Author: Donnie Sewell

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.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts has been designated as a charter member of the National Speech and Debate Association.

The achievement is the highest honor the organization offers. Schools earn the designation in the organization’s Honor Society through outstanding participation over the past three years by students and educators in activities such as speech and debate competition, community service and leadership activities.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts recognized the winners of the West Central Regional Science Fair during an awards ceremony held on Feb. 24 in the Creativity and Innovation Complex on campus.

Shreyam Tripathi, a senior from Conway, won first place overall for his project in the Medicine and Health Sciences category. Sydney Hammond, a senior from Conway, won second place overall for her Environmental Science project while Charlotte Boehme, a senior from Little Rock, finished third overall for her Plant Science project.

The three overall winners were awarded a trip to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair to be held May 14-19 in Dallas, Texas. The event is the world’s largest pre-college STEM competition. More than 1,800 high school students from around the world are expected to compete for nearly $6 million in awards during the Regeneron ISEF.

Two Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students have earned recognition in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards regional competition with one advancing to the national competition.

Michaela Stevens, a junior from Hot Springs, received a Regional Golden Key for her poem “expired film” in the writing competition. Recipients of Golden Keys advance to the national competition, which will announce award winners on March 22.

Gwen Oliver, a junior from Jonesboro, received a Regional Silver Key for her mixed-media artwork “Simplistic.”

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts announced a $100,000 grant from the Oaklawn Foundation during a ceremony Thursday held on the school’s campus.

The grant was dedicated for the Selig Hall Auditorium as part of a $5.5 million restoration of the former St. Joseph Hospital convent and chapel complex, which was completed in September 2022, converting the spaces into additional residential housing for students, a campus mental health hub with offices for professional counseling staff, a new student union and an auditorium. The renovated facility is named in honor of former Hot Springs Mayor Helen Selig, who was among the earliest and most vocal proponents of bringing the school to the city.