Aba Receives Fellowship for Global Leaders
Max Aba is majoring in religion and elementary education as he aims for a career that will allow him to help others.
Max Aba is one of three UT students named to the inaugural cohort of the Future Talent Council’s Global Student Fellowship Program, preparing undergraduate and graduate students to be leaders.
With a double major in religious studies and elementary education, he is among the 31 students from 10 countries and 14 universities participating in the six-month fellowship that will connect them with global leaders in education and industry.
UT is a partner in the program, and Aba chose the university for his undergraduate studies because of its top-tier education program. “I wanted a school that was going to give me a lot of flexibility in what I could pursue with my degree,” he said.
Aba spent the spring semester in 2026 at the University of Manchester in England studying religion and theology as an exchange student.
Putting History in Context
As a senior in high school, he became curious about studying Christian denominations outside of his own. “That interest spread to other religions, and I became fascinated with the different ways people tell stories to communicate truths about the world that lie beneath our everyday experience,” he said. “Studying religion allows me to observe and learn about the historical and cultural context that has produced some of the most influential stories in human history.”
In fall 2025, he enrolled in Professor Tina Shepardson’s New Testament and Christian Origins course through the Department of Religious Studies. She surprised Aba by offering him the option to write a research paper instead of taking the final exam.
“I had never thought of doing my own research this early, but seeing her confidence in my skills gave me confidence that I could do it,” he said.
Support for Research, Travel
Traveling to the United Kingdom is Aba’s third opportunity to study abroad, after a week in Puerto Rico and spending the summer of 2025 in Tokyo through a Gilman Scholarship that allowed him to study the Japanese education system. Aba used an Advanced Undergraduate Research Activity (AURA) award to study five people who had grown up in the Chinese education system and presented his work during UT’s Discovery Day, which showcases undergraduates’ research and creative activity.
He received the Department of Religious Studies’ 2026 Undergraduate Research Award for his paper, “Remembering Jesus for a Reason: Social Memory, Communal Needs, and Identity Formation in the Four Gospels.” A second AURA award, for summer 2026, will allow him to continue research with Shepardson.
Aba also has received support through the UT Promise on Rocky Top, the Wesley Foundation, the UT’s Center for Global Engagement, Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, and Division of Access and Engagement. “UT has so many amazing resources, and I am grateful to be a part of this university,” he said.
Aba plans to also pursue a master’s degree in teaching from UT to become an elementary school teacher, and perhaps ultimately earn a doctorate in theology or the New Testament. “My goal in life is to help people,” he said.