Class of 1999 alumni Jack and Lindsey Waddell met at ASMSA and have now returned to teach in the science and math departments. They were featured in the Aug. 11 edition of The Sentinel-Record.
By Jenn Ballard
The Sentinel-Record
Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts teachers Lindsey and Jack Waddell begin their first year of teaching at the school today when it opens for classes, but this isn’t their first time at the residential school.
Jack Waddell, formally of Arkadelphia, and Lindsey Waddell, formally of Bentonville, met for the first time on the ASMSA campus as students and graduated from the school in 1999.
“Within a month of starting (at ASMSA), we were dating,” Lindsey Waddell said Tuesday.
Jack Waddell added that they attended both proms together at the school.
He said he chose to attend ASMSA for the remainder of high school because it had “math and science in the name. I don’t think, when I was applying, I really knew what I was going to be getting out of it.”
“I always had my sights set on it. I’d done a lot of summer programs, and they’d always pitch the school and even come and stay here for a couple days and tour the school,” Lindsey Waddell said. “I knew I wouldn’t exhaust the curriculum here, and I wanted freedom to try to take more advanced classes.”
The Waddells have been married for eight years. Jack Waddell said they chose to return to teach at the school because “we did like it here as students. It gave us a great springboard to the rest of our career, so it was always in the back of our minds that ‘It’d be great to come back here if we have the chance.’”
Lindsey Waddell said she will be teaching algebra II and pre-calculus, and her husband said he will teach “advanced general physics, astronomy and astrophysics, probably advanced topics in physics the spring. That is not nailed down yet, though.”
“We will be teaching a class together that all of the juniors take called resources through technology, where we introduce them to the math tools they’ll end up needing to do their science research,” he said. “We’ll both be teaching two sections of that class.”
Jack Waddell said he has four years of teaching experience at the University of Michigan since receiving his doctorate in physics from the University of Michigan, and his wife has three years of experience teaching at Grand Valley State University since receiving her doctorate in geology, also from the university, where they both attended graduate school.
“Having been through it (ASMSA) and having taught at a college level, you know this is a system that works. You wish so many more students could have had this because you know when these students get to college, they’re really ready,” Lindsey Waddell said.
“The pace of college class leaves no time for remediation, and to try to teach them math when they get into your geology classroom, for example, it’s hard,” she said, adding that ASMSA provides a solid foundation for its students for college, based on their course load.
“I think another big advantage is teaching students who are really into it who are enthusiastic students, curious and want to be here,” Jack Waddell said. “Even at college, about half the students just ‘show up,’ but here, they’re here on purpose. They have to fight to stay here, and getting a chance to work with them is a lot more exciting.”
Jack Waddell said he enjoyed the projects at ASMSA, especially the school’s science fair, because “it’s not baking soda to make volcanos, it’s real science.”
“I always felt like I would never exhaust my teachers’ knowledge,” his wife said of one of her favorite aspects about the school.
Lindsey Waddell said she looks forward to this school year and meeting her students.
“I’m really excited about meeting serious students because the first year you teach anywhere, those are the ones you remember and are always your image of the school,” she said.
“They always have a big impact on you, just as you have a big impact on them.”
Lindsey Waddell attended Smith College in Northampton, Mass., for her undergraduate degree, and her husband attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass.