by Rachel Ellington, Howard Payne University freshman
BROWNWOOD – Sept. 4, 2012 – Lauren Teel, a 2010 graduate of Howard Payne University, recently received the Nancy Stallings Lee Endowed Scholarship at Baylor University. Teel, a student at Baylor Law School, who hails from Canton, was the first recipient of this award.
The Nancy Stallings Lee Endowed Scholarship Fund was established in 2011 by relatives and friends of Nancy S. Lee, a former professor of political science at HPU who passed away in 2009. Lee obtained her bachelor’s (1967) and master’s (1970) degrees in political science from Baylor University. Because of her dedication to both universities, the fund is available to graduates from HPU’s Academy of Freedom honors program, who are attending Baylor Law School or are enrolled in a graduate program at Baylor.
Lee’s cousin, Roxanne Boyd, shared how excited her family is about the fund.
“We are so pleased that Nancy’s wish to support graduate education has become reality,” Boyd said, “and we hope that the endowment will continue to grow.”
While at HPU, Teel became involved in the Student Speaker Bureau and Moot Court. She gives credit to these activities and her courses in the Academy of Freedom for her consequent success in law school.
“The Academy put me around bright peers and brilliant professors,” Teel explained. “I was challenged, asked to complete hard tasks and learned to write essay exams –which prepared me for the pressure of law school’s written exams.”
Teel also had the privilege of being featured in the “Baylor Law Review,” a scholarly journal in which the top 15 percent of the enrolled law students at Baylor are published.
“The Academy exams were almost the sole determining factor for my eligibility for the law review at Baylor,” she said. “The only exceptions were two legal writing classes, for which writing my Academy thesis helped prepare me.”
Dr. Justin Murphy, dean of HPU’s School of Humanities and director of the Academy of Freedom honors program, discussed Teel’s great character as a student.
“I am gratified to learn that Lauren received the Nancy Stallings Lee Endowed Scholarship,” Murphy said. “She certainly epitomizes the values that Nancy Lee held and I know that Ms. Lee would most definitely approve of Lauren to be the first to receive this scholarship. It was an honor to serve as one of Lauren’s professors.”
HPU Academy of Freedom graduates planning to further their education at Baylor University are eligible for the Nancy Stallings Lee Endowed Scholarship. For more information contact Baylor’s Student Financial Services division at 254-710-2611.