Author: Donnie Sewell

Three Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students were selected for the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association South Region Orchestra.

Seniors Amanda Carson of Russellville and Victoria Hwang of Maumelle and junior Aly Navarro are participating in this year’s South Region Orchestra clinic at Mills University Studies High School in Little Rock. The clinic is being held Sept. 20-21.

Carson will represent ASMSA as the principal bassoonist in the all-region Senior High Full Orchestra. Hwang was selected as fourth chair, first violin and Navarro was chosen as a second violin section player for the same orchestra. Auditions were held Sept. 14 at Conway High School. Nearly 600 students audition for spots in each of the three orchestras with the Senior High Orchestra reserved for the top players in grades 10-12 throughout the southern two-thirds of Arkansas, said Dr. Thomas Dempster, music instructor and band director at ASMSA.

“I am proud of these three students for auditioning and placing into all-region orchestra,” Dempster said. “Many students in Arkansas do not get the opportunity to perform in full-orchestra settings, and I’m grateful that the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association sponsors this event.

“I’ve been teaching Amanda and Victoria for the past year and have witnessed some remarkable musical growth in both of them, and neither shy away from a challenge. I’ve just met Aly this year, but I’m pleased with her talent and ability and willingness to audition for something so competitive.”

The South Region Orchestra Clinic occurs annually in September. The concert for all three orchestras — including the Junior High String Orchestra, the Junior High Concert Orchestra and the Senior High Full Orchestra — will begin at 4 p.m. Sept. 21 in the Mills Performing Arts Building. Admission is free and open to the public.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts has officially opened the search for the Classes 2022 and 2023. Beginning this application cycle, all early applicants will receive the benefit of receiving an ACT voucher to take the test at no cost.

Applicants who have completed the online application for admission to ASMSA by Dec. 1 will receive a voucher for the February 2020 ACT test date as part of the school’s upwARd Promise program. Applicants will also receive access to prep tools to improve their understanding of the exam. A valid ACT or SAT score is required as part of the application process, which also includes essay questions, teacher recommendations and an interview on campus. The standard application deadline is March 1.

“The rigorous application process assists our staff and faculty in identifying well-rounded young Arkansans—students who possess a strong sense of character, actively give to their communities, seek out the most challenging coursework available, and apply themselves to the best of their abilities,” said Charlie Feick, interim director of admissions.

ASMSA’s upwARd Promise is a five-part commitment to access and success for all Arkansas high school students with additional structures to support low-income and first-generation college pathway students. In addition to the ACT voucher, the program provides students who attend ASMSA the opportunity to:

• earn a minimum of 30 hours of college credit while finishing high school. Recent graduates have averaged 50 hours—or three full semesters of college study— during their time at ASMSA. These courses save families roughly $14,000 in tuition and fees. The $500 annual concurrent credit assessment is waived for students with financial need.
• live in a residential setting alongside 230 talented and motivated peers with no additional cost for housing, meals and textbooks. All students have access to other specialized technology throughout campus, including gigabit wireless internet.
• the chance to explore the world and experience other cultures through ASMSA’s Global Learning Program. More than 400 students have participated in study abroad, cultural exchanges, language immersion and other global learning opportunities.
• receive college planning and coaching that positions students to compete for admission to top universities and major scholarships. ASMSA alumni have been offered nearly $250 million in college scholarships. ASMSA’s Student Success Office assists all students find the school and opportunities that are the best fit. Students with need are positioned to compete for the QuestBridge National College Match, U.S. Presidential Scholars, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship Program and other prestigious awards.

Admissions representatives from the ASMSA Office of Admissions are sharing information about the program with students at schools across the state through in-person visits.

“The ASMSA Office of Admissions is on the road, taking great pleasure in meeting with talented and driven students and supportive educators throughout Arkansas,” Feick said. “We enjoy connecting with young people and informing them of the myriad opportunities ASMSA is able to offer to them through our research, entrepreneurship, and artistic experiences, global learning program, and a unique residential experience where students are able to live, learn, and grow together.”

Multiple events allow students interested in ASMSA to visit campus. Preview Weekends, Preview Days, Focus Weekends provide students opportunities to be immersed in a hands-on activity with faculty members and to take a tour of ASMSA. Science and Engineering Institutes—both on campus and across the state—engage participants in fun learning activities.

“We hope to see all prospective students and their families on campus,” Feick said. “Visiting campus affords the opportunity to engage directly with current students, faculty, and staff and to get a feel for the warm and welcoming culture of the ASMSA community.”

To RSVP to attend campus events, go to visit.asmsa.org. For more information on the application process and the upwARd Promise program, visit asmsa.org/admissions.

The annual Arkansas Fall Golf Classic benefitting the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts will be held Friday, Oct. 4 on the Park Course at the Hot Springs Country Club.

The four-person scramble is being presented by The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce. Entry fees are $600 a team or $150 per player. The entry includes greens and cart fees, lunch and tournament gifts.

There are also several sponsorship opportunities available. Most sponsorships include a complimentary team in the tournament as well as other perks. It is an excellent opportunity to network and get to know Chamber investors and businesses from across Arkansas. The golf holes will provide promotional opportunities, refreshments, contests and games.

Check-in and lunch will be from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. with a noon shotgun start.

ASMSA has been ranked consistently among the nation’s top public high schools. Students at the school come from across Arkansas, living in a residential setting that provides a community of learning.

Current sponsors of the tournament include Relyance Bank, First Security Bank, Mid-America Science Museum, Aladdin Food Management Services and Gross Funeral Home.

To register a team or to receive more information about available sponsorships, contact Betsy Atkins, Chamber vice president, at (501) 321-1700 or by email at betsy.atkins@growinghotsprings.com or Vicki Hinz at ASMSA at (501) 622-5474 or hinzv@asmsa.org. For more information on ASMSA, visit asmsa.org.

Eight Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students were named National Merit Semifinalists for the 2019-20 academic year by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

The National Merit Scholarship Corp. announced the names of the Semifinalists for the 65th annual National Merit Scholarship Program on Wednesday. The students who are all members of the Class of 2020 will have the opportunity to continue in the competition for 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth about $31 million that will be offered next spring.

The ASMSA seniors named Semifinalists are:
• Yoo-Jin Ahn of Jonesboro;
• Ronan Devlin of De Queen;
• Tristan Eoff of Little Rock;
• Carson Hardin of East End;
• Jason Hoang of Hartman;
• Howard Orlina of Little Rock;
• Emily Smith of Cabot; and
• Haven Whitney of Searcy.

“We congratulate these students for their exceptional accomplishment, and we wish them the very best as they work through the National Merit Scholarship Program's rigorous process,” said Stuart Flynn, dean of academic affairs at ASMSA. “This achievement offers them a learning opportunity that can become a springboard to an extraordinary senior year and the many possibilities beyond.”

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 Finalist 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.

Scholarships are underwritten by the corporation with its own funds and by approximately 400 business organizations and higher education institutions.

First-day-of-school jitters are to be expected. It is even more possible to be a little nervous when that first day is also the first time you’re starting classes away from home. For the members of the Classes of 2021 and 2022 at The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, the first day of official classes was Monday, Aug. 18.

ASMSA does its best to help mitigate those concerns by having students participate in a two-week Fortnight program. Move-in day for new students was Aug. 3. During the following two weeks, new students had opportunities to meet faculty members and learn more about the classes they teach, meet with their student success coordinators to begin planning a schedule and participate in various activities to get to know each other.

The Fortnight activities are garnered to make each students’ transition into the school year go more smoothly. There was one major difference this year. Instead of one class of students, ASMSA welcomed two new classes of students.

Historically the school has welcomed an incoming class of juniors each summer. This year, an inaugural cohort of sophomores was added to this unique community of learning in Arkansas. In addition to the Class of 2021, 20 members of the Class of 2022 began their ASMSA journey this fall.

Eureka Smith of Hot Springs is one of the 10 females chosen for the first sophomore cohort. When she first learned about the possibility of joining ASMSA’s community of learning, it was an opportunity to take more advanced classes earlier in her school career that she felt she couldn’t pass up.

“I am very excited to have an opportunity to take more classes at ASMSA,” Smith said. “Being a sophomore means that I’ll have more opportunities to learn at a higher caliber. I anticipate having to manage my time more to get all of my work done.”

The ability to add sophomores was added through updates to ASMSA’s enabling legislation by the Arkansas General Assembly in 2017. The goal in exploring this pathway was to ensure students who are in need of accelerated learning opportunities were able to receive appropriate academic challenges.

“For years, we’ve had profoundly gifted applicants in a ‘holding pattern’ through their sophomore year as they waited for this opportunity,” said ASMSA Director Corey Alderdice. “For a school such as ASMSA, we believe the emphasis should be placed on student ability and need more so than traditional timelines for learning.”

ASMSA is not alone in having a sophomore class among its peer institutions. The Illinois Math and Science Academy has always admitted students exclusively as sophomores. Other peer schools in Louisiana and Alabama have shifted to the sophomore year as a preferred point of entry, Alderdice said. ASMSA’s primary point of entry will continue to be for students in their junior year, with the sophomore program limited to specific needs.

Admitting students as sophomores has several advantages. Beyond simply having more time with a student, a three-year experience allows them to focus on their first year on transition into the school and establish connections with the campus community.

“This helps place a focus on the junior year in which they really begin to access the special parts of the curriculum and research. By senior year, they have an even more robust profile for college admissions and scholarships,” Alderdice said.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy to gain admission as a sophomore, however. Standard junior-year admission requirements include a minimum unweighted GPA of 3.25 and a composite score of a 19 or higher on the ACT with a minimum 19 subscore on the English, Math and Reading sections.

Early sophomore admission requirements include a minimum unweighted GPA of 3.75 and a composite score of 27 or higher on the ACT with a minimum 24 subscore on the English, Math and Reading sections.

There were 33 candidates for early admission for the 20 spots that were reserved for sophomores. As for meeting the ACT requirements, the incoming Class of 2022 averaged nearly a 29 composite on the ACT. Composite ACT scores in recent years for incoming classes have averaged 26 to 27. ASMSA’s Class of 2019 averaged a 30.1 as seniors.

To help the sophomore class adjust to the rigors of ASMSA, students will participate in a class called “Transitions” and was created by the Office of Student Success. It will be included in each sophomore schedule for the first eight weeks of school.

“The class was developed to increase their academic, career and personal and social growth as well as get them acclimated to their new environment both academically and residentially,” said Bret Vallun, one of ASMSA’s three student success coordinators. “The students will become aware of useful study strategies, helpful communication techniques, supportive on-campus resources and daily living skills. All of these skills will make them a more dynamic learner and increase their ability to succeed at our school.”

In addition to the Transitions class, sophomore student schedules will include an appropriate math and chemistry class, a core course to meet an Arkansas graduation requirement, a foreign language and an English course focused on exploring and writing about literature.

“It is a well-rounded schedule that will help them transition smoothly into ASMSA while allowing faculty to assess their skills,” Vallun said. “Next semester, their schedule will become more flexible and allow for individualized plans.”

Four ASMSA students learned this spring they will be studying abroad through two U.S. Department of State programs dedicated to introducing youth to international cultures and while preparing them to be global leaders.

Blaine Martin (’20) and Jared Block (’19) were each selected to participate in the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) while Kenny Ventress (’21) and Nina Thomas (’21) are going to study in Germany through the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX). While several ASMSA students have been selected to participate in the NSLI-Y program in the past few years, this marks the first year students have been chosen for CBYX[CA2] since 2011.

It is also the first year any current students have been selected to participate in a yearlong study-abroad program. CBYX allows students to spend a full academic year living with a German host family and attending a German school. Thomas and Ventress will leave in late August for their German stays. Thomas will be in Wiefeslstede where she will study at Kooperative Gesamtschule Rastede. Ventress will live in Jerichow and study at Biscmarck-Gymnasium in Genthin

Previous ASMSA participants in NSLI-Y have chosen to participate in the six-week summer program. That’s what Martin chose to do this summer. He left in late June for Indonesia and will return in early August. But Block, who graduated in May, is the first to be selected for a yearlong program through NSLI-Y. He will leave in late August to spend a year in Chisnau, Moldova, studying Russian.

Spending a full year in a study-abroad program offered some challenges to Thomas, Ventress and Block. For Thomas and Ventress, they still have completing both high school and the ASMSAS experience to consider. For Block, there was the consideration of whether do the year abroad or start his freshman year of college at Baylor University.

Once he was selected for the program, Block let admissions officials at Baylor know about his desire to study Russian in Moldova. Participating in the program would give him a jump on learning Russian to use in a future career in diplomacy or social work.

“Baylor was really helpful for my acceptance to carry over for the next year and helped figure out ways for me to keep my scholarships,” he said. “I really got the love of languages from Bryan Adams (a French instructor at ASMSA). He knows a little bit of Russian and knows it is a critical language. Organizations need more speakers. It is really complicated, so I decided to try to learn it in an immersive program.”

Block said he decided nine months living and learning in a language would be a better start than jumping in cold as a freshman in college. He plans to study Russian as a major when he returns, but the NSLI-Y program will provide him with the chance to develop conversational skills and maintain fluency that more rigid study may not.

“I’ll be living with a host family. That will give me the most first-hand experience. Dropping me into a family will help me better learn about their customs.”

Thomas and Ventress had to decide whether an additional year of high school was worth having the year of exposure to another language and culture.

“I really wanted to do something international before college,” Ventress said. “I’ve never wanted to major in a language but maybe in business or international affairs. I knew it would mean an extra year of high school and leaving my friends.

“I wanted to graduate from ASMSA for sure. As I learned more about the program, it became obvious I would need to graduate from a U.S. school for scholarships, but at the same time I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I’ve always wanted to be an exchange student.”

Thomas said all of the advantages the program would offer her made the choice of coming back to ASMSA for the 2020-21 academic year an easier one.

“While this was a very huge decision to make, the choice was obvious,” Thomas said. “I told myself when I began the application that if I was accepted I was definitely going on this exchange. This experience completely outweighs its drawbacks.

“I have no problem with graduating a year later or anything like that. It also helps knowing that Kenny would be going through all of this alongside me: preparation, the exchange itself, and also returning to ASMSA to a completely new set of people.”

Thomas actually credited Ventress for finding out about the program. She said the duo had bonded over their interest in languages and he shared information about CBYX after learning about it.

She said her mother speaks German and went to college in Germany as an exchange student from her university in Moscow, Russia. “I thought to myself that nothing would be more amazing than to return home and carry a normal conversation with her in German,” she said.

What might be considered a couple of matters of coincidence, Thomas said the oldest child of her host family will be participating in CBYX as an exchange student to the United States. Her own family will also host an exchange student from Colombia who is Thomas’ age at the same time.

For Martin, while his trip will be much shorter than his classmates’, he anticipates his stay in Cinere, a suburb of Jakarta, Indonesia, will be no less educational. He had no previous experience with Indonesian.

“I have heard of Bali, but I knew Indonesia was more than a vacation destination,” he said. “I wanted to experience a culture and language rarely mentioned in the United States. I have no experience with Bahasa Indonesia, so I think it will be an amazing experience that tests my language learning limits.”

Each participant said their parents, family and friends were supportive of their choice to participate in their individual programs, though some more than others. Martin said his family realized how great an opportunity he was granted to go to Indonesia.

“My family is very supportive of my travel and language-learning endeavors, so they were all for it. They know this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will open my mind to unknown cultures,” Martin said.

Thomas said her parents were complete for the exchange from the beginning. “I’m not sure why I was surprised by their response when I first expressed my interest in the CBYX. I knew they would support me, but more than that, they were extremely enthusiastic about it. They told me to start my application right then and submit it as soon as possible,” she said.

Block said his mother had lived in Germany when she was younger. She could relate to how the first-hand experience and being in different scenarios could broaden his mind, he said.

Ventress and Thomas also noted that their year at ASMSA had helped prepare them and their families for them to be away each other for a school year, even if it was not quite as far as Germany.

“Going to ASMSA is already like going to college,” Ventress said. “I have lots of brothers and sisters, and this gives me a chance to be an example for them.”

ASMSA’s new dean of academic affairs is an Arkansas native who is coming home after spending almost two decades at the Alabama School of Fine Arts.

Stuart Flynn was named dean of academic affairs in May after a national search. He assumed the duties in July. He follows Bob Gregory, who left the school to relocate near family out of state. Gregory had served as dean of academic affairs since Spring 2013.

The dean of academic affairs is the lead academic administrator for the campus. The dean provides leadership, supervision and evaluation to faculty members and staff within the academic component of the institution. The dean also determines teaching schedules and oversees the planning and implementation of statewide professional development and outreach opportunities for teachers around the state through digital learning, among other duties.

Flynn served as director of student support services at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, Ala., from 2015. Before that, he served as a creative writing instructor from 2001-2015 at ASFA. He served as chair of ASFA’s Creative Writing Department from 2002-2015. Flynn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, a Juris Doctorate from the University of Arkansas School of Law and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Alabama.

When he saw the ASMSA position advertised, he saw an opportunity to expand his educational leadership experience. He said he tries to be a listener and collaborative as a leader. Flynn said those are important qualities for a dean to have.

“Everyone has a different background. They have different needs and different interests. I try to appreciate those distinctive qualities that all students possess,” Flynn said.

Flynn said he sees his job strongly as one of support.

“I’m going to do everything I can that allows the student, teachers, staff and family to succeed and have a meaningful experience,” he said.

He said he is impressed with how the school approaches not only the education of the student but the student as a whole. “Student development and wellness is important. I think the environment is very attractive,” he said.

Before entering the teaching field, Flynn earned his law degree with an intention to work in politics. He did serve as a consultant for one political campaign and was a legal adviser for the Arkansas Workers Compensation Commission. That experience will help him in his new position as well, he said.

“I try to be a good listener and try to take in multiple perspectives. I try to see as many angles as possible and be deliberative about situations and what may be the best response. You also have to be prepared to navigate education law,” Flynn said.

The job has a personal advantage as well. Flynn grew up in Conway and has family members who live in Hot Springs. “I’ve wanted to live in Hot Springs for a while and wanted to move back over the last couple of years,” he said.

 

Tracy Gwinn’s expectations weren’t very high when she dropped her piece off for the Fourth District Congressional Art Competition.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts has been recognized as one of the nation’s top-performing public high schools in the latest Jay Mathews Challenge Index rankings.