The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts held its 31st annual Commencement celebrating the graduation of the Class of 2025 at the Oaklawn Event Center on Saturday, May 17.
The ceremony honored 95 graduates from 36 counties. The graduates earned $25.2 million in scholarship offers, pushing the overall total to $353.7 million over the school’s history. Giuseppe “Seppy” Basili, the executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, served as Commencement speaker. Karilynn Arellano of Mineral Springs and Hailey Judkins of Benton, both members of the Class of 2025, were student speakers.
Basili encouraged the graduates to keep a simple credo in mind — “To imbue and exhibit Confident Humility in all that you do.” He said confident humility is the balance of knowing your strengths while being open to learning, growth and the possibility of being wrong as well as recognizing what “you’re good at without becoming arrogant” while staying grounded and teachable even after success.
Confidence includes trusting your abilities and judgment; be willing to speak up, lead, and take risks; and to not shrink from challenges, he said. Humility is realizing you don’t have all the answers, are open to feedback and other perspectives, and are willing to admit mistakes and keep learning, Basili said. Combining the two will allow you to believe in your abilities enough to take initiatives while being self-aware enough to listen, adapt and grow, he said.
“In short, confident humility is strength without arrogance and humility without self-doubt. Your time at ASMSA has prepared you well. You can and already do exhibit these qualities. If you keep them in mind, you will thrive,” Basili said.
Basili thanked the graduates “for having the guts, ambition and willingness to do something different” by attending a residential school where they “would be challenged academically while also developing and growing as a person.” Basili said he spoke from the place of knowing the challenge personally after attending a residential high school himself.
He also thanked the students’ families for supporting and sacrificing the graduates in their educational endeavors. “I hope as families that you have seen the benefits from the sacrifices you have made,” he said.
Basili praised the State of Arkansas as well as the University of Arkansas System for believing in and investing in a school like ASMSA. “Thirty-plus years into its history, these leaders believe providing a unique educational option to students who demonstrate exceptional promise is a priority. Most states do not have opportunities like the ones that you experienced available. It is commendable, and I believe it also will continue to pay dividends for the state writ large,” he said.
Judkins shared that when she first received an invitation in the mail to visit ASMSA, she was hesitant. “It felt like one of those moments where you knew something big was about to change, so I ran to tell my dad,” she said. Her father immediately said “no way” to letting her move to a residential school which eventually turned into “Well, we can just look,” and eventually to “Do you need help packing the car?”
“Spoiler alert: we both survived,” she said. “I still called home after all of the hard days. I still needed his advice, his jokes and his reminders to drink something other than Dr. Pepper. And he still reminded me — every step of the way — that no matter how far I went, I’d always have a place to come back to.”
Not only did Hailey Judkins become a member of the Class of 2025, but so did her sister Olivia. During the three years she called ASMSA home, Judkins found more than she expected, from mentors who believed in her to late-night study partners to friendships she could not have imagined.
“I found a community that didn’t ask me to forget where I came from. They asked me to honor it, to build on it and to grow,” Judkins said. “ASMSA didn’t just prepare us for college or careers. It gave us something deeper. It gave us the tools to understand ourselves, the bravery to change and the strength to keep going even when the path ahead isn’t clear.”
Arellano spoke to her classmates about the challenges they have faced during their time at ASMSA, acknowledging that it isn’t just the good times that define them as people. When she first arrived at ASMSA, Arellano thought she had a future career in engineering planned, but she began to question that after taking calculus. The class never clicked for her as she had hoped.
“And then the thoughts came: What if this one class ruins everything I’ve worked so hard for? I was scared that one bad grade meant I didn’t deserve the future I dreamed of,” she said.
But the challenges of the class and her ASMSA experience helped her realize something — the desire to be a pilot. “Coming to ASMSA made me realize that I shouldn’t give up on my passion just because it’s different from what I originally planned,” Arellano said, adding that while she may not have made it into her initial dream school that she still planned to study engineering while pursuing a career in aviation.
Experiencing these kinds of challenges were important for her and her classmates, she said.
“The life lesson I hope to share with you today is this: as we begin our college journeys, we’re going to face challenges. Real ones. There will be moments where giving up seems easier than going on, but even in those moments, remember life keeps moving. So when something goes wrong, don’t dwell on it. All you can do is move forward and make the most of what comes next,” Arellano said.
She encouraged her fellow graduates to be the ones who take the lead on their own behalf.
“I want to ask you all: What is your name? What excites you? What makes your heart race with passion? Find your name; find your voice by speaking for yourself,” she said.
“My name is Karilynn Banda Arellano. I was born in a small town in Arkansas. I’m a future pilot and engineer, and this fall I’ll be studying at Boston College. Like anyone else, I’ve made mistakes. But I’m learning to embrace every part of myself — my past, my present and everything I’m becoming.”
Corey Alderdice, ASMSA’s executive director, urged the graduates to rely on the resilience they learned during their time at the school as the progress through life. He shared the story of the revitalization of an area of Mount St. Helens after the volcano’s May 1980 eruption left one side of the mountain’s landscape barren. Scientists brought pocket gophers from the other side of the mountain to the barren side, allowing the gophers to dig through the mountainside for only one day before recapturing them.
What scientists found 40 years later was an area where 40,000 diverse species of life populated the area where the gophers were allowed to dig. The gophers’ digging had brought nutrients buried deep in the ground back toward the surface, allowing life to begin to grow again.
Alderdice told the graduates that they may face obstacles that might feel as hard and barren as the pumice plain covered in ash on the side of Mount St. Helens seemed. In those moments, he wanted them to remember the gophers’ persistence to keep digging.
“Maybe you’ll stand up for a cause or pursue a goal or nurture a friendship or follow a dream, and at times it will feel like digging in stubborn, impossible ground,” Alderdice said. “Progress might seem invisible, outcomes distant. You might wonder if your effort makes any difference at all. But remember this: even a single day of courageous effort can spark lasting change.
“Every time you choose kindness in the face of cruelty, you are digging. Every time you commit to integrity over convenience, you dig deeper. Every time you embrace curiosity instead of complacency, you turn the earth toward renewal. Life and progress are built upon these daily acts — small but meaningful actions performed again and again and again, even when the results aren’t immediately apparent.”
You may watch the 2025 Commencement by clicking here
The individual graduates by county include:
Arkansas: Maddox Jessup of Stuttgart
Ashely: Saylor Ross of Crossett
Benton: Jaime Hernandez Perez of Decatur, Jonthan Matul of Decatur, Mason Meenen of Gravette
Boone: Maya Allen of Harrison, Kalyn You of Everton
Carroll: Leah Fouste of Eureka Springs
Clark: Alice Dong of Arkadelphia, Logan Sedgwick of Arkadelphia
Cleburne: Olivia Busby of Heber Springs
Craighead: Sindia Michael of Jonesboro, Lycci Pan of Jonesboro
Crawford: Carmella Lewis of Alma, Shelby Norris of Alma
Crittenden: Cassie Davis of Marion, Reagan Smith of Marion
Cross: Caroline King of Wynne, Shiloh Ladd of Wynne
Drew: Zeke Babst of Monticello
Faulkner: Ella Ambos of Greenbrier, Padraigh Easley of Conway, Levi Fason of Conway, Preston Lowe of Mayflower, Paul Murphy of Conway, Alex Ulmer of Conway, Alan Ye of Conway
Garland: Adrianna Bahner-LaRue of Jessieville, Ava Beck of Hot Springs, Lukas Bowler of Hot Springs, Ty Carmichael of Hot Springs of Village, John Carter of Hot Springs Village, Lane De Foor of Hot Springs, Paul Jonsek of Hot Springs Village, Meera Patel of Hot Springs, Bao Ngoc (Sarah) Pham of Hot Springs, Thor Seay of Hot Springs
Grant: Riley Raymick of Sheridan
Greene: Kayden Forrest of Paragould, Zeke Summers of Paragould, Rydia Titus of Paragould, Charlotte Young of Paragould
Hempstead: Jena Brown of Hope
Hot Spring: Cory Breshears of Bonnerdale, Kendra Grant of Bismarck
Howard: Karilynn Arellano of Mineral Springs, Berto Garcia Jr. of Nashville, Katherine Quintanilla of Nashville
Independence: Jonahtan Tucker of Batesville
Jefferson: Nathan Alam of White Hall, Rosie Garner of White Hall, Justin Nicholson of Pine Bluff
Johnson: Avagail Christine Dunning of Clarksville
Logan: Gage Carr of Paris
Lonoke: Laney Caldwell of Cabot, Lauren Dengel of Cabot, Aurora Moran of Cabot
Madison: Kelvin Orduna of Huntsville
Newton: Braden Haley of Western Grove
Ouachita: Titus Reynolds of Camden
Perry: Jack Russenberger of Bigelow
Phillips: Hannah Dalencourt-King of Poplar Grove, Edame Egar Jr. of Helena, Daymond Franklin of Lexa
Pulaski: Morgan Broadway of Mablevale, Ryan Chang of Sherwood, Titan Dinwiddie of Sherwood, Kendyl Gorman of Little Rock, LaKaylah Hall of Little Rock, Zaelyn Horton of Little Rock, Hiro Linker of Little Rock, Kavan Patel of Sherwood, Kolten Shook of North Little Rock, Rowan Stewart of Sherwood, Plinio Tola of Little Rock
Saline: Annette Ha of Benton, Haven Herring of Benton, Hailey Judkins of Benton, Olivia Judkins of Benton, Madeline Liachenko of Benton, AB Maness of Benton, Kayleigh Murphy of Alexander, Lola Tate of Benton, Jackson Whittaker of Benton
Sebastian: Calen Long of Fort Smith
Stone: Evan Fowlkes of Mountain View, Riley Hart of Mountain View
Van Buren: Sage Torres of Fairfield Bay, Kris Torres of Fairfield Bay
Washington: Damian Biggs of Henryetta, Okla., Kira Burnett of Farmington, Eva Cummings of Fayetteville, Evan Quirk of West Fork
White: Finneas Salazar of Searcy, Cody Schulist of Russell