The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts’ Class of 2023 earned about $20 million in scholarship offers as a group pushing the overall historical scholarship total extended to all graduates to more than $304 million.
The total was announced during the school’s 29th annual Commencement Ceremony which honored the Class of 2023 on Saturday, May 20, at Bank OZK Arena at the Hot Springs Convention Center. The group included 77 students from 31 counties.
Though student persistence rates were consistent with recent cohorts, this year's graduating class was smaller as the result of available residential spaces being limited with the need for additional quarantine space during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as balancing class sizes in advance of the residential expansion that occurred in Fall 2022.
Jean Lacefield, who formerly served in upper management in Frito Lay, Inc. and PepsiCo, Inc. and is chair of Arkansans for the Arts, was the commencement speaker. Rose Brown of Donaldson, Ai’Yanna Tombs of North Little Rock and Talana Small of White Hall — all members of the Class of 2023 — also spoke during the ceremony.
Lacefield encouraged the graduates to enter the next phase of their life with unwavering curiosity and to find a field of study for which they were enthusiastic, allowing them to be engaged and be impactful.
She shared the story of Mamie Phipps Clark, a Hot Springs native, and her husband, Kenneth Clark. Both earned their bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Howard University followed by becoming the first African-Americans to earn their doctorates in psychology from Columbia University.
While working on her master’s thesis in 1941, Mamie Phipps Clark developed the Doll Test, which used four dolls identical in every way except color. Two were white and two were black. Clark asked Black children ages 3 to 7 to say which doll was better, which was bad and which they most identified with. The study answered questions about how the children perceived themselves and determined that prejudice, discrimination and segregation caused Black children to develop a sense of inferiority and hatred.
The research was eventually used in the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Thurgood Marshall, then a civil rights attorney, used the study as evidence that segregation and the “separate but equal” doctrine resulted in African-American children feeling inferior within the community. The case led to the eventual integration of public schools.
“Just think, these two students, despite their environmental challenges of living in a segregated society, followed their passion of working with children using unwavering curiosity in collecting data and had a national impact with evidence displayed in the Doll Test,” Lacefield said.
“This is an example that you too can have an impact in your field of study. There was no way that Mamie and Kenneth could foresee that Thurgood Marshall would utilize their study. Thurgood saw the value.”
Lacefield also encouraged the graduates to use the foundation their education has given them to expect the unexpected in their endeavors, be proud of their experience in Hot Springs and at ASMSA, remember the experience with their friends with joy and support for each other, stay in contact with the school so that it may cheer them on, and to eventually come back to Arkansas, “a place that loves you. We will need your talents.”
Brown shared a story about trying to break into her mother’s email to find out if she had received an acceptance letter inviting her to attend ASMSA. Brown was among the second group of sophomores admitted to the school in a pilot program extending admission to a small cohort of 10th-graders.
Brown admitted to her mother that she had been trying to get in the email account when her mother mentioned that someone had been trying to hack into it.
“But little did I know that while we were on the phone, she was desperately trying to keep me out of her email and had a cake in the back seat of her car that read ‘Congratulations ASMSA Student,’” Brown said.
Speaking to the family and friends of her fellow graduates, she said that — just as with her parents — she had no doubt that each had played a role in getting her classmates to where they are today.
“Maybe this meant driving hours every week to see your student for just two days; maybe you sent money for that late night pizza delivery; maybe you answered the phone when your student called and listened to them tell you everything about everything, even if you didn’t know what they’re talking about.
“If you’re anything like my parents, it means that every year on move-in day you cried in the parking lot because ‘your little girl is growing up.’ Whatever it meant to you, thank you. Your tremendous support and sacrifices did not go unnoticed,” Brown said.
Speaking to her fellow graduates, Brown said she had made scrapbooks reflecting her ASMSA experiences.
“Tonight when I get home, I’ll look through them, probably bawl my eyes out that it’s over, and put them under my bed,” she said. “And I hope that all of you will feel nostalgia for this time we have had together, as I already do. Thank you, Class of 2023, for sharing these memories with me, and know that no matter where you are, I will be cheering for all of you as you do great things.”
Tombs shared the inspiration for her speech — to finish reading “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf for her British Women Writers class. She still had a few pages left to read before class, but other activities for school and thoughts about college continued to interrupt her efforts to do so.
“And so not-so-short story, after my thoughts and worries began to accumulate, I realized that I’d deviated from my original goal: that I needed to finish the book,” she said. “The words on the page of ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ somehow morphed into thoughts of the future until I realized I should probably be doing what I’m supposed to be doing. What is present and immediate. What is relevant to the now.
“I thought, ‘Wow, I need to stop getting ahead of myself. I’m certainly not a psychic. I can’t see the future — unfortunately. I need to calm down. I need to finish the book. And I thought, ‘Hmm, maybe we all need to ‘finish the book.’”
Tombs said it is easy for all of us to fall into the same pattern — that there’s always something to be done that may preoccupy our minds and prevent us from completing what is right in front of us.
“And so, I’m just here to tell you to slow down and finish your book,” she said. “I’m here to tell you to take a second and breathe because we have one chance to experience and live through this invigorating time of our lives, and, at least for today, live in the now. Finish your book. … Concentrate on what is here. What is now. What you see and feel. Finish. Your. Book.
“And maybe even live this summer up. Relax. But finish this book right here before you go start another one. Be spontaneous, don’t overthink everything, give yourself grace in your faults, and savor this moment because we’re only in this convention center with our family and friends celebrating this momentous accomplishment once.”
Small, who served as Student Government Association president this year, said each of their experiences were different. For some it may seem like that their years at ASMSA passed in an instant while for others it may have seemed like the longest years of their lives.
“No matter what version of ASMSA you tell your spouses and children about 10 years down the road, never forget that these moments defined our friendships, allowed us to step outside our comfort zones, and, most importantly, taught us that we are capable of achieving anything we set our minds to,” she said.
“It is within this close-knit environment that we have nurtured lifelong friendships and fostered a strong sense of camaraderie that will endure long after we leave these dorms. Let us carry these memories, these experiences and the bonds we have formed within our hearts as we embark on the next chapter of our lives.”
The list of graduates by county include:
Ashley County: Drew Johnson of Crossett
Baxter County: Walker Daniels of Mountain Home
Boone County: Eliana Adamos of Harrison, Beth Catron of Peel, Karyce Flud of Valley Springs
Calhoun County: Raymond “Buddha” Moore of Hampton
Clark County: Canon Copeland of Bismarck, Natalie McCollum of Bismarck
Clay County: Madison Arenaz of Piggott
Crittenden County: Buckley Harrison of West Memphis, Spencer Robinson of West Memphis
Drew County: Sabina Day of Monticello
Faulkner County: Mason Cooper of Conway, Izzy Funes of Conway, Sydney Hammond of Conway, Abbott Kyle of Conway, Shreyam Tripathi of Conway
Franklin County: Morgan McKenna of Charleston, Dustin Taylor of Ozark
Garland County: Dylan Dixon of Hot Springs, Kenlee Motley of Hot Springs, Amanda Navarro of Hot Springs, Yan Ouyang of Hot Springs Village, Ari Pennington of Hot Springs, Eureka Smith of Hot Springs, Zephyr Smith of Hot Springs
Greene County: Lilia Adams of Paragould
Hot Spring County: Rose Brown of Donaldson, Lucas Robb of Malvern
Howard County: Haley Tripp of Nashville
Jefferson County: Talana Small of White Hall, Charis Xiong of White Hall
Johnson County: Liam McAuley of Clarksville
Lawrence County: Skyla Henry of Walnut Ridge
Lonoke County: Madison Dengel of Cabot
Mississippi County: Layla Lammers of Blytheville, Jiya Patel of Osceola, Drew Pirtle of Blytheville
Monroe County: Makayla Hampton of Brinkley
Ouachita County: Savanna Duey of Camden
Poinsett County: Nick O’Brien of Harrisburg
Pope County: Pallas Bennett of Dover, Ella Blackstock of Dover
Pulaski County: Kiley Barton of Sims, Charlotte Boehme of Little Rock, Michael Gipson of Sherwood, Emmanuel Hays of North Little Rock, Josh Johnson of Sherwood, Lydia Krebs of Maumelle, Beatrice Nkunga of Sherwood, Trenton Noel of Little Rock, Ai’Yanna Tombs of North Little Rock
Randolph County: Madison Ballard of Pocahontas, Abigail Finney of Pocahontas
Saline County: Courtland Callis of Alexander, Zac Grimm of Haskell, Kacie Koen of Benton, Chelsea Nwankwo of Alexander, Evyn Phillips of Benton, Tate Shields of Benton, Nikolas Williams of Alexander
Sebastian County: Grecia Gonzalez of Fort Smith, Isabella McCoy of Fort Smith, Jaden Williams of Fort Smith
Union County: Robert Boerwinkle of El Dorado, Anna Dixon of Smackover, Kasey Graves of Huttig, Alyssa Thomas of El Dorado, Bobby Ray Thomas of El Dorado, Vicky Zhu of El Dorado
Washington County: Asa Linn of Fayetteville, Alex Pearson of Lincoln, Austin Richards of Prairie Grove, Chilong Vang of Lincoln
White County: Riya Patel of Bald Knob, John Tucker of Bald Knob
Yell County: Cecil Mitchell of Belleville