Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts commencement will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 26 at Summit Arena in the Hot Springs Convention Center. James McKinney, a 2007 graduate of ASMSA, will present the commencement address.
While at ASMSA, McKinney was a Community Leader and president of the Student Government Association. In June, he will complete his master’s work at the University of Chicago’s Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy (having completed his undergraduate work in economics in three years and his graduate work in two years).
Since graduating from ASMSA, McKinney wrote for TIME Magazine while following the 2008 presidential election, worked alongside the special adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals to draft a poverty alleviation initiative for Louisiana, and worked on several development projects with community organizations in the Arkansas Delta as an intern for the William Jefferson Clinton School of Public Service. In 2010, he was also named a Drum Major Institute Student Scholar.
McKinney is a recent graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago Reserves Officer Training Corps Program and will commission as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Field Artillery Branch this month. He is from Forrest City, Ark., and is the son of Paula McKinney.