Four years ago, the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts welcomed its first cohort of sophomores to campus. The pilot Early Entrance program provided a pathway for a small group of students on an accelerated academic path to begin their ASMSA experience a year earlier than they could have in the past.
ASMSA Director Corey Alderdice often describes ASMSA’s students as populating two different but equally important groups — transitional and transformational.
Transitional students are those who often come from school districts where they have had more advanced learning opportunities before coming to ASMSA. Their educational background enables them to immediately begin focusing on ASMSA’s rigorous coursework. These were the students who qualified for the initial Early Entrance program.
Transformational students often have faced gaps in learning opportunities — whether they are based on family income, limited available courses or lack of academic counseling among other reasons. They may be some of the best, brightest and most motivated students; however, they lack the solid foundation.
To help address those opportunity gaps for the transformational students, ASMSA introduced the HELIX Prep Academy this year. Based on a previous summer program called Helping Elevate Low-Income Students to Excellence that was sponsored by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, HELIX Prep Academy is designed to bring a small group of transformational students to campus as sophomores and prepare them to excel in their junior year and beyond. The first cohort includes 18 students from across the state.
In addition to meeting the admissions requirements for all ASMSA students, HELIX candidates must also come from low-to-moderate income backgrounds, which roughly equates to a $65,000 household income for a family of four. The inaugural cohort’s families had a median household income of $41,430. In 2022, Arkansas’ median household income was $50,540. The state had a poverty rate of 14.7%, the fourth highest in the nation.
“Two parents working full-time even at $15 per hour jobs doesn’t leave a lot of time or resources to provide students with the kind of enrichment and support that position students for advanced opportunities,” noted Alderdice. “Better acknowledging and addressing opportunity gaps for these often-underestimated students is at the heart of our mission to ignite Arkansas’ full potential.”
HELIX Prep Academy students spend their first semester focusing on core courses required by the state — such as Bridge to College Algebra, Bridge to College Chemistry and sophomore English — that will prepare them for college-level courses in subsequent semesters. It also allows them to adjust to the other aspects of ASMSA such as living on campus and learning a new schedule system.
Chris Golston, who serves as the HELIX Prep Academy coordinator, said the first semester is an important step in setting the young students on a path to success.
“The first semester is for students to get used to the atmosphere,” Golston said. “They learn how the schedule works. There’s many students who may not have used block scheduling before. That’s where time management comes into play. You can’t just hang out in the residence hall when you are not in class. It helps build that foundation for the path they may take in the arts, sciences or math.”
HELIX Prep Academy students attended the HELIX Twist camp in late July. The weeklong camp allowed the students to become familiar with the campus layout, receive an introduction to their first-semester classes and instructors, and experience what it would be like to live in the residence hall.
“It was a vital experience,” Golston said. “It gave them exposure to what it would be like living in the residence hall, eating in the café, learning what is expected of them. Having that exposure of what the rigor would be like. They were able to familiarize themselves with the buildings, making it easy for them when they did move in in August.”
Students were able to do a walk-through of where their classes would be, participated in a scavenger hunt that introduced them to them areas of campus as well as members of the faculty and staff, discussed what to expect during the first couple of weeks of school and other topics.
“They were able to make themselves a part of campus. The group has a variety of personalities, but the one thing I noted since the beginning is that they all want to be at ASMSA. They seemed to connect with one another and with campus. One is running for SGA representative,” Golston said.
Cohort members also participate in a full-year course called Transitions. While the first semester focuses more on adapting to the workings of the school, the second-semester itinerary includes a more detailed shadowing of a capstone course. Capstone is a research-based project that students conduct during their junior year. Students are able to select from various humanities, mathematics and sciences topics. They present their projects during the second semester of their junior year either in the West Central Regional Science Fair for STEM projects or the Arts and Humanities Research Capstone Symposium for arts and humanities projects.
Since the Transitions course is designed for sophomores, both the HELIX Prep Academy and the Early Entrance cohorts participate in the same class. Golston works with Bret Vallun, associate dean for college counseling, and Adrienne Conley, coordinator for scholar development, to conduct the course. He said combining the two cohorts for the Transitions course has worked out well.