Seventeen students at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts earned recognition at the 2021 Future Business Leaders of America District IV Spring Conference.
The competition and conference were held virtually on Feb. 15. The events were judged by using an objective subject test, a performance/presentation, or a combination of an objective test and a performance component.
Rep. Bruce Cozart has filed House Bill 1472 in the Arkansas General Assembly on behalf of ASMSA’s community of learning. Sen. Alan Clark will serve as the primary sponsor in the Senate. Co-sponsors include Sen. Greg Leding, Rep. Les Warren, and Rep. Richard McGrew. The bill accomplishes two goals that were discussed as part of ASMSA’s 2025 Strategic Plan.
First, the bill creates ex-officio seats on the ASMSA Board of Visitors for the following groups: the faculty and staff Governing Council; the Association for Alumni and Friends of ASMSA; and the ASMSA Foundation Fund Board of Ambassadors. With existing seats for the Student Government Association, Parents Association, and partnering state agencies, the resulting change ensures that all campus affinity groups are engaged participants in the advisory and advocacy work of the Board of Visitors.
Second, the bill would enable ASMSA to implement a growth pathway for faculty that recognizes their excellence in teaching, mentoring student research, and service over time. ASMSA’s enabling legislation currently notes that faculty shall not “hold rank.” While not a formal system of tenure, which is also prohibited, this amendment will allow campus leadership, the Governing Council, and the University of Arkansas System to develop a framework for professional advancement that is consistent with our peer institutions.
As a program funded almost exclusively by state revenues, it is essential that students, parents, alumni, and friends of the school communicate with legislators and decision-makers on the critical role ASMSA plays not only in the lives of our students but also in the intellectual, economic, and social development of the state. ASMSA is an investment in the future potential of Arkansas. You can identify your local legislators and their contact information at the following link:
https://argis.ualr.edu/DistrictFinder/index.html
HB1472 is a commitment to shared governance and continued investment in the talented faculty who challenge and inspire ASMSA students on a daily basis. Please do not hesitate to contact Director Corey Alderdice (alderdicec@asmsa.org) or Dr. Sara Brown (brownsa@asmsa.org) with any questions you might have about the legislation.
Several Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students recently qualified for the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association 2021 All-Region and All-State bands.
The Smithsonian Institution has awarded $500 to Mid-America Science Museum to support its work with a group of students from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts (ASMSA). The participating students include: Cameryn Berryhill, a junior from Evening Shade; Chloe Kirk, a senior from Eureka Springs, Alyssandra Navarro, a senior from Hot Springs; Terrance Meinardus, a senior from Alma; and Claire Green, a junior from North Little Rock. The museum has been collaborating with Dr. Lindsey Waddell, a geoscience instructor at the School, for several months to develop a teen-designed and -led project addressing an environmental issue of concern to them.
Todd West of Fayetteville has been named the ASMSA Advocate of the Year by the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts and the ASMSA Foundation.
West is a member of the ASMSA Board of Visitors where he serves as vice chair. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, ASMSA transitioned to remote learning during the Spring 2020 semester, and students were required to attend their classes via the internet.
Five Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students were named National Merit Finalists for the 2020-21 academic year by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.
The National Merit Scholarship Corp. recently announced the names of the Finalists for the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The students who are all members of the Class of 2021 will have the opportunity to continue in the competition for 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth about $31 million that will be offered this spring.
The ASMSA seniors named Finalists are:
To be considered for the National Merit Scholarship Program, students take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as a junior. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of anticipated graduating seniors.
Students were required to fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist standing, including a detailed scholarship application that includes information about their academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.
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.
Scholarships are underwritten by the corporation with its own funds and by approximately 400 business organizations and higher education institutions.
Erica Arivette knew from a young age that she wanted to serve as a mentor and guide for others. Her personal experience with her own mentors is what influenced her.
“I had amazing mentors and guides helping me as I was progressing through my high school career and seeking higher education,” Arivette said. “I wanted to be able to do that for future generations to hopefully make a difference in their lives.”
For Maddisyn Karn, serving as a Residential Experience Coordinator at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts is an important opportunity to help students cope with the stress of school and their daily lives.
“Working with the students, you provide a lot of emotional support and help them through stress, anxiety, depression, conflict and so on,” Karn said. “You get to teach them skills on how to work through all of these things and grow.”
Three Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students earned scholarships in the recent Thea Foundation Visual Arts Competition.
Senior Catherine Kwon of Little Rock won first place and a $4,000 scholarship for her piece “Keeping Me, Influencing Me.” Senior Hadley Hooper of Marion won seventh place and a $2,000 scholarship for her piece “Passion, Hope, and Determination.” Senior Takoya Marks of Prescott won 10th place and a $2,000 scholarship for her piece “Shadows.”
S.J. Tucker was visiting an Arkansas-focused shop in downtown Hot Springs in 2017 when she picked up the book “Daughter of the White River” by local author Denise White Parkinson. The book tells the tragic story of Helen Spence, a young woman who avenged her father’s murder by shooting the alleged killer in a DeWitt, Ark., courtroom in 1931.
Tucker, a singer-songwriter who attended the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in 1996 and 1997, picked up Parkinson’s book on a whim in the All Things Arkansas gift shop that was located on Central Avenue. Little did she know it would lead to an opportunity to record a soundtrack for a documentary telling Spence’s story years later.
“That night at home, I started reading it aloud to my husband as he cooked dinner, and we found we couldn’t stop until we’d read all the way to the end,” Tucker said. “Shortly after, I wrote my song ‘Girl from the River,” inspired by Denise’s work to preserve Helen Spence’s story.
“Cheekliy, I looked up Denise online, saw that we only live an hour and a half away from each other, and sent her the mp3 of that song with a respectful note. She kindly listened to it right away, and she and her husband both asserted that, should a movie ever come to be, my song ought to be a part of it.”
Parkinson said the unexpected arrival of Tucker’s song fit in perfectly with the pattern she has experienced with her book.
“As with the many serendipitous occurrences that have gone into the making of this book and film, S. J. brought magic and a sense of fate and destiny into the project,” Parkinson said. “She has been incredibly patient and generous throughout the process, and you can see her in the film’s closing scene with her baby, who was born two years ago. I give thanks for God sending us S.J.!”
Parkinson published her book in 2013. She documents the story of Spence, who gained national notoriety when she shot and killed a man named Jack Worls, the man who was accused of killing her father, Cicero Spence, during a fishing trip. The family lived on a houseboat on the White River.
She was convicted of manslaughter for Worls’ death, but she was later paroled. She was sent back to prison after being convicted of the murder of another man. That led to a prison term and a series of escapes. She was eventually killed after escaping from the Arkansas State Hospital.
Tucker grew up in Dumas in Desha County, about an hour from where Spence grew up and spent her life in the Arkansas River Delta. She was unfamiliar with Spence’s story until reading Parkinson’s book.
“I was shocked that this piece of Arkansas history had been unknown to me for my entire life,” Tucker said. “I know those rural highways like the back of my hand. Yet nobody ever taught me about her, and I could only find one living relative who’d even heard about her. It makes a person wonder what other stories are buried in the soil, kept silent for reason known only to the people who witnessed them.”
After she sent Parkinson her song, the two stayed in contact with each other through social media. Someone made a comment on a thread of one of Parkinson’s posts that she should record an audiobook version of the book. Tucker jumped on the idea immediately.
“I basically harrowed her until she agreed to let me meet with her to discuss the possibility of narrating and producing such an audiobook. That was in October 2017, and we released the audiobook through Audible’s ACX program last fall,” Tucker said.
Tucker later visited Parkinson at her Hot Springs home. During the visit, Parkinson had another guest — Dorothy Morris, a Hot Springs philanthropist, founder of the Morris Foundation and a longtime supporter of the fine arts. Parkinson said she and Morris were brainstorming the idea of a documentary about Spence based on the book. Morris had recently helped fund the digitation of Parkinson’s collection of 8 mm color home movies from her years of living in a houseboat.
Tucker played her songs for the duo, including “Girl from the River” that tells Spence’s story. Parkinson said she thought it would be the perfect way to begin the film version of “Daughter of the White River.” Tucker also provided both instrumental and lyric versions of two more songs — “Look to the Water” and “Moving Meditation” — that recur throughout the film, Parkinson said.
Being asked to record a soundtrack for a film was an unexpected opportunity, Tucker said.
“Film scores and soundtracks have always captivated me. I’m not expertly trained to do it, but this is the third film project I’ve had the good fortune to add music to. One of the three involved another ASMS(A) alum, interestingly enough, and it was that project which let me prove to myself that I could produce a film soundtrack, however scrappily and independently,” she said.
Tucker has been writing her own music since she was 14 in 1994. She is an independent recording artist, “which means I can write and record whatever I like without having to answer to a record label.” Her songs are inspired by folklore, book characters, literature and fairy tales, and the natural world, she said.
She said most of her songs could be described as an acoustic sound, but she also lets jazz and blues influences creep in. Sometimes she will write something that sounds closer to “goth-industrial electronic music together, and you can really tell how much of that genre of music I’ve listened to in my life,” she said.
Her first concerts as a songwriter were at the former Poet’s Loft in Hot Springs in 1997 and 1998. After graduating from Lyon College in Batesville, she moved to Memphis with the intent of learning what it would take to start a music career. She worked other jobs while she traveled to nearby states for concerts in 2001-2004. She recorded her first album, “Haphazard,” in 2004. The recording deal allowed her to eventually pay back the costs of the recording and record production. She held her first CD release party on March 27, 2004 — her mother’s birthday.
“Thank goodness the CD release party which I’d booked and paid for all on my own was well attended because that gave me the confidence to start looking for bookings further afield. I reasoned that I might as well be working for myself and be happy, even if I ended up broke, rather than working for someone else and staying miserable. So, it was at that point that I quit the job I didn’t love to throw myself 100 percent into the career I wanted to build,” she said.
She has used that model to build a successful career and staying afloat to a truly loyal fanbase, “and knowing that, if I had ever needed to come home and start over, my mother in Dumas would have taken me in without a word,” she said.
Tucker attended ASMSA, then known as the Arkansas School for Mathematics and Sciences (ASMS), for only her junior year in 1996-1997. She left early to attend college at Lyon, not attending her senior year at ASMSA. The one year, however, helped prepare her later, she said.
“Some things about ASMS were desperately intense and difficult for me, but that year made me very tough,” she said. “College was a breeze after ASMS, which I suppose was partly the point. So, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“I am certain that learning time management there has helped me build my business as a performing songwriter, since I have chosen to be the one wearing all the hats: creative output, promotion, social media management, finances, everything.”
Parkinson hopes to have a final edit of the documentary completed soon. The COVID-19 pandemic restricted some shooting and editing schedules. “The editing process has been 90 percent conducted on my porch, outdoors, in order to stay COVID safe,” Parkinson said. A rough cut was shown at the recent Arts & the Park via the Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance website in honor of induction of Morris, who serves as an executive producer on the film, into the 2020 Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame.
Regarding Tucker, Parkinson is excited she is receiving some local notice for her artistry.
“I am so happy for S. J. to get recognition in her home state as she is known nationally and internationally as a star,” Parkinson said. She said she also has plans for Tucker to narrate the audiobook on her second book, “The River Sisters.”
To hear songs from the soundtrack, visit riversisters.bandcamp.com/releases. To learn more about Tucker’s music and to hear songs from the film, visit music.sjtucker.com. To read more about Parkinson’s “Daughter of the White River,” visit dwparkinson.com.
