Student Profiles: Growing in the Process

We think you’ll enjoy meeting these eight seniors. Rather than waiting to look back and wish they had appreciated Baylor more, they took the opportunities right now to get on stage, dig deeper on the field, teach a student – to make themselves uncomfortable – and to grow in the process.

text by Rachel Schulson | color photos by Olivia Mayo ’12

Christian Carbone

• National Merit Finalist
• Student Council
• Peer Support Network
• National Honor Society
• Distinguished Scholar
• Baylor Investment Society,
• Student Academic Council Founder & President
• Varsity Swimmer
• David M. Abshire
• Winner, Templeton Noble Leadership
• Fellow Purpose Scholarship
• Scholar Athlete Award

Christian Carbone is a three-time Swimming All-American and Scholastic All-American. He was a state champion in the 200 individual medley in his junior and senior years, and as a senior he was a state champion in the 100 breaststroke and a U.S. Olympic Trials Qualifier.

For his senior project, Carbone established a charitable fund, and his Baylor Investment Society made stock purchases, donating profits from the sale to Junior Achievement.
Just as investors need to make adjustments to be successful, Carbone had to change his study habits at Baylor. “This year, with BC calculus, there were so many ways to do problems that I couldn’t just memorize things. I had to reinvent the way I learned, and that has made me more creative in the way I solve problems.”

Carbone plans to major in economics when he attends Harvard this fall. “When I analyze companies, I don’t just analyze the numbers; I look at the big ideas.”

Robbie Epps

• Baylor Players
• Walkabout
• Inner Circle
• New Zealand Walkabout Tripper
• Red Circle
• National Honor Society
• National Merit Commended Scholar

What Robbie Epps likes most about Walkabout, his favorite activity at Baylor, is that it’s relaxing. Epps himself seems to be tranquil, but when he puts his mind to something, he is determined to master it. Although he had not explored the outdoors much before joining Walkabout, he is now an accomplished rock climber, hiker, and boulderer. “Walkabout took me to places that I didn’t know existed,” said Epps. In addition to after-school and weekend trips, Epps went on Walkabout trips to Folly Beach, S.C. and New Zealand.

Epps had never acted before coming to Baylor and went from being an extra his first time in a play to tackling a major role in last year’s fall play, “The Rimers of Eldritch.” A mostly self-taught musician, he plays the bass guitar and is studying basic music theory. He played in R.A.G.T.A.I.L.S. for the first time this spring.

His next challenge will be at Vanderbilt, where he plans to study either chemical or biomedical engineering.

Emily Ferguson

• David M. Abshire Leadership Fellow
• Round Table
• Staff Writer, Baylor Notes
• Community Service
• National Merit Commended Scholar
• Site Leader
• Spanish Literature Award
•Tutor
• Writing Center Tutor
• Grant Writer
• Peer Tutor
• Jamaica Tripper
• Model UN

Emily Ferguson has grown at Baylor, and some of that growth can be attributed to the school’s community service program. “It has been such a huge part of my life that I can’t imagine going to college and not doing some sort of work with kids.”
Ferguson also believes that the presence of the Honor Code has helped her mature. “A lot of what Baylor has taught me is about character, how to be a positive member of society. ”

It was a Baylor chapel speaker — an attorney for the United Nations who had negotiated with political factions in Colombia — that got Ferguson thinking about how she could take what she learned at Baylor to do something that would be meaningful to her.

Ferguson is now headed to Georgetown University, with a plan to go directly to Georgetown Law School. “I would like to do international relations work with a humanitarian edge.”

Kate Harper

• Lacrosse
• Peer Support Network
• International Club
• Orchestra
• Cross Country
• Red Circle
• Spirit Club

Lacrosse came to the Baylor campus the same year Kate Harper did. “I loved it right away,” said Harper, who plays low attack and learned the sport along with her teammates and coaches. “We’ve come a long way. Last year, we made it to the playoffs for the first time.”

Off the field, Harper really enjoys the chance to step outside the world she knows. She values both the trips she has taken with her family and what she has learned in her Baylor classes. “I like history because I like looking at how things are today and how far we’ve come since that period. And Eastern religions gave me a better understanding of those cultures.” She has also learned from spending time with boarding students. “I’ve made many friends from many areas.”

This fall she will attend Sewanee: The University of the South, which she chose in part for its outdoor program, never having had time to do Walkabout at Baylor. She was also drawn to its Baylor-like sense of community.

Noah Lee

• Salutatorian
 • National Honor Society
• Jim Pearce Leadership Trip
•  Inner Circle
• Writing Center Tutor
• Prefect, Lupton 3
• Community Service
• Soccer
• Environmental Community Service
• Math Award
• Science Achievement Award
• Hubert Stagmaier Award

Noah Lee, the son of Korean parents, was born in Russia and has lived in Finland, the Philippines, and South Korea. He spent Baylor breaks in Kazakhstan, where his diplomat father was posted until recently.

But Lee had never been to the United States until he came to Baylor, where he was struck by the school’s beauty, the friendly faculty and students, and the range of activities. “Community service has taught me a lot, especially about patience. It has brought to my attention that there are people unlike me.”

Both in community service and his role as a prefect, Lee has embraced the chance to build relationships, which he calls “the fun part.”

Another fun part has been his participation in MIT Zero Robotics, in which he worked with a team of students from across the country to program a satellite to perform specific functions. His team made it to the finals this year.

Lee will likely major in math and economics at the University of Chicago.

Wyatt McRae

• Varsity Football
• Varsity Basketball
• Honor Council
• Red Circle
• Jim Pearce Leadership Trip
• Member, SACS-SAIS Accreditation Committee

“I’ve learned from many of the cases that the right thing to do is often harder than the easy way out of a situation,” said Wyatt McRae of his service on Baylor’s Honor Council.

Certainly not one to look for an easy way out of anything, McRae has successfully balanced sports and academics as a four-year varsity tight end and linebacker and as a two-year forward on the varsity basketball team.

McRae’s favorite subject, perhaps because of the many places he has lived or visited, is history. Before moving to Chattanooga and enrolling in Baylor, where his late father (Robert McRae ’78), grandfather and uncle had gone to school, McRae lived in Minneapolis, Minn.; Winnipeg, Canada; and Singapore. His family has traveled to Vietnam, Japan, and Cambodia.

McRae will attend both his parents’ alma mater, Rhodes College, where he will likely study business or economics. His advice to current Baylor students is, “Enjoy Baylor while it lasts because it feels like last year that I started seventh grade.”

Sarah Van Deusen

• President, Baylor Players
• Senior Play
• Round Table
• Inner Circle
• Midwinter Night’s Blast
• Fine Arts Award

At four years old, Sarah Van Deusen was too shy to accept when her father, Schaack Van Deusen ’61, offered her a part in a play he was directing. But playing Lobster #3 in a production of “The Rainbow Fish” at St. Peter’s School convinced Sarah that the stage was for her, and she has not turned down an opportunity since.

Ten years later as a Baylor student, Van Deusen finally auditioned for her father, and the two then worked together on eight plays. “It’s special that we’re leaving [Baylor] at the same time. He always said he would retire when I graduated, but I didn’t think it would actually happen.”

Van Deusen’s favorite thing about Baylor is that “teachers at Baylor love teaching, love their students, and love them to excel. I wanted a small liberal arts college because after Baylor I couldn’t imagine being in a lecture hall.” Van Deusen will be a Provost Scholar at Wittenberg College, where she plans to major in theater.

Ashley Yearwood

• Varsity Swimming, Co-Captain
• Prefect, Hunter Hall
• Red Circle
• Harambee
• Dance
• Herbert B. Barks, Sr., Award

Ashley Yearwood chose Denison College because “it just felt right,” which for Yearwood means that it feels like Baylor. “I instantly fell in love with Baylor. I love the way it looks. It’s straight out of a movie,” she said. “I love the people; everyone is so nice here, and the teachers are so understanding. Even the dining hall staff is always there to greet you with a smile.”

As a prefect, Yearwood has worked to make other boarders feel as good as she does about the school. “I really like helping them, being there for them.”

Yearwood chose Baylor for its swimming program; she swims the 50 free and the 100 backstroke. She will now swim for Denison, and, if she can shave a second and a half off her time, she has a good chance of swimming for her native Bermuda in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Yearwood’s one regret about Baylor is that her schedule didn’t allow for more art classes. She is considering majoring in graphic design at Denison.