Much has changed about ASMSA during its three decades of existence. Students once lived in a former hospital converted into residential space until the Student Center opened in August 2012. The school joined the University of Arkansas System in 2004. The campus’ first new academic building opened in 2019. An arts and music program has bloomed in the last decade.
But there has been one constant at ASMSA from the day it opened — Ernestine Ross.
Ross serves as a member of the Humanities Department faculty, primarily as a speech, psychology and sociology instructor. She has degrees in counseling and mental health counseling, so her current courses now reflect her interests in helping students better understand how the mind works.
In the early years, however, Ross carried a very different courseload. She taught English composition courses as well as coteaching an American Studies history course, subject matters she had not taught before.
“So, it was just so new it was just like I was a student because if Matilda (Buchanan, the Humanities Department chair) assigned 100 pages in American Studies, I had to read the 100 pages also. So, I would be up at night reading and reading and making notes too so I could teach them,” Ross said.
“Anything that I know about Composition or American Studies, I learned from Matilda. My degree area is in social sciences. So, I didn’t have any experience or training. So, I just learned from her. She was my mentor.”
Buchanan helped make the Humanities Department feel “just like a little family,” often bringing breakfast for the faculty. She also was direct and honest with faculty members, Ross said. “You know, if she had something that she had to say to you, she didn’t go behind your back. She just called you and told you (that) you didn’t do this and you need to do this. I still think the world of her.”
Prior to joining ASMSA’s faculty, Ross served as permanent substitute instructor at Hot Springs High School for a year teaching civics. She had previously worked as a supervisor in the federal Job Training and Partnership Act locally for several years before the program ended. Ross said that Judge Henry Britt, a former Arkansas circuit judge from Hot Springs, told her husband about the residential school that was about to open and was seeking faculty members.
The decision to apply led to a long-term career that she enjoys. It’s easy to see that students connect with her, creating long-term bonds. When alumni return to campus for events that both past and present faculty may attend, there is always quite a few who seek out Ross. They crowd around her, laughing and reminiscing about their time at the school.
She also is invited to events marking milestones in her former students’ lives such as weddings, baby showers, military officer commissioning oath ceremonies and more.
“It means so much to me because still now I get calls,” Ross said. “Some former students last year surprised me and came over to have lunch with me. So, you know, it’s just like family. It means everything to me. I get attached to people.”
Sometimes those reunions are a surprise or chance meeting. During a visit to a dermatologist last year, a woman came into the exam room.
“She said, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.’ I’m going ‘Oh Lord, I hope nothing’s wrong with me.’ So, she went out and she came back in and said, ‘This is my teacher. So, she just bragged on me, and I was just so proud to think that now she’s a nurse practitioner.”
It’s the students that keep her returning every year, she said. Ross shares a story about siting in her office doing some work. She was feeling a bit discouraged at the moment when a group students dropped off a flower and a card for various faculty members.
“That really touched me. And I said, ‘OK, this is why I’m doing this.”
Outside of ASMSA, Ross has served the Hot Springs community in various ways, including being a member of the Rotary Club of Oaklawn. She is currently serving as the club’s president — its first black president ever, she said.
Through Rotary Club, she has also been able to provide leadership opportunities for her students through Interact, a youth-focused initiative. Her Interact students have volunteered in the community and have conducted fundraisers benefitting community programs. She’s been involved in the program for 28 years.
“It prepares them for the future, and it helps them connect with others. It teaches them how to be good citizens, addressing the whole person. Academically, you can be sound, but you need those other softer skills, too,” she said.