Author: Donnie Sewell

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. 27.

The event will be held in the Creativity and Innovation Complex 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 1:30 p.m. on Friday in the CIC. The top overall winners will earn a trip to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair that will be held May 9-15 in Phoenix, Ariz.

Five Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts student musicians were selected as Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association All-State Musicians.

Students who earned All-State recognition are participating the Arkansas All-State Music Conference on Feb. 19-21 in Hot Springs. A limited number of musicians were selected for three bands — Wind Symphony, Symphonic and Concert — as well as a Symphonic Orchestra.  Wind Symphony is the top band followed by the Symphonic and then Concert bands. Symphonic Orchestra is the only group that includes strings. Each band will hold clinics on Thursday and Friday followed by a concert on Saturday.

ASMSA students selected to participate in the All-State Music Conference include:

• Giea de los Reyes, a senior from Hot Springs, third-chair percussion, Wind Symphony, No. 3 overall in the state.
• Sophie Carroll, a junior from Little Rock, first-chair oboe, Symphonic Band, No. 3 overall in the state;
• Jacob Lewis, a senior from Clinton, fifth-chair flute, Symphonic Band, No. 13 overall in the state;
• Beckett Beam, a senior from Russellville, sixth-chair tuba, Concert Band, No. 20 overall in the state; and
• Anna Le, a senior from Fort Smith, sixth-chair viola, Symphonic Orchestra, No. 6 overall in the state.

Saturday’s concerts will be held in the Bank OZK Arena at the Hot Springs Convention Center. The concert schedule for Saturday is:
• Symphonic Orchestra, noon;
• Concert Band, 1 p.m.;
• Symphonic Band, 2 p.m.; and
• Wind Symphony, 3 p.m.

Members of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts Forensics, Speech and Debate Club capped a successful fall semester with several students earning 2026 All-State Speech and Debate honors.

Seven ASMSA students earned All-State recognition in at least one event during Fall 2025 competitions and qualified for the Arkansas State Forensics and Debate Championship tournament that will be held in April. Events cover different styles of speech and debate. All-State recognition was recently announced by the Arkansas Communication and Theatre Arts Association (ACTAA).

Phoenix Dunkley, a senior from Little Rock, has qualified for three state tournament events — Congressional Debate, Extemporaneous Speaking and Impromptu Speaking. Dunkley earned the All-State qualifications at the Arkansas Student Congress, Bentonville Tigers Eye, Scary Thankful and Conway Classy Classic events.

Other ASMSA students who have qualified for at least one All-State competition, the qualifying event and the contest at which they qualified include:
• Clem Suttefield, a senior from Little Rock, Congressional Debate, Arkansas Student Congress;
• Judah Raimandi, a junior from Summit, Public Forum Debate, Conway Classy Classic;
• Kemdi Ekeanyanwu, a junior from Little Rock, Congressional Debate, Arkansas Student Congress and Bentonville Tigers Eye;
• Nora Medlock, a senior from Dyer, Congressional Debate, Arkansas Student Congress;
• Paris Goodman, a junior from Black Rock, Public Forum Debate, Conway Classy Classic; and
• Tristan Henson, a senior from Maumelle, Congressional Debate, Bentonville Tigers Eye.

Luis Vidal Jr., a senior at the Arkansas School for Mathematics Sciences, and the Arts, has been named a 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar.

The Regeneron Science Talent Search is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science research competition for high school students. The competition sponsored by the Society for Science recognizes the nation’s most promising young scientists who are developing ideas that could solve society’s most urgent challenges, according to the organization’s website.

Vidal of Fort Smith was one of 300 Scholars chosen from a pool of 2,612 entrants from 826 American and international high schools. He is one of three scholars from Arkansas. Scholars were chosen based on their outstanding research, leadership skills, community involvement, commitment to academics, creativity in asking scientific questions and exceptional promise as STEM leaders demonstrated through the submission of their original, independent research projects, essays and recommendations.

Eight Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts students received full-ride scholarship offers in the 2025 QuestBridge National College Match Scholarship program.

The seniors who received matches include:
• Nakoa Beattie of Monticello, Smith College;
• Ridgely Bond of Marion, Princeton University:
• Bridger Foyt of Blytheville, Washington University in St. Louis;
• Jacob Lewis of Clinton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT);
• Lisandro Ramos of Little Rock, Boston College;
• Emma Sedgwick of Arkadelphia, Davidson College;
• Paola Sustaita of Sheridan, Rice University; and
• Faith Wesley of Hot Springs, Wesleyan University.

Eight matches is a new record for ASMSA. The previous high was six matches in 2024. Sixteen members of the Class of 2026 had been named finalists for the 2025 awards.

Nine Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts students earned the Arkansas Seal of Biliteracy for the Fall 2025 semester.

The Arkansas Seal of Biliteracy is awarded each spring and fall to students in ninth through 12^th grades who demonstrate a proficiency in English and at least one other language before graduating high school.

Students who earned the seal this fall and the languages for which they earned recognition include:

• Benjamin Dong, a senior from Arkadelphia, Chinese (Mandarin);
• Alexander Cox, a senior from Russellville, French;
• Priya James, a senior from Mountainburg, French;
• Raegan Smith, a senior from Jonesboro, French;
• Sophia Lee, a senior from Russellville, French;
• Makenna Kutzschebauch, a senior from Benton, Spanish;
• Emily Lin, a senior from Little Rock, Spanish;
• Kira Marshall, a senior from Benton, Spanish; and
• Subi Shakya, a senior from Russellville, Spanish.

The program is sponsored by Arkansas Foreign Language Teachers Association and the Arkansas Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. The Arkansas Department of Education officially endorsed the seal in June 2018. The Seal of Biliteracy program is recognized in 49 states and Washington, D.C.

Since the 2017 pilot year in Arkansas, a total of 8,110 students from 124 high schools around the state have attained this certification across 46 languages other than English, according to a release from the Arkansas Seal of Biliteracy Committee.

Three Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts students have been selected to participate in the 7^th Annual Arkansas High School Artists Competition and Exhibition sponsored by Historic Cane Hill and the University of Arkansas School of Art.

Students who had artwork selected for the exhibition include:

• Kace Capshaw, a senior from Hot Springs, “Centipede,” markers and colored pencils on paper;
• KC Cavin, a senior from Mt. Vernon, “Perryville,” acrylic on canvas; and
• Zee Kidd, a senior from Little Rock, “Fishbowl Astronaut,” ink and graphite.

‘Fishbowl Astronaut’ by Zee Kidd

‘Perryville’ by KC Cavin

‘Centipede’ by Kace Capshaw

The students’ pieces will be on exhibition at the Historic Cane Hill Gallery in Canehill in Northwest Arkansas through Jan. 17. The gallery is open Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Participants in the exhibition were chosen through a competition open to any Arkansas high school student currently in the 10^th through 12^th grades. A jury reviewed the works submitted for consideration and selected the exhibition’s featured pieces.

Historic Cane Hill is an organization dedicated to the preservation of the historically significant structures of Canehill as well as western Washington County in Northwest Arkansas. The organization seeks to build on the legacies of architecture, education and the arts by providing programs and a venue to experience art and culture rooted in the history of the region and the Ozark Mountains. To learn more about the organization, visit historiccanehillar.org.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts STEM Pathways program is serving a record number of students and educators across the state for the 2025-26 academic year.

The hybrid online learning and teacher professional development program aiding 4,059 students and 105 teachers throughout Arkansas through its Computer Science Plus, Advanced Biology Plus and Advanced Statistic Plus cohorts. The Computer Science Plus Program is supporting 3,620 students and 52 educators alone.

The Advanced Biology Plus program is supporting 372 students and 48 teachers. There are 67 students and five educators enrolled in the Advanced Statistics Plus program, which is in its fourth year.

“The continued strength of STEM Pathways lies in its unique approach to supporting educators,” said Lori Kagebein, director of STEM Pathways. “We’re not just providing curriculum or content; we’re building genuine partnerships with teachers across Arkansas throughout the entire school year. Our instructors serve as ‘buddy teachers,’ creating relationships built on trust where educators know they can always reach out with questions, challenges or ideas.

“That year-round availability and support fill a critical gap in professional development. Teachers don’t have to navigate advanced coursework or computer science licensure alone. They have a dedicated team at ASMSA invested in their success and their students’ success, and that makes all the difference.”

The STEM Pathways program began in 2015 with the creation of the Coding Arkansas’ Future initiative. That program offered high schools across the state the opportunity to expand their computer science curriculum while receiving guidance and professional development from ASMSA staff members. While ASMSA instructors taught some computer science courses for schools through digital learning, the main emphasis was preparing educators to gain licensure in computer science through the Computer Science Plus program as a response to the legislative need to increase the number of licensed computer science educators statewide.

That includes offering summer boot camps to introduce teachers to computer science. Those teachers receive guidance throughout the school year from ASMSA, including continuing professional development through weekly video meetings and a follow-up camp at the conclusion of the academic year. The goal is to prepare those educators to earn their license to teach computer science while also becoming the primary computer science teacher at their school. Additional camps are held throughout the school year to prepare educators for the licensure test.

The program expanded in recent years to offer a middle school coding block and the Advanced Biology Plus program. In the Advanced Biology Plus program, instructors around the state receive professional development from ASMSA’s life science specialists in the instruction of AP Biology. ASMSA’s biology teachers guide camps prior to the beginning of the school year. They then help educators prepare their curriculum for the year and provide unique lab learning activities that the individual schools may not be able to offer otherwise.

The program expanded again in 2022 with the addition of the Advanced Statistics Plus program, providing mathematics educators with instructional assistance and curriculum guidance for statistics students.

STEM Pathways is made possible in part by an annual grant from the Arkansas Department of Education.

ASMSA Executive Director Corey Alderdice noted the work of programs like STEM Pathways and the Talent Identification Program (ASMSA-TIP) are the heart of the school’s legislated mission.

“At ASMSA, we believe that talent development is not limited to one campus,” Alderdice said. “Instead, it’s a statewide commitment. STEM Pathways allows us to grow student potential through advanced coursework while simultaneously equipping teachers with the confidence, content expertise and support to sustain those opportunities long after the cohort ends.”

Schools and educators interested in participating in STEM Pathways can contact Kagebein at kagebeinl@asmsa.org. Additional details are available online at https://asmsa.me/digitallearning.

The University of Arkansas System Board of Trustees approved Domain Architecture to serve as the design firm for ASMSA’s Alumni Hall and New Charter Field project at its regular November meeting.

The Baton Rouge firm with a presence in northwest Arkansas was recommended by a campus selection committee to design the $4.25 million project that will provide new fitness, wellness and community hubs for campus. The initiative represents a strategic investment in student wellness, employee-student connection and long-range campus vitality.

Alumni Hall will serve as a flexible indoor gathering space. The 10,000-square-foot building will include cardio and strength training areas, a dedicated esports lab, a studio space for dance and yoga as well as areas for club meetings, guest speakers and residential life programming.

ASMSA’s previous exercise room was located within the former St. Joseph’s Hospital, which sits on the front of campus along Whittington Avenue. ASMSA returned the complex to the City of Hot Springs earlier this year. Once the city demolishes the complex, the property is set to be returned to ASMSA for future development.

ASMSA Executive Director Corey Alderdice said the facility addresses a missing element of campus life and a need articulated by students and colleagues alike for more than two decades.

“This next step in the evolution of campus was shaped by what students have been asking for over many years: a place that feels built around them, not retrofitted for them. Alumni Hall creates room for students to gather, stay active, and build community in ways that strengthen both their well-being and their experience at ASMSA.”

New Charter Field will provide an outdoor space for recreational sports and other activities, creating a safe, well-lit and multi-use green space for everything from informal play to structured wellness programming.

Alumni Hall and New Charter Field will be located adjacent to the parking lot behind the Student Center. The original Charter Field once occupied the space where the Student Center and its parking lot is located. When ASMSA broke ground in August 2010 for the new residential space, students no longer had a large outdoor recreational space on campus. The Student Center was completed and opened in 2012.

The project will be completed debt-free through institutional carryover funds and capital outlay funds. A campus working group of staff, faculty and students is being created to work with Domain Architecture to assist with the overall design and planning as the project moves forward. A groundbreaking ceremony is tentatively scheduled for Homecoming and Alumni Weekend in October 2026. Construction is estimated for completion in mid-2028.

Photo caption: This is a preliminary drawing used as a concept for the future Alumni Hall that was created by Harris Architecture, ASMSA's on-call architect. Domain Architecture has been selected to design the $4.25 million Alumni Hall and New Charter Field project.