Category: News

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.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts is accepting applications for 2025 Summer@ASMSA camps.

Summer@ASMSA is free, one-week summer camps for current eighth- and ninth-grade students in all Arkansas schools as well as seventh-graders participating in ASMSA-TIP.  All camp activities — including tuition, housing, meals and class supplies — are free. The camps will be held on ASMSA’s campus in Hot Springs on Sunday, June 8, through Friday, June 13.

Students may apply to participate in one of six different camps that will provide a fun and challenging atmosphere. The camps include:

• Arkansas Goes Global: World Languages & Cultures (Sponsored by AEGIS): Campers will explore the rich connections between global languages and Arkansas’ own cultural and economic landscape. Through a focus on Spanish, French, Japanese, and Marshallese, campers will discover how each language leaves its mark on the state’s history, community and industries.
• Chamber Music (Sponsored by AEGIS): Campers will expand their instrumental musical experience through ensemble performances, receive personalized instruction from experienced educators, and attend workshops on topics such as music theory and history.
• Computer Science: Campers will learn the basics of physical computing, participate in a variety of coding activities, and try their hand at both solo and cooperative game design.
• Environmental Science and Biotechnology (Sponsored by AEGIS): Campers will conduct fieldwork, find a crystal at a quartz mine in the Ouachita Mountains and learn how to evaluate the health of our ecosystems in Hot Springs National Park with immersive experiences. Preference will be given to ninth-graders.
• Engineering Camp (Sponsored by xCelle Americas): Campers will learn about all types of engineering, from nuclear to electrical, in this hands-on camp. In the lab, campers will have the chance to learn how to work with soldering and circuits, graphing calculators and other tools of the trade.
• Ignite Camp: Campers will explore the physical and life sciences, digital and studio arts, literature and more through engaging activities led by ASMSA faculty and community partners. Preference will be given to seventh-graders.

Housing and meals will be provided in ASMSA’s Student Center, where nightly fun activities will be planned by members of the school’s Residential Life staff.

To apply for Summer@ASMSA, visit https://asmsa.me/summer25. For more information, email outreach@asmsa.org, call (501) 622-5116 or visit www.asmsa.org/outreach/summer-at-asmsa.

Kelvin Orduna, a senior from Huntsville at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, has been selected as a Coca-Cola Scholars-Select.

The Coca-Cola Scholars Program is sponsored by the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, a joint effort by The Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola bottlers across the country to create the largest corporate-sponsored, achievement-based scholarship program in the United States, according to a release announcing the 2025 recipients. This is the 37^th year of program.

This year’s program recognized 150 high school seniors nationwide who each will receive a $20,000 college scholarship. This year’s recipients were selected from a pool of more than 105,000 applications. Coca-Cola Scholars-Select will attend a Coca-Cola Scholars Weekend in Atlanta in early April where they will participate in the Coca-Cola Scholars Leadership Development Institute.

“Being selected as a Coca-Cola Scholar is an incredible recognition of the service I have done to create positive change in my community,” Orduna said. “I am excited to join a network or leaders and visionaries who are just as committed to transformative change in their communities.

“The Coke Scholars Program is much more than a scholarship — it’s a lifelong membership in a community of trailblazers. I’m eager to learn from diverse experiences and perspectives of my fellow scholars, who are spearheading advancements in research, policy, advocacy and entrepreneurship.”

Orduna said he felt a mix of excitement and nervousness when he received an email from the Coca-Cola Scholar Foundation with an update.

“It took a moment for the ‘You are a 2025 Coca-Cola Scholar!’ message to sink in, but all I said was, ‘I just won $20,000.’ Out of 105,000 applicants, only 0.14 percent were chosen, and to be chosen from Arkansas was a reminder of the incredible talent that exists within our state,” Orduna said.

Four Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students were selected as winners in the 2024/2025 Thea Foundation Scholarship Competition.

Seniors Olivia Busby of Heber Springs, Hannah Dalencourt-King of Poplar Grove, AB Maness of Benton and Jaime Hernandez Perez of Decatur were awarded $3,000 scholarships for their entries in the competition.

Jaime Hernandez Perez

More than 300 students from across Arkansas entered the competition for a chance at part of $219,000 in scholarships, according to the foundation’s website. Thirty-six students in five different categories were awarded scholarships. ASMSA’s students were recognized in the Visual Arts category with Dalencourt-King placing seventh, Busby placing eighth, Maness taking ninth-place and Hernandez Perez placing 10^th. The students’ artwork as well as a full list of scholarship winners may be found on its website.

Other categories in which awards were announced included Performing Arts, Creative Writing, Film and Fashion. The annual competitions are for Arkansas graduating high school seniors. The organization’s first scholarship was awarded in 2002. The program is now endowed and has awarded more than $2.8 million in scholarships to Arkansas students, according to its website.

A piece by Preston Lowe, a senior at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, has been accepted into an exhibit for young artists sponsored by the Central Arkansas Library System.

Lowe’s piece “Afro Daze” will be included in the “Imagining Black Futures: Young Artists Envision Afrofuturism” exhibition, which invites young artists in the ninth through 12^th grades “to explore themes of Black identity, autonomy, and liberation through the lens of Afrofuturism,” according to the system’s website. The exhibition will include paintings, finished ink/pastel/multimedia drawings, printmaking, photography, videography, fiber and textile art, jewelry and sculpture. It will be displayed at CALS Mini Main Library from Feb. 15 through May 17.

“Afro Daze” is an acrylic on canvas using the layering and scratching technique. “I wanted to create something bold and experimental. I’ve always had a thing for afros, so I decided to incorporate that into the painting,” said Lowe of Mayflower.

Lowe’s piece will be considered for two awards at the show — Best of Show and People’s Choice. The awards will be announced at an opening reception on Feb. 15.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts welcomed University of Arkansas System President Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jay Silveria to campus for his first visit the Hot Springs campus on Feb. 4.

Silveria was chosen to lead the UA System in November after longtime President Donald R. Bobbitt announced his retirement las summer. Silveria began his tenure on Jan. 15.

During his time at ASMSA, Silveria visited with Executive Director Corey Alderdice as well as a group of constituents that included faculty and staff members, parents, and members of the ASMSA Board of Visitors. He also participated in a campus tour led by a group of Student Ambassadors.

Silveria is planning to visit each of the UA System’s 21 campuses and units this semester. ASMSA was the first stop of his tour. During his visit with campus constituents, Silveria touted the System’s focus on two most important aspects — student access and success.

“If we’re not involved in creating student success and creating student access, then what is our role? What are we doing?” Silveria said. “The fact that those two are priorities for the System is really the major reason that drew me here. I’m privileged to be a part of it.”

Silveria said it is important to find ways to better integrate ASMSA into the System. While that will take ASMSA sharing ideas with him on how to do that, it is also important for the other System members to better understand what the school and its students have to offer.

After his visit, Silveria said that it was obvious how deeply the ASMSA’s faculty and staff care for the institution.

“That is evidenced by the students I spent time with how much they could talk about how the faculty and staff care about them. It was story after story about so-and-so did this for me and so-and-so did that for me. It’s so obvious that everyone really cares,” Silveria said.

Three Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts students recently learned their artwork was selected for recognition in the Fall 2024 CelebratingArt Contest sponsored by CelebratingArt and Blick Art Materials.

Students who are recognized in the contest are featured in CelebratingArt hardcover book edition. ASMSA students selected for the Fall 2024 edition were seniors Leah Fouste of Eureka Springs, Preston Lowe of Mayflower and AB Maness of Benton.

Fouste’s piece selected for the book is an oil painting named “Caravaggio-ish.” Fouste said the piece was inspired by the work of the artist Caravaggio and his “interesting use of light in his paintings.” Fouste earned a “High Merit” award for her submission.

“I was quite enthusiastic about being chosen to be published in the book,” Fouste said. “I think the publication means a lot to me because it is a step towards my future career in the arts.”

Lowe submitted “Young Amber Nichole,” an acrylic and collage magazine on canvas with palette knife texture. “I wanted to create something bold and experimental,” Lowe said. “The painting is a reimagining of my mother in her youth. I accentuated her dress with a striking collage element, allowing it to stand out, while the colors I chose were ones I had fallen in love with.”

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Lowe said having a piece selected for recognition “means so much to me because it feels like a recognition of the emotion and intricacy I poured into the piece. It reassures me that I’m on the right path with my art, motivating me to keep making what feels right. I was in complete shock to find that I’ve accomplished something as huge as this.”

Lowe also had an art piece and writing submission included in the “Our Voices Scholarship” magazine. He said that opportunities such as these fuel his hunger for creating more art with the hope of making work that speaks to others.

Maness’ piece that was accepted is an acrylic paint on canvas called “Master Copy of Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette” inspired by a Vincent Van Gogh painting called “Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette.”  Maness said she was “honored to be considered for publication. Being able to see my art published means that the hard work I’ve put into my art for the past six years has been for something.”