Category: News

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.

Thirteen Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students are finalists in the Arts Across Arkansas competition.

Arts Across Arkansas is a 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.

ASMSA students chosen as finalists include:

Visual Arts: Lilly Hardin, Gwen Oliver, Charlotte Lammers, Olivia Busby and Lyla Hill;

Film: Jaime Hernandez, Calen Long and Ciara Stephens;

Music Composition: Faith Wesley, Grace Adams, Elizabeth Show and Alexander Back; and

Photography: Meera Patel.

Students are nominated by their school to submit works for consideration. Teaching artists from the Arkansas Arts Council’s Arts in Education roster judge the submissions, selecting finalists for each medium. An Arts in Education artist then provides a mentor session for each finalist.

The finalist will participate in a state finals event that will be held on March 30. Students are eligible to win a cash prize.

Thirty-one Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students have qualified to compete in events at the state FBLA Conference on April 29-30 in Little Rock.

Twenty-six students earned recognition at the 2024 FBLA District IV Spring Conference that was held on Feb. 7 at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope/Texarkana in Hope, earning the opportunity to compete in the state event. The competitive events included either an objective subject test, performance/presentation or a combination of an objective test and a performance component. An additional five students participated in events that automatically qualify for the state competition.

Leah Stallcup’s passion for public speaking led her to consider entering the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts’ Poetry Out Loud competition. Now she’ll be competing for a state title this weekend.

Stallcup, a sophomore from Fayetteville, will represent ASMSA at the statewide Poetry Out Loud competition on Saturday, March 2. The competition, sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council and the Department of Arkansas Heritage will begin at 10:45 a.m. at Ron Robinson Theatre in downtown Little Rock.  She qualified for the state contest by winning the school competition held on Jan. 24 at the weekly Wednesday Night Poetry gathering at Kollective Coffee + Tea.