By Joana Karoshi | Staff Writer
For some Baylor students, a $3,000 scholarship can mean the difference between staying at the university and leaving it.
Student Foundation members hear stories like these at their meetings as they work year-round to raise scholarship funds, connect with alumni, recruit prospective students and organize campus events.
Since its founding in 1969, Student Foundation has operated around a simple mission: serving Baylor’s “past, present and future.” The organization’s four committees give students responsibilities ranging from alumni outreach and fundraising to student recruitment and campus programming.
For the 2026-27 academic year, the Student Foundation awarded $405,000 in scholarships to 141 Baylor students, according to its website. The Student Foundation Scholarship is $3,000, distributed as $1,500 in the fall and $1,500 in the spring.
But scholarships are only one part of what the organization does.
Serving Baylor’s past
Student Foundation’s Alumni Relations Committee works with Baylor alumni throughout the year, including facilitating events and fundraising for student scholarships. Texarkana, Arkansas, senior Dawson Palmer, an Alumni Relations co-chair, said the committee works with Baylor’s Office of Advancement to identify alumni and maintain connections with people who have previously been involved with Student Foundation or donated to its scholarship funds.
The committee also hosts events such as Sing dinner, where alumni return to Baylor and interact with current students.
The relationship is partly built around shared experience. Katy senior Kiki Adejuyigbe, the other Alumni Relations co-chair, said many alumni remember their time in Student Foundation and recognize its traditions, from its striped jerseys to its campus events.
Palmer said students also bring something university administrators cannot: firsthand knowledge of what current students need. Students see financial struggles among their classmates, he said, and may know when a roommate or friend is struggling to afford Baylor.
“That kind of gives us a little bit more of an emphasis, and that gives us a why behind the work,” Palmer said.
That student perspective is part of the reason Palmer said alumni have historically trusted Student Foundation with their donations.
He recalled reading an old Student Foundation newsletter in which an alumnus explained why they chose to give through the organization: they wanted their money to go to people who understood where students needed it most.
Serving Baylor’s present
The money raised through Student Foundation supports scholarships for current students. Baylor currently has 90 endowed Student Foundation scholarships valued at more than $5 million, according to the organization. Student Foundation members raise money through alumni outreach and events such as the Bearathon.
The 2026 Bearathon Half Marathon attracted 1,700 participants and, along with the Sic ‘Em 6K, raised $68,000 for student scholarships.
For members, the impact can become more tangible when they meet scholarship recipients.
North Aurora, Illinois, sophomore Hannah Patel, a Student Foundation member, said she has friends who received scholarships this year.
Hearing recipients explain how the money affected their ability to attend Baylor has made the fundraising feel less abstract, she said.
“You can see that it’s going somewhere good,” Patel said.
Student Foundation also organizes campus events intended to build community. Its annual All-University Thanksgiving Dinner brings about 9,000 members of the Baylor community together each year, according to the organization.
Patel said her own responsibilities include helping decorate the Student Foundation building, preparing activities for members and attending prospective-student events.
Serving Baylor’s future
Student Foundation members also work with Baylor Admissions to recruit prospective students.
Members attend college fairs, prospective-student lunches and other recruitment events, where they talk with high school students about their experiences at Baylor.
Patel said members may travel to high schools, set up a table and speak with students considering Baylor.
Basking Ridge, New Jersey, senior Ella Karins, a Student Foundation co-president, said that connection is one reason students are useful representatives for the university.
Students considering Baylor can hear directly from someone who is currently experiencing the university, rather than only from an administrator, Karins said.
That personal connection also extends to alumni.
“When they’re looking to come to Baylor or if they’re looking to donate, they know whom they’re donating towards and whom it’s benefiting on a personal level,” Karins said.
Why students?
The range of responsibilities Student Foundation members receive raises a question at the center of the organization: Why give students responsibility for fundraising, alumni relations and university recruitment?
Karins said students have significant independence in planning Student Foundation initiatives.
The organization, Karins explained, has an adviser who helps students navigate Baylor and connect with university resources. But previous Student Foundation leaders also leave behind “playbooks” describing what worked and what they would change, she said.
That allows each group of students to build on the previous year’s work rather than starting over, Karins said.
Baylor describes Student Foundation as an organization entrusted with “wide-ranging and careful responsibilities” on the university’s behalf. Its student steering committee oversees the organization’s activities, while university staff provide support and resources.
For Karins, that structure teaches students to make decisions without being given every step of the process and for members like Adejuyigbe, the motivation is ultimately service.
Adejuyigbe said he joined Student Foundation because of his previous volunteer work and desire to serve others. He said seeing scholarship recipients describe how the money affected their lives reinforced that purpose.
For Karins, the organization’s value goes beyond any single event or scholarship.
If Student Foundation disappeared, she said, Baylor would lose some of the community events it creates, like All-University Thanksgiving, as well as a source of financial support for students.
It would also lose an avenue for students to develop leadership skills through responsibilities that require them to make decisions without someone directing every step, Karins said.
She said Student Foundation’s work ultimately connects Baylor’s past, present and future: alumni provide support, current students carry out the work and scholarship and recruitment efforts affect the students who come next.
