A part of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts’ campus that represents an important aspect of both its past and its future will soon bear the name of one of the school’s earliest supporters.
The University of Arkansas System Board of Trustees approved a resolution on May 26 to formally name the renovated St. Joseph Hospital convent and chapel complex on the ASMSA campus Helen Selig Hall. Selig died on February 18, 2022, after a long-term illness.
Selig was among the earliest and most vocal proponents to bring the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts to Hot Springs and was a prominent leader of a community group that lobbied the state to choose Hot Springs as the school’s home in 1992. She and her family have continued to support the school throughout its existence.
Her feelings for the school were matched by her long-term dedication to Hot Springs as a whole. Selig served as mayor of Hot Springs from 1994-2000, and she never stopped promoting the success of the city she grew to call home after her family settled here in 1985.
The complex is currently undergoing a $5.5 million renovation that will transform the convent into a residential space for students, offices for the school’s professional mental health staff, as well as a student union. Renovation of the convent will be completed this summer in time for students to move into for the start of the fall semester. The chapel will become an auditorium used for general meeting space and various campus events.
Selig’s family members were pleased to find out that the buildings would be named for her.
“The family is honored that the school would name such an important piece of Hot Springs’ history and the renovation of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts for our grandmother, mother and wife,” said Lacy Selig, who is Helen’s granddaughter and a 2008 ASMSA alumna. “She was a matriarch in the truest sense for us as a family, but she also was in many ways a matriarch of Hot Springs and was so motivated to make Hot Springs a beacon within the state of Arkansas.”
ASMSA Director Corey Alderdice noted that the tribute is fitting as the school enters its fourth decade of educational excellence.
“Several members of our staff took time last summer to explore the earliest days of the school’s history as we began preparations for ASMSA’s thirtieth anniversary in 2023,” Alderdice said. “No matter the discussion or document, Helen Selig’s name was always in the mix and her advocacy for bringing this idea to fruition. When Helen died earlier this year, we knew there was no better way not only to honor her legacy but also inspire a new generation of emerging female leaders than by naming the building in her memory.”
Lacy Selig said that the chapel being included in both the renovation and the naming is special to her. As a student, she recalls performing in plays there as well as presenting Fundamentals in Research Methods (FIRM) projects.
“It is a meaningful space for me personally because I spent time there. To see it brought back to life is wonderful. I can’t wait to see the finished space,” she said.
Selig said her grandmother would also be pleased that the new residential space will serve as home on campus for female students.
“I know that would be something that would really touch my grandmother because she was such a proponent of education for everyone, but particularly for girls from rural communities like she was,” she said.
Enrollment trends in recent years have seen growth in the number of female students applying to ASMSA. In order to meet that demand, Selig Hall will allow the school to enroll an additional 26 female students.
“A brighter economic future for Arkansas requires elevating young women to leadership roles in the innovation economy,” Alderdice said. “ASMSA has always been at the forefront of ensuring access to advanced programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As ASMSA continues to grow and evolve, closing gender gaps in STEM must continue to be a priority.”
Helen Selig was the granddaughter of a teacher, learning the lessons of education early. Many other family members also served as teachers and administrators. When she and her husband, John, moved to De Queen, Ark., in 1969, she helped establish the town’s Head Start program. She also served on the board of the libraries of each town in which she and John lived.
Once Selig and her family settled in Hot Springs in 1985, she focused her attention on improving the community. That included helping community leaders organize the campaign to bring a new statewide public residential high school to Hot Springs in the early 1990s.
The Arkansas General Assembly established what was known then as the Arkansas School for Mathematics and Sciences in 1991 without a host site picked for the program. A site selection committee received more than 50 applications from cities and towns across Arkansas hoping to serve as the host for the new school. Hot Springs was eventually one of seven finalists considered for the site.
Hot Springs supporters adopted the slogan “Clear As A Bell,” signifying that the city was the obvious choice to host ASMSA. In cooperation with the City of Hot Springs and the Garland County community, a plan to house the school in the recently vacated St. Joseph Hospital was proposed. Among those leading the charge was Selig.
Helen Selig and other volunteers convinced the city to make a big commitment to the project to win the selection committee over. The city agreed to buy the building from the hospital and committed to perform maintenance on it. She also began pursuing civic support for the project.
In September 1994, a year after the school opened and during Selig’s first term as mayor, a dedication ceremony was held on campus to recognize the efforts of the city and citizens to ensure promises made during the site selection search were kept. Selig presented a bronze school bell to ASMSA as a symbol of the community’s efforts to keep the promises made to get the school placed in Hot Springs. The bell now stands in front of the Student Center.
“Hot Springs is proud to have been selected for the honor of being the home of this fine school,” Helen Selig said that day. “Hot Springs is proud that we have kept our promise to you and the people of Arkansas that we would give you the best possible facility for the Arkansas School for Mathematics and Sciences.
“Hot Springs is proud of what this school will do for the students who attend and for the communities from which they come. We are proud, on this day, to present to you and the people of Arkansas this outstanding facility to be used for our children, for our state, for the future.”
Lacy Selig remembers a photo of her when she was 3 years old on campus for a special event, quite possibly the day of the bell dedication. It was a precursor of the time she and her brother Jack, a 2019 alumnus, would spend on the campus. It wasn’t surprising that they both attended ASMSA, Lacy Selig said.
“From the youngest ages, our Nana was a proponent of us reaching for the greatest education possible,” Lacy Selig said. “Absolutely as I was growing up, there was a lot of encouragement that I would attend the school, not because my grandmother was involved in the founding but because it was an excellent place to get an education.
“That’s what she cared the most about. It was not a vanity project for her. Instead she was incredibly proud that the state of Arkansas had this school and was achieving such great things within its walls. She wanted us as her grandchildren to take advantage of that opportunity.”
To see the school still growing and adapting in order to continue offering those kind of educational opportunities to students across the state after 30 years would be pleasing to her grandmother, Lacy Selig said. Her support and the city of Hot Springs never dwindled.
“My grandmother was not someone who was interested in a quick win. She was interested in things that were meaningful and lasting. I know she would have been advocating continually for the success of [ASMSA],” Selig said.
“She was mayor for many years. She didn’t finish her mayoral duties and then stop promoting the city of Hot Springs. She was interested in the city’s success for years and years after her time as mayor because her passion for the city’s growth, the city’s economic success, the city’s educational success continued beyond her job.
“It’s the same for the school. She will be so proud to look down and see that it is continuing to grow and thrive and provide new, exciting opportunities for young people. Even today the opportunities in education these students are getting are far beyond what I got 15 years ago, and that’s fantastic. It’s exactly as it should be. It should continue to grow and serve these students so they can serve the state of Arkansas and the country.”
Helen Selig was not someone who looked for recognition as long as projects were successful, and she didn’t mind who received the credit, Lacy Selig said. But her grandmother would be very touched and honored by the naming of the renovated buildings after her.
“I hope that as future students pass through the halls they take a moment to look up or Google who was Helen Selig and read an obituary, read an article from ’90s when she was mayor, and see that this was someone who was a proud Arkansan, a proud resident of Hot Springs, and who worked very hard at her own education and in lifting up the education and economic opportunities of others,” she said.
At the time of her death, Helen Selig had spent a decade and a half dealing with the effects of dementia, Lacy Selig said. For the school to honor her is especially meaningful to her grandfather and Helen’s husband, John.
“He is touched and heartened that the woman that he loved and championed is being remembered at her greatest,” Lacy Selig said. “Dementia robs a person of who they are. For ASMSA to create this space in her name, a testament to all that she was, is deeply moving to my grandfather. He is thankful to the school and the greater Hot Springs community for carrying forward my grandmother’s legacy through Helen Selig Hall.”