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Lochlan Walsh, a junior University Scholars major, spent the summer interning with the City of Waco's Department of Housing and Community Development.

Liam Liu, senior Biochemistry major and undergraduate research in the Solouki Lab, spent the summer as a B-TRUE Fellow studying the conformational changes that occurred to a small peptide under varying conditions. This important research may lead to multiple use drugs.

Dhishi Kumarandurai, a B-TRUE Fellow working with Dr. Jacques Nguyen, learned protocols for studying the behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms underlying the onset and development of substance use disorders and addiction. This experience built confidence and confirmed her belief in herself as a researcher. 

Jack Ryder, a Baylor Business fellow, joined Dr. Cory Dungan's lab as a B-TRUE fellow. This opportunity to study muscle fibers also provided opportunities to reflect on why research matters.

This summer Iara Peralta Siracusa was a research intern at University of Trento’s Center of Mind/Brain Sciences.

Catch up on the latest news, events, and opportunities from the Office of Engaged Learning! And if you're new, you can subscribe to our newsletter here.

This summer Hailey Gleason participated in the Engaged Learning and Research in Argentine Healthcare program, part of the Baylor in Argentina Study Abroad, which was supported by the English Department, Honors College, and Center for Global Engagement and led by faculty director, Dr. Melisa Dracos, Associate Professor Linguistics.

How does the undergraduate research experience impact students at Baylor? Go inside a research lab with a student and his faculty mentor, a nationally renowned cancer researcher. Dr. Kevin Pinney, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and Devin Guedry, a rising junior from Frisco, Texas, together explore the collaborative culture that defines undergraduate research at Baylor. 

Enzo Henry, a B-TRUE Fellow, senior Health Science Studies major, spent his summer with Dr. Marianna Giassetti studying the evolutionary journey of sperm cells. The aims of this lab are to drive real-world advances: improving infertility treatments for patients, protecting biodiversity, strengthening livestock genetics, and fueling innovation in biotechnology.

From Dr. Melisa Dracos and Courtney DePalma: Pre-health students participated in this summer's Baylor in Argentina program as Argentina Summer Research Fellows, combining immersive Spanish study with engaged learning and research experiences across healthcare settings in Mendoza and the Andes.

Dami Ogunbiyi (Senior, Economics) interned at the Guilford County Public Defender's Office through the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP).

Enjoy hearing about the books, songs, shows, blogs, films, and other media our team most enjoyed this summer.

Stella Wiegert worked with Dr. Jake Minich in the area of understanding what type of microbes are found in the bacterial community found in shark gastrointestinal system. This area of research is largely unexplored and ties closely with the goal of improving aquaculture (fish farming) production, sustainability, and nutritional value, while improving human health outcomes.

Abhi Rajkumar served as a Clinical Research Intern at Johns Hopkins Medicine in the Department of Neuroscience and Neurosurgery.

Working with Dr. Christie Sayes' lab team, Kate Cavenaugh learned to approach difficulties with a growth mindset. While exploring the toxicological effects of e-cigarette additives, Kate recognized the importance of research for the education and health of the 1.63 million (5.9%) students that currently use e-cigarettes within the United States. 

Shelby Barnes (B.S. '25, Biochemistry and German major) shares her experience on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant award to Germany from 2025-2026.

Meet our newest team member, Eliza Denley, who serves as coordinator for fellowships and awards in the Office of Engaged Learning.

Anna Corey, a senior University Scholar major, interned this summer at COTS Daystation, an adult shelter in Burlington Vermont through the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP).

As a B-TRUE intern, Lucy spent her summer in the lab of Dr. Garrett Tucker, the Inaugural Eula Mae and John Baugh Chair in Physics and Director of the Materials Science and Engineering Program. Here she reflects what this experience taught her about being a scientist.

Casi Lummer, a senior University Scholar, Anthropology, and Communications major interned this summer with the Waco Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WAMPO).

Saiah Lee, spent his summer in the Vector Biology Lab of Dr. Cheolho Sim, Professor of Biology, with graduate student Kaylee. Here he reflects on how beyond learning molecular biology he learned the importance of developing skills in leadership and collaboration.

Abby Winkelman spent her summer in B_TRUE with Dr. Jason Pitts, Director of the Biology of Global Health 4+1 Program and Associate Professor of Biology studying the sensory mechanisms of mosquitos. Here she relates how this experience has provided a diversity of valuable skills.

Baylor University students and recent graduates continue to be awarded the most prestigious scholarships and fellowships at the national and international levels – winning Fulbright U.S. Student Grants and Rotary Global Grants.

Catch up on all the latest in and around the Office of Engaged Learning as you head into summer!

The full-day program introduces Waco-area high school students to STEM through immersive, hands-on learning experiences in Baylor's teaching laboratories.

The Office of Engaged Learning has named its newest cohort of Provost’s Scholars, comprised of 20 exceptional students from a diverse array of academic disciplines.

Students in Baylor University's Philanthropy & the Public Good course awarded grants totaling $100,000 to seven local nonprofit organizations, supporting work spanning maternal and child health, immigrant services, housing, healthcare access, child development, and services to teens experiencing homelessness.

Baylor University’s Office of Engaged Learning (OEL) honored students, faculty, staff, and community partners at its annual banquet April 30, celebrating a year of achievement in leadership, research, civic engagement, and global learning.

The Provost's Scholars fielded questions and responses from Provost Brickhouse related to their proposal, which was the culmination of their work this academic year. The proposal will be shared with relevant campus partners to aid the university's shared work.

WACO, Texas — Baylor University will honor eight students with four prestigious awards recognizing exceptional scholarship, citizenship, and leadership at this year’s Office of Engaged Learning (OEL) Banquet. For the first time, each of the four awards is being presented to two students — double the honorees of previous years — reflecting the extraordinary depth of engagement found within the graduating class of 2026. The eight recipients — Lucas Walther, Aliyah Ogden, Alizay Mohamed, Julianna Canas, Sahil Billakanti, Eliza Denley, and Mason Gregory — embody the values and legacy of the award namesakes through their work on campus, in Waco, and around the world.

Recipients of the Vardaman Awards, named in tribute to Professor Elizabeth Vardaman, are Baylor faculty members who go above and beyond in mentoring undergraduate students.

Dwayne D. Simmons, Ph.D., and Samuel S. Urlacher, Ph.D., have been elected to the rank of 2025 AAAS Fellow, a lifetime honor announced today by the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Catch up on the latest news and opportunities from the Office of Engaged Learning! And if you're new, you can subscribe to our newsletter here!

For students interested in taking unique and innovative courses that introduce them to a range of different topics related to the common good and human flourishing and of local, national, and global importance, PPS 1100 is a perfect choice.

Photo credit: Justin Hamel, The Waco Bridge / CatchLight Local / Report for America

Ten full scholarships are available for students and nonprofit leaders to take the first of four modules in the Future Church Leadership Certificate, the Belonging course, which equips students to foster cultures of belonging.

The Office of Engaged Learning is pleased to welcome applications for the Provost's Scholars program for the 2026-2027 academic year. The Provost’s Scholars program provides select undergraduate students entering their final year an opportunity to work with university leadership in shaping Baylor's future. Applications are due on Tuesday, March 31, 2026.

Amanda Nowlin Martinez serves as the Assistant to the Associate Dean in the Office of Engaged Learning. This Q&A is the sixth installment in our "Get to Know the OEL" series.

The Office of Engaged Learning is excited to announce the renaming of Baylor Engage Fellows, its signature student leadership program, as the Vardaman Scholars program. Maintaining its purpose to foster a vibrant community of students integrating their scholarship, citizenship, and leadership in pursuit of the common good, the new name honors Dean Elizabeth Vardaman and offers a clearer year-by-year structure. Applications are now open through March 29 for the 2026-27 cohort.

The Future Communities Lab, formerly the Program for the Future Church, has relaunched as a university-wide effort housed within the Office of Engaged Learning and bearing a new name, which creates more space to explore a flourishing future for churches and communities together.

The new engaged learning requirement in the College of Arts & Sciences Core Curriculum is encouraging Baylor students to serve their communities.

Catch up on all the news and opportunities in the Office of Engaged Learning this month!

Waco VITA program brings together students from Baylor, University and La Vega high schools to prepare more than 1,500 tax returns for families across McLennan County.

Dr. Anne Jeffrey, Associate Professor of Philosophy, describes the transformation that occurred when she converted her tried and true course on contemporary moral ethics into an engaged learning course, partnering with Global Revive, an east Waco nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing our world through sustainable practices and community empowerment.

Biology major and Goldwater Scholar Ava Frescura is the only student from Texas selected for the 2026 undergraduate honor

The Fulbright Program today recognized Baylor University as one of the nation’s elite top 10 producers of students and recent alumni selected for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

Catch up on what's happening in and around the OEL as we wrap up the year and look toward 2026!

Felise Bressler, a 2024-25 Provost's Scholar, presented her work at the Society for Neuroscience 2025 Annual Meeting, the world's largest neuroscience conference with over 20,000 scientists and physicians attending from across the globe.

Molly Simpson serves as Assistant Director for Service in both the Office of Engaged Learning and the Office of Spiritual Life. This Q&A is the fifth installment in our "Get to Know the OEL" series.

As you head into the holidays, enjoy these recommendations as members of the OEL team reflect on their favorites of 2025 in literature, film, television, podcasts, music, and journalism. 

Baylor's Future Church Leadership Certificate provides practical tools for ministry leaders and faith communities to navigate the challenges of ministry in a changing world.

Only a relative handful of schools nationwide rank among U.S. News‘ top 40 for both undergraduate teaching and undergraduate research. That short list is filled with schools like Duke, Michigan, Princeton, Stanford, Yale — and Baylor.

For the seventh straight year, U.S. News‘ rankings placed Baylor right alongside such prestigious peers, as BU was ranked No. 27 nationally for undergraduate teaching and No. 40 for undergraduate research/creative projects. No other Big 12 schools (and only one other Texas school: Rice) made the top 40 in both categories.

Emily O'Kief (B.A. '24, University Scholars major and French minor) shares her experience on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant award to Serbia from 2024-2025.

Check out the important news and items of note from the OEL and our partners for November 2025!

25 students from Waco ISD's AVID program came to Baylor's campus last week to sit in on two college class lectures and attend a seminar given by the Baylor Millennium Fellows on their individual academic journeys. The visit was part of the Baylor Millennium Fellows' semester-long project mentoring AVID students, which addresses UN Sustainable Development Goal #4 Target 4.3 – Equal Access to Affordable Technical, Vocational, and Higher Education.

Mark Richards serves as Associate Director for Operations, Innovation, and Programs in the Office of Engaged Learning. This Q&A is the fourth installment in our "Get to Know the OEL" series.

The Waco Bridge profiled one of the OEL's Philanthropy and Public Service (PPS) courses, Creative Economies in Waco, taught by Julie Cervantes of Creative Waco, in which students built a puppet for the Dia de los Muertos parade and in doing so learned firsthand about the impact of the festival on the community.

"Four students in the Creative Economies elective class had four hours to conceptualize and build a puppet for the parade, using basic materials and limited design experience…Julie Cervantes of Creative Waco, an organizer of the parade, taught the class exploring the connections among arts, cultural heritage and economic development. It’s one of several one-credit classes in the Philanthropy and Public Service Program, which fulfills new requirements for community engagement in the College of Arts and Sciences."

Photo credit: Justin Hamel, The Waco Bridge / CatchLight Local / Report for America

Madelene Do (B.S. '24, health science studies major and biochemistry minor) shares her experience on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant award to Vietnam.

"For those considering applying for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) grant, I cannot recommend it enough. The experience challenges you in ways that foster both professional and personal growth. It allows you to engage with a new culture, develop meaningful relationships, and expand your understanding of the world. While the professional benefits are undeniable, the most rewarding aspects of the grant lie in the relationships you build and the personal discoveries you make along the way."

Catch up on the latest OEL news and events in our October newsletter.

Eliza Denley (B.A. '26, University Scholars and English double-major) shares a dispatch from St. Andrews, Scotland, where's she is part of the OEL's study away program centered on the theme of migration and the plight of refugees.

Isabelle Ford (B.S. '24, Biochemistry major and Medical Humanities minor) shares her experience on a Fulbright study award to the Netherlands.

Baylor launches the fall 2025 application processes for the Truman, Goldwater, Boren, and Critical Language Scholarships. 

The Waco Bridge featured Derek Ross, the Office of Engaged Learning's Indigenous Scholar in Residence, in its article on the Mayborn Museum's upcoming 2026 exhibit entitled "Cultural Crossroads." The exhibit will include a full-scale, authentic Wichita grass house, the kind built and inhabited by members of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Waco's indigenous community. Derek is leading the construction of the grass house, a project he notes "is important to Wichita people…because it says something about who we are, says something about family…says something about community, says something about togetherness.”

Photo credit: Justin Hamel, The Waco Bridge / Catchlight / Report for America

Please join us to celebrate the summer internships and research experiences of the Baylor Summer Fellows.

Catch up on the latest OEL news and events in our September newsletter.

Baylor University has adopted ForagerOne, a leading software platform that facilitates undergraduate student engagement in research and interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty.

Olivia Gorrell (B.M. '22, piano and German major) shares her experience on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant award to Germany from 2022-2023. 

This summer, we were privileged to welcome Dr. Dustin Benac, Mr. Nathan Gibbs, and Dr. Rory Jones to the OEL team in new roles that will expand our work and enhance our existing offerings. We think you'll enjoy getting to know these new colleagues as much as we have.

Here are some of the books, shows, songs, and podcasts that have occupied our attention this summer. Enjoy!

Sahil Adtani has served this summer as a researcher at the National School of Tropical Medicine through the Tropical Disease Research Internship Program (TDRIP). Here he reflects on his research and its contributions to improving global health.

Steven Podczerwinksi has served this summer in the Trakselis Lab at Baylor through the BTRUE program. Here he reflects on the important community contributions of research in a chemistry lab.

In the next installment of our Summer Dispatch series, Baylor Summer Fellow McKenzie Webb, a BTRUE participant, explores who holds the power in research, what that might mean, and how we might pursue scientific inquiry that prizes impact over income or prestige.

Baylor Summer Fellow Isabel Miles has served this summer through the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty at CrossOver Healthcare Ministries in Richmond, Virginia. Here, she reflects on the challenges of serving well in a temporary position.

In the first edition of our Summer Dispatch series, Baylor Summer Fellow Ian Stahl, a BTRUE participant in Dr. Simmons's lab, reflects on the question, "whom do I serve with my research?".

Alumna Dr. Jade Connor Eruchalu, B.S. ’17, is making an impact on the world through geriatric memory care.

Thirty-four Baylor students and recent alumni have received some of the most prestigious awards for STEM research, public policy/diplomacy, critical language study and more. 

Baylor University, The Congregational Collective and Harvard Medical School partner to innovate equipping congregations to become community hubs for mental health engagement.

Baylor University’s success for highly competitive fellowships and awards continues to skyrocket as a record 24 Baylor students and recent alumni have been selected for 2025-2026 Fulbright U.S. Student Grants. 

Our final newsletter of the school year is chock full news: student scientists sharing their love of science with local high schoolers; student researchers presenting at URSA Scholars Week; student winners of major awards like the Goldwater, Boren, Pickering, and CLS; and this year's OEL Award winners Karly Shepherd, Sarah Beno, John Austin DeLozier, and Isabella Zárate. Enjoy reading about this, and so much more, by clicking here.

The Office of Engaged Learning has named its newest cohort of Provost’s Scholars, comprised of 16 exceptional students from a diverse array of academic disciplines.

Four students were honored at the 2025 OEL Banquet with the Myles Horton, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Madeline Albright Awards.

Abigail Pitts, a senior Medical Humanities major, won the Best Poster Award at the 14th Annual Activity-Based Protein Profiling Conference in London, England for her research on the health benefits of Brassica vegetables. Her project, supported by a Spring 2025 URSA Grant, uses innovative chemoproteomics techniques and has significant implications for drug discovery and public health. 

Students in Baylor University’s Philanthropy & the Public Good course awarded grants to six local nonprofit organizations, supporting work to mentor and advocate for young people, accompany migrants and refugees, resource small business entrepreneurs, and assist persons experiencing homelessness. 

One of the first stops for Baylor campus visitors is the Williams Bear Habitat, home of bear mascots Indy and Belle. The La Vega High School students visiting campus last week for the first-ever Baylor CityLab were no different; the Bear Habitat was tops on their tour agenda — and where their interactive science journey began.

As soon as the tour was over, Baylor students involved in CityLab set up the scenario. They drank from a stray water bottle, began “acting” strange, and soon developed zombie-like symptoms. Now it was up to the high school students to use real-world scientific methods — including DNA analysis and forensics — to determine what was causing this strange behavior and what exactly was in the water bottle.

Camille Watson, B.A. ’22, has won the prestigious Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Graduate Fellowship – one of the U.S. State Department’s flagship initiatives for recruiting top-tier talent for Foreign Service careers. 

Baylor University students were awarded scholarships and fellowships, including Boren Awards, Critical Language Scholarships and a Fulbright UK Summer Institutes award.

The Baylor Lariat highlights Baylor's four recent Goldwater Scholars, along with Baylor's growing success in undergraduate research.

Baylor undergraduate STEM researchers have kicked off the spring major fellowships and awards season by earning a record four Goldwater Scholarships, the preeminent undergraduate award that supports outstanding undergraduates interested in pursuing STEM research careers.

Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activities (URSA) Scholars Week 2025 highlighted the exceptional work of Baylor students, showcasing a diverse array of research projects across various disciplines.

Catch up on the latest OEL news and events in our March newsletter.

For students interested in taking unique and innovative courses that introduce them to a range of different topics related to the common good and human flourishing and of local, national, and global importance, PPS 1100 is a perfect choice.

Dr. Rebecca Flavin, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, serves as the Director of Engaged Learning Curriculum in the Office of Engaged Learning. She also directs Baylor's Model UN program and serves as Associate Director of Baylor in Washington. 

Scholars Week 2025 begins next Monday, Mar. 31 and runs through Wednesday, Apr. 2, and we're looking for faculty and graduate student judges to help us evaluate student presentations. Undergraduate students from across the university will deliver over 100 poster presentations in the BSB and over 35 oral presentations in the SUB.