Author: Donnie Sewell

Twenty-three Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts students have been selected as Arts Across Arkansas 2025 finalists, including one student who qualified in three separate categories.

Arts Across Arkansas is a program that aims to encourage, enhance and expand students’ original thoughts, processes, personal experiences and artistic abilities, according to the program’s website. It is sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Division of Arkansas Heritage.

The competition features competition in six categories: Visual Arts, Dance Choreography, Film, Music Composition, Literary Arts and Photography. ASMSA students were selected as finalists in the Visual Arts, Film, Music Composition, Literary Arts and Photography. Senior Jaime Hernandez is a finalist in the Visual Arts, Film and Literary Arts categories.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts Quiz Bowl team took first place in the Arkansas Governor’s Quiz Bowl Association Class 7A West Regional Tournament.

The team went undefeated in the regional tournament, which was held March 15 on the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith campus. ASMSA qualified for the Class 7A State Tournament, which will be held April 12.

Junior Jacob Lewis of Clinton was the second-highest scorer in the regional tournament followed by junior Ridgely Bond of Marion who was third. Both qualified for the State All-Star Tournament that will be held in April.

For more information about the tournaments, visit the association’s website at https://arquizbowl.org/.

Several Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts students earned recognition at the 2025 Arkansas High School Model Arab League Conference.

Model Arab League is the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations’ flagship youth leadership development program. It is similar to the Model United Nations program. This year’s Arkansas high school conference was held March 7-8 at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Twenty-nine ASMSA students participated in the conference. Five students earned recognition for their participation, including:

• Tristan Henson, a junior from Maumelle, Outstanding Delegation Award, representing Libya on the Special Council on Technology and Development;
  • Nathan Harbut, a junior from Hot Springs, Distinguished Delegation Award, representing Libya on the Economic Affairs Council;
  • Maddox Jessup, a senior from Stuttgart, Distinguished Delegation Award, for representing Syria on the Special Council on Technology and Development;
  • Lycci Pan, a senior from Jonesboro, Distinguished Delegation Award, for representing Syria on the Political Affairs Council; and
  • Nakoa Beattie, a junior from Eureka Springs, Honorable Mention Award, for representing Libya on the Political Affairs Council.

Twenty-four Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students earned recognition at the 2025 District IV Spring Conference competition, and a record number of 36 students will be eligible to compete at the state competition.

The District IV conference was held Feb. 5 at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope/Texarkana in Hope. The students participated in competitive events that were either an objective subject test, performance or presentation, or a combination of an objective test and a performance component.

Students who placed in the top six in objective test competitions or top five in a performance or presentation event at the district qualified to compete in the state competition, which will be held April 7-8 in Little Rock. In addition to the 24 students who qualified at the district competition, 12 students also are set to compete in the state competition in categories that are only held at the state conference.

Students who earned recognition at the District IV competition and are eligible to compete at the state competition include:

Twenty-two Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts students earned recognition in the 2025 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards regional competitions.

Micaela Collver, Priya James, Lola Tate, Andy Kneebone and Preston Lowe each earned Gold Keys and advanced to the national competition for their writing and art awards. National key winners will be announced in March. Four students earned Silver Keys for their submissions.

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is sponsored by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. It is among the nation’s most prestigious program for creative teens. Previous award-winners during the competition’s history include Andy Warhol, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Tschabalala Self and others.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts recognized winners of the 2025 West Central Regional Science Fair during an awards ceremony on Feb. 28.

The team of senior Kolten Shook of North Little Rock and Lukas Bowler of Hot Springs won first place overall for their project in the Animal Science category. Senior Carmella Lewis of Alma won second place for her Cellular and Molecular Biology project. Senior Avagail Christine Dunning of Clarksville won third for her project in the Microbiology category.

The three overall winners were awarded a trip to participate in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, which will be held May 10-16 in Columbus, Ohio. The event is the world’s largest pre-college STEM competition. Students from around the world are expected to compete for awards, prizes and scholarships.

Individual awards were also announced in various categories. The top three projects and some high-placing honorable mentions in each category earned entry into the Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair that will be held at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway on April 4-5.

The 97th Academy Awards will have an ASMSA connection at this year’s ceremony. A film produced by Class of 2009 alumna Tara Sheffer is nominated for Best Live Action Short Film.

Sheffer is the producer of “A Lien,” a short film about a family that finds itself in a dire situation that develops when a couple along with their daughter arrives at a federal immigration office for an American woman’s husband to begin the interview process to obtain a green card. The film is directed by brothers Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz.

Sheffer has served as producer for 29 short films and written and directed four other films. Films she has been associated have been nominated for awards or selected to appear in the SXSW, Clermont Ferrand, New Orleans Film Festival, Rhode Island International Flickers Film Festival and NYU Tisch King festivals and competitions. Sheffer served as a line producer for the 2020 film “The Letter Room,” which was also nominated for an Academy Award.

She began seriously thinking about filmmaking in a documentary film class taught by James Katowich, a Humanities Instructor of Excellence at ASMSA. Her family was also in the filmmaking business. She later took classes at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., and then earned a master’s in fine arts from the New York University School of the Arts.

The Oscars will be shown live beginning at 6 p.m. Central time on Sunday, March 2, on ABC and streaming on Hulu.

Four students at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts have been named National Merit Scholarship Finalists.

The National Merit Scholarship Corp. recently announced the names of Finalists in the 70^th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The students, all members of the Class of 2025, will have an opportunity to continue in the competition for 6,870 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million.

The ASMSA seniors named Finalists are:

• Eva Cummings of Fayetteville;
• Evan Fowlkes of Mountain View;
• Madeline Liachenko of Benton; and
• Kalyn You of Everton.

To be considered for the National Merit Scholarship Program, students take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as a junior. Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The National Merit Scholarship Corp. is a not-for-profit organization that operates without government assistance. It was established in 1955 specifically to conduct the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in batches beginning in late Spring 2025 and early summer 2025.

Public viewing for the West Central Regional Science Fair at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 28. The event will be held in the Creativity and Innovation on the ASMSA campus, which is located at 200 Whittington Ave. in Hot Springs. The event is free and open to the public. It will feature research conducted by ASMSA students. An awards ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. that afternoon in the CIC. The top overall winners will earn a trip to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair that will be held May 10-16 in Columbus, Ohio.