Author: Donnie Sewell

Ciara Stephens will have the honor of kicking off the Hot Springs International Women’s Film Festival this Friday.

“Stages,” a short documentary by Stephens, will open the three-day festival that runs May 10-12 at the Malco Theater in Hot Springs. The film by the senior from Cherry Valley will show at 6 p.m. Friday.

The film is a companion piece to a visual arts piece Stephens created. She described it as “a deeply personal film that I made that tells the story of all the highs and lows that created the person I am today; it discusses the fears I had to overcome, my victories and the people around me who believed in me and gave me the confidence to grow.”

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts will hold its 30^th Commencement Ceremony, which will honor the Class of 2024, at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at the Oaklawn Event Center.

Matt Bell, president of Origami Sake which is based in Hot Springs, will serve as the main commencement speaker. He is an Arkansas native and successful business entrepreneur.  Prior to starting Origami Sake, Matt was a founding partner of Bell-Corley Construction, a commercial general contracting company; Viridian, a green building and energy efficiency consulting company; and Entegrity, a commercial solar development and energy efficiency contractor.

Seniors Kaira Harper and Gwen Oliver will serve as student commencement speakers. The school will also recognize its 3,000^th graduate during the ceremony.

The event is not open to the public. A ticket is required for admission to the ceremony. Tickets were only available to students and their family members.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts recognized students for their achievements in the 2024 Arts and Humanities Research Capstone Symposium during an awards ceremony on May 3.

The symposium is an opportunity for ASMSA students to showcase their talents within the arts and humanities. The event features lectures and performances by students in the fields of arts and literature, creative writing, fine arts, history and music. The lectures and performances are the result of capstone research projects conducted by the students as a required part of ASMSA’s academic program.

Students competed in either Arts, History, and Literature or the Visual and Performing Arts categories. Individual category awards as well as overall winners for each major category were announced during the ceremony.

Three Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts music ensembles earned state recognition recently — including two of them taking top honors at their respective state competitions.

ASMSA’s Wind Ensemble placed first by earning straight Superiors/First Division ratings in the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association Class 3A Statewide Concert Assessment on April 16 at Bryant High School. Their performance netted the ensemble the honor to serve as the featured Honor Band at the 2025 ASBOA statewide concert contest. It was only the second time that ASMSA has participated in a statewide contest.

The school’s SSA/Treble Choir traveled to Conway on April 15 and earned a Superior overall rating and was named Best in Classification for Class 3A at the Arkansas Choral Directors Association State Festival that was held at the University of Central Arkansas. The choir is directed by adjunct instructor Jordan Murdock.

ASMSA’s String Ensemble placed 14^th overall, earning straight Excellents/Second Division ratings at the ASBOA Class 3A Statewide Concert Assessments on April 16 at Bryant. It was the first time that the String Ensemble has competed in a statewide or regional contest.

For the first time in school history, three Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts music ensembles qualified to participate in state assessments on Monday, April 15, and Tuesday, April 16.

Six student artists from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts recently won awards in the Arts Across Arkansas competition.

Arts Across Arkansas is a mentorship and professional development program that aims to encourage, enhance and expand students’ original thoughts, processes, personal experiences and artistic abilities, according to the program’s website. It is sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Division of Arkansas Heritage.

Makenna Kutzschebauch is interested in forensic science and murder mysteries. She turned those interests into an award-winning documentary about American forensic scientist Frances Glessner Lee.

“Dioramas of Death: Reforming Forensice Medicine in the U.S.”, a 10-minute documentary about Lee, earned Kutzschebauch third-place honors at a regional National History Day competition held in March at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She will compete in the state National History Day event on Saturday, April 6, at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

It was a good weekend for The Arkansas School of Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts and many of its students at the annual Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair.

ASMSA took the Top School honors at the event held March 29-30 at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. ASMSA was followed in order by Little Rock Central High School, Pulaski Academy, Alma High School and Abundant Life Christian Academy. The school trophy is determined by a formula that takes the school’s number of award winners and total number of projects into account.

Aarohi Sonputri of Little Rock won third place in the Best in State Individual Awards. Daniel Nkunga of Sherwood and Melike Senlikci of Fayetteville were named Regeneron International Science and Engineering qualifiers through the state science fair. ISEF is the world’s largest pre-college STEM competition. More than 1,600 high school students from around the world are expected to compete for more than $9 million in awards, prizes and scholarships at the event that will be held May 11-17 in Los Angeles.

Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students earned recognition at two events that provide participants opportunities to learn leadership skills as well as public speaking, problem solving and organizational skills.

ASMSA students participated in both the Arkansas High School Model Arab League and Arkansas Model United Nations conferences recently. Participants are selected to represent countries as if they were delegates from those nations in each event.