Author: Donnie Sewell

Two Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts juniors earned a perfect score of 36 on a recent ACT test.

Nasya Choy of Conway and Rene Ramirez of Pearcy received the top score possible on the universal ACT test that was administered for all juniors in Arkansas in February. The ACT is a college-readiness exam many institutions of higher education use for entrance. It is composed of four sections — English, Mathematics, Reading and Science with a possible score of 1 to 36. A composite score is created by averaging the individual scores for the four sections.

A team of students from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts won the David Ricardo Division of the 2023 Arkansas Economics Challenge sponsored by Economics Arkansas.

Seniors Ai’Yanna Tombs of North Little Rock and Chelsea Nwankwo of Alexander placed first overall in this year’s competition, which was held at the College of Business at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway on March 14. It is the third year in a row a team from ASMSA has won the David Ricardo Division. Both students also received individual awards.

About 40 middle school students from across Arkansas tested their mathematics skills recently by competing in the first ASMSA Middle School Math Tournament.

The event featured competitors from Lake Hamilton Junior High School, North Little Rock Middle School and Elkins Middle School. Inclement weather prevented at other teams from participating in the tournament. The competition was held April 5 at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs. ASMSA’s Outreach Department served as the tournament’s host.

A team from the  Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts qualified for the upcoming Seventh Annual All-State Coding Competition.

The team of Robert Boerwinkle, Vicky Zhu and Brent Orlina will represent the school in the competition that will be held April 29 at the University of Arkansas — Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock. Their sponsor is Nicholas Seward, a computer science instructor.

ASMSA is one of 16 teams that were selected for the event. More than 160 teams participated in the recent All-Region Coding Competitions across the state. ASMSA automatically qualified for the All-State competition as a reward for winning the 2022 competition.

Each member of the first-place team at the state competition will received a $2,000 award that will be deposited into a 529 College Savings Plan. Second-place team members will receive a $1,000 savings plan with third-place team members receiving a $500 award.

The schools of the winning teams will receive $10,000, $6,000 and $4,000 respectively by placement to support their computer science programs. The prizes and competition expenses are provided by a grant from ARCodeKids, a nonprofit organization focused on building awareness, expanding student participation and enabling new career pathways in computer science across Arkansas.

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.