Author: Donnie Sewell

Members of the ASMSA Debate team joined students from 22 other Arkansas high schools and universities to participate in the Arkansas Student Congress.

The event was sponsored by the Arkansas Communication and Theatre Arts Association at the Clinton Presidential Center and the Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock on Nov. 13-15. The Arkansas Student Congress provides students the opportunity to participate in a simulation of Congress. Students join party delegations and attempt to guide legislation through the process, including adoption by the Student Congress.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts recently recognized educators from across the state with its annual Teacher Impact Award.

The Teacher Impact Award recognizes educators who helped shape and influence incoming students at ASMSA. Students nominated teachers who aided their growth both intellectually and emotionally. There were more than 100 teachers nominated for recognition. Every educator who was nominated received a certificate of recognition. A letter highlighting their recognition also was sent to each educator’s principal.

A committee of ASMSA staff members read through the recommendations to give further recognition to five educators from different regions within the state. These stand-out teachers received an additional gift.

Educators who received additional recognition this year include: Heather James of Camden Fairview High School; Seth Jernigan of eStem Junior High School in Little Rock; Matthew Kalkbrenner of White Hall High School; Tara Parra, a former middle school teacher at Decatur Middle School; and Robin Sneed of Blytheville High School.

Students from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts took the top two places in the 2022 Congressional App Challenge sponsored by Forth Congressional District Rep. Bruce Westerman.

The Congressional App Challenge is an annual event in which middle and high school students across the country design and code their own original apps. It is an official initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where members of Congress host contests in their districts, encouraging students to learn to code and inspiring them to pursue careers in computer science. Each participating member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and each winning team is invited to showcase their winning app to Congress during the annual #HouseofCode festival.

Senior Vicky Zhu won first place for her app called StreBit. The app helps a user determine how flexible they are. The camera-based app allows the user to keep track of their progress. The app is a result of Zhu’s Capstone project.

Taking second place was the team of juniors Geoffrey Williams, Jayden Patel, James Mathis and Zechariah Cleaver for their app Study Farm, a study aid designed to help users stay focused on their work. The app has a timer that allows a student to play a simple farm-themed game every 30 minutes as a break from studying. After five minutes of break time, the game stops for the student to return to their schoolwork. The cycle repeats itself until the designated study time has passed.

Westerman announced the winners at an event on Nov. 30. There were 21 apps submitted for the competition from ASMSA, Dardanelle High School, Lakeside High School and Lake Hamilton High School.

Five Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students received matches, including three with Ivy League schools, for the 2022 QuestBridge National College Scholarship Match.

Kacie Koen of Benton, Alex Pearson of Lincoln, Alyssa Thomas of El Dorado, Ai’Yanna Tombs of North Little Rock and John Tucker of Bald Knob each matched with a QuestBridge partner institution and will receive a four-year full scholarship to attend those institutions.

Koen matched with Columbia University in New York City; Pearson with Brown University in Providence, R.I.; Thomas with the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; Tombs with Northwestern in Evaston, Ill.; and Tucker with Rice University in Houston.

Students at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts earned recognition at the 57^th Arkansas Model United Nations Conference held recently at the University of Central Arkansas.

Among the recognition the students earned were awards for Best Position Papers two nations ASMSA students represented — Brazil and Italy.

Students who represented Brazil as a nation and on various committees were junior Melike Senlicki of Fayettville, sophomore Hailey Judkins of Benton, sophomore Karilynn Arellano of Mineral Springs, senior Pallas Bennett of Dover, senior Lydia Krebs of Maumelle and junior Stella Bentley of Eureka Springs. Italy was represented by sophomore Meera Patel of Hot Springs, junior Avery Binuya of Lamar and junior Pixie Rodgers of Hot Springs.

Twelve students at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts earned the Arkansas Seal of Biliteracy by demonstrating proficiency in English and at least one other language before graduating high school.

The Arkansas Seal of Biliteracy is awarded each spring and fall to students in ninth through 12th grades and is sponsored by the Arkansas Foreign Language Teachers Association and the Arkansas Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. The Arkansas Department of Education officially endorsed the seal in June 2018. The Seal of Biliteracy program is recognized in 49 states and Washington, D.C. There were 340 students from Arkansas 38 high schools who earned the seal this fall. More than 3,600 students have attained certification across 22 languages other than English since 2017, the pilot year in Arkansas, according to a press release.

Corey Alderdice, director of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, will serve as President-Elect of the 2022-23 National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools Board of Directors.

Alderdice was installed as President-Elect during the NCSSS Professional Conference that was held Nov. 2-5 in Atlanta. Officers are elected by the Board of Directors upon a consideration of a slate of nominees presented by the Nominating Committee. He has served as a director on the NCSSS Board of Directors since November 2019.

Nicholas Seward, a computer science instructor at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, has been selected to receive the University of Chicago Outstanding Educator Award.

The university asks students in each year’s incoming class to nominate an educator whose guidance has helped them along the path toward intellectual growth and made a positive impact in their lives.

Three Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts student musicians were named to the Arkansas South Region Orchestra.

Senior Amanda Navarro of Hot Springs and juniors Alex Hernandez of Conway and Gisselle Ellington of North Little Rock auditioned for the band on Oct. 29 at Mills High School in Little Rock. They participated in the South Region Orchestra Clinic on Nov. 4-5 at Conway High School. Navarro and Hernandez both performed violin in the orchestra while Ellington was a member of the cello section.