Month: January 2020

Eleven Arkansas School for the Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students were selected as a member of the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association Region II All-Region Band.

Selected for the band were:

• Yibing Hu, a junior from Jonesboro, flute, first chair, first band;
• Aishani Singh, a junior from Hot Springs, flute, sixth chair, first band;
• Amanda Carson, a senior from Russellville, bassoon, first chair, first band;
• Solomon Ni, a senior from Jonesboro, bassoon, second chair, first band;
• Nova Ammerman, a junior from Cherokee Village, clarinet, seventh chair, first band;
• Logan Richerson, a senior from West Memphis, clarinet, 17th chair, first band;
• Shaan Hyder, a senior from Cabot, clarinet, 21st chair, first band;
• Rachel Means, a senior from Carlisle, bass clarinet, second chair, second band;
• A.J. Navarro, a senior from Hot Springs, alto saxophone, fourth chair, first band;
• Hyunseo Seok, a junior from Jonesboro, alto saxophone, third chair, second band; and
• Jacob Holmes, a junior from Rector, trombone, seventh chair, first band.

Region II auditions were held Jan. 25 at Lake Hamilton High School. The Region II All-Region Clinic will be held at Lake Hamilton High School on Jan. 31-Feb. 1. A concert will be held at 2 p.m. Feb. 1 featuring members of the Region II All-Region Band.

Eight members of the band qualified for All-State Band/Orchestra auditions. Hu, Singh, Carson, Ni, Ammerman, Richerson, Navarro and Holmes qualified to audition for the All-State Band/Orchestra on Feb. 8 at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. The All-State Band/Orchestra Clinic will be held Feb. 20-22 at the Hot Springs Convention Center.

Four high school seniors at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts were among 76 students statewide recently named candidates for the 2020 United States Presidential Scholars program, considered one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students.

The U.S. Presidential Scholars was established in 1964, by executive order of the President, to recognize and honor some of the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors.

The 2020 candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholar from ASMSA are:

• Tristan Eoff of Little Rock;
• A.J. Navarro of Hot Springs;
• Emily Smith of Cabot; and
• Haven Whitney of Searcy.

The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars’ review committee selects honored scholars annually based on their academic success, personal characteristics, leadership, and service activities, in addition to the quality and content of their essays.

Each year, more than 4,000 candidates are identified for the component of the program that focuses on academic achievement and based on having scored exceptionally well on the SAT or the ACT.  Eligible students are U.S. citizens and legal permanent U.S. residents who will graduate or receive their high school diploma between January and August of the current program year and have taken the ACT or SAT assessment on or before October of the previous year.

“ASMSA candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars program are not only exemplary leaders within the classroom but also dynamic members across our community of learning,” said ASMSA Director Corey Alderdice. “These young people excel in scholarly research, global engagement, artistry and entrepreneurship.  They are a clear indicator that the future of our state is exceedingly bright.”

Approximately 800 students will be named semifinalists after the next round of review, and up to 161 students will be recognized in May as Presidential Scholars. The majority of the Scholars will be selected on the basis of broad academic achievement. Approximately 20 students are selected on the basis of their academic and artistic scholarship in the visual arts, the performing arts or creative writing. Additionally, approximately 20 additional students will be selected on the basis of their ability and accomplishment in career and technical education fields.

If a student is selected as a U.S. Presidential Scholar, they will be honored in Washington, D.C., in June.  During this trip, U.S. Presidential Scholars are guests of the U.S. Department of Education and the Commission and enjoy an expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with government officials, educators and other accomplished people.  To commemorate their achievement, the Scholars are awarded the U.S. Presidential Scholars medallion at a ceremony sponsored by the White House.

Amanda Carson, a senior student at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, has named a Horatio Alger National Scholar.

The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, Inc., recently announced the 106 recipients of its 2020 Horatio Alger National Scholarship. The National Scholars receive a $25,000 scholarship to apply toward educational costs of the college or university of their choice. They also have access to a variety of Alger Association-provided resources including counseling and referral services, career exploration opportunities and association alumni connections.

The Alger Association — named for Horatio Alger Jr., a renowned century author whose tales of overcoming adversity through unyielding perseverance and basic moral principles were popular — is a nonprofit educational organization honoring the achievements of outstanding individuals and encouraging youth to pursue their dreams through higher education. The 2020 National Scholars are students who come from households with an average income of $17,675 per year while maintaining an average GPA of 3.84.

Carson of Russellville missed the initial call to inform her of her selection. She had slept through the phone call on a weekend morning. When she called the number back later, the person from the Alger Association said he was just checking up with her.

“Then he hit me with ‘Congrats, you’re a National Scholar,” Carson said. “I just thanked him over and over. I had been stalking their page for a long time. I really wasn’t expecting to get National Scholar. There are only 106 of them. I thought that if I got anything it would be State Scholar (who receive $10,000 scholarships).

“It’s amazing. It feels like the association is taking care of me in a sense. It makes me feel freer in my choice of college since I will have a little more cushion to choose the best pick for me and not just worrying about which one will let me go with the least amount of debt.

National Scholars receive an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., on April 2-4 to attend the Horatio Alger National Scholars Conference. While there, scholars will participate in college preparedness and other educational sessions. They will also have the opportunity learn about the Alger Association, meet association members and other scholars.

Carson said she is excited about the conference because she will get to meet current and previous scholars. She has already made a connection with a previous National Scholarship recipient online. Carson reached out to the 2016 recipient before she had heard any news on her own selection. “I found a hashtag on Instagram. I reached out to her,” Carson said. “She was really friendly. When I told her that I did get my scholarship, she reached out to a couple of association members she grew close to. We are going to meet in April. We’re all going to be very tight-knit. I know that. I feel like I already have a family in the association.”

It will also be the first time she will fly on an airplane and travel farther east than New Orleans, she said.

For more information about the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, visit horatioalger.org.

Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts senior Victoria Hwang has been recognized as a 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar.

Hwang of Maumelle was one of 300 national scholars and the only one from Arkansas recognized in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, which is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. It is sponsored by the Society for Science and the Public. The scholars were selected from 1,993 applications received from 659 high schools in 49 states; Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; Guam; and eight countries.

Hwang’s research focused on inhibiting production of a specific protein to study its effect on the life cycle of cancer cells in a glioblastoma, one of the most malevolent forms of brain cancer. Hwang’s research tested if prohibiting the protein production would send the cancer cells into cell death and kill the tumor. While a good percentage of cancer cells did reach cell death, it was not enough to completely kill the tumor.

“It gave some structure on how to approach this idea,” Hwang said, looking at the positives that came from her study. “It’s something I’d like to continue researching in college if I have the opportunity. I have a better understanding of where I should start this process and what more I should look into,” she said.

To conduct high-level research such as this required access to a medical research lab. During the fall semester of her junior year, she read through the papers and studies of Dr. Robert Eoff, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. His work focuses on several similar topics, including deepening “the understanding of how DNA damage intolerance impacts genome stability, patient response to treatment and tumor recurrence in certain cancers,” according to his bio page on the UAMS website.

Hwang spent her spring break in Spring 2019 visiting Eoff’s lab, getting a feel of how the lab worked. She followed that by working in the lab every day during the summer. The first part of the summer was used to learn the process and procedures of the lab. She began focusing on her own research the second half of the summer.

Dr. Patryjcja Krakowiak, a biology instructor at ASMSA and Hwang’s project adviser, helped gain access to Eoff’s lab. Krakowiak said, “Victoria was an absolutely perfect candidate for partnering with UAMS because she is one of the most responsible and devoted students I have ever had. Once she decides to do something, nothing seems to be able to stop her.”

Krakowiak added that Hwang was a great representative of ASMSA, never shying away from extremely hard work and doing more than was necessary each day.

“She is a critical thinker and thrives when presented with challenges, which are common in scientific research. By her exemplary behavior, she has paved the way for other ASMSA students to join laboratories at UAMS,” Krakowiak said.

Hwang said she was working on a joint project with another student when Krakowiak first suggested she develop an independent project to enter into the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Hwang was hesitant at first.

“I wasn’t confident that it would be able to compete. There were so many impressive projects nationally. Then I read Mary Jia’s story from last year,” Hwang said.

Jia, a member of the Class of 2019 from Stuttgart, also was named a Regeneron Scholar for her research of blast disease resistance of rice. Jia’s story inspired Hwang to take on the challenge of an individual project.

“By coming to ASMSA, you have an opportunity to do something that not every student in the state gets. I decided that if I had the opportunity to do so and had everything I needed to qualify, nothing could go wrong, even if I didn’t make it,” she said.

Krakowiak said it’s that spirit that made her decide to recommend Hwang enter the contest.

“Victoria worked harder than any student I have ever had on her project by not only spending most of her spring break and after-school hours but also all of her summer at the UAMS lab. The topic she studied of understanding how cancer cells behave under various circumstances is also extremely exciting and crucial in our fight to eradicate it,” Krakowiak said.

As a Regeneron Scholar, Hwang earned a $2,000 award for herself and an additional $2,000 award for ASMSA. The Society for Science and the Public will name 40 finalists on Jan. 22 to compete for more than $1.8 million in additional awards, including the top award of $250,000. Finalists receive an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., from March 5-11, where they will compete for the awards.

“The next couple of weeks I’ll just cross my fingers and hope to move on to finalist,” Hwang said. “I think it’s already impressive to get to this point. If I don’t make it, I’m tremendously grateful and happy for how far I’ve made it so far.”