Baylor Receives $295,000 Teagle Foundation Grant to Expand Examined Life Scholars into Residential Program

Baylor University has received a $295,000 implementation grant from the Teagle Foundation’s Knowledge for Freedom initiative to expand the Examined Life Scholars program into a residential experience for high school students from the Waco area.

The multi-year grant will support the program’s next phase by allowing the Honors College to offer a fully immersive, two-week residential experience that introduces students to liberal learning, campus life and the rhythms of college study while continuing to provide mentoring and college-readiness support throughout students’ senior year.

“We are sincerely grateful for the Teagle Foundation’s Knowledge for Freedom initiative,” Honors College Dean Douglas Henry, Ph.D. said.  “We celebrate the Foundation’s grant to the Honors College, as it enables us to introduce underserved high schoolers to high-quality liberal education, inspire them to lives of dignity and purpose, and support college readiness. The grant puts us in the good company of other top-ranked grantees such as Columbia, NYU, Princeton and Yale, as well as admirable church-related universities such as Biola, Fordham, George Fox and Villanova. I’m proud of Elizabeth, Sam and Kristy, and I know the whole Baylor community joins me in applauding their conviction, vision, diligence and hard work.”

The Examined Life Scholars program serves primarily low-income and first-generation college-bound students and is designed to help them imagine themselves as members of a college community while developing habits of careful reading, thoughtful conversation and reflective learning. The move to a residential format marks a significant expansion from the pilot year and deepens the program’s emphasis on formation, belonging and academic engagement.

“The move to a residential program will allow for a fully immersive experience,” Associate Professor of Rhetoric in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core Sam Perry, Ph.D., said. “We want our students to see themselves as part of a college campus and community because it gives them confidence when they apply to colleges and universities during their senior year. We want to provide our students with the tools to be lifelong learners. This program is about cultivating a love of learning as much as it is learning any particular text or specific content.”

At the heart of the program is seminar-style learning rooted in the liberal arts, where students read classic and contemporary texts and engage one another in sustained discussion about meaning, virtue, citizenship and the good life. The residential model allows that intellectual work to extend beyond the classroom into shared meals, informal conversation and communal living.

“Reading great books with others is one of the most rewarding things young people can do,” Honors Program Director Elizabeth Corey, Ph.D., said. “It opens their eyes to worlds they didn’t know existed, and they’re pushed to ask questions that might have only been imperfectly formed in their minds.” 

A distinctive feature of the program is its yearlong mentoring component. Each student is paired with a Baylor Honors College undergraduate mentor who participates in the summer program and then remains connected throughout the students’ senior year of high school. These mentors help students navigate the college application process, reflect on their academic interests, manage deadlines and scholarships, and develop confidence as they prepare for the transition to college.

Alongside the academic seminars, students participate in workshops and programming designed to prepare them for the practical realities of college, including admissions, financial aid and academic planning. Mentors often attend these sessions with students and serve as a bridge between formal programming and students’ individual questions and concerns.

“ELS is a transformative program, and we are excited to share this opportunity with even more students this summer.,” Assistant Director for Undergraduate Admissions Kristy Brischke said. “By spending two weeks of their summer at Baylor, students gain a firsthand understanding of college life and can clearly picture themselves pursuing higher education but also understand the process of enrolling in college.”

Together, the academic, residential and mentoring components are designed to widen access to higher education while cultivating intellectual curiosity, confidence and a sense of purpose. The Honors College sees the program as both a local investment in Waco-area students and a model for how universities can partner with their communities to foster educational opportunity and human flourishing.

As the Examined Life Scholars program enters its next phase, Baylor will continue working with local schools, campus partners, and community organizations to ensure the program remains responsive to student needs. To learn more about the program, visit the program’s website.