Author: Donnie Sewell

Robert Bryant Jr. has been named the Coordinator for Alumni and Community Relations at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts.

Bryant will serve as the institution’s liaison for its alumni and friends. He will work closely with the Association for Alumni and Friends of ASMSA (AAFA), which is comprised of all graduates, attendees, and past faculty and staff of ASMSA. The AAFA is led by a group of volunteer alumni. The new position is part of the Office of Institutional Advancement

Bryant may be familiar to some alumni. He started his career in education while serving as a residential mentor at ASMSA from 1995 to 2000. Residential mentors live in the residential building with the students around the clock.

“The early days were really fun,” Bryant said. “We had managed to attract a dream team of residential educators. We had several with experience in the Fulbright program at the University of Arkansas. Others had experience at other institutions. The school was able to benefit from the great residential life staff. We were able to put on some fun and entertaining programs.”

He left ASMSA to serve in a similar role as a residential counselor at the Missouri Academy of Science, Mathematics and Computing, a former peer institution that was located on the campus of Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Mo. He served six years as a residential counselor before  becoming the school’s director of enrollment for 11 years.

Bryant has also served as an educator and counselor in the Arkansas Governor’s School and the American Legion Arkansas Boys State programs. He currently serves as assistant director of the Boys State program. He spent 12 years as head resident and taught social and personal development for 12 years at the Governor’s School.

While he has kept up with some alumni over the years, returning to ASMSA is a special opportunity to reconnect with many of the graduates from his first tenure. Since Bryant started his new position on Jan. 4, he has received many notes of congratulation on social media, he said.

“One of my former students told me that ‘I can’t wait to tell my mom that I talked to you,’” Bryant said. “As an enrollment officer you realize two parts. You’re recruiting the student and recruiting the parent. So when they can attach a name and actual personality, it allows you to build that relationship. It’s been wonderful hearing from them.”

He wants to use those relationships to help alumni reconnect with ASMSA if they haven’t done so already. To do that, the school must offer alumni opportunities to give back to the institution that benefit current students as well, he said.

“We can bring back alumni to speak to students about their experiences. They can give students insight on what their career is all about. They can connect with each other. We can bring them back home to mentor current students,” Bryant said.

“What they can do is enhance what we’re doing now. It would be great for students to have alumni they can reach out to who have the same experience. Something like that could be great.”

He said there is a common theme that ties all the alumni together — their experience at ASMSA. They all chose to leave their home school to come this program to face academic rigors unlike any they had experienced. They accomplished their goal to move on and further their education, he said.

Bryant joining the Office of Institutional Advancement team is an important addition, said Dr. Sara Brown, director of institutional advancement.

“I am very excited that Robert is part of our advancement department,” Brown said. “His previous tenure with our school and personal connections with many of our alumni and stakeholders make Robert an asset to our department.

“This new role provides ASMSA with an opportunity to build programming, activities, and services that will allow alumni to reconnect with us in new and unique ways. Our alumni are essential members of our community of learning and play an important role in supporting our students to achieve our mission.”

Bryant may be reached at bryantr@asmsa.org or 501.622.5316.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts recently completed its connection to the Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network (ARE-ON), allowing the campus to increase its internet bandwidth by ten-fold among other benefits.

ARE-ON is a not-for-profit consortium of all of Arkansas’ two- and four-year higher education institutions as well as several select organizations such as Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the National Center for Toxicological Research, Arkansas PBS and the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute. It provides a high-speed fiber optic network throughout the state to its members and other affiliates, including regional optical networks and commercial service providers.

During it’s almost three decades, the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts has had an array of students who were related to current or previous students. Cousins. Children of alumni. Twins. Many siblings.

The 2021-2022 academic year offered another group of siblings, but this group of siblings is a first in ASMSA’s history. Senior Chenyeng Vang, junior Chilong Vang and sophomore Chiking Vang are the first group of siblings across three grades of students to attend ASMSA at the same time.

Students at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts earned recognition at the 56^th Arkansas Model United Nations Conference held recently at the University of Central Arkansas.

Among the recognition the students earned was an award for Best Position Papers for three nations ASMSA students represented — Bangladesh, Lebanon, Panama. Individual students also earned individual recognition in the Outstanding Delegate Awards. They included:

• Morgan McKenna, a junior from Charleston, honorable mention, First Committee (DISEC), representing Bangladesh;
• Michaela Stevens, a senior from Hot Springs, honorable mention, Second Committee (ECOFIN), representing Panama;
• Olivia Norman, a senior from Hot Springs, honorable mention, Second Committee (ECOFIN), representing Lebanon;
• Claire Green, a senior from North Little Rock, honorable mention, Third Committee (SOCHUM), representing Panama;
• Aiyanna Tombs, a junior from North Little Rock, honorable mention, Third Committee (SOCHUM), representing Bangladesh;
• Shreyam Tripathi, a junior from Conway, honorable mention, Third Committee (SOCHUM), representing Lebanon;
• Isaura Funes, a junior from Conway, honorable mention, Third Committee (SOCHUM), representing Vietnam;
• Arindam Deb, a senior from Beebe, Outstanding Delegate, Joint Security Council (SC) – Peace and Security Council Emergency Session, representing Vietnam; and
• Trey Clark, a senior from Harrison, honorable mention, Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), representing Bangladesh.

Corey Alderdice, the director of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, was recently appointed to the National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools Board of Directors for a second term.

NCSSS was established in 1988 to provide a forum for specialized secondary schools focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics to exchange information and program ideas. It now includes more than 75 member schools, many “ranked” as the best in the country, along with several associate, affiliate and corporate members comprised of colleges, universities, summer programs, foundations and corporations.

Four Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students were selected for a QuestBridge National College Scholarship Match for the 2021 cycle.

Seniors Alyx Allred of Harrison, Alyssia Davis of Beebe, Meadow Kelly of Fayetteville and Joshua Stallings of Little Rock each matched with a QuestBridge partner institution and will receive a four-year full scholarship to attend those institutions.

Allred and Davis matched with Grinnell College, a private, coed, residential liberal arts and sciences college located in Grinnell, Iowa. Kelly and Stallings received offers from Rice University, a comprehensive research university in Houston, Texas.

Five student artists at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts were included in the Third Annual Historic Cane Hill Arkansas High School Artists Competition and Exhibition with one student earning special recognition.

Danielle Luyet, a senior from Conway, was awarded the Juror’s Prize, a $1,000 cash prize for her piece “Night Life in Petroleum Green.” Other ASMSA students who had artwork chosen for the exhibition included seniors Skylar Boone of Benton, Winnie Smith of Vandervort, Ella Suffren of Hot Springs and Curren French of Hardy.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts was one of only six high schools statewide recognized by the Arkansas Department of Education Office of Computer Science for its computer science program.

ASMSA received Bronze level recognition for the first year of the Computer Science Gold Medal School Program which included the 2020-21 academic year. The initiative, announced in the fall of 2020, is designed to recognize Arkansas high schools for outstanding work in supporting and implementing the Arkansas Computer Science and Computing Initiative. Schools were ranked on rubrics centered on criteria from Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s five-year computer science education goals and the recommendations of the 2020 Arkansas Computer Science and Cybersecurity Task Force.

A $10,000 grant from the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas will help the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts promote increased access for female students to pursue opportunities in high school computer science.

With the grant from the WFA, ASMSA will host an Equity in Computer Science Summit for school districts across the state in 2022. The new program will intentionally focus on strategies and provide tools to teams of educators to increase female student enrollment within computer science, helping provide them a path from college to career.