The Bayless 

Project: 

Giving, Learning, 

Sharing

The Honors College, as one of its many new initiatives, 
has adopted Bayless Elementary, a school less than 
five miles from the Texas Tech campus that is facing 
unimaginable struggles. Hunger, instability, even 
homelessness are recurring obstacles to student learning 
in the ever-growing elementary. The Honors College 
goal is simple: to aid the school in any possible way. 
Thus far, our major impact is felt in the daily mentoring 

work of our Honors students. Each mentor gives half an 
hour of their time each week to provide both academic 
and emotional support to Bayless students. Guided by 
Honors College advisor, Megan Conley, the efforts of the 
Honors College, though new and small, are promising 
for the future. The K-5 students of Bayless represent our 
future and it is our duty to nurture them in multiple ways.  
By adopting Bayless Elementary, the Honors College is 
not only promoting the values of knowledge, integrity, 
service, and courage within its own students, but is 
passing those values on to a younger generation in need.  

“The FYE/LCG program is something very close to my 
heart because of the significant impact it had on me 
during my First-year student year. LCG was a place I was able 
to connect with my classmates, to Texas Tech and to 
the Honors College as a whole. Becoming a mentor was 
an easy decision; I wanted to be able to give a group of 
First-year student everything my mentors gave me… As the Lead 
Mentor this past semester, I was able to take this a step 

further and continue the success 
of the program.”

–Brieann McDaniel, 2014 FYE Lead Mentor

 “The Bayless Mentoring Program has provided 
me a sense of enrichment by allowing me to help 
disadvantaged members of our community. It is a 
great feeling to know and experience firsthand that 
what we are doing in Bayless is having a positive 
impact on the lives of many children.”

–Blake Schwettmann, sophomore Microbiology major

“Working with the younger kids helps me to see the 
world in a simpler way, and seeing them is the thing I 
look forward to the most each week. They bring me as 
much joy as I hope I bring them!”  

–Sarah McDonald, junior Anthropology major

First-Year 

Experience 

Program 

2014: 

Creating Great 

Expectations

The Honors College First-Year Experience (FYE) 
Program aims to prepare our students for the level 
of academic work that will be expected of them in a 
university classroom, and to facilitate the beginnings of 
the intellectual and social maturation that we believe 
should occur during a student’s undergraduate career.  
We also endeavor to improve and smooth the transition 
of our entering Honors students from high school to 
Texas Tech, chiefly through the Learning Community 

Groups (LCG) attached to each 
course, which are expertly 
taught by two extensively-trained 
Honors student Mentors.  It was 
necessary for this year’s FYE 
program, alongside other aspects 

of the Honors College, to grow and change to meet 
the needs of a larger student population which is 
increasingly technologically-competent and connected.  
The Mentor pairing for each course created a Facebook 
group to facilitate ease of communication among 
enrolled students, and a new weekly LCG session 
teaching Business Etiquette and Professionalism was 
introduced into the Fall 2014 program.