The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts won second place in the second annual Governor’s All-State Coding Competition.
The team of seniors Ben Allen of Bella Vista, John Ostermueller of Little Rock and Noah Sherry of DeQueen each received a $1,000 scholarship for their accomplishment. Their placement also earned ASMSA $6,000 to support its computer science program. The competition was held May 5 at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
Nicholas Seward, a computer science instructor at ASMSA and the team’s sponsor, said he was very impressed with the team’s performance.
“Out of 68 points, they received a near perfect score of 66. I haven’t been able to figure out where they lost the two points. Looking through their code made me realize just how good they are. I am sad to see them graduate soon, but I’m happy to know how prepared they are,” Seward said.
This was the second year of the competition and featured 16 teams who won regional events in addition to one team from last year’s first-place school. ASMSA won the inaugural competition, automatically qualifying for this year’s event. More than 85 teams from across the state participated in this year’s regional competitions, according to a release from the Arkansas Department of Education.
“After meeting this year’s coding competitors, I am confident that this is not the last time I’ll be hearing about their accomplishments," Hutchinson said. "I am grateful for Verizon’s ongoing significant investment in this competition. The confidence you place in our students today is a down payment on their careers and the very future of Arkansas. And congratulations to this year’s winners. This is just one of many amazing challenges you’ll conquer.”
Verizon made a $40,000 commitment to the inaugural competition. It increased its support to $50,000 for this year’s competition, allowing the ARCodeKids initiative to provide 529 college savings scholarships to each member of the top three teams. On May 5, Verizon announced that it would contribute $50,000 for next year’s competition, with a portion of those funds to be used to train and certify computer science teachers across the state.