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.
QuestBridge is a nonprofit organization that connects exceptional low-income youth with leading institutions of higher education. Each Match Scholarship recipient receives early admission and a full four-year scholarship to a QuestBridge college partner, ensuring for these students and their families that an education at a top college is affordable, according to a press release from QuestBridge. The Match Scholarship — provided by the school — is made up of a generous financial aid package that covers the full cost of attendance, including tuition, housing and food, books and supplies, and travel expenses. The Match Scholarship does not include loans or a parental contribution.
QuestBridge partnered this year with 55 colleges and universities to offer 2,550 scholarships at institutions such as Duke University, Rice University, Stanford University, Yale University and others. The recipients were selected from 7,026 Finalists.
Students apply for the scholarships through QuestBridge’s free National College Match application. They may list up to 15 of the partner schools at which they would like to be considered for admission.
Each of the students selected to receive a match said the scholarships will provide them opportunities they might not have had otherwise, allowing them to attend prestigious institutions without worries of racking up large amounts of debt.
“I’m glad I can save my parents the burden of paying such expensive tuition,” Beattie said. “My whole life, paying for college was just saying, ‘Let’s hope you get a good scholarship!’ and luckily, I did. I just want to thank my loved ones for supporting me and placing their confidence into my future and assuring me that no matter what happens they still love me. Of course, the people who wrote my recommendations — Dr. (Zac) Cowsert (history instructor), Mr. (Mark) Turner (chemistry instructor) and Mr. (Bret) Vallun (associate dean for college counseling) — each deserve recognition as well.”
Wesley said “getting into college felt almost scary to me; the costs are so daunting.” The match will take away the stress of worrying about the price tag. “I can go to college confident and ready with just one less thing to keep me down.”
Ramos said he “felt genuinely overjoyed when I matched. It lifted a huge weight off my shoulders, knowing I wouldn’t have to worry about college costs and could look forward to a calmer spring semester. I’m deeply grateful, too, because it means I’ll receive a great education without being buried under thousands of dollars in fees.”
Bond said the match will allow him to pursue his goals and dreams without being burdened by debt “or, more likely, not being able to attend college at all.” Both Foyt and Sedgwick echoed Bond’s sentiment about debt-free opportunities to pursue college educations.
For Sustaita, the match will provide her the opportunity to fulfill a long-held dream of attending a reputable institution to pursue her interests and make the most of the resources available.
“Yet due to finances, it seemed like a far-reaching dream. Never in my life would I imagine that I could go and finish college debt-free, much less at one like Rice, prior to discovering QuestBridge,” she said. “I don’t think it has quite sunk in what this could really mean for my future, but I know that thanks to QuestBridge, this scholarship will open a lot more paths of opportunities in research and a greater potential to make a difference in this world.”
Sustaita said she owes Bret Vallun, the school’s associate dean for college counseling, a big thanks for helping her and others with their QuestBridge applications. “One time, we both had quite literally spent nearly two hours in one sitting helping me with rewriting and shortening my essays for my QuestBridge application because they were way over the word limit. He also gave several information sessions that helped many of us, including me, with our supplemental writings for our colleges. He was crucial in my application process, and I’m so grateful for his help.”
QuestBridge was set to announce matches at 3 p.m. on Dec. 1. Many of the students expected to spend the day nervously waiting for the announcements that afternoon. QuestBridge, however, released the announcements a little after 8 a.m. that morning just as students were on their way to their first class of the day.
“I was on my way to class, and I pulled out my phone to check the time,” said Wesley, who plans to pursue a degree in music at Wesleyan. “I saw that QuestBridge had sent me an email. I almost dropped my phone; we were told that decisions wouldn’t be coming out until 3 p.m. at the earliest. I was so incredibly excited to see that I had matched! In one email, I had so many deadlines and pressures lifted from me.”
Beattie, who plans to initially study history at Smith College, said she had just climbed the stairs to get to class when her suitemate texted “ITS OUT” at about 8:09 a.m. “Some of my friends in the class surrounded me as I opened it, and I swear they reacted louder than I did,” she said. “I never let myself get too confident in a match since I didn’t want a lot of disappointment, but I wasn’t that shaken upon seeing confetti (a celebration animation in the email). I was more eager to see where I would be for the next four years.”
Ramos plans to study political science at Boston College to build a path toward becoming an immigration lawyer. He also was walking to class with a classmate when the notification arrived, but he hesitated to open it at first because he didn’t want to face the emotions he may have upon reading it before class. “But my curiosity grew too strong. As soon as I reached the classroom, I checked. I had matched with Boston College. Overjoyed, I leapt from my chair and ran across the fourth floor (of the Academic Building), unable to contain my excitement. The first person to reach me was the classmate I had been walking with. It was a beautiful moment, sharing in the pure joy of that achievement together.”
Bond said he was sitting in his College Physics class around 8:20 a.m. when a friend sitting next to him said the announcements had been released early. “I didn’t believe her until she showed me someone else’s Instagram story of them matching,” said Bond, who plans to study history with an emphasis on the Medieval period at Princeton. “I opened it immediately and walked out of class to call my dad and tell him.”
Lewis spent part of the summer of 2025 at MIT as part of the university’s MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering, and Science (MITES) program. He said MIT was his dream school. He was waiting for his Calculus 3 class to begin when he received a message that one of his friends from the MITES program had matched with Stanford. “I opened my application with many of my friends in Calculus 3 that were also there waiting. I was completely in shock when I saw that I had matched at all, even more so when I realized it was my No. 1 choice, MIT,” said Lewis, who plans to major in interdisciplinary Chemistry-Biology with a minor in either Mathematics or Brain and Cognitive Science.
Sedgwick was in her room with a family member — her twin sister — when she found out that she had matched with Davidson, where she plans pursue the school’s Philosophy, Politics, and Economics major. “I was initially hit with shock followed by a mix of excitement and nerves for the future ahead,” she said.
Foyt plans to major in mechanical engineering with a minor in aerospace engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. The city is also home to a Boeing plane manufacturing plant. He was visiting Vallun that morning when he found out. He said he was “ecstatic” and celebrated by telling his mother, his older brother and his girlfriend about the match.
Sustaita said she originally planned to wait until her classes were over so she could go to her room to wait for the decisions to be announced. Since the announcements came out much earlier than expected, she was entering Physics, her first class of the day, when she received the email.
“I knew I probably wouldn’t have made it through most of my classes with a clear mind without opening it, so I did,” said Sustaita, who plans to major in either computational and applied mathematics or statistics at Rice. “I threw down my phone on my desk after reading the first word: ‘Congratulations!’
“I told my best friend in my next class, and later, I called each one of my family members in my room after lunch. I told them individually first because through my QuestBridge application journey they were the most supportive of me and their beliefs that I would get matched meant a lot to me.”