The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts held its 28th annual Commencement celebrating the graduation of the Class of 2022 on Saturday, May 21, at Bank OZK Arena at the Hot Springs Convention Center.
The ceremony honored 103 graduates from 36 counties. State District 84 Rep. Les Warren served as the keynote speaker for the event. The ceremony also featured two student speakers.
Warren told the graduates that while the ceremony may have marked the end of their story’s chapter at ASMSA many more chapters await them. He spoke about the quilt on display next to him on the stage.
The quilt was hand-stitched by his wife’s grandmother. Each quilt square tells a part of his wife’s story. All of the squares except one include a piece of fabric from clothing that his wife’s grandmother made for her as a child. Her grandmother made a quilt for several family members, and she would often work with a quilting group who would give quilts to those who needed them. While her name may not be found in history books, she made a difference for others, Warren said.
“What does this quilt have to do with you and your graduation?” Warren said. “I think a lot. You’ve heard the saying everyone has a story. I believe that 100 percent. We’re each created uniquely with our own set of gifts from God. You’ve reached a milestone — graduation from ASMSA. That is only the end to a chapter of your story. What will you do now? What will your life’s quilt — all the pieces of fabric that make up your life — what will it look like when you get older and you’re looking back? I want to hear some great stories about you. Your quilt or life story is early in the making.”
Senior Claire Green, who served as president of the Student Government Association this year, compared the ASMSA Class of 2022 to a pollinator garden on campus. The garden, located in front of the Student Center, was a class project during her junior year that has continued to grow thanks to the efforts of a group of students, several faculty members and assistance from outside organizations. The garden features various native plants that work together for a healthy pollinator ecosystem.
“I feel as if the garden is a metaphor for our time as students at ASMSA,” Green said. “We all came from Arkansas, but Evening Shade with a population of 402 and Little Rock are as different as black-eyed Susans and witch hazel. We are all native planets like in our garden, but we came with different experiences and needs. Some of us came from schools with lots of opportunities where we had already stood out by excelling in advanced classes, and some of us came from schools where we may have exhausted all of the limited number of options available to us.”
Just as with the garden, life may not have gone smoothly all the time, but each of them pushed through, finding ways to move forward and rebounding from both internal and external events that may have hindered them otherwise, she said. Now at the end of their years together, the Class of 2022 will go in separate directions, finding new places to grow but they will always remain connected, Green said.
“The young-adult author Ally Condie also liked the garden theme,” Green said. “She once wrote: ‘Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that we grew side by side: our roots will always be tangled, and I’m glad for that.’ Today, I am grateful for our tangled roots.”
Senior Sidney Hansberry also addressed her classmates after being chosen by a selection committee to speak during graduation. She reflected on how her younger self before ASMSA desired to be challenged academically and how she met not only those challenges but others as well during her time at the school.
“Before I came here, I wondered what a Sidney who didn’t make straight A’s looked like. What a Sidney who struggled in classes sometimes and didn’t have other kids asking for her homework would look like. What a Sidney who was academically exhausted would look like. Well, she looks like this,” Hansberry said.
Hansberry said many of her classmates were in similar situations at the schools that attended before ASMSA. Many found themselves facing new situations where they may have struggled or didn’t make straight A’s or realized that not all things are always perfect academically or personally. That does not mean they should have not come to ASMSA, she said.
“We all learned from ASMSA that life gets hard and we are not perfect. We do in fact fail sometimes, and I personally learned I am in fact touchable academically. And if I were to have a talk with little miss ‘sophomore Sidney’ who sat up and begged for the challenges I had to face, I would tell her to go ahead and apply,” Hansberry said.
“Because I also learned from ASMSA that our struggles don’t have to set us back. As someone who has an unhealthy addiction to using analogies, I will put it this way: when there is a speed bump in the road, you don’t reverse and take another route. You simply slow down and keep pushing.”
Graduates recognized during the ceremony, listed by county, were:
Arkansas: Skylar Shelly of Stuttgart
Ashley: MK Mashburn of Crossett
Benton: Mackenzie Allen of Bella Vista, Soumya Chauhan of Bentonville
Boone: Alyx Allred of Harrison, Trey Clark of Harrison, Werner Gratton of Omaha
Calhoun: Bear Moore of Hampton
Chicot: Stacia Toney of Eudora
Cleburne: Breegan Rose of Heber Springs
Craighead: Austin Bellis of Jonesboro, Abby Berger of Jonesboro, Josh Buxton of Bono, Sheridan Dethrow of Jonesboro, Evan Elk of Jonesboro, Eric Fluke of Jonesboro, Lawson Smith of Jonesboro, Jayita Ujjaini of Jonesboro, Koundinya Vellanki of Jonesboro
Crawford: Jasmine Conn of Van Buren
Faulkner: Avery Goodrich of Conway, Isaiah Jellenik of Conway, Danielle Luyet of Conway, Bryan Massey of Conway, Diya Mehta of Conway, Ashton Trumble of Conway, Shamiso Zindoga of Conway
Franklin: Joseph Cowell of Ozark, Kirstyn Tyner of Charleston
Garland: Josh Favorite of Hot Springs, Connor Hough of Hot Springs, Mars King of Hot Springs, Joseph Kuriakose of Hot Springs, Robert Neilson of Hot Springs, Mai Nobles of Hot Springs, Olivia Norman of Hot Springs, Louis Reagler of Hot Springs, Nathan Robinson of Hot Springs Village, Ben Romero of Hot Springs Village, Luna Mae Solleder of Hot Springs, Alejandra Tapia of Hot Springs, Ben Wertenberger of Hot Springs
Greene: Connor Bailey of Paragould, Tailor Brockett of Paragould, Zoe Neighbors of Paragould
Hempstead: Mika Brown of Hope
Hot Spring: Kenzie Crain of Malvern, Martin McCorkle of Malvern, Julien Mieirs of Malvern, Kane Presley of Malvern
Jefferson: Jace Dunlap of Jefferson, Ghaida Fadah of Pine Bluff
Johnson: Dan Golden of Clarksville, Amy Hoang of Hartman
Lincoln: Aidan Jackson of Star City
Little River: Jaysee Magby of Foreman
Logan: Ervonicca Smith of Delaware
Lonoke: Ana Fritsch of Cabot
Mississippi: Mason Duren of Keiser
Monroe: Lauralee Jarrett of Brinkley
Montgomery: Conor Kopkau of Norman
Phillips: Sidney Hansberry of West Helena
Poinsett: Kaleb O’Connor of Tyronza, Aiden Thacker of Lepanto
Polk: Winnie Smith of Vandervoort
Pope: Blake Smith of London
Pulaski: Andreas Bradley of Jacksonville, Shawn Chen of Little Rock, Claire Green of North Little Rock, Ash Hong of North Little Rock, Gwen Keith-Powell of North Little Rock, Sam Kim of Maumelle, Nina Niemotka of Sherwood, Natalie Norman of Sherwood, Sarina Patel of North Little Rock, Levi Pile of North Little Rock, Josh Stallings of Little Rock, Paige Thompson of Little Rock, Tami Weng of Sherwood
Saline: Skylar Boone of Benton, John Bray of Benton, Emma Cavaneau of Benton, Kinsey Garofalo of Benton, Spencer Lile of Benton, Liv Maines of Benton, Myka Shepherd of Benton, Lillian Slaton of Benton, Cadence Ventress of Benton
Scott: Chelsie Marquez of Waldron
Sebastian: Alex Bowlin of Fort Smith, Wonda Sengkomyong of Lavaca
Sharp: Cameryn Berryill of Evening Shade, Curren French of Hardy
Stone: Nash Anandaraj of Mountain View
Washington: Autumn Kaderly of Farmington, Meadow Kelley of Fayetteville, Ella Suffren of Fayetteville, Chenyeng Vang of Lincoln
White: Alyssia Davis of Beebe, Arindam Deb of Beebe, Collin McCord of Pangburn, Jessica Williams of Searcy