Author: Donnie Sewell

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts won second place overall in the Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair with several students earning individual recognition as well.

The state science fair was held March 31 and April 1 at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. The overall awards recognize the combined accomplishments of the school’s entrants in the state science fair. Placement is decided dividing the points accumulated by each individual award winner divided by the total number of projects entered in the fair.

Charlotte Boehme, a senior from Little Rock, won third place in the Best in State Individual Awards, which are chosen from all of the category competitors as well as the competitors in the ISEF Finalists category. ISEF Finalists are competitors who have already qualified for Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair that will be held in Dallas, Texas in May. Boehme qualified for ISEF in February at ASMSA’s West Central Regional Science Fair where she placed third. Seniors Shreyam Tripathi of Conway and Sydney Hammond of Conway also qualified for the ISEF competition at the West Central Regional Science Fair.

Four other ASMSA students earned a trip to ISEF by placing regular category competitions. The team of seniors Drew Johnson of Crossett and Alyssa Thomas of El Dorado won fourth place with the team of seniors Amanda Navarro of Hot Springs and Charis Xiong of White Hall taking sixth place.

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ASMSA students earning individual category awards included:

• Animal Science: 1. Team of seniors Drew Johnson of Crossett and Alyssa Thomas of El Dorado 2. Team of seniors Canon Copeland of Bismarck and Bobby Thomas of El Dorado Honorable Mention — Team of juniors Lily Blalock of Pottsville and Nhi Le of Little Rock
• Behavior and Social Sciences: 2. Junior Alex Pearson of Lincoln
• Chemistry: Honorable Mention —Junior Nasya Choy of Conway and junior Isabella McCoy of Fort Smith
• Computer Science: 3. Senor Vicky Zhu Honorable of El Dorado Mention: Senior Robert Boerwinkle of El Dorado
• Earth and Planetary Science: 1. Junior Marko Hales of Greenbrier
• Engineering: Electrical and Mechanical Engineering: Honorable Mention — Senior Riya Patel of Bald Knob
• Environmental Management: 2. Team of seniors Ella Blackstock of Dover and Hannah Harsson of Concord
• Environmental Science: 3. Team of juniors Samantha Pruitt of North Little Rock and Anna Grace Wright of Pottsville
• Microbiology: 2. Senior Eliana Adamos of Harrison
• Physics and Astronomy: 2. Senior Sabina Day of Monticello
• Plant Sciences: 1. Team of seniors Amanda Navarro of Hot Springs and Charis Xiong of White Hall

Several Special Awards were also announced. ASMSA students and faculty members who earned recognition included:

• Air Force Award: Eliana Adamos of Harrison
• Arkansas American Fisheries Society Award: 1. Senior Sydney Hammond of Conway
• Arkansas Environmental Education Association: Junior Marko Hales of Greenbrier
• Arkansas Soybean Challenge: 1. Team of seniors Drew Johnson of Crossett and Alyssa Thomas of El Dorado
• EE Quest Award: Team of seniors Drew Johnson of Crossett and Alyssa Thomas of El Dorado
• Mark Welch Excellence in Animal Science Research Award: Team of seniors Drew Johnson of Crossett and Alyssa Thomas of El Dorado
• National Geographic Award: Team of seniors Amanda Navarro of Hot Springs and Charis Xiong of White Hall
• Naval Science Award: Junior Marko Hales of Greenbrier
• Stockholm Junior Water Prize: Team of juniors Samantha Pruitt of North Little Rock and Anna Grace Wright of Pottsville
• U.S. Metric Association: Junior Marko Hales of Greenbrier

A recent external study revealed that not only has the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts provided high school students from across Arkansas with life-changing educational opportunities but that it has also had a large economic impact in both Garland County and the state.

The comprehensive economic and social impact study conducted for the institution explored the school’s operations between 2017 and 2021. It revealed that ASMSA had a total impact of $104.4 million in the State of Arkansas, which is 122 percent above the state’s base investment in the school, and $98.4 million in Garland County, more than 109 percent greater than the base funding.

The study also revealed that ASMSA creates a 68.4 percent Return On Investment (ROI) in economic growth and development for each dollar the state invests in the school. The state invested more than $47 million in ASMSA during the study’s five-year period.

Eureka Smith, a senior at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, won second place in the recent Thea Foundation Scholarship Competition Fashion Design Division.

Smith earned a $9,000 scholarship for her place in the competition. The Thea Foundation serves as an advocate for the importance in arts in the development of Arkansas’ youth. The foundation provides assistance and encouragement through scholarship competitions, providing art supplies to educators and students, and professional development training among other activities.

Each year the foundation holds a series of scholarship competitions that focus on various art categories including performing arts, visual arts, creative writing, film, fashion design and spoken word. The competition is open to all Arkansas high school seniors from public, private and charter schools as well as homeschooled seniors and those seeking their GED.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts Wind Ensemble achieved its first overall Superior rating in Concert Assessment in school history during the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Region II Concert Contest.

This was only the second time in its history that ASMSA’s band has participated in the Concert Assessment, the first being in Spring 2022. The Wind Ensemble also earned a Superior rating in the sight-reading category. It was the second year in a row the group received the top rating in that category. The contest was held March 9 at Lake Hamilton High School.

ASMSA’s Region II performance earned a Sweepstakes Award that qualified it to compete at the state competition which will be held April 12 at Cabot High School. It will be the first time the school will participate in the state competition where the Wind Ensemble will compete against other Class 3A programs from across Arkansas.

Two teams from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts earned recognition at the 2023 University of Arkansas High School Programming Contest on March 11.

Teams work to solve sets of problems that require students to write programming using Java in a short period of time. Teams work to solve the problems as quickly as possible. They may resubmit their answers if their first attempts are incorrect.

The team of junior Brent Orlina of Little Rock and seniors Robert Boerwinkle and Vicky Zhu, both of El Dorado, placed second, solving seven of the eight problems. The team was close to solving its eighth problem, but was unable to do so.

Students from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts earned recognition at the Arkansas High School Model Arab League held recently at the University of Central Arkansas.

More than 150 students from 10 high schools participated in the conference held March 10-11 at the university’s campus in Conway. The event was hosted by UCA’s Department of Political Science and Model United Nations student organization. Students represented 22 member-states and several observer states in the League of Arab States during the conference.

Drew Pirtle, a senior at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, won the Poetry Out Loud Arkansas State Championship.

Pirtle was one of seven competitors from schools statewide to participate in the competition, which was sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Division of Arkansas Heritage. The contest was held March 11 at the King Opera House in Van Buren. Her win also qualified her to participate in the national competition, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, which will be held May 8-10 in Washington, D.C.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts robotics team won second place at the recent VEX Robotics state competition, earning an opportunity to compete at the VEX Worlds competition in April.

The VEX state competition was held at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville on March 11. The VEX Worlds competition will be held in Dallas, Texas, on April 25-27, at which ASMSA will have the opportunity to compete against other top robotic teams from around the world.

The Henderson State University Cave Biology Research Team will be the featured presenter at this year’s Kane Allen Memorial Lecture at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts at 6 p.m. March 15.

Henderson State’s Cave Biology Research Team has been researching the ecology of caves since 2011. Initially concentrating on undeveloped recesses deep within Blanchard Springs Caverns in northern Arkansas, since 2019 they have been working in caves in central Tennessee. The team has received funding from NASA, The National Cave and Karst Research Institute, The Tennessee Cave Survey, the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, and the Explorers Club.

The team will present the lecture “Blue Goo and Petroleum Ponds: Unique Central Tennessee Caves as Potential New Models for Life in Subsurface Martian Environments.” The presentation will be held in the Rainey Room of ASMSA’s Creativity and Innovation Complex and will feature some hands-on elements. The lecture is open to the public.

The lecture is named in honor Kane Allen of Dover, who was 17 and a student at ASMSA when he died in February 2007. Among his many interests, he was concerned about global warming and the environment. His family established the lecture series in his honor through a gift to the school.

Six students at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts have been named National Merit Scholarship Finalists.

The National Merit Scholarship Corp. recently announced the names of the Finalists after more than 16,000 Semifinalists for the 68^th annual national Merit Scholarship Program in the fall of 2022. The students who are all members of the Class of 2023 will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for 7,250 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be announced this spring and summer.

The ASMSA seniors named Finalists are:

• Eliana Adamos of Harrison;
• Robert Boerwinkle of El Dorado;
• Mason Cooper of Conway;
• Savanna Duey of Camden;
• Cecil Mitchell of Belleville; and
• Charis Xiong of White Hall.

To be considered for the National Merit Scholarship Program, students take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as a junior. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of anticipated graduating seniors.

Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalists standing, including a detailed scholarship application that includes information about a Semifinalists academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.

Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The National Merit Scholarship Corp. is a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance. It was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in four batches beginning in April 2023 and concluding in July 2023.