Author: Donnie Sewell

If you have the opportunity to visit the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion this holiday season, be sure to look for several wooden ornaments created by students and faculty from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts on the mansion’s Christmas tree.

ASMSA was invited to participate in creating decorations for the tree that has a multi-national theme. Brad Wreyford, an art instructor at the school, said he quickly accepted the chance to highlight the unique learning experiences ASMSA offers its students.

“When I read the invitation to select a country and custom design multiple ornaments to represent them, I thought our students would excel at this,” Wreyford said. “I also thought this was a perfect opportunity to showcase what we do here.”

Wreyford said the school made a significant investment in its wood fabrication facility about five years ago. To his knowledge, ASMSA is the only school in the state offering wood fabrication under a creative umbrella.

“Multimedia 3D Design, Digital Design and Fabrication, and woodworking are not just tangents of what our department does; they are the emphasis. These are our most popular classes. I assumed most schools who were participating would be making something out of paper or standard 2D materials. I wanted our institution to do something different,” he said.

When it came to what nation to choose, it was natural to pick Japan, Wreyford said. Hot Springs has had a Sister City program with Hanamaki, Japan, for 25 years. ASMSA has sister school partnerships with Hanamaki-Kita in Hanamaki and Tennoji High School in Osaka.

He said he briefly considered having students in the art capstone program to create ornaments with origami as inspiration, but he decided that was a bit cliché. Coincidentally, he had been watching some videos online about Japanese furniture makers around the same time.

“The Japanese have a very rich, unique history of woodworking,” Wreyford said. “Their craft is different in application, purpose and even motivation. Their joints are far more complicated. Their saws and planes work on the pull motion. Ours work on the push.”

He said Japanese craftsmen traditionally take pride in simplicity. Wreyford said one of his early woodworking influences was George Nakashima, an American of Japanese descent. Nakashima’s work “opened the world of Japanese woodworking for me,” he said.

So instead of doing the obvious, Wreyford invited two of his Modern Design students — seniors Reed James of Harrison and Cooper North of Conway — to create simply designed wooden ornaments to contribute to the tree.

Wreyford said he the six ornament designs were inspired by the Japanese concept for life and design of “wabi-sabi.”

“Basically it is a celebration of the simple, or even unfinished,” he said. “What is open or empty is just as important as what is filled. It is a philosophy that heavily influences Japanese architecture and tea culture.”

The trio used scraps, cut-offs and other pieces of wood that might otherwise have been discarded. “Transforming something cast away seemed to embody this philosophy of no waste, no frills, simple,” Wreyford said.

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The forms were based on various stimuli including the Japanese flag, the Imperial Japanese Rising Sun flag, and a pagoda among others. The students were also helped influence the shapes.

“While Cooper and I had the opportunity to offer suggestions, most of the creativity came from Mr. Wreyford,” James said. “The designs were approved and elaborated on by Cooper and me. We were given plenty of creative freedom while working on our respective ornaments. I love all of the designs that we made.”

His favorite design was a dowel. “I like the simplicity paired with the vibrant accent colors on the tops and bottoms,” James said. North said a red gemstone shape was his favorite.

James had taken the Modern Design twice, while North had taken the course once. North had never had the opportunity to take woodworking courses before attending ASMSA. James said he had three years of woodworking experience before going into this project but that the skills he used for this project were learned in class from Wreyford.

While they used the skills they had already learned in class, the project gave both of them the opportunity to expand upon them. Both said learning to use a lathe as well as the proper painting techniques for the wood were new skills they learned on the project.

“The lathe has always been an infamous tool that I felt I was never worthy of getting close to,” James said. “After doing this project, I feel confident with my lathe skills but I have a lot left to learn.”

There will be several opportunities for the public to view the tree at the Governor’s Mansion during December. The first is this Sunday when the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion Association holds a Christmas Open House from 1 to 4 p.m. The mansion will be open to the public and serve as an official Toys for Tots dropoff location. No tickets are required for the event.

A Traditional Christmas Tea for adults will be held on Dec. 17 and a Children’s Christmas Tea will be on Dec. 18. Tickets are required for these events. For more information, visit the association’s website at

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Sara Brown, Ph.D., is the new director of institutional advancement at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts.

Brown started in the position on Nov. 1 and oversees the operation of the institutional advancement office and the ASMSA Foundation. She most recently served as the managing director for the Arkansas 4-H Foundation at the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. She previously served as director of development at National Park College in Hot Springs where she also served as assistant director of financial aid.

She earned an interdisciplinary doctorate in leadership from the University of Central Arkansas in 2017. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Business Administration in accounting from Henderson State University.

Brown said she was excited to return to the Hot Springs community with an opportunity to continue working at an educational institution.

“I love the community, and I love education,” Brown said. “I’m really looking at giving kids better opportunity across the state to reach a higher level of education. When I was working on my doctorate, I spent four years studying student success efforts and what to do to help the students. We are a very low-achieving state in education, and we are very low retention in higher education.

“It’s important having a school like this and opportunities for the kids to go out of country and see more things than just Arkansas but then bring them right back here to see how it affects our state. [To see] how they can start projects in high school and carry that forward into their college education and then into their career to be able to make a difference.”

While she is thankful to return to her home community of four decades, Brown said the experience working for the Arkansas 4-H Foundation was an opportunity to broaden her network of contacts. Just as ASMSA is a school that draws students from all over the state, her 4-H experience allowed her to meet educators from schools statewide. She also participated in chamber of commerce meetings throughout the greater Central Arkansas area that are important channels to share information about the school and its students.

“It just gives me lots more opportunities to support our students,” Brown said.

She said ASMSA has a great road map in place to help find the support it needs, but it is just a start.

“That roadmap is just the first step in creating an actual development plan that can be successful. You have to translate growth into the strategic mission and find funding streams to make a successful program,” Brown said.

Brown said learning to combine what she has learned from her various positions has given her a broad overview of the needs of students and needs of donors who are giving to the school that will give her the opportunity to work with both sides to be able to show the great attributes of the school and its students.

She looking forward to working the ASMSA Foundation Board of Ambassadors, whom she met with recently.

“They are our feet in the community. I appreciate their feedback,” Brown said.

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

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.

Alderdice’s has served as director of ASMSA since July 2012. He said that serving on the board of an organization such as NCSSS was an important opportunity for him and the institution.

“It is a true honor to have the opportunity to sere alongside national leaders who are committed to STEM education, student research and shared best practices for innovative learning environments,” Alderdice said.

“Since ASMSA’s founding, the school has played an active role in the debates and discussions of this national consortium. ASMSA strives to be a leader not only in Arkansas but also to ensure that the unique courses, experience and programs developed by our dynamic faculty and staff serve as a model for what education can be on a national and global stage.”

Alderdice was inducted onto the board for a two-year term at the organization’s Professional Conference held Nov. 6-9 in Seattle.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts and Tennoji High School in Osaka, Japan, have been education partners for almost a decade, most often sharing research opportunities that explore the water in Hot Springs National Park.

During their most recent visit to Osaka in October, ASMSA students joined with their Tennoji counterparts to share a cultural exchange opportunity through the Japanese Peace Project. The project — created by the two schools — provided students from both schools to learn about the experience of the Japanese people after World War II and the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

ASMSA students began their visit with a trip to Hiroshima Peace Memorial, including the adjacent park and the museum. They were able to see structures that survived the bombing, which was the first use of a nuclear weapon by a nation. They also visited with a survivor of the bombing at the museum.

Dr. Neil Oatsvall, a history and Japanese Studies instructor at ASMSA, said visiting the memorial and listening to the survivor allowed ASMSA’s students to gain a broader understanding of World War II and the conflict with Japan.

“The survivor spoke eloquently about his experiences and the suffering of his family,” Oatsvall said. “There was a lot of human misery as you might expect.”

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What became evident is that both sides are essentially taught they were victims in the war without necessarily taking responsible for their nation’s actions. Oatsvall said American students are often taught only about the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor while Japanese students appear to only be taught about the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“We learn that we were the victims. In Japan, they learn they were. In truth, everyone was a victim. More than 70 million people died in World War II,” Oatsvall said.

Amy Brown-Westmoreland, outreach coordinator for ASMSA, said visiting the memorial “was a very transformative experience for staff and students who went.”

“It was children, old people; it was everybody. The destruction was indiscriminate and horrifying. We were all fairly quiet after going to the peace memorial. There were a lot of conversations about how to have this conversation back home and with future generations,” Brown-Westmoreland said.

Haven Whitney, an ASMSA senior, said having the opportunity to personally experience the memorial and the park was shocking but important.

“To that point, we had enjoyed the sights and the sounds, but then there was just this stillness,” Whitney said. “There’s only so much you can get out of textbooks. In the museum, there was an entire room filled with burnt and tattered clothes of children who were outside and killed by the bomb. You were able to connect with actual lives.”

The students returned to Osaka after visiting the memorial to participate in an event at Tennoji High. Students at Tennoji prepared presentations about both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, examining the immediate and long-term effects of the bombings on Japanese society.

Oatsvall gave a lecture about the long history between Japan, the United States and other nations that eventually led to the events of World War II. He included information about the Japanese internment camps that were developed to hold Japanese-Americans after the Pearl Harbor attack.

One of the results of the lessons and following discussion was both the American and Japanese students agreeing that the truth was important to learn, said ASMSA senior Sarah Balenko.

“It made me think about how little we know sometimes,” Balenko said. “We all collectively agreed that we should tell the truth about all events, to tell the honest truth without hiding.”

Whitney said all of the students agreed that they needed to find ways to ensure that such events would not happen again.

“(The Japanese students) spoke about how the peace we have now is more important than the history we share as enemies,” Whitney said.

Oatsvall said that the level of trust the students had amongst each other in order to express their thoughts doesn’t come easily.

“This was 10 years in the making. First, it was a way for them to come visit us and do science experiments. But it has become more than that. We had the type of discussions you can only have with real friends,” he said.

Oatsvall said it was also important that the discussions focused on peace rather than forgiveness.

“What impressed me the most after World War II was that Hiroshima and Japan did not think about hate but rather about what the future could be. They took an eye to the future to think about peace. This emphasis on peace was by people concerned about make sure no more Hiroshimas happened in the future and not to avenge the past,” Oatsvall said.

The schools plan to continue the Peace Project when Tennoji visits ASMSA in 2020, but organizers are unsure what they may do. Arkansas had two Japanese internment camps in Rohwer and Jerome, but the Tennoji students’ schedule is too tight to visit them, Oatsvall said.

Brown-Westmoreland said she is considering organizing a paper crane project. The group observed a display of a thousand paper cranes during their Hiroshima visit, and she thought that may be a good gesture of good will to create a similar display at ASMSA before Tennoji’s visit.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts’ Research in the Park program won the National Consortium of Secondary Stem Schools Innovative Partnership of the Year Award.

The award celebrates unique student programs engaging students in STEM that are planned and executed by NCSSS institutional member schools. ASMSA was one of four finalists for the award, which was announced on Nov. 8 during at the organization’s Professional Conference in Seattle.

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.

Research in the Park began in 2014 with an agreement between ASMSA and Hot Springs National Park. The agreement provides students an easier path to receive permits to conduct research throughout the park. Park administrators have the opportunity to suggest projects that would be beneficial to the National Park Service. Students may suggest their own ideas for projects, and many projects are continued from year to year by a new class of students.

The agreement made doing research vital to the park much easier. In past years, students would have research ideas that involved the park. Without an agreement between the school and the Park Service, getting permits to conduct research in the park were hard to obtain.

Drs. Lindsey Waddell, a geoscience and chemistry instructor, and Dr. Jon Ruehle, a biology instructor, were the faculty members who started the program by approaching ASMSA’s administration and the Park Service with the idea. The initial program goal was to introduce juniors to research methods quickly enough that they could use their fall RIP projects in the spring science fair competition.

Ruehle said in notes for the NCSSS award that “RIP was founded on the principle that it is never too soon for students to begin serious research and that every student can do so when inspired and given the necessary support.”

Hot Springs National Park benefitted from the agreement as well, Ruehle said in a 2017 article in the school’s Tangents magazine. Many of the research projects provide the Park Service vital data it would not otherwise have the time or the financial resources to gather itself.

“Because our students go into a (research) project doing hard science, they follow the scientific method and get real data and measure it in a scientific way for the park. We’re not collecting weird, random things. (The students) can’t just muddle around in the park and have fun. They have to come up with something that brings something back to the park that may not have been there before,” Ruehle said in the article.

The program proved successful enough to use the model for other courses and eventually leading to a change in ASMSA’s capstone project model. In addition to RIP, the capstone program now includes research areas in mathematical modeling, physical sciences seminar, integrated computer science, entrepreneurship, life sciences, intro to engineering design, fine art and design, humanities as a discipline, music theory and creative writing.

RIP also earned national recognition within the National Park Service. ASMSA and the program were awarded the national George and Helen Hartzog Award for Outstanding Youth Volunteer Service Group in 2017. The award recognized the students’ efforts for fiscal year 2016 during with they totaled 1,133 hours of service time for Hot Springs National Park.

Waddell said the additional recognition for the program from NCSSS confirmed the value of the program.

“When Research in the Park received the Hartzog Award  in 2016, it became clear that the National Park Service found the service aspect of our program to be valuable,”  Waddell said. “To also be recognized as an Innovative Program among our peer STEM institutions is a tremendous honor.  When Research in the Park got off of the ground in 2014, the consensus was that we should take greater advantage of our school's location in the middle of Hot Springs National Park.  It is common to undervalue the resources in your own backyard, and it seemed like a missed opportunity to bring students to Hot Springs from across the state and have them graduate two years later without gaining any knowledge of the natural resources directly outside the school's doors.

“The questions that students choose to investigate for their research projects are sometimes inspired by their own personal interests, sometimes by the natural resource challenges of the national park, and, now that we have been operating the course for several years, more and more from the results of previous Research in the Park projects.  Receiving this award is a great morale-booster at a time when our junior Research in the Park class is undertaking the difficult work of honing their project proposals and beginning field work, right as the weather is turning colder.  It is a reminder of the great results that this program has produced for both our national park and our students over the years.”

To be recognized by NCSSS as a model for other institutions is recognition of the hard work by Waddell and Reuhle, said Corey Alderdice, director of ASMSA.

“Research in the Park is a defining example of ASMSA’s commitment to authentic student inquiry, service learning and community stewardship,” Alderdice said. “No other school like ASMSA has a natural resource and learning lab like Hot Springs National Park within walking distance of their campus.

“Drs. Waddell and Ruehle are to be congratulated for their leadership in developing the partnership, which serves as a model for how America’s national parks can engage and inspire the next generation of stewards who conserve our natural resources.”

In the prepared notes about the program for the NCSSS award, Ruehle said that the lack of a national park nearby doesn’t mean other schools can’t have success in following RIP’s model.

“Not every school has a national park, but every setting provides significant challenges, especially regarding the environmental, that can be broken into discrete questions suitable for student investigation,” he said.

Dr. Thomas Dempster, coordinator of music studies and director of bands at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, will be a featured performer at the Ninth Annual Electroacoustic Barn Dance on Nov. 14-16 at Jacksonville University.

The Electroacoustic Barn Dance is a three-day festival of electronic music and art that will be held at the Jacksonville, Fla.-based university. It is held in partnership with Jacksonville University’s Division of Music, Jacksonville Dance Theatre and Ronan School of Music. Dempster said it is one of the country’s biggest festivals of contemporary music that features electronic music, music technology and augmented performance practices as well as research into those areas.

Dempster will perform several works for bassoon and electronics on Nov. 15. Each will be a Florida premiere, and one is an American premiere. He is one of four featured performers. The others are a clarinetist, a flutist and a percussionist.

“All of the pieces require extended performance techniques on the bassoon — multiphonics, singing through the instrument, extremes of range, and other novel sounds,” Dempster said.

Dempster joined ASMSA’s faculty in the fall of 2018. He previously held teaching positions at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Claflin University, South Carolina State University and the Governor’s School of North Carolina.

He has performed at several festivals as well as with the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, the Fayetteville (N.C.) Symphony Orchestra, the Danville Orchestra, the Greensboro Philharmonia, the Florence Symphony Orchestra and the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra. He currently regularly performs with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.

As a composer, his works have been performed in 36 states and 15 foreign countries. His performances can be found and/or heard on Navona Records, MusicSpoke, Potenza Publishing and Quiet Design Records.

For more information on the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, visit eabarndance.com.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts’ Class of 2019 scored a composite 30.1 on the ACT as a class.

It was the third straight year that graduates averaged at least a 30 on the national college admissions exam. It was the sixth year in a row that students scored at least a 29 average on the ACT as a graduating class. The state composite average was 19.3.
Students applying to ASMSA must initially take the ACT as part of the admissions criteria. Students generally see an increase in their ACT scores during their time at ASMSA. The Class of 2019 had a composite 26.5 average upon entering ASMSA.

“We are proud of the Class of 2019 for their commitment to success on the ACT and their growth on the exam during their time at ASMSA,” ASMSA Director Corey Alderdice said. “While the ACT is only a snapshot of students’ critical thinking and quantitative abilities, we recognize the role the exam plays in positioning students for college admission and scholarship programs and champion student efforts to improve scores in order to unlock opportunities.”

The ACT is scored on a scale of 1 to 36, with 36 being the highest possible score. Students also receive scores in four individual testing areas, which are combined for the composite score. The individual testing areas are English, mathematics, reading and science.

The students scored well on average on each individual testing area. The average scores on each subject were:

• English: 32.6;
• Mathematics: 28.9;
• Reading: 31.8;
• Science: 29.8.

Stuart Flynn, dean of academic affairs at ASMSA, attributed a significant portion of the students’ success on the test to the students’ hometown school districts throughout Arkansas.

“The scores are an indicator that schools around the state are preparing students to be successful as they progress through their school careers. The advanced coursework that students experience at ASMSA creates learners who are able to handle any kind of assessment,” Flynn said.

Alderdice said that ASMSA strives to be viewed as an extension of every school in the state. He said such scores are only possible with the combined preparation students received from their home institutions and continued study at ASMSA.All ASMSA classes are taught on the college level, and the school offers approximately 60 classes that allow students to earn college credit via a partnership with the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. Recent cohorts of graduates have completed an average of 50 hours of college credit through the ASMSA experience.While the ACT is designed to measure how prepared academically students are for the first year of college, it does not reflect ASMSA’s efforts to create confident learners who are able to handle college life and beyond.

“ASMSA is a college-bridge environment — it combines the academic rigor, research experience and opportunities to study abroad of college with the supervision, safety, support systems and structure of high school,” Alderdice said.
“There’s this idea of college readiness being measured by ACT score benchmarks, which predicts how likely a chance a student will have making a C or better in a college class, but there’s more to consider than academic capacity. Can the student live independently? Can they act autonomously and make decisions as a young adult?”

Daniel Moix, the director of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts Coding Arkansas’ Future initiative, recently was inducted into the Arkansas Academy of Computing.

The Arkansas Academy of Computing is administered by the Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The purpose of the organization is to:

• Recognize persons who have made significant and sustained contributions to the computing industry;
• Influence and advocate computing and information technology education at all levels and jobs within our state;
• Raise funds among the membership to provide direct scholarships to students and support related programs; and
• Promote professionalism in the field of computing.

Academy inductees must have graduated from an Arkansas institution of higher education and/or have had a significant portion of their computing career within the state of Arkansas.

Moix, a member of ASMSA’s Class of 1998, has served as director of Coding Arkansas’ Future since its inception in spring 2015. The program has included computer science education courses for school districts statewide, both high school and middle school.

The main focus of the program has been to provide teachers from across the state opportunities to learn computer science while teaching courses at their own school as well as to prepare for the state computer science licensure test. It also offers professional development opportunities for current computer science instructors who want to continue to grow their computer science skills.

“It's a tremendous honor to be inducted in the Arkansas Academy of Computing,” Moix said. “The organization recognizes professionals with ties to Arkansas whose work has advanced the field of computing. While my contributions have been in education, the membership spans the full spectrum of sectors. I look forward to the opportunity to connect with those who came before me and laid the foundation for computing in the state.

“A number of the ArAoC missions align directly with the work we do at ASMSA. The organization works to support and promote computing and information technology education at all levels and to promote computer literacy. The organization does this through scholarships funded by member donations. ASMSA does this through our various outreach and professional development programs.”

Moix has previously been recognized as a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching and was one of 10 teachers internationally who received an Award for Teaching Excellence in Computer Science from Infosys Foundation USA, the Association of Computing Machinery and the Computer Science Teachers Association.

The Arkansas Academy of Computing held induction ceremonies on Oct. 11. Moix was one of eight new members accepted into the organization this year.

A team from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts won third place in the JOLT Cyber Challenge hosted by The Venture Center on Oct. 11-13.

The third-place team of PeanutButterEggs was comprised of ASMSA seniors Karsen Beck of Maumelle, Gunner Evans of Hot Springs, Gabrielle Taunton of Austin and Haven Whitney of Searcy. PeanutButterEggs competed against 34 other teams in the annual event.

Teams work over two days to solve computer science-based puzzles involving subjects such as decryption, programming and cybersecurity. The competitors included a mix of professionals representing corporations, college students and teams from other high schools in the state. It was held at the Walton School of Business in Little Rock.

The first- and second-place teams had ASMSA connections as well. The first place team, That Team Over There, included 2018 ASMSA alumni Ben Allen and Noah Sherry. Caitlyn Hallett, a 2015 ASMSA alumna, was a member of the second-place First Orion team. ASMSA computer science instructor Nicholas Seward served as one of the Game Masters for the competition.

The students said the competition provided them opportunities to learn while having fun.

“I had a great experience and learned so much about web security, cryptography and general computer science in such a short period of time,” Whitney said.

Evans added, “This competition makes you really think, even when the answer turns out to be right there in front of you.”

Beck said there were some “really clever puzzles, especially the ones involving searching servers or hash decrypting.”

Taunton said her main role during the competition was “to be the team motivational speaker.”

Her speaking and the team’s ability to solve the puzzles earned ASMSA’s team $250 for finishing third. The top prize was $1,000.

In a press release, Venture Center Executive Director Wayne Miller said the organization will continue to host the games because the opportunity to strengthen Arkansas’ tech community is invaluable.

“One of the reasons the JOLT Cyber Challenge is important to our state is because it allows us to showcase our local tech talent, and encourage networking with other tech professionals, building a strong Arkansas tech community,” Miller said. “It’s a weekend to educate participants on the many tech opportunities we have right here in Arkansas so we can keep our talent here and help Arkansas tech companies fill their jobs."
Chris Wright, lead Game Master and CEO of Citadel Systems, also noted the community aspect of the event. "JOLT is a community-focused cybersecurity competition that brings students and industry together to solve puzzles, think critically, and network," said Wright. "The Game Masters are committed to this event because we know the high cost of vulnerability for businesses and individuals. We are deeply committed to encouraging and strengthening Arkansas' tech community and to insulating individuals and businesses from devastating cyber attacks."

Today, bottled water is a common beverage available in grocery stores, convenience stores and offices. But in 1871, Mountain Valley Spring Water Co. was the first to sell bottled water from coast-to-coast.

It’s signature clear green bottle continues to contain water from its original source — a spring in the Ozark Mountains. Using the water’s health-boosting benefits to market their product, the company has developed a business plan that also promotes a healthy environment.

The combination of capitalism and environmentalism is what drew the interest of Dr. Neil Oatsvall, a history instructor at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and Arts. In a recent publication, Oatsvall examines the company’s ability to make a profit while promoting health while using a natural water source and protecting it from environmental harm.

“Bottling Nature’s Elixir: The Mountain Valley Spring Water Company, Environment, Health, and Capitalism” is the lead article in the Spring 2019 Arkansas Historical Quarterly, a publication of the Arkansas Historical Association.

“While we normally think of the interaction between nature and capitalism to be all bad — businesses take from the natural world and harm it to make a profit — I found that Mountain Valley is the rare company that has made its name based on natural purity and protecting the environment,” Oatsvall said.

“In their advertisements especially, Mountain Valley has tried to promote natural wholesomeness for how it can help human bodies and health.”

Oatsvall said no company is perfect, and Mountain Valley ran afoul of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration twice decades ago — in 1914 and 1953. Each time the company shifted its marketing focus in ways that complied with laws and statutes while still focusing on nature and health.

The recent journal article is the second Oatsvall has published about Mountain Valley, previously studying the company’s advertising practices in “Advertising Indians,” which was published in the Summer 2018 edition of Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies.

Mountain Valley was a good subject for his academic studies for a few different reasons. Being locally situated helped his research tremendously, but it being a national company also meant he wasn’t chronicling a “mom and pop” organization.

“More than that, I think the ideas contained within the company’s advertisements and history speak to larger issues of how we humans should interact with the world around us, and how what it means to be healthy has changed over time,” Oatsvall said. “The specific subject may be bottled water, but the articles are more about how humans have navigated fundamental issues of nature and culture.”

Oatsvall said while Mountain Valley was not able to provide much support for his research, the contacts he made at the company have always been helpful. Most importantly, they always granted permission for Oatsvall to use images from the company in his articles, he said.

“Getting image permissions can be time consuming and expensive, but Mountain Valley was always gracious in that regard and let me use the images for free,” Oatsvall said.

Both of Oatsvall’s articles are available to read on his blog at https://asmsa.me/oatsvallmountainvalley.