vehicles that they then compete with against other universities; and Engineers with a Mission is a Christian organization that mobilizes engineering students to serve the people of developing countries with their technical skills and mission-oriented trips abroad.
“I feel like Baylor will prepare me for whatever job I apply to,” Mena said. In addition to the program helping him work hard and connect with valuable internships, he said, “I also think Baylor will help me spiritually, strengthen my values and answer questions like where do I want to go and where do I want my life to end up going.”
Mena said he had to put the final college decision in God’s hands.
“Throughout the application, I was hoping — it’s going to have to be God’s plan for me to go to Baylor, because we do not have the money to attend this school.”
In addition to a merit scholarship from Baylor, Mena received the School of Engineering and Computer Science Dean’s Scholars Program scholarship.
Mena cited his dad as an inspiration for why he wanted to attend college. His family is from Quito, Ecuador, and he moved to the United States when he was 9 years old so that his dad could complete his doctorate in communications at the University of Florida. When Mena was 12, his family moved to Santa Barbara, California, when his dad got a job teaching at University of California Santa Barbara. He continues to teach now at Westmont College.
“To me it’s crazy how far I’ve come. I came from this city in Ecuador and now I’m going to one of the best schools in the country. Being able to go Baylor, really it just inspires me to keep going. I’m really happy to be here and I’m excited to be part of the Baylor community as an international student.”
It Feels Like Home
Erica Reyes felt at home at Baylor from the first time she visited.
“As soon as I got to the campus, it was for an event, everybody was just so kind and welcoming. Other schools, they have a lot to offer, but there was a feeling about Baylor that made it stand out,” Reyes said.
The Christan foundation and the openness of professors and students during her visit to the University contributed to what Reyes said felt like one big family. The immediate sense of welcome paired with a prestigious reputation for rigorous academics made Baylor her favored choice among college admission offers.
“The Christian foundation is very important to me,” Reyes said. “There’s just something about Baylor, knowing that the people there all have the same goal to lead a Christian faith-based life through their work, their studies and whatever they’re putting their heart into.”
Reyes had the opportunity to visit Baylor’s campus twice before committing to Baylor. She was invited to attend both Getterman Scholars Day as a finalist for the program and Invitation to Excellence.
Reyes was selected into the Getterman Scholars Program, a nationally competitive scholarship program for high-achieving students across the academic disciplines established by Baylor alumni Sue Holt Getterman, B.A. ’50, and the late Ted Getterman, B.B.A. ’49, J.D. ’51, of Waco. Getterman Scholars are selected based on academic merit and leadership potential, and students are especially well-suited to an interdisciplinary undergraduate liberal arts education.
“It’s an honor to be selected. The people in this program, in the Honors College and at Baylor saw something in me, “Reyes said. “They believed that I have potential and that my leadership skills and everything else that I come with can be shaped into something bigger, into something that can have an impact on myself and others.”
An integrated course of study describes Reyes’ plans for her own undergraduate education. In addition to joining a community of scholars by living in the Honors Residential College, Reyes is in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC), an alternative to traditional general education that offers an integrated curriculum that she described as “aimed at understanding the big picture.” Reyes also will pursue her degree in business and is considering a concentration in management. She said a big part of college for her will be about finding the reaches of what she can do.
“I am pursuing a degree that will prepare me for any number of future careers,” Reyes explained. “It’s really going to be about challenging myself, finding my own personal way to do things and seeing how I thrive.”
Whether she pursues her interests in law or explores the passion she discovered as a stage manager in high school theater, Reyes has a big-picture view of her future that does not yet narrow down to a specific career industry.
“I prayed on my decision. I had been between schools back and forth, but really it was the moment in that entire weekend that I spent at Baylor, I had thought, ‘Man, this really is the place.’ It came down to what felt like home and what felt comfortable but where I could still be pushed to be the best version of myself.”
On a Path to Achieving Dreams
When Tanush Menon was applying for colleges, he had a clear goal in mind — upon graduation he plans to apply to medical school to become a doctor with a specialty in pediatrics, and the perfect college would set him on a path to success toward that goal.
Any number of colleges can effectively prepare students for a career in healing, but one program at Baylor set the University apart from all others. At the encouragement of his dad, Menon applied to Science Research Fellows, an interdisciplinary major that accepts only 10 incoming first-year students in a cohort to prepare them for a successful career in research in fields like biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, psychology, neuroscience, environmental science, anthropology and geosciences.
“I’d gotten into other colleges, too, but this was a near-surefire way to achieve my dreams of being a doctor,” Menon said about Baylor being his clear top pick among college choices. “From what I’ve seen, everyone that has been a Science Research Fellow and graduated is really well-prepared to pursue their dreams of research or becoming a doctor.”
Students accepted into the program are matched with a Baylor research lab in their sophomore year. Menon is already considering an interest in the Human Evolutionary Biology and Health Lab housed in the Department of Anthropology.
This will not be Menon’s first experience in a lab. In high school, he spent a summer researching in the pediatrics department of Lundquist Institute, a lab at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also spent time volunteering at a local hospital during his junior year, where he helped at the front desk and gained additional lab experience.
“I’ve always wanted to do a job that involves helping people. The first job I remember I wanted to do was be a firefighter, but then I slowly leaned away from that and started going to a more healing approach,” Menon said. “When COVID-19 happened, I was really inspired by the doctors putting themselves out there to help people and heal. So that helped me to realize I want to help other people, and I want to be a doctor.”
The human element extends from the why behind Menon’s research and career goals to what he has already come to enjoy about Baylor.
“Everyone I’ve interacted with has been super kind. I’ve already met Dr. Rizalia Klausmeyer (Ph.D., senior lecturer of chemistry and biochemistry and director of SRF), and she’s been a really supportive and encouraging mentor just from the brief interactions I’ve had with her,” Menon said. “And during Line Camp, I already made a pretty sound group of friends. I didn’t expect to already meet so many people and be so invested in all of them so quickly, too.”
All In
“This is where my heart is. This is where my home is. This is a place where I can go and probably leave and feel homesick for the fact that I'm not in Waco,” Reece Wright said of starting her first year at Baylor.
For Wright, the choice in what college she wanted to attend was set in motion long ago. She visited Baylor’s campus, having never been to Waco before, with her family in eighth grade. What she knew then was confirmed several years later during a return to campus for Invitation to Excellence: Baylor was, without a doubt, the school for her.
“During college applications, in my heart, I already knew that Baylor was where I wanted to go. I just felt like there was no need to look at any other schools. I had this sense of peace in my heart about it, and I didn't know how to explain it,” Wright described.
Wright’s first love is theater — she has been deeply involved in her high school’s theater program and thought that was where her path lay. However, she developed a love for film, and she began making her own at 15 years old, even getting accepted into several film festivals for her work.
She now majors in film and digital media to learn about the field and hone her craft.
“I'm excited to learn. I'm excited to be a film geek about a lot of things, about cameras and things like that, but I'm also excited to be around people and professors who are passionate about these things, too.”
Although she has a clear purpose directing her academic pursuits, Wright wants to experience it all — from Dr Pepper Hour and game days to discovering new things in class and the people she will meet. She is interested in the gospel choir and student leadership opportunities, she plans on adding a double minor in communications and business and she is connecting with community at the Honors Residential College.
“I'm so excited to see what the future holds for me. I'm excited to do internships and maybe study abroad trips and things like that. Yeah, I'm just ready for anything, everything.”
Armed with the knowledge that she is exactly where she needs to be, Wright is open to the transformations and changes that lie ahead in the next four years in her new home.
“I hope that it gives me a new confidence in myself,” Wright said of what she wants out of her college experience. “I would like to be different at the end of college. I would like to graduate stronger in my faith. I'd like to graduate wanting to try new things, new avenues and being open to whatever God wants for my life. I'd like to leave Baylor braver and stronger.”
Checking All the Boxes
Hailing from Solana Beach, California, Ellie Kuehnert did not know a lot about Baylor when she first visited campus. All it took was the first campus tour in her junior year of high school, though, for the school to quickly find it’s spot on the top of her college list.
“After that first tour, I was just drawn to Baylor. I didn’t know exactly why. I liked how kind everyone was and the University’s values, so I started exploring the website more to figure out, what is Baylor about?” Kuehnert said. “Seeing the mission that they have to help people, include faith in the education, form students who are developed both as human beings and also academically, and just really love people and the world well — that drew me in.”
Kuehnert had a fairly good idea what she wanted out of the college she would ultimately choose to attend. Her high school experience shaped what she wanted out of her college education. Christian community has long been a foundational piece of her social and academic life, and Kuehnert was involved with Christian leadership and clubs at school and church, as well as leading worship at her church. She also was the philanthropy commissioner for student government, and later student government president, and she used her role to bring blood drives back to her high school campus, sparking an interest in public health.
At Baylor, Kuehnert sees an opportunity to combine these passions. She plans to double major in public health and religion, and she will participate in the religion department’s ministry guidance program. From her religion major, Kuehnert wants to encounter the hard questions that arise from reading scripture with peers and instructors, and she is eager to discover the niche passions within the field of public health studies and learn how to apply them for the good of the world.
“I want to have this base of knowledge from those majors that equips me to go and serve and help teach people, whether it’s in faith or with their health, and to lay down a groundwork of knowledge that I can then expand on and use to help people.”
Kuehnert’s second visit to Baylor’s campus for Invitation to Excellence confirmed Baylor’s position as her top-choice school. In addition to getting to speak with faculty in public health and religion, she noticed that students she encountered loved being at Baylor.
“I had all these ideas in my mind for ‘If I could make a college, I would make it look like this.’ And then every time I would learn something about Baylor, it would check that box.”
From the size of the University, the robust programs for both ministry guidance and public health, Christian music studies and a campus culture of missions, professors who take time to connect with and mentor students and the national reach of the University’s impact, Baylor seemed to have it all.
“I’m so excited for the friendships, and the community, and just all the fun times but also the deep times, and growing in my faith, growing in my academics and finding a way to really blend them all together,” she said.
Even more, though, Kuehnert sees Baylor as a place that can transform her for the better.
“Baylor is the kind of place that will help me become the person I want to be and also really enjoy it while I’m there.”
For Kuehnert’s parents, Tara and Matt, the best initial endorsement of the school that would catch Ellie’s eye was what they heard about other student experiences at Baylor.
They knew of Baylor’s excellent reputation in healthcare education and that it has a strong Athletics program, but they did not have any experience with the University. Much of their early impression of the school was based on what others had to say about the student experience.
“When we found someone who knew someone who went there, they always said they loved Baylor. We heard the word LOVE over and over,” Matt said.
After a campus tour in Ellie’s junior year and a second visit for Invitation to Excellence, the Kuehnerts were beginning to also love Baylor.
“They do really walk the walk and talk the talk at Baylor,” Tara said of the authenticity of Baylor’s Christian mission and community. “It’s a caring community that wants the best for your child. That’s how it grew, and we’re just amazed every time we go.”
Tara and Matt were impressed by the availability and attentiveness of everyone from admissions counselors, faculty and staff, and they saw the intention behind building a culture of welcoming and connectedness among students. Moreover, they are encouraged that they have been engaged as parents throughout the process.
“I felt like they were making sure that everyone, the parents and the students, are aware of the resources that are available at Baylor,” Tara said of the family’s visits to Waco for Invitation to Excellence, Orientation and beyond.
These resources are robust, too, ranging from clear conversation and understandings about financial packages to attend Baylor and scholarship opportunities to ways for parents to engage through send-off parties, Parents in Prayer groups, Family Weekend and so much more.
Matt and Tara described Ellie’s progression from thinking of Baylor from “This is too good to be true,” to, “I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to go to this school.” As parents, they share the sentiment.
“That’s how it feels at this moment, and that’s how it’s felt for a while,” Matt said.