Twenty-four Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students earned recognition at the 2025 District IV Spring Conference competition, and a record number of 36 students will be eligible to compete at the state competition.
The District IV conference was held Feb. 5 at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope/Texarkana in Hope. The students participated in competitive events that were either an objective subject test, performance or presentation, or a combination of an objective test and a performance component.
Students who placed in the top six in objective test competitions or top five in a performance or presentation event at the district qualified to compete in the state competition, which will be held April 7-8 in Little Rock. In addition to the 24 students who qualified at the district competition, 12 students also are set to compete in the state competition in categories that are only held at the state conference.
Students who earned recognition at the District IV competition and are eligible to compete at the state competition include:
- Accounting: Jena Brown of Hope, second place;
• Advertising: Katherine Sedgwick of Arkadelphia, first place;
• Cyber Security: April Adams of Clinton, first place;
• Economics: Carlie Smith of Hot Springs Village, first place;
• Future Business Leader: Tristan Henson of Maumelle, first place;
• Graphic Design: team of Bailey Bray of Greenbrier and Dahlia Cortez-Woodard of Plainview, fourth place;
• Hospitality and Event Management: team of Aarush Goyal of Little Rock, Kaitleen Toh of White Hall and Luis Vidal of Fort Smith, second place;
• Introduction to Public Speaking: Alexa Louden of Camden, fifth place;
• Personal Finance: Lilly Gray of Rison, third place;
• Public Policy and Advocacy: Katherine Quintanilla of Nashville, first place;
• Public Speaking: Sephorah Faiq of Arkadelphia, first place;
• Sales Presentation: Miranda Lee of Conway, first place;
• Securities and Investment: Emma Sedgwick of Arkadelphia, third place;
• Social Media Strategies: Jordan Gauldin of Foreman, second place;
• Sports and Entertainment Management: team of Cassie Davis of Marion and Lakaylah Hall of Little Rock;
• Visual Design: Katelynn Cavin of Mount Vernon, fifth place; and
• Website Design: team of Hailey Judkins of Benton and Sophie Milton of Jonesboro.
Students who are eligible to compete at the state competition in state-only events are Winston Wang of Hope, Madeline Lee of Maumelle, Mackenzie Curl of Crossett, Jun Park of Maumelle, Michelle Li of Sherwood, Jeremiah Chen of North Little Rock, Nathan Grady of Blytheville, Kaiyan Yu of Benton, Justin Nicholson of Pine Bluff, Norberto Garcia of Nashville, Isabella Dunkley of Little Rock and Benjamin Dong of Arkadelphia.
At the state competition, students will have the opportunity to qualify to compete at FBLA Nationals, which will be held Anaheim, Calif, on June 29-July 2.