Donnie Sewell

ASMSA Classes of 2021 and 2022 begin new school year

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.”

ASMSA students take advantage of federal study-abroad programs

July 24, 2019
by Donnie Sewell

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.”

Flynn starts term as new dean of academic affairs

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.