By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
Vanessajane Bayna of Mount Pleasant has become the 2024-25 Texas Heritage National Bank (THNB) Scholar of ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ. The $3,000 scholarship provided by the bank again goes this year to the top-rated Presidential Scholar of the ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ Honors Program.
Bayna has had a perfect record in some of the college’s most rigorous chemistry and physics courses while winning a 2024 state Caldwell Award in history for her work on oil and politics in Texas last spring in College Station. She is a recent state winner of the $1,000 Dr. Yolando Romero Award of Phi Theta Kappa in Texas, and her work on oil has been accepted for presentations this fall at the East Texas Historical Association, and the National Collegiate Honors Council. She is ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ’s 2024 nominee for student representative of the Great Plains Honors Council.
Texas Heritage National Bank traces a lineage back to 1889 when it was called the Bank of Daingerfield. THNB has expanded rapidly in recent years. The first recipient of the scholarship in 2016, Emma (Shaw) Cunningham, received help from a bank that had four locations—all in Northeast Texas. The bank now has a presence in seven locations—Austin, Dallas, Daingerfield, Gilmer, Omaha, Ore City, and Sulphur Springs.
ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox notes “The Texas Heritage National Bank scholarship remains our most prestigious Presidential Scholarship at ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ. It has been a treasure for the whole program, encouraging a merit dynamic, and impelling exceptional scholars like Bayna to maintain a tradition of excellence.â€
Bayna and is the daughter of Lardean and Venus of Titus County.
