Month: August 2025

Kira Burnett, a member of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts Class of 2025, was named a 2025 U.S. National Runner Up in the U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) competition.

SWJP is a prestigious competition that recognizes high school students in grades 9-12 who have conducted a water-science research project. The competition was founded in 1997 by the Stockholm International Water Institute to complement the Stockholm Water Prize. The U.S. national competition was held June 19-22 at Washington University in St. Louis. Burnett qualified for the national competition by winning the state competition to represent Arkansas this spring.

Burnett was recognized for her research project, “Urbanization’s Impacts on Aquatic Ecosystems: Assessing Phosphorus Transport, Biological Health, and for Endocrine Disruptors.” She conducted the research as a student at ASMSA. Burnett observed the travel of phosphorus, a potentially harmful nutrient when in excess, within Hot Springs Creek to protect the downstream habitat of the Ouachita River. She also examined phosphorus’ effect on macroinvertebrates, which are important stream organisms, and plastic pollutants called phthalates in another body of water that leads into the Ouachita River.

Jason Hudnell, director of admissions at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, has been selected as a member of Leadership Arkansas Class XX.

Hudnell is one of 53 professionals from across the state who were selected to participate in this year’s cohort. The program is sponsored by the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas (State Chamber/AIA).

“I am truly honored to be selected for Leadership Arkansas and grateful for the opportunity to learn alongside so many talented and accomplished leaders from across our state,” Hudnell said. “Being part of this program will not only allow me to grow personally and professionally, but it will also strengthen ASMSA’s ability to build connections, share our mission and expand opportunities for Arkansas students. I am humbled to represent ASMSA in this work and look forward to the impact we can make together.”

Corey Alderdice, executive director of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, has been named a 2025 Arkansas Executive of the Year finalist by Arkansas Business.

Alderdice is a finalist in the Public Sector/Education category. Other category finalists are Jim Hudson of the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Dr. Pearl McElfish of the Institute for Community Health Innovation at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Dr. DuShun Scarbrough Sr. of the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, and Dr. Todd Shields of Arkansas State University.

“It’s a true honor to be named alongside these exceptional public servants and educators,” Alderdice said. “Any executive is only as successful as the team they build. This recognition is really a reflection of the shared commitment of our colleagues at ASMSA and their daily pursuit of excellence.”

Finalists were also selected for five other categories: Small Private Company, Large Private Company, Nonprofit Organization, Financial Executive and Board Member. In addition to Alderdice and McElfish who both serve at institutions within the University of Arkansas System, UA Board of Trustees Chair Kelly Eichler was named a finalist in the Board Member category.

This is the second year of the program, which is an expansion of the former CFO of the Year Awards. It recognizes and honors the region’s most outstanding senior executives, according to a release by Arkansas Business. Nomination forms were submitted to an independent panel of judges that met in late July to determine finalists and winners.

An awards ceremony recognizing the winners and finalists will be held at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock on Nov. 13. The winners of each category will be announced at the celebration, which is presented by Arkansas Talent Group. A special supplement of Arkansas Business highlighting the finalists will be included in the Oct. 27 issue of the publication.

For more information about the Arkansas Executive of the Year Awards, visit www.ArkansasBusiness.com/event/executive.

Benjamin Dong, a senior at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, placed in the Top 10 in the LingHacks VI competition.

LingHacks VI was a high school computational linguistics hackathon competition. LingHacks is an international nonprofit dedicated to harnessing the intersection of math and language to equip students of all backgrounds with cutting-edge technology, problem-solving and interdisciplinary skills, according to the organization’s website.

LingHacks VI was a weekend-long invention competition in which participants built a software project that integrates computational linguistics and may or may not solve a scientific or social problem. Computational linguistics, also known as natural language processing, is the field of artificial intelligence that applies to the synthesis and analysis of language and speech, according to the LingHacks website. Computational linguistics tools are used by machine language technologies, voice assistants, search engines and chatbots, for example.

Dong created a program called “Medical Condition Explainer” designed to provide users a simpler way of understanding medical technical terms thus making health knowledge more accessible and understandable to anyone.

Nora Medlock, an Arkansas School for the Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts student, traded in the scenery of The Natural State for the opportunity to navigate the corridors of Congress for part of her summer. The rising senior from Dyer served as a U.S. Senate Page alongside several dozen other high schoolers from across the country.

Medlock and her fellow Pages reported to work one hour before the Senate convened each weekday to help ready the chamber for the day’s proceedings. Their responsibilities included placing materials on senators’ desks, assisting staff in the cloakrooms and supporting the operations of the Senate floor. When the body was in session, she was stationed near the dais, prepared to assist senators as they delivered speeches or cast their votes.

“My time as a Senate Page was truly unforgettable,” Medlock said. “While serving, I formed lifelong friendships, made valuable connections and gained knowledge about the inner workings of our democratic system that genuinely deepened my interest in politics. I will always be grateful to Senator Boozman, and everyone else who was a part of my time in D.C., for making the experience so special.”

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts was honored with multiple recognitions at the 2025 Diamond Journalism Awards, hosted by the Arkansas Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

The annual awards celebrate outstanding work in journalism, communications and public relations across the state. This year’s event recognized finalists and winners in nearly 80 categories with more than 125 in attendance at the ceremony. This year’s contest drew 704 entries and was judged by the SPJ members from Connecticut. Divisions spanned professional journalism, student journalism and communications.

ASMSA’s public information office received top honors in the Magazine or Publication category in the Communications Division for the Summer 2024 edition of Tangents, the institution’s annual magazine spotlighting student, employee and alumni achievement. In addition, the magazine’s cover celebrating ASMSA’s 30th anniversary was named a finalist in the Cover Design – Magazine category in the Visual Journalism Division, open to all members. Contributors to the publication and cover included Public Information Specialist Donnie Sewell, photographer Mike Kemp and Executive Director Corey Alderdice.