Courtney “C.J.” Woods, an alumnus of the Class of 1997, will serve as one of the featured speakers at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts sixth annual Community of Learning Luncheon.
The luncheon will be held at 11:30 a.m. Friday, April 29, in the Creativity and Innovation Complex on the ASMSA campus. The event is being held in conjunction with the school’s online Day of Giving. More information about the Day of Giving may be found at https://asmsa.salsalabs.org/invest/index.html.
Woods currently serves as a watch officer for the U.S. Department of State’s Operations Center, which monitors world events, provides briefs for the Secretary of State and other U.S. government officials, and facilitates communications between the State Department and the world.
He joined the Foreign Service in August 2011. Prior to his current assignment, he served as a policy officer in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, facilitating strategic coordination of the organization’s wide range of academic, professional and cultural exchange programs. He also previously completed overseas assignments as a public affairs officer in Timore-Leste and assistant public affairs officer in Cambodia. He also worked as a consular officer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and temporary assignments in Brazil, Nigeria and Botswana.
In August, Woods will begin his next overseas assignment as a public diplomacy officer in New Dehli, India.
Woods was born in Texas but raised in Eudora, Ark. He holds a master’s degree in public policy form the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in education from Morehouse College. Before joining the State Department, Woods served as an elementary school teacher an d a community service program coordinator at Morehouse and the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique.
The luncheon will also feature current ASMSA senior Cameryn Berryhill as a speaker as well as a performance by ASMSA choir members. Sara Brown, Ph.D., director of institutional advancement for ASMSA, will also make a special presentation.
The theme for this year’s luncheon is Investing in Tomorrow. While many of ASMSA’s peer institutions focus on serving only one type of student, the school’s community of learning believes that it is essential that the school promotes both access and success for both “transitional” and “transformational” learners.
Transitional students are those who many typically think of as gifted and talented. They have parents who attended college, come from school districts with a variety of opportunities for learning and have received myriad forms of support that have helped ensure they are ready for college-level learning when they arrive at ASMSA.
Transformational learners are student who may come from the most rural parts of the state, experience financial hardships and will often be the first member of their families to graduate from college.
ASMSA considers its mission to serve both transitional and transformational students equally. Through its current Early Entrance program and the new HELIX Prep Academy, ASMSA is meeting the needs of more students in both groups earlier in their high school career.
The Early Entrance program, which servers a small cohort of sophomores, is completing its third year. These outstanding students within the cohort are seeking appropriately challenging opportunities that also allow them to learn at their full potential.
HELIX Prep Academy will start in the fall semester of 2022. ASMSA received a grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to create Project HELIX: Helping Elevate Low-Income Students to Excellence several years ago. HELIX Prep Academy builds on that program, and ASMSA will welcome a cohort of 18 students to campus for a transformative sophomore year.
To accommodate the new programs, renovations to the former Convent and Chapel are currently under way. The Convent includes new residential space for about 25 students, allowing ASMSA to increase its enrollment.