Category: News

Sara Ali, a rising senior from Little Rock, wanted to find a way she could honor her younger sister Aiza and the struggle she endured battling leukemia.

Aiza was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) near the end of 2017 when she was 7.  ALL starats in bone marrow where white blood cells are developed. If undiagnosed and untreated, it can spread quickly to the blood and other parts of a person’s body.

Corey Alderdice, director of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, was selected for the inaugural Arkansas Money & Politics Future 50.

The Future 50 is a list of the state’s business and political leaders poised to shape the future of Arkansas’ economic, political and cultural engines, according to the magazine.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts will provide an online option this fall for its students and their families who are not ready to fully participate in the residential experience because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

ASMSA moved to remote instruction for all students in mid-March as the coronavirus pandemic began to evolve in Arkansas. Students completed the spring 2020 semester via remote instruction, primarily through asynchronous learning with weekly meetings between students and instructors taking place via video.

Fall 2020 online courses will be a blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning with multiple sessions per week conducted live via Zoom. Course options will be available across disciplines but will be limited in number. Over the past month, faculty have been translating more than a dozen ASMSA classes into an online format for both this new opportunity as well as should the school need to pivot to remote learning again in the fall.

Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students Emily Smith of Cabot and Minnie Lee of Charleston were named state winners in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize and qualified for the national competition.

Smith and Lee qualified as a team for the Arkansas competition — which is sponsored by the Arkansas Water Environment Association — through the West Central Regional Science Fair at ASMSA in February. Their project focused on the identification of algae, ostracods and zooplankton in three springs in the Hot Springs National Park.

The national competition is sponsored by Water Environment Federation and Xylem. It gathers imaginative young minds from all over the world who are interested in water and sustainability issues. It draws competitors from more than 30 countries.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts has been recognized as one of the nation’s top-performing public high schools in the latest Jay Mathews Challenge Index rankings.

Mathews, an education columnist for The Washington Post, created the Challenge Index in 1998 as a way to recognize schools across the nation who adequately challenge average students. It is the oldest high-school ranking system in the country. It has been published as “America’s Most Challenging High Schools” list in The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine in past years. This year’s list was announced on his website — jaymathewschallengeindex.com.

Dr. Patrycja Krakowiak, a life sciences instructor at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, is one of 10 national recipients of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation Teacher Innovator Awards.

The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation provides unique educational experiences based on authentic objects, stories and lives from America’s traditions of ingenuity, resourcefulness and innovation. The Henry Ford’s Teacher Innovator Awards, co-sponsored by Raytheon Technologies, honors pre-kindergarten through 12^th-grade teachers who inspire their students to challenge the rules and take risks, who demonstrate how to be collaborative and empathetic, and teach the value of learning from staying curious and learning from failure.

The tragic events and unrest of the past few weeks serve as stark reminders of our nation’s continued struggle with racial equality and justice.  ASMSA’s community of learning stands in solidarity with our students, families, alumni, and colleagues of color against acts of racism, prejudice, and hate.

From the wide array of individual backgrounds and experiences, we strive to weave a tapestry of understanding and growth within the classroom and residential experiences as students learn from and alongside their peers of different backgrounds, faiths, and beliefs.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts held it 26^th annual Commencement Ceremony for the Class of 2020 on Saturday, May 23.

This year’s ceremony was unlike the previous 25, however. It was the school’s first-ever virtual commencement, featuring both administrative and student speakers, a video processional and graduates announcing their future plans via video. The commencement and an Honors Convocation recognizing students’ academic achievements for the 2019-20 school year were broadcast on the school’s Facebook page.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts recognized students for their academic achievements during its annual Honors Convocation on May 23.

Departmental and special awards as well as recognition for other student achievements are announced at the annual spring semester event. This year’s convocation was held virtually, and it was followed by a virtual commencement, the first in the school’s history.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts will hold a virtual Honors Convocation and Commencement Ceremony at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 23.

The virtual ceremony will be broadcast on ASMSA’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ARMathSciArts/.