Arkansas Times | August 2023

TRASH THE VOTE

ARKANSAS BLOWS IT ON COUNTING BALLOTS

BY BENJAMIN HARDY, CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS AND MARY RUTH TAYLOR

With properties around the state, you’re never too far from a comfortable night’s stay. At Beechwood Pinnacle Hotels, our welcoming rooms and suites are the perfect place to rest after experiencing everything the area has to offer.

AUGUST 2023

FEATURE

29 BALLOT BLOCKADE

Arkansas tossed out 7% of mail-in votes received in 2022, according to new federal data. By Benjamin Hardy, Christopher Williams and Mary Ruth Taylor

9 THE FRONT

From the Farm: Canning to keep the joys of harvest alive year round.

Aw, Snap!: All the hits.

Q&A: With Arkansas

PBS archivist David Elmore.

Big Pic: Remembering Ryan Mallett.

17 THE TO-DO LIST

Kaleidoscope LGBT+ Film Festival, MacArthur “Genius”

Nicole R. Fleetwood at Ron Robinson Theater, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” at Arkansas Times Film Series and more.

22 NEWS

Conwegians reckon with the future draining of Lake Conway. By Mary Ruth

Taylor

FEELING FORTUNATE: Comedian Fortune Feimster is stopping by Robinson Center on Sunday, Aug. 20.

79 SAVVY KIDS

How to help your children be safe and responsible digital citizens.

By Tricia Larson

85 CULTURE

A playlist of exemplary new tunes from Arkansas’s finest musicians.

By Daniel Grear

88 FOOD & DRINK

The Mighty Rib pontificates on developments in the Central Arkansas food scene.

By Kevin Shalin

93 CANNABIZ

Potent picks from your favorite local budtenders. By Griffin

Coop

98 THE OBSERVER

A cheeky chat with the chicken guy.

ON THE COVER: Illustration by Kasten Searles.

TODD ROSENBERG

DID YOU KNOW?

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PUBLISHER Alan Leveritt

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Austin Bailey

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Mandy Keener

SENIOR EDITOR Max Brantley

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Stephanie Smittle

MANAGING EDITOR Benjamin Hardy

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rhett Brinkley

CANNABIZ EDITOR Griffin Coop

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Daniel Grear

REPORTER Mary Hennigan REPORTER Debra Hale-Shelton

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Mara Leveritt

PHOTOGRAPHER Brian Chilson

DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL STRATEGY Jordan Little

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Wythe Walker

ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR Mike Spain

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Sarah Holderfield

DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING

Phyllis A. Britton

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Lee Major, Terrell Jacob, Kaitlyn Looney and Evan Ethridge

ADVERTISING TRAFFIC MANAGER

Roland R. Gladden

SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS PUBLISHER Brooke Wallace

IT DIRECTOR Robert Curfman

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Jackson Gladden

CONTROLLER Weldon Wilson

BILLING/COLLECTIONS Charlotte Key CHAIR MAN Lindsey Millar

PRODUCTION MANAGER Ira Hocut (1954-2009)

501-379-8275

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HOLIDAY TRADITIONS

Join host and professional DJ Mario Luna as he scours the state for the most interesting, time-tested Arkansas celebrations. In the fall episode of this new series, Luna will get the low-down on the Hindu festival of Diwali, as well as the spooky details on Halloween and Día de Los Muertos in different communities across the state. Finally, Luna will complete a Turkey Crawl as he celebrates Thanksgiving a handful of different ways, while learning the lesson –no matter the celebration, it’s better together – on “Celebrating Arkansas: Holiday Traditions.”

TUNE IN

AUG. 14 · 7 P.M. & AUG. 17 · 7 P.M.

myarpbs.org/celebratingarkansas

A MISERY OF RICHES AN ODE TO THE CANNING CLOSET.

BY ALAN LEVERITT

Arkansas Times publisher Alan Leveritt has lived on his great-grandparents’ farm in North Pulaski County for 40 years. This is the latest in a series of columns about day-to-day life on the land where he raises heirloom tomatoes and other crops for local restaurants and the Hillcrest Farmers Market.

My grandmother had a canning closet in the hallway of her old house on Adams Avenue in McGehee. From the hallway, it looked like any other closet, but when you opened the door, it was only 2 feet deep with shelves of quart Mason jars filled with okra, Kentucky Wonder pole beans and Bradley County tomatoes. As a small child, I imagined that the closet was really a secret passageway that led to a hidden garden somewhere.

I grew up in North Little Rock, and my parents’ house had a canning closet as well. Behind my father’s World War II Army uniforms were homemade shelves from floor to ceiling packed with the same Mason jars filled with Kentucky Wonders and other produce. My parents kept a garden out back, bordered on one end with a trellis covered by a sprawling Concord grape vine. In late July, my mother would hang a sheet over the doorway separating the kitchen from the rest of the house and put a big vat full of jelly grapes on to boil, and soon the smell of grape steam would fill the house. We had no air conditioning back then and despite her sheet tacked across the doorway, the rest of the house was soon as hot as the kitchen.

There was a spot out by the North

Little Rock airport that was full of wild blackberries. The summer heat would be stifling, and we would have to wear long pants with rags soaked with coal oil or some other concoction wrapped around our ankles to ward off chiggers. Between the briars, the chiggers (who were oblivious to our rag repellant) and the heat, it was pretty miserable. And snakes! What is it about blackberries that attracts snakes? That was the only time I have ever actually stepped on a snake — fortunately just a young rat snake. But we would fill our buckets with sweet, seedy berries and the juice would stain our fingers and lips. Well, maybe it wasn’t that miserable.

By summer's end, the canning closet would be full of beans and okra but also pints of grape jelly and blackberry jam, delighting my brother and me with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the coming year.

Now, I am the one putting up food: canning Kentucky Wonders and heirloom tomatoes, pressure-cooking quarts of homemade spaghetti sauce and always putting back some grape or strawberry jam.

When I was young, I remember marking the passing of each generation. When my grandparents began to die, my parents were no longer young, and I realized they would be next up. Now they are gone and I’m up. It’s the same with canning. Now it’s my turn to provide, to preserve the crop, to put it back for winter, always stocking up for the future — until it’s me that’s up.

In the 30 years or so I have been market gardening, I have never seen such plenty in

my fields. In the first month of the heirloom tomato harvest, we have picked nearly 3,000 pounds of No. 1 grade tomatoes and several hundred pounds of No. 2s. The No. 2s are the ones destined for canning, so I lop off the bug holes and split skins, turning what would be junk into something truly beautiful. I grow a deep golden tomato variety, a dark red or ‘black’ variety and a beautiful golden tomato with vivid red marbling that I grew from seed I saved from a trip to Mexico. Combined in a fruit jar, the contrasting colors are bright and vivid. I’ve put back 35 quarts so far.

I never understood why my mother and grandmother wanted to keep their summer canning in the closet. I built shelves all around the kitchen where I enjoy the company of my produce all year. When the snows come in winter, the jars are a joy to look at and when I open one of them, it smells like summer. No matter how dark and cold February is, those jars are a promise that life is going to return.

My heirloom tomato harvest has become a tsunami. First I had enough to take care of my restaurants, then I needed to go to Hillcrest Farmers Market to sell the bounty. With still more to sell, Gary Proffitt at Edwards Food Giant has been taking a couple of hundred pounds each Friday and Saturday. Meanwhile, my Kentucky Wonder vines are thick with beans. Somehow, with help from my girlfriend Suzanne, I’ve found the time to snap and string 28 quarts of pressure-canned green beans.

The words “a misery of riches” escape my lips frequently these days.

ABUNDANCE: Canning is a necessity when the summer harvest is plentiful.

ALAN LEVERITT

HARD-HITTING

Divorce brought Jessica Jones (right) to boxing. For Regina Pacek (left), she just wanted to try out a different way of staying in shape. Regardless of their motivation, chief trainer Anthony Tucker works them hard at Straightright Boxing & Fitness gym, located on Shackleford Road in Little Rock. "We train them like boxers," Tucker said. "In boxing, you never know what you will face in the ring so you need to be prepared for anything. We never do the exact same workout every time."

Photograph by Brian Chilson.

WINDGATE COLLECTION

Activities include programs about nature at night, children’s games, constellation tours, a telescopic

Special speaker Dr. Amber Staughn: “Unfolding the Universe with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope”

HUNTING SQUIRRELS WITH DIAMONDS

A Q&A WITH DAVID ELMORE OF ARKANSAS PBS.

Longtime viewers of Arkansas’s only statewide public media network may know it as AETN, but since Jan. 1, 2021, the TV station goes by Arkansas PBS. It takes a lot to keep track of all the video footage for a station that’s been on air since Dec. 4, 1966. Archivist David Elmore is getting some help with a $1.16 million grant from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council to preserve more than 50 years of Arkansas television.

What does an archivist do? I am not an archivist by training or official state title. Because I care about preserving Arkansas PBS’ long history of telling our state’s stories — and because I have a background in radio, TV and film — I have been dubbed the Arkansas PBS archivist. I am self-taught, learning from the Library of Congress and the National Archives.

Arkansas PBS received a grant to digitize thousands of recordings. How long is this expected to take? Our goal is to complete this work in one year. This work includes inventorying, digitizing and adding metadata to the digital files.

What are some recordings you're looking forward to preserving specifically? I love the 5-minute interview included in a 1971 segment of “Arkansas in Review” with a man who tells a story about his childhood on a farm in South Arkansas near Murfreesboro. In his youth (late 1890s - early 1900s), the man and his cousins hunted squirrels with a handmade “pea shooter” (aka a slingshot) using shiny rocks. This was prior to the discovery of diamonds on his uncle’s farm, which was to become, much later, the Crater of Diamonds State Park. He was probably one of the only people in history to hunt squirrels with diamonds. That’s one story among many. We look forward to discovering unknown gems in our collection. Until we fully digitize our archive, there is no telling what treasures we will uncover.

What is the overall goal of digitizing 50 years of recordings? To preserve the history of the people, places and events of Arkansas — and make that historical resource available to Arkansans, historians, documentarians, students

and anyone interested in Arkansas. Further, the collection serves as a working archive for the use of our own producers in creating new programs or program elements, allowing us to tell more local Arkansas stories. Here are two examples from our collection: We have interviews with former governors: Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, Sid McMath, Orval Faubus, Winthrop Rockefeller, Bill Clinton, Jim Guy Tucker, Mike Huckabee, Mike Beebe and Asa Hutchinson, among other local and state politicians and dignitaries. Every governor since Sid McMath has either been interviewed or we have footage of them. We have footage of multiple Christmases at the Governor’s Mansion.

We have the audio only of Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller’s memorial service for Martin Luther King Jr. This is of historical importance, as he was the only Southern governor to hold a memorial service for the slain civil rights leader in 1968.

Overall, our archives serve as a visual history of our state for more than five decades — not only with the newsmakers and the people of our state, but as a moving history of how our landscape has changed within all the communities we call home.

Any interesting stories you can share about your time with Arkansas PBS? I came here in January of 2007 and I had the luck and distinct honor to work on the “In Their Words: World War II Oral History Project.” I interviewed nearly 120 men and women from every corner of Arkansas about their service during WWII. They are among the most pleasant memories of my 38 years working in radio, TV and film. I got to meet and hear the stories of some of the finest people anyone could ever meet. Those nearly 600 stories tell tales of horror and hardship, laughter, love and sadness, ghost stories and UFOs, the beginnings of the modern age (i.e., the first missiles, jets, helicopters, the atomic bomb among just a few). These men and women were but teenagers, mostly. Teenagers! They survived the Great Depression, fought the biggest war in history, then came home and rebuilt the world. Whew! As part of this grant, the remaining 455 tapes from that project will be digitized and available for everyone to experience as I have.

—Sean Grigsby

"WE HAVE THE HONOR AND OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE THE PEOPLE OF ARKANSAS AS THE STATE’S STORYTELLER AND CHRONICLER OF HISTORY."

EPITAPH FOR A RAZORBACK ICON

RYAN MALLETT PACKED A LOT OF DAZZLE AND SWAGGER INTO HIS ALL-TOO-BRIEF LIFE.

BY BEAU WILCOX PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON

Let’s get this sappy part out of the way: I LOVE Ryan Mallett.

I speak in present tense purposely. His recent passing at age 35 on a beach trip to Florida doesn’t affect my ability to assess his legacy as a Razorback in the here and now.

What happened in the treacherous Gulf waters of the Florida panhandle on June 27 was indisputably tragic. Nobody in this Hog-addled state would have ever expected to get the breaking alert on their phones reporting Mallett’s death, and Lord knows his family and friends are far more stung than a bunch of cardinal-clad nuts could ever be.

In the midst of grief, all this diehard can offer is a batch of memories. They may mean nothing to some, but they mean so much to me — and countless others.

In 2008, juiced up on Petrino fever (even if that first team was an actual struggle bus, not merely a passenger on one), I sauntered into Fayetteville on a Saturday afternoon with one-time Arkansas Times scribe and all-time state treasure Graham Gordy. Houston Nutt, long a thorn in my fleshy side, was returning to Fayetteville as Ole Miss’ new coach.

Because Mallett was (arbitrarily, as ever) denied a waiver, he sat the 2008 season out after transferring from Michigan. Always wanting to be a Hog, the 6-foot-6 fivestar didn’t fit the mold of the traditional Arkansas quarterback, being a pure pocket passer. His path cleared, however, when Bobby Petrino replaced Nutt, and Mallett found a coach who could maximize his prodigious arm talent.

That night was an odd one in Fayetteville, with a sellout crowd boisterously and rudely welcoming Nutt back to the field he had last coached on 11 months prior. Mallett’s sideline presence became a separate sight to behold. He was absolutely, full-tilt into a game he wasn’t going to play in, and was exceedingly encouraging to incumbent starter Casey Dick after each series.

Arkansas lost that night after a controversial offensive pass interference on London Crawford sabotaged an epic fourth-quarter rally. The game showed

Mallett’s competitiveness and enthusiasm without him taking a single snap, but it also underscored the team’s need for his downfield ability.

There was, accordingly, no suspense when Petrino tabbed Mallett as the 2009 starter. He bolted out of the gate with six touchdowns and no interceptions in the first two games, then came back to Earth hard in a 35-7 loss at Alabama where he hit only 12 of his 35 attempts.

Despite some inconsistencies, Mallett started to really flourish during the final six games, five of which were Razorback wins and the only loss being an overtime defeat at LSU. Notably, he finished the year with three five-touchdown games; no Hog QB had previously thrown more than four in a contest.

Mallett threw for 30 scores and only seven picks in that 8-5 season, but his 55.8% completion rate begged for attention. And it was clear when the 2010 campaign began that he had doggedly worked on his accuracy and touch.

In fact, despite a slight uptick in interceptions (11, three coming in a bitter loss against No. 1 Alabama), he was far more polished his junior year. With a 66.5% completion rate, and significantly better performances against SEC defenses, Mallett looked like he was absolutely ready to be a pro. He guided the team to a 10-2 season and the program’s only BCS game, a hard loss in the Sugar Bowl in which Mallett’s last collegiate pass was snatched by an Ohio State defender in traffic.

Mallett wasn’t fazed, and he never, ever lacked confidence or panache. He declared for the 2011 draft, and the initial projections suggested he was a first-rounder.

After Cam Newton went first overall, Mallett watched as the likes of eventual busts Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder all came off the board in the next 13 picks. The second round opened up with Andy Dalton and Colin Kaepernick going 35 and 36, and they were far more productive than any of the aforementioned three.

Mallett was the next QB to get picked,

but it didn’t happen until the third round at pick No. 74 to the New England Patriots. When specious allegations about Mallett’s supposed “character issues” emerged in the weeks leading up to the draft, the cost was evident from the mild freefall.

He didn’t sulk a bit, though, and for a few short years got to learn from the G.O.A.T., Tom Brady. He also ingratiated himself in the Pats’ notoriously veteran-laden locker room by being an engaging presence, despite never being able to wrest away much playing time.

The Patriots opted to pick Jimmy Garoppolo in 2014, signaling their desire to go younger and more mobile at the position. Mallett got nine games of action in 2014-15, including a couple of starts, for the Texans, throwing the first five TD passes of his pro career.

Baltimore picked him up as a backup for the last three years of his time in the NFL, and Mallett had a couple of nice moments for the Ravens. By that time, however, virtually every franchise began to target dual-threat quarterbacks. And Mallett was simply too “traditional” a quarterback to sustain his career longer.

Even with some occasional hiccups in the pros, Mallett endeared himself to his teammates at every stop. Reactions to his death came swiftly across Twitter, with many of his former teammates offering sympathies and memories alike.

Mallett took the ups and downs of his playing career to the sidelines in the final years of his too-short life, scaling the high school coaching ladder. He was set to begin a second season as White Hall’s head coach, and now that district is robbed of Mallett’s engaging presence, too, though his players undoubtedly absorbed his passion for the game in their short time under his tutelage.

Number 15 stood large for a program to which he had always pledged his love. His missiles to Cobi Hamilton, Jarius Wright, Joe Adams, DJ Williams and Greg Childs won’t be leaving YouTube anytime soon, thankfully. I’ve certainly been watching them, just more wistfully than before.

Thanks for the many memories, big guy.

BELOVED NUMBER 15: In June, former Razorback and NFL quarterback Ryan Mallett died unexpectedly at the age of 35.

BY DANIEL GREAR, OMAYA JONES AND STEPHANIE SMITTLE

BECK, PHOENIX, WEYES BLOOD

FRIDAY 8/18. WALMART AMP, ROGERS. 5:45 P.M. $45-$225.

Folk rockstar Beck may technically be the biggest name on this almost festival-worthy slew of performers, but I’ve a feeling that the openers will end up outshining him. If you’ve ever been to an even remotely indie rock-tinged dance party in the last decade, you’re probably very familiar with “1901” and “Lisztomania,” outrageously infectious anthems that demand to be sung along to despite being written by a group of non-native English speakers from France called Phoenix. What you might be less aware of is that the rest of the 2009 album they come from, “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix,” is a no-skip masterpiece pretty much lacking in deep cuts, because every song feels familiar and single-destined on first listen. The other reason to come out to this show is Weyes Blood, a theatrical folk-pop singer-songwriter whose voice Pitchfork described as “so poised and precise that small deviations — an unexpected blue note, or a measured break into a slightly higher register — convey depths of feeling that would require much more demonstrative emoting from other singers.” DG

SHERVIN LAINEZ

KALEIDOSCOPE LGBTQ+ FILM FESTIVAL

THURSDAY 8/10-SUNDAY 8/13. THE STUDIO THEATRE. $30-$65.

One of the best parts about going to a film festival is getting to be among the first to see something. In addition to basking in the feeling of being ahead of the curve on the next big thing, how rare is it that you consume a movie in an utterly unfiltered fashion, before Rotten Tomatoes and the like have compromised your ability to know exactly what you really think about it? Also, a festival with a niche focus — like Kaleidoscope’s emphasis on the LGBTQ+ community — takes the dream of having trailblazing critical authority to new heights by letting you in on movies that may never reach mainstream eyes. Among dozens of shorts, including several by Arkansas filmmakers, I’m most excited for Kaleidoscope’s showing of “The Lost Boys,” a Frenchlanguage feature by Belgian director Zeno Graton depicting a queer love story between two teenagers in the harsh, intimacy-prohibitive setting of a youth correctional facility. DG

FORTUNE FEIMSTER

SUNDAY 8/20. ROBINSON CENTER. 7 P.M. $29.50-$109.

Thank goddess for “The Carol Burnett Show,” which, when a young Fortune Feimster saw it on her grandmother’s TV screen as a kid in North Carolina, launched a comedic career. With a Netflix special and a ruthless impression of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders under her belt, Feimsterʼs moved solidly from “character actor” roles to a part as a CIA agent in the Bond-esque Arnold Schwarzenegger series “FUBAR,” charming audiences with a guileless delivery and a great story about her fraught proposal to her wife, Jacquelyn Smith. She's at Robinson Center midway through a world tour that stretches from New Zealand to New Orleans. SS

FRAILSTATE, TINY TOWNS, SALON BLONDE

MONDAY 8/21. VINO’S. 8 P.M. $15.

It makes perfect sense that Frailstate, Tiny Towns and Salon Blonde — three of Arkansas’s premiere indie rock bands — are playing together at Vino’s. What’s a little more head-scratch-inducing is that the show is on a Monday, given how their collectively angsty and upbeat material is so weekend-friendly. Sure, you can listen to any of them on a weekday and have a fine time, but there’s something about the way their sadness and oomph flourishes under the influence of too many beers and the nebulous possibility of the wee hours. Maybe you’re the type who can get your body loose and heart soft without drinking or mingling long after the music stops, but you could also just go all in and call in sick on Tuesday. Consider us the charming devil on your shoulder. DG

TODD ROSENBERG

‘DIE NO DIE’

FRIDAY 8/4-SUNDAY 8/6. THE MOMENTARY, BENTONVILLE. 9 P.M. $50.

Before you even set foot in Bentonville for the world premiere of artist and choreographer Matty Davis' “Die No Die,” a special piece of mail will arrive at your door. You’re imagining some kind of playbill with plain biographical information and advertisements for other events you probably won’t go to, I suspect? Au contraire. In reality, this preparatory document — an art object in its own right — is a handcrafted map, outlining the trajectory of this series of “site-responsive” outdoor dance performances, which begins close to sundown and will move across different locations throughout the Momentary’s grounds. In it, you’ll find artful details about the “architectures, flora, types of ground, and qualities” that surround each performance, increasing the feeling that this is something you could only witness in this exact environment. DG

ARKANSAS TIMES FILM SERIES: ‘PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE’

TUESDAY 8/22. RIVERDALE 10 VIP CINEMA. 7 P.M.

Set in the late 18th century, Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019) opens with a blank canvas. As a group of people sketch while their instructor, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), poses as their model, one of the students references a painting in the room, the titular artwork. At once, we’re shuttled back in time to an isolated island off the coast of France, where Marianne has been commissioned to paint a portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), who is reluctantly betrothed to an Italian nobleman. Because a number of artists have attempted and failed to capture Héloïseʼs likeness, Marianne initially begins her work in secret, keenly observing Héloïse while posing as a hired companion and painting the details of her subject by memory. Only after she confesses her task and they decide to collaborate does the portrait start to take shape. Though many of writer and director Sciamma’s films interrogate the complicated act of looking, this one takes direct aim at the notion of the artistic muse, a tension that’s heightened by a backdrop of forbidden queer romance and the female gaze. Following last month’s screening of “Paris Is Burning,” “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is the second film selected in collaboration with William Moon, the features programmer of the Kaleidoscope LGBTQ+ Film Festival. OJ

SUMMER DEAN

SUNDAY 8/20. STICKYZ ROCK

‘N’ ROLL CHICKEN SHACK. 8 P.M. $10.

On “Lonely Girl’s Lament,” the closing track on country singer-songwriter Summer Dean’s newest album, “The Biggest Life,” shit gets real. After grumbling about how long it’s been since she was last kissed, she takes a hard look at herself over a gentle acoustic strum: “Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re 41 / You think you’d be divorced by now and done / Do you wonder back to what the hell went wrong? / Oh, but if I had my chance, I bet I’d run.” It’s a complex sentiment from Dean, one that suggests she’s surprised not that she never got married, but that she was never involved with someone for long enough for it to truly fall apart. What she seems to be realizing is that, at least for her, loneliness is less a product of circumstance and instead something she’s bringing upon herself, whether or not she means to. It’s up to her to decide if she’s going to keep courting it. Subtle truths of this kind litter Dean’s work, so don’t let yourself get too swept up by the silver wail of the pedal steel and forget to listen carefully. DG

SCOTT SLUSHER

NICOLE R. FLEETWOOD

THURSDAY 8/17. RON ROBINSON THEATER. 6:30 P.M. FREE.

The idea that prisoners make art just to pass the time is one that Nicole R. Fleetwood would shudder at. A MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient and a professor of media, culture and communication at New York University, Fleetwood has dedicated a large portion of her career to studying what she calls “carceral aesthetics,” lending the often unseen artistic expression of inmates the spotlight and analysis it deserves. In her most recent book, 2020’s “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” Fleetwood collects and dissects the highly political and innovative work of formerly and currently incarcerated people, enriching our notion of what it means to create in the midst of true desperation and offering us a window into the abolitionist vision of those behind bars. Fleetwood’s appearance at Ron Robinson Theater will be moderated by Matthew Fields, assistant professor of art at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. DG

FLORIST, SKULLCRUSHER

SATURDAY 8/19. CLAPP AUDITORIUM, FAYETTEVILLE. 8 P.M. $20-$25.

The names Florist and Skullcrusher give off entirely contradictory energy. While the former gently evokes the nurturing needed to bring colorful life into being, the latter embodies death and destruction at its most distilled. Oddly enough, both are pseudonyms for exceedingly sensitive and sonically compatible acoustic projects led, respectively, by Emily Sprague and Helen Ballentine. That said, there are plenty of different ways to be a fragile singer-songwriter. While the Florist mode is one of quiet wonder, Skullcrusher dwells in devastation, a distinction that’s got me thinking their oppositional aliases might actually be spot on. Decide for yourself at Clapp Auditorium, a rustic, pew-lined venue at the top of Mount Sequoyah in Fayetteville. DG

Image: Iwan Baan

8201 Cantrell, Suite 130, Little Rock

BAKE THE LAKE

PLANS TO DRAIN LAKE CONWAY HAVE NEIGHBORS HEATED.

BY MARY RUTH TAYLOR

On any given day, you can find Cole and Jay Harken on the water. They live right on Lake Conway, and their time is usually spent fishing in the company of great blue herons, bald cypress and water tupelos. It’s not just for recreation — their livelihood depends on it.

The Harkens make fishing content for YouTube, where they share an enthusiasm for fish and wildlife with an audience of over 250,000 people. Popular videos promise LAKE MONSTERS, ANCIENT BEASTS and MYSTERIOUS CREATURES. They travel across the state, but about 80% of their videos are filmed at home on Lake Conway.

“In our travels we’ve come to learn there’s not a whole lot better than where we’re at,” Cole Harken said.

As of Sept. 1, though, the Harkens’ home turf is going down the drain. The Arkansas

Game and Fish Commission approved plans June 15 for major renovations that will require Lake Conway to be drained completely for an estimated five years.

The project has been in the works for almost two decades, and with a price tag estimated at up to $15 million, it will be the largest undertaking in the commission’s 108-year history. The plan has three goals — replacing and modernizing infrastructure, improving aquatic habitat and improving access.

“The AGFC is not just doubling down on outdoor recreation on Lake Conway and Faulkner County, but also on the conservation ethos that existed here in the 1940s, that we know is alive and well in 2023, and so that future Arkansans can enjoy Lake Conway at its full potential,” Game and Fish Director Austin Booth said in a press release.

Though the goal of the renovations is to ultimately make the lake healthier, the news was met with considerable upset from anglers and lakeside residents. Game and Fish hosted a public forum June 26, and about 120 Conwegians showed up. (A second public meeting on June 29, in Mayflower, drew 266 people, Game and Fish said.)

One resident, Chad Blazer, just moved to Conway from Arizona last year. He selected Lake Conway for the sole purpose of being able to fish in his own backyard. With this dream temporarily thwarted, will he stick around? Blazer suspects he can’t sell the house with a swamp out back.

Another attendee, Jerry Sterling, 71, said he’s been fishing on the lake since he was about 9 years old. Sterling knows the project needs to be done, but feels sad. He doesn’t expect he’ll get to fish on the lake

NUMBERED DAYS: On Sept. 1, Lake Conway will be drained for major renovations. There are three goals — replacing and modernizing infastructure, bettering aquatic habitat and improving access.

ARKANSAS GAME AND FISH COMMISON

2023 CALS SPEAKER

CALS RON ROBINSON THEATER

Join

Marking Time explores the impact of US incarceration on contemporary visual art, highlighting artists who have been incarcerated alongside artists whose art examines US institutions and systems of confinement.

This event honors Betsey Wright.

NICOLE R. FLEETWOOD AUTHOR OF MARKING TIME

This discussion will be moderated by Matthew Fields, UAPB Assistant Professor of Art and artist of SELF-AWARENESS: AN INTRODUCTION TO LABOR.

The BridgeWay is more than a hospital-it’s a place of hope and recovery from substance use disorders and mental illness. With the belief that each person can change and heal, we offer a program and treatment plan unique to each patient. Our outpatient treatment represents our least restrictive and most flexible care options. Our Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) currently offer only daytime schedules. These options allow patients to receive recovery-focused treatment that addresses a full range of psychiatric and addictive issues while attending to daily family and work obligations. In addition, our outpatient programs provide specialized group therapy for adults 18 and older with specific mental health or substance use disorder needs.

What is the difference?

again in his lifetime, and he mourns for his grandson, who just got hooked on fishing.

When Sterling first started fishing with his dad, they couldn’t see more than 50 yards — the lake was all trees. Lake Conway has changed a lot since then. In the 75 years since the lake’s creation, the combined forces of wind, wave and residential development have caused major sediment buildup. About 3 feet of muck now lines the lake bottom, and Game and Fish estimates a third of the original water volume has been lost. This makes navigation via boat perilous in the upper two arms of the lake, and means less spawning habitat overall for fish.

The idea behind draining the lake is that once the water’s gone, the sunbaked lakebed will dry out, the sediment will compact and the decades of lost depth will be restored. New vegetation will grow and provide future habitat for fish and the foundations of a healthy food chain.

Temporarily draining the water will allow for the construction of a new dam and spillway, a necessary upgrade considering the original dam is nearing the end of its lifespan. Much more is planned for the lake, including shoreline reinforcement, updating boat lanes and adding artificial habitat and gravel spawning beds.

Booth explained this plan at the June 26 public forum and took questions from the crowd. Reactions ranged from resignation to indignation. Declining property values were top of mind. Some worried about what will become of the wildlife. Booth assured the audience that in the long term property value is expected to increase, and the majority of fish and wildlife will simply follow the water as it drains into Palarm Creek.

When asked about the gators, Booth quoted Conway Mayor Bart Castleberry: They’ll just swim on down to the Arkansas River and go visit their kin in Louisiana. This drew laughter from an otherwise tense crowd.

Speaking of mysterious creatures, no one mentioned what might become of the Lake Conway Monster, but we at the Arkansas Times think this may be a good chance to prove or disprove its existence once and for all.

Many of the people at the June 26 meeting said they were concerned by the timeline. While it depends on Mother Nature, Booth said they do not anticipate the lake refilling until 2028.

In an interview before the meeting, Game and Fish Deputy Director Ben Batten said he understands why people are upset, but he considers this project a necessary investment in the future.

“At some point something new is

Lake Conway Proposed Boat Lanes

PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS: In addition to boat lane updates, shoreline reinforcement and adding artificial habitat and gravel spawning beds, the draining of Lake Conway will allow for the construction of a new dam and spillway.

going to have to be done. We’d rather do it proactively than wait till the dam is breaking apart and the lake drains itself,” Batten said. “The nice thing about having done this before is I already know it ends well. And the lake will be more sustainable for decades to come.”

Batten was referencing the extensive renovations at Lake Poinsett in northeast Arkansas, where Game and Fish made emergency infrastructure repairs, shoreline reinforcements and both artificial and

THE IDEA BEHIND DRAINING THE LAKE IS THAT ONCE

natural habitat additions. The commission has also seen success at White Oak Lake, near Camden, where similar management created a thriving fishery.

The Commission voted July 20 to lift catch and length limits on Lake Conway. The final few months before the lake's drawdown will be an angler free-for-all.

The Game and Fish Commission has the experience to back them up, but in the court of public opinion, whether or not this plan is worth it remains to be seen. And as for Cole and Jay Harken, at least for the time being, they’ll have to move on to other waters.

GONE, THE SUNBAKED LAKEBED WILL DRY OUT, THE SEDIMENT WILL COMPACT AND THE DECADES OF LOST DEPTH WILL BE RESTORED.

WHY ARKANSAS REJECTS MORE OF ITS MAIL-IN BALLOTS THAN ALMOST ANY OTHER STATE.

BY BENJAMIN HARDY , CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS AND MARY RUTH TAYLOR

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stop the mail, they say. What happens after it arrives is another story.

Arkansas rejected about 1,100 out of the 15,000 mail-in ballots it received in the 2022 general election, according to an Arkansas Times analysis of recently published federal data — a rate of 7%, more than four times the national average and much higher than any of its neighbors that reported data. Only one other state, Delaware, rejected a higher percentage in 2022.

And Arkansas is a repeat offender. In 2020, as election officials everywhere grappled with a surge of absentee ballots due to the pandemic, the state had one of the highest rejection rates in the country, tossing around 5% of the roughly 118,000 mail-in ballots it received. In 2018, its rejection rate was between 8% and 9%, second only to New York’s.

Those figures come from the Election Administration and Voting Survey, conducted every two years by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The selfreported data is flawed: Some counties leave responses blank, turn in questionable numbers or don’t respond at all. The 2020 survey appears especially prone to errors, perhaps due to the unprecedented surge in mail-in voting that year. (The Arkansas Times directly contacted three counties that had large data discrepancies in 2020 — Pulaski, Sebastian and Crawford — to calculate a more accurate statewide rejection rate than the percentage officially reported in the 2020 survey results, 6.4%.)

While incomplete, the data gives the best snapshot available of how election operations compare across the country. It indicates Arkansas chucks out more of its absentee ballots than most other states, disenfranchising members of the military, students away at school, people unable to reach the polls for medical reasons and many others.

PERCENTAGE OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS REJECTED IN 2022

Mississippi, Alabama and Idaho did not report sufficient data for 2022 and are excluded from this figure. All data is from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission's Election Administration and Voting Survey, 2022.

What is going on here? One tempting answer is that red-state policies, championed by Republicans in the name of combating election fraud, have made it harder for people to vote. That appears to have been true in 2022, when around half of all rejected mail-in ballots in Arkansas were turned away due to a lack of photo ID — presumably the result of a state law passed in 2021 that tightened ID requirements.

But Arkansas’s rejection rate was high in previous years as well. What’s more, there’s no obvious partisan or regional pattern. Some of the states that tossed out the most mail-in ballots in recent years are solid blue, while all of the state’s Republicancontrolled neighbors tended to have lower rates than Arkansas.

Arkansas elections officials seem to have little interest in the question of why the state is an outlier. The Arkansas secretary of state’s office, the agency that maintains voter registration records and ensures compliance with federal election laws, told the Arkansas Times that responsibility for ballot acceptance or rejection rests with county-level officials.

“Any speculation as to why certain decisions were made or why certain percentages are what they are would be just that, speculation,” spokesman Chris Powell said in response to questions about the EAVS data. “As far as comparing Arkansas’s rates with those of other states, each state has separate election laws, procedures and standards as well, which can make it hard to compare or explain directly.” The office did not respond to a request for an interview with the secretary of state, Republican John Thurston.

The body responsible for training and monitoring county election officials and poll workers, the state Board of Election Commissioners, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

BRIAN CHILSON

EVERY VOTE MATTERS: In local races with tight margins, a few mail-in ballots can be decisive.

PRESUMED GUILTY

Susan Inman, who served on the Pulaski County Election Commision until resigning in April 2022 for health reasons, has some answers where the state has none. Inman speaks from years of experience: She’s served as elections chief in the secretary of state’s office, worked as an election coordinator for the state board and made two runs for secretary of state in 2014 and 2018. A Democrat, she lost soundly both times.

Arkansas’s problems start with the complexity of its “voter statement,” Inman said. This is a document that every absentee voter must fill out and return along with his or her ballot. Poll workers compare the name, address, date of birth and signature on the voter statement with the corresponding information on an application the voter filled out to request an absentee ballot.

“The voter statement, if you’ve ever looked at one, it's almost like a test,” Inman said. “If you don't put the right information in the right spot, it's a rejection. There’s no wiggle room. For instance, if the date of birth is missing, it's an absolute, flat-out rejection. If the voter doesn’t sign it, it's a flat-out rejection.”

A growing number of states, recognizing the possibility of human error in filling out paperwork, have a “cure period” to address such issues: If an absentee voter leaves off a signature, for instance, he or she is contacted and has a chance to correct the problem before the ballot is thrown out. Not in Arkansas. A mail-in voter who mistakenly leaves required information off the voter statement typically will have his or her ballot summarily tossed out by a poll worker.

Then there are gray areas: shaky signatures, nicknames instead of full names, missing ZIP codes. If rank-and-file poll workers aren’t sure how to handle a questionable submission, they pass it on to the county board of election commissioners, a three-person council tasked with sorting the wheat from the chaff on election night. Commissioners and poll workers cannot see the voter’s actual ballot when making such decisions; it is sealed in a separate, inner envelope that’s not opened until later.

State law says the information on the voter statement must “compare” with the information on the voter’s application, not necessarily match precisely, Inman said. But many poll workers and election commissioners are suspicious of anything less than an exact match.

Every local election board in Arkansas is composed of two Republicans and one Democrat. Under state law, the party holding a majority of statewide constitutional offices (governor, attorney general and so

ABSENTEE VOTER STATEMENT

THIS VOTER STATEMENT SHALL BE COMPLETED AND RETURNED IN THE MAILING ENVELOPE OR THE ABSENTEE BALLOT WILL NOT BE COUNTED

INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING ITEMS IN THE OUTER MAILING ENVELOPE:

1. My completed Voter Statement (This piece of paper)

2. Copy of my Required Photo ID

o See instructions for a list of approved photo IDs

SPECIAL REQUIREMENT FOR SOME FIRST TIME VOTERS:

If I am a newly registered voter of this county and this is the first time I am voting in this county (and I did not include my Ark. driver’s license number, the last 4 digits of my social security on my application, nor did I provide qualifying document described here), I am enclosing a copy of a current and valid photo identification card or a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows my name and address [Does not apply to UOCAVA voters.]

3. My Ballot Only Envelope Containing my Marked Ballot

Box 1: VOTER’S PRINTED NAME

MUST COMPLETE FOR YOUR BALLOT TO BE COUNTED!

RESIDENTIAL VOTING ADDRESS

I CERTIFY THIS IS THE PHYSICAL ADDRESS (IN ARKANSAS) AT WHICH I RESIDE* AND IS THE SAME ADDRESS I LISTED ON MY APPLICATION FOR AN ABSENTEE BALLOT

VOTER’S MAILING (Secondary) ADDRESS

Complete this Box if Your Ballot is Delivered by Any Third Party Other Than a Mail Service:

Printed Name of Designated Bearer, Agent, or Administrator

Signature of Designated Bearer, Agent, or Administrator

Address of Designated Bearer, Agent, or Administrator City State Zip Code

Box 5: REQUIRED ABSENTEE VOTER STATEMENT

THE INFORMATION I HAVE PROVIDED IS TRUE TO THE BEST OF MY KN OWLEDGE UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY. IF I HAVE PROVIDED FALSE INFORMATION, I MAY BE SUBJECT TO A FINE OF UP TO TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS ($10,000) OR IMPRISONMENT FOR UP TO TEN (10) YEARS, OR BOTH, UNDER FEDERAL OR STATE LAWS

YOU MUST SIGN HERE AND PLACE THIS FORM IN THE OUTER MAILING ENVELOPE FOR YOUR VOTE TO BE COUNTED!

Signature of Absentee Voter

Rev. 8/25/2021

“THE VOTER STATEMENT, IF YOU’VE EVER LOOKED AT ONE, IT’S ALMOST LIKE A TEST. … THERE’S NO WIGGLE ROOM.”

on) gets to pick two commissioners, while the minority party picks one. Inman said she sometimes clashed with her Republican colleagues over the validity of signatures on mail-in ballots.

“I’d say, ‘I think it's close enough — it’s an older person.’ And they’d say, ‘No, we're rejecting it.’ I’d object, but it didn't matter. I’m only one of three, and the majority rules in that situation,” she said.

Josh Price, the Democratic appointee to the Pulaski County Election Commission during the mad scramble of the 2020 election, said his Republican colleagues tended to assume any issue with a mail-in ballot was due to fraud, rather than simple human error. “I think that's a mentality issue here in our state,” he said. “The ballot is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.”

The state gives no specific guidelines on issues such as nicknames, and that’s a problem, Price said. “Everyone knows ‘Josh’ is ‘Joshua,’ or ‘Ben’ is ‘Benjamin,’ but if you have a unique name or a foreign name and you write your nickname, people may not know it,” he said. “My mother’s name is Terecita — she’s from the Philippines — and her nickname is Tess. If she signs ‘Tess Price,’ do we know the poll worker will equate that with ‘Terecita’?”

What about an address with a missing apartment number? Many mail-in ballots come from older voters at assisted living facilities or retirement homes — must their room number be included on the address for it to count? If a voter puts down the right street address but the wrong ZIP code, is the ballot invalid? Such choices are left up to commissioners.

To Price’s frustration, he was often overruled. “We had an 82-year-old woman who had had a massive stroke turn in a mail-in ballot and a letter from her doctor explaining her condition and a letter from her husband explaining her condition, and both letters were notarized,” he said. “Everything matched — she had the ID, had everything — and the signature was super shaky. … My two colleagues outvoted me and threw out her ballot.

“I was like, ‘Just for the record, that's disgusting.’ OK? This is someone's grandma. She's done everything she can, she’s gone out of her way to get documentation. And they're like, ‘Well, we just can't accept it.’”

One of the Republican commissioners who served alongside Price in 2020, Evelyn Gomez, declined to comment. The other, Kristi Stahr, could not be reached by press time. Both have since left the commission.

Price made an unsuccessful bid for Arkansas secretary of state in 2022, partly out of a desire to address voting rights issues like these. He now works with

Arkansas United, a group that advocates for the rights and interests of immigrants in the state.

The federal survey also asks local officials to explain why they threw out mail-in ballots, and in 2020 the top reason given in Arkansas was an issue with the voter statement. In 2018, the top reason for rejection was ballots arriving after the state’s deadline of 7:30 p.m. on election night. That cutoff time isn’t unusual among states, but it’s not exactly generous either: Laws in about 20 states allow the counting of ballots that arrive a few days late, as long as they were postmarked on or before Election Day.

The top reason mail-in ballots were rejected in 2022, however, was a lack of ID — until recently, absentee voters could submit a signed statement in lieu of making a photocopy of their ID, but a new law passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature in 2021 has removed that option.

The voter ID law does at least include a cure period, which means absentee voters who didn’t include a copy of their ID along with their ballot have until the Monday after Election Day to bring it to their county clerk. The state badly needs a similar grace period to correct problems with the voter statement form, according to the League of Women Voters of Arkansas and other plaintiffs who sued the state in federal court in 2020. The lawsuit is now awaiting a ruling by U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes.

UOCAVA VOTERS

Ibby Caputo is a journalist previously living in Arkansas who now resides in the United Kingdom. (Caputo has previously freelanced for the Arkansas Times.) She’s one of thousands of American expats who exercise their right to vote in U.S. elections under a federal law called the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, or UOCAVA, which also covers U.S. military servicemembers and their families.

UOCAVA voters — elections specialists pronounced the acronym as YOU-uh-KAHvuh — appear to have an especially hard time voting in Arkansas, according to the federal election data. In 2022, Arkansas rejected 8% of the UOCAVA ballots it received, the fifth highest in the country. The UOCAVA rejection rate for 2020 was an alarming 18%, but the data for that year contain so many errors that it’s difficult to know the true numbers.

Caputo’s experience in 2020 illustrates the roadblocks facing UOCAVA voters. What should have been a routine process ended up requiring days of back-and-forth communication with county and state elections officials, she said.

Before moving to the U.K. in early 2020,

“THIS IS SOMEONE'S GRANDMA. SHE'S DONE EVERYTHING SHE CAN, SHE’S GONE OUT OF HER WAY TO GET DOCUMENTATION. AND THEY'RE LIKE, ‘WELL, WE JUST CAN'T ACCEPT IT.’”

ZERO TOLERANCE: Susan Inman blames the state’s high numbers partly on its lack of a “cure period” for voters to correct small errors with their voter statements.

Caputo lived in Newton County, where she and her husband remain registered today. Federal law generally requires expat voters to remain registered in the last state and jurisdiction where they lived before moving abroad. Her mother-in-law and father-inlaw have also moved to the U.K. and are registered in Carroll County.

Caputo was determined to vote in the 2020 election and mailed an absentee ballot application to the Newton County clerk that September. When she discovered her application was held up in the mail, she contacted the clerk’s office for advice. A worker at the clerk’s office emailed Caputo an electronic copy of her ballot (improperly, since the office had not yet received her application) and instructed her to “just send it back to us.”

Caputo asked for further instructions — would she need a special envelope? Would she need to fill out other documents? The clerk’s office replied, “Are you wanting to mail it back or send it via email?”

This set off alarm bells for Caputo, who wondered how it could possibly be acceptable to simply email back her completed ballot with no additional security. She soon found a “Voting 101” document on the Arkansas secretary of state’s website telling voters that they “may NOT fax or email a ballot.”

Caputo then spoke to her father-in-law and realized the instructions she received from Newton County were very different than the ones he'd gotten from the clerk in neighboring Carroll County: To make sure his vote was counted, he’d need to include a voter statement, make a copy of his government-issued photo ID and print off two special envelopes — an inner one to preserve the secrecy of his ballot and an outer one to contain all the materials.

Caputo reached out to the Newton County clerk’s office again with this information. In the phone call that followed, Caputo said, the clerk shrugged off her concerns, telling her that it was up to the county election commissioners to decide what ballot counts and what doesn’t.

“I was horrified,” Caputo said. “What about civic pride and caring about voting? For me, it means something to me to have my voice heard … It seems like that’s not a value everybody has, but we should hope that in our county clerk’s office, at least, they care about that.

“You’ve got to wonder how much of that is language in national politics and the rhetoric around mail-in voting that was coming out of the president’s mouth [in 2020],” she said.

Eventually, Caputo contacted a friend in

Little Rock, who put her in touch with an Arkansas elections expert — Susan Inman, as it turns out. Inman connected Caputo with an official at the secretary of state’s elections division who finally sent her the forms and instructions she needed. On Oct. 3, she mailed off her ballot and other materials to Newton County, but she’s still not sure if her vote that year was counted.

The Newton County clerk’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Voting issues for expats and military personnel are not unique to Arkansas. The Secure Families Initiative, a group representing servicemembers and their families, said military voters nationwide were 27% less likely to have voted in 2020 than civilians, in large part because of obstacles like international mail delays and complex residency questions.

Arkansas’s tendency to reject UOCAVA ballots was “troubling,” Kate Marsh Lord, a spokeswoman for the group, told the Arkansas Times.

“Military members and their families make countless sacrifices to serve our nation — unnecessarily risking their vote should not be one of them,” she said.

Price, the former Pulaski County election commissioner, said he saw a disproportionate number of UOCAVA ballots get thrown out in the 2020 elections. In his opinion, poll workers are often confused about how to handle these ballots, which are relatively rare. (The whole state received about 2,500 UOCAVA ballots in 2020 and only about 500 in the 2022 midterms.)

“A lot of times, when the ballots come in, they’re in pretty rough shape, because they’re coming in from God knows where,” Price said. The forms used by military UOCAVA voters vary depending on the branch of service, he said, and are often poorly designed, making it hard to open them without ripping the contents. And they often include federal IDs that poll workers might not recognize as legitimate.

Caputo said she wasn’t surprised to hear Arkansas’s mail-in ballot rejection rate is among the worst in the country. After the problems she experienced with Newton County, she’d like to change her and her husband’s voter registrations to a different location, but she’s been told that’s not possible under the rules governing UOCAVA voters. They’d need to move back to a different place in Arkansas, or another state, then re-register there.

“Arkansas isn’t making it easy,” she said. “But I am determined to vote, so I will spend the time figuring out what needs to be done.”

BRIAN CHILSON

OUTVOTED: Democrat Josh Price, who served on the Pulaski County Election Commission in 2020, said his Republican colleagues insisted on rejecting mail-in ballots with minor flaws.

“YOU’VE GOT TO WONDER HOW MUCH OF THAT IS LANGUAGE IN NATIONAL POLITICS AND THE RHETORIC AROUND MAIL-IN VOTING THAT WAS COMING OUT OF THE PRESIDENT’S MOUTH [IN 2020].”

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A PENNY SAVED

TIPS FOR STRETCHING YOUR COLLEGE DOLLAR.

THE FAFSA

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), is a form every student must fill out in order to get federal financial aid for college. The form gathers the student’s individual and family information, particularly as it applies to finances, as a way to determine how much the family can put toward college costs, and therefore how much financial aid you qualify for.

Completing the FAFSA puts you in the running for federal grants, work-study funds and loans issued by the government. It’s also generally required to be eligible for state-level funding and by most colleges and universities to determine eligibility for financial assistance available through individual schools.

To access the FAFSA, or to learn more, visit studentaid.gov.

STACKABLE CREDENTIALS

Stackable credentials are a good way to get a jump on a career and earn money while you finish your degree, thereby cutting down the amount you have to borrow. Stackable credentials are generally offered in technical fields at a 2-year school, but a growing number of 4-year institutions are offering them as well.

It works like this: The student earns a short-term certificate, for instance in cybersecurity, which takes far less time and money than even a 2-year associate degree. The certificate is generally enough for the student to land a job in the field. If the student chooses to return to school at a later time to complete their degree, they generally get credit for the stackable credential, reducing their class load.

CONCURRENT CREDIT

One of the biggest potential savers of time and money in college is taking advantage of concurrent credit, also known as dual credit. These are actual college courses the student takes while still in high school, generally offered free or at a deep discount over taking the same classes as a college student.

High schools generally partner with local colleges and universities to offer dual credit. Those students who really take advantage of the program can cut their time in college considerably — some students have even earned their 2-year associate degree while still in high school, at a fraction of the cost. While those are the exception, it’s not uncommon for a student to get a full year’s college coursework done by the time they reach high school graduation.

Dual credits are not accepted at every college or university, so be sure to check with schools you are considering to see if they will honor your credits. If your school does not have a formal arrangement with a local college for dual credits, contact the college directly; some have dual credit programs for ambitious high school students who ask.

STRETCHING YOUR DOLLARS

The college experience is a training ground for the real world and this applies to your spending habits. A lack of financial smarts can cost you big time in college, upping your debt and making it difficult to cover your bills. Here are some common-sense things to consider:

RENT TEXTBOOKS

College textbooks are a huge expense and a real shock to the system after years of getting school books for free. Consider renting to save money or go online to bypass the campus bookstore and deal directly with another student. Just be absolutely sure you’re getting the exact book required by the class.

GET A ROOMMATE

Having your own dorm room or apartment is great, but it always costs more. Take the time to explore getting a roommate to share expenses. Who knows, you might just make a friend for life.

AVOID PLASTIC

Credit cards are convenient and easy to get, especially for college students. Be careful; read the fine print as many of the offers you get at this age are high-interest cards that can put you in the hole early and damage your long-term credit.

THINGS ADD UP

We all like to treat ourselves from time to time. But it’s easy to lose track of just how fast your morning caramel macchiato, trips to the drive-thru or the movies can add up. Unless you have unlimited funds from First Bank of Mom & Dad, create a budget and stick to it.

“Look for alternative ways that may be available to help pay college expenses and take advantage of those. If available, get a work-study job or, as you advance in your program, seek out paid internships with employers where you can get on-the-job experience and make a little money.”

— TIMOTHY WEBB, MARKETING COORDINATOR, NATIONAL PARK COLLEGE

TIP

PULASKI COUNTY PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE OR HIGHER (LEADS THE STATE)

IS IT WORTH IT?

Between skyrocketing tuition costs, staggering student debt and the rise of the gig economy, many people have begun to question the need for a college degree when it comes to job satisfaction and economic success. And, while higher education has certainly changed its tactics, especially with the rise in online coursework, which accelerated during the pandemic, the underlying value of a college degree still cannot be disputed.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports for individuals 25 and over who work fulltime the differences in earning potential by education are striking. Those with a high school diploma or less average $717 a week, about $250 less than a person with an associate degree and about half that of a person with a bachelor’s degree. Holders of bachelor’s degrees also outearned the average of all workers by almost $300 a week.

If that doesn’t sound like much, consider how these add up over time. It’s long been said degree holders earn about $1 million more than diploma holders, but a report released last year by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce said it’s actually more than that. Adults with a bachelor’s degree, findings showed, earn an average of $2.8 million during their careers, $1.2 million more than the median for workers with a high school diploma.

In Arkansas, the difference in pay takes a little while to align after graduation. In the first year, associate degree holders can actually earn more than bachelor’s degree holders, substantially so depending on the field. By Year 3 the gap has closed overall and by Year 5, bachelor’s degree holders are comfortably ahead of associate degree holders. In fact, depending on the job field, bachelor’s degree holders aren’t that far behind those with master’s degrees, on average.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

SEVEN SCHOLARSHIPS FOR ARKANSAS COLLEGE STUDENTS.

1. Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship (ACST)

• Open to traditional and nontraditional students.

• Minimum GPA required to maintain funding.

• Amount grows the longer you stay in school.

• Worth $14,000 over four years or $4,000 for a 2-year degree.

2. Arkansas Future Grant (ARFUTURE)

• Open to anyone who graduated from an Arkansas high school, home school or GED program, or who has a high school diploma and has lived in the state for three years.

• Applies to students enrolled in STEM fields or regional high-demand areas of study.

• Covers tuition and fees for qualifying certificate and associate degree programs at Arkansas’s public institutions.

3. Arkansas Health Education Grant (ARHEG)

• Open to students seeking to attend graduate school in one of several health care fields at out-of-state institutions.

• Eligible fields include chiropractic medicine, dentistry, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatric medicine and veterinary medicine

4. Arkansas Workforce Challenge (AWC)

• Open to any graduate of an Arkansas high school, home school or GED program or any individual with a high school diploma who has lived in the state for one year.

• Limited to students pursuing a degree in the high-demand field of information technology, health care and industry.

DID YOU KNOW?

$4,815

AVERAGE AMOUNT IN LOANS TAKEN OUT PER YEAR BY A 2-YEAR COLLEGE STUDENT IN ARKANSAS

(SOURCE: WORDSRATED.COM, 2023)

$6,896

AVERAGE AMOUNT IN LOANS TAKEN OUT PER YEAR BY A 4-YEAR COLLEGE STUDENT IN ARKANSAS

(SOURCE: WORDSRATED.COM, 2023)

• Awards $800 per program, applicable to both credit and non-credit-bearing programs.

5. Arkansas Concurrent Challenge (CCS)

• Open to qualified Arkansas high school students.

• For use to defray costs of concurrent (dual) courses.

• Awards $125 per eligible course.

6. Governor’s Higher Education Transition Scholarship (GHETS)

• Open to students who have been accepted into a transitional program accredited by The Institute for Community Inclusion as Comprehensive Training Programs.

• Qualifying programs include HOWL (Arkansas State University Jonesboro); ACAP (Southeast Arkansas Community College); EMPOWER (University of Arkansas) and 3D (University of Arkansas at Pulaski Technical College).

• Awards $2,500/eligible semester

7. Law Enforcement Officers’ Dependents Scholarship (LEO)/ Military Dependents Scholarship (MDS)

• Provides waiver of tuition, fees and room at any public college, university or technical institute in Arkansas for dependents and spouses of fallen law enforcement and military members.

• LEO is open to dependents and spouses of Arkansas law enforcement officers, some Arkansas Department of Transportation employees and other public employees killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty.

• MDS is open to dependents and spouses of Arkansans killed, missing in action or who were prisoners of war or who are totally and permanently disabled.

For complete details and application guidelines visit sams.adhe.edu

noun /prīd/

a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s achievements

Scan here to APPLY!

AMENITIES

WHAT’S RIGHT FOR ME?

$25,712/year

(in-state, public/private average, based on 2022-2023 academic year costs)

$16,992/year

(in-state, based on 2022-2023 academic year costs)

• Generally offer more degrees across a wider spectrum of academic fields.

• Usually do not offer trade-specific coursework (welding, plumbing, carpentry).

• Generally bachelor’s is the minimum degree offered.

• Some 4-year schools, but not all, offer graduate-level degrees (master’s, doctorate).

• Offer room and board options; some may require living on-campus for a portion of time.

• May also offer off-campus living facilities.

• Multiple clubs and organizations, intercollegiate athletics, recreation/ entertainment are all common at 4-year schools.

• On-campus physical and mental health services are generally included as part of student fees.

• Generally focus on work-ready education.

• May have transfer agreements with 4-year schools easing transfer of credits for students seeking to finish bachelor’s degree.

• Offer associate degrees as well as a variety of certificate and nondegree training, some of which can be completed in a few weeks.

• Do not offer graduate-level coursework.

• College-owned on- and off-campus living options relatively rare.

• May offer meal options, such as a pay-as-youdine cafeteria.

• Clubs and organizations are offered, but may not be as numerous as 4-year schools.

• Once uncommon, intercollegiate sports programs are becoming more numerous at 2-year schools.

• On-campus physical and mental health services are generally included as part of student fees.

CollegeTuitionCompare.com

—SAM STRASNER, DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY RELATIONS, ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY

“Attending Arkansas Tech University for four years provides the full college experience and enhanced opportunities to build a deeper and more meaningful network that can benefit you professionally and personally for the remainder of your life. Qualifying students who enroll at ATU immediately following high school are able to access 4-year academic scholarships that may significantly defray their cost of attendance.”

— SAM STRASNER, DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY RELATIONS, ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY

Includes tuition, fees, room and board, books and other estimated living expenses as applicable.

WELCOME BEAR TO

COUNTRY.

The University of Central Arkansas delivers more than you ever imagined, all more accessible than ever. Explore 130+ programs and certificates. Lots of housing options. Top facilities, like the brand-new Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts. And opportunities to pursue your

WHY CONSIDER A TWO-YEAR SCHOOL?

BIGGER ISN’T ALWAYS BETTER.

Two-year colleges have enjoyed a surge of popularity in recent years as many community colleges have upped their game when it comes to facilities, curriculum and amenities. But don’t take our word for it ― check out the schools below and learn three things about these colleges that help them stand out from the competition. To learn more, see the college and university profiles in the back of the 2023 Arkansas Times College Guide

ARKANSAS NORTHEASTERN COLLEGE

Blytheville | anc.edu

• ANC offers the lowest tuition and mandatory fees in the state ($75/credit hour). This means less money out of your pocket and less student debt to pay back later.

• The college boasts the highest salary among graduates at both the one-year and five-year marks. ANC grads average $55,000 in starting salary, better than other Arkansas schools’ graduates, including 4-year institutions.

• Graduates of its Steel Industry Technology program enjoy 100% full-time job placement and average starting salary of $95,000. Explosive growth in nearby steel mills will keep ANC graduates in high demand.

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY THREE RIVERS

Malvern | asutr.edu

• For ASU Three Rivers graduates looking to finish their bachelor’s degree, the school’s 2+2 Articulation Agreements guarantee their general education core courses will be accepted by 4-year schools, including partner schools Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, University of Central Arkansas in Conway and University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

• Despite its small size, ASU Three Rivers offers almost 20 institutional scholarships ranging in value from $200 per course to $4,000 per semester, up to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship, which pays tuition for two semesters.

• The school offers the federally funded TRIO program to provide free tutoring, disability assistance, special events and personal, career and academic counseling to students who need it.

EAST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE Forrest City | eacc.edu

• Get your game face on! EACC offers four intramural sports during the year, allowing students to lace ‘em up in flag football, basketball, volleyball and softball.

• The college is part of the Eastern Arkansas Literacy Project, offering free literacy and English as a Second Language tutoring to Arkansas residents age 18 and up. Already proficient? Volunteer to tutor another and change a life forever.

• The 33,000-square-foot EACC Fine Arts Center is one of only three Class A performance halls in Arkansas. It features a 1,100-seat auditorium with a 2,900-square-foot, state-of-the-art stage, plus banquet and catering facilities.

NATIONAL PARK COLLEGE Hot Springs | np.edu

• Guaranteed results! If an NPC graduate transfers to a 4-year school and is found to lack a specific skill, or if an employer hires an NPC graduate that lacks a specific skill after completing one of NPC’s degree or certificate programs, the college will retrain them tuition-free.

• Unlike many 2-year schools, National Park College offers campus housing. Dogwood Hall is a new three-story on-campus student housing community offering 52 fully furnished apartments. And more housing is on the way!

• More than 92% of NPC students received financial aid. Last year, that amounted to about $8 million in financial aid and scholarships.

SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS COLLEGE Pine Bluff | seark.edu

• SEARK offers Career Pathways, a grant-funded program that helps eligible students overcome barriers to their education. The program can provide gas vouchers, books, help with child care and even tuition.

• Students, faculty and staff can access Seabrook, the campus/community recreation center, at no charge. Seabrook features basketball courts, a workout room, softball fields and more.

• Engage your community and fellow students through the President’s Leadership Class. PLC challenges participants to become critical and innovative thinkers, committed to action in service to the greater good.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASPULASKI TECHNICAL COLLEGE

North Little Rock | uaptc.edu

• A leader in creative academic programming, UA-PTC offers four campuses offering courses in everything from business and trades to culinary arts and aviation maintenance.

• The school is dedicated to supporting diversity and inclusion, a commitment that includes a number of initiatives utilizing the arts, academics and social activities.

• The school offers a full slate of financial aid, including scholarship programs for single mothers and students with learning disabilities, just to name a couple.

ARKANSAS NORTHEASTERN COLLEGE

WHERE YOU HEADED?

DEGREES IN DEMAND

LOOK TO THESE MAJORS TO HELP YOU LAND THE HIGH-PAYING JOB OF YOUR DREAMS.

NURSE PRACTITIONER ENTRY LEVEL EDUCATION:

Master’s degree, plus licensure

JOB GROWTH OUTLOOK 2021-2031:

40% increase

MEDIAN PAY (ARKANSAS):

$107,000

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Nurse practitioners (and the related fields of nurse anesthetist and nurse midwife), coordinate patient care and may provide primary and specialty health care. They work in a variety of health care settings, including hospitals, physicians' offices, and clinics.

EDUCATIONAL FIELD: Nursing

MATHEMATICIAN/STATISTICIAN ENTRY LEVEL EDUCATION:

Master's degree

JOB GROWTH OUTLOOK 2021-2031:

31% increase

MEDIAN PAY (NATIONALLY):

$96, 300

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Mathematicians and statisticians analyze data and apply computational techniques to solve problems in government or scientific research and development companies. People in this role may work on teams with engineers, scientists and other specialists.

EDUCATIONAL FIELD: Mathematics, statistics

DATA SCIENTIST

ENTRY LEVEL EDUCATION:

Bachelor’s degree

JOB GROWTH OUTLOOK 2021-2031: 36% increase

MEDIAN PAY (NATONALLY):

$101,000

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Data scientists use analytical tools and techniques to extract meaningful insights from data. They also develop algorithms and models to support programs for machine learning and use data visualization software to present their findings.

EDUCATIONAL FIELD: Mathematics, statistics, computer science

WEB DEVELOPER/DIGITAL DESIGNER

ENTRY LEVEL EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree

JOB GROWTH OUTLOOK 2021-2031: 23% increase

MEDIAN PAY (ARKANSAS):

$43,000 web developer/$56,000 digital designer

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Web developers create and maintain websites. Digital designers develop, create and test website or interface layout, functions and navigation for usability. Some work for companies providing these services, while others work in publishing and advertising, and still others work for themselves.

EDUCATIONAL FIELD: Computer science or programming, web design, digital design, art/graphic arts

INFORMATION SECURITY ANALYST

ENTRY LEVEL EDUCATION:

Bachelor’s degree, plus professional certification

JOB GROWTH OUTLOOK 2021-2031:

35% increase

MEDIAN PAY (ARKANSAS): $92,000

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Information security analysts plan and carry out security measures to protect an organization’s com puter networks and systems. Most analysts work for computer companies, consulting firms or directly for a range of businesses.

EDUCATIONAL FIELD:

Computer science, engineering or mathematics, along with related work experience

Transfer Degrees

UA-PTC’s

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES MANAGERS

ENTRY LEVEL EDUCATION:

Bachelor’s degree

JOB GROWTH OUTLOOK 2021-2031:

28% increase

MEDIAN PAY (ARKANSAS): $95,000

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Medical and health services managers plan, direct and coordinate the business activities of health care providers. Most work in health care facilities, including hospitals, nursing homes and group medical practices.

EDUCATIONAL FIELD:

Common majors for medical and health services managers include health administration, nursing and business, combining such coursework as health services management, accounting, budgeting and health informatics

university transfer degrees are the smart and a ordable way to start a four-year degree!

LOGISTICIAN

ENTRY LEVEL EDUCATION:

Bachelor’s degree

JOB GROWTH OUTLOOK 2021-2031:

28% increase

MEDIAN PAY (ARKANSAS):

$71,000

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Logisticians analyze and coordinate an organization’s supply chain — the system that moves a product from supplier to consumer.

EDUCATIONAL FIELD:

Logisticians typically major in logistics, supply chain management or business, studying operations, database management and system dynamics.

PHYSICIAN’S ASSISTANT

ENTRY LEVEL EDUCATION:

Master’s degree, plus licensure

JOB GROWTH OUTLOOK 2021-2031: 28% increase

MEDIAN PAY (ARKANSAS): $68,000

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Physician assistants examine, diagnose and treat patients under the supervision of a physician. They work in physicians’ offices, hospitals, outpatient clinics and other health care settings.

EDUCATIONAL FIELD:

Health care majors such as those for medical assistants or EMT/paramedics, biology or other coursework that pertains to patient care

HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGISTS/ MEDICAL REGISTRARS

ENTRY LEVEL EDUCATION:

Associate degree

JOB GROWTH OUTLOOK 2021-2031:

17% increase

MEDIAN PAY (ARKANSAS):

$59,000

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Health information technologists and medical registrars advise organizations on computerized health care systems and analyze clinical data. Individuals in these jobs usually work in an office setting and may spend many hours at a computer.

EDUCATIONAL FIELD:

Health information management or another health care and related field, computer and information technology. High school courses that are helpful to prepare for this job include anatomy and physiology, biology computer science and math.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY ASSISTANTS

ENTRY LEVEL EDUCATION:

Associate degree, plus field work

JOB GROWTH OUTLOOK 2021-2031: 25% increase

MEDIAN PAY (ARKANSAS): $70,600

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Occupational therapy assistants and aides help patients develop, recover, improve and maintain skills needed for daily living and working. These individuals work primarily in occupational therapists’ offices, in hospitals and in nursing care facilities.

EDUCATIONAL FIELD:

Occupational therapy assistant degrees, which typically include subjects such as psychology, biology and pediatric health. High school courses that apply here include biology and health education.

during supervised clinical work.

RESPIRATORY THERAPISTS

ENTRY LEVEL EDUCATION: Associate degree, plus licensure

JOB GROWTH OUTLOOK 2021-2031:

14% increase

MEDIAN PAY (NATIONALLY):

$60,500

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Respiratory therapists care for patients who have trouble breathing because of a chronic condition such as asthma.

EDUCATIONAL FIELD: Respiratory therapy program, plus pass a licensing exam. Helpful courses to take in high school include biology, algebra, chemistry and physics.

IN HIGH DEMAND: MENTAL HEALTH WORKERS

METHODIST FAMILY HEALTH

A Century of Service, One Patient at a Time.

Methodist Family Health has more than a century of experience helping Arkansas children and their families who are abandoned, abused, neglected and struggling with psychiatric, behavioral, emotional and spiritual issues.

Recently identified by Gallagher’s 2022 U.S. Benefits Strategy & Benchmarking Survey as excelling in optimizing employee and organizational well-being, Methodist Family Health's team includes social workers, therapists, pastoral care directors, teachers, behavioral instructors, doctors, nurses, behavioral instructors and so many more.

If you love children and want to see them thrive, Methodist Family Health has a position for you — parttime during college, fulltime after graduation and contract positions for those who qualify at locations throughout the state. When you work at Methodist Family Health, you help us provide the best possible care to those who may need our help. In fact, the average tenure of our more than 400 employees is seven years. And, almost a third of all employees have had careers with Methodist Family Health for 10 years or more.

We offer competitive wages, sign-on and retention bonuses for applicable positions, excellent opportunities for advancement, tuition assistance, public service loan forgiveness, a complete suite of health, life and disability insurance, employee assistance program, 401(k) with employer match, telemedicine, generous personal time off, a wellness program including a discount on joining 10 Fitness, and appreciation events to honor employees throughout the year.

VETERINARY TECHNOLOGISTS/TECHNICIANS

ENTRY LEVEL EDUCATION: Bachelor’s or Associate degree, plus credentialing

JOB GROWTH OUTLOOK 2021-2031:

20% increase

MEDIAN PAY (NATIONALLY):

$32,500

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Veterinary technologists and technicians do medical tests that help diagnose animals’ injuries and illnesses. They work in private clinics, laboratories and animal hospitals.

EDUCATIONAL FIELD:

Veterinary technologists and technicians must complete a postsecondary program in veterinary technology. Technologists usually need a 4-year bachelor’s degree and technicians need a 2-year associate degree. Typically, both technologists and technicians must pass a credentialing exam, depending on the state where they work.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Methodist Family Health’s mission is to provide the best possible care to those who may need our help. We were founded in 1899 as the Arkansas Methodist Orphanage. As the orphanage system moved into the foster care system, Methodist Family Health moved with it, establishing group homes for orphans and foster children. When the need arose for shortterm, inpatient care for children who are a danger to themselves, someone else or both, Methodist Family Health founded the Methodist Behavioral Hospital in Maumelle, the state’s only nonprofit behavioral health hospital for children.

Today, this continuum of care contains both inpatient and outpatient care to fit the needs of Arkansas children and their families who need psychiatric, behavioral, emotional and spiritual treatment, therapy and support. Methodist Family Health is a complete continuum of care that provides a range of treatment and therapy options for our patients and their families, such as:

• Methodist Behavioral Hospital (inpatient)

• Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities (PRTFs) (inpatient)

• Qualified Residential Treatment Programs (QRTPs or group homes) (inpatient)

• Arkansas Center for Addictions Research, Education and Services (Arkansas CARES) (inpatient)

• Day Treatment School (outpatient)

• Counseling (outpatient)

• Kaleidoscope Grief Center (outpatient)

A patient can enter our continuum of care through any of our programs and, depending on the need, a person can move from any program to another in order to make progress on his or her terms.

To learn more about Methodist Family Health, available positions, or how we can help you during your college career, contact Info@MethodistFamily. org or call 501-661-0720.

PREPARE YOURSELF

COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ADVICE TO INCOMING FRESHMEN.

“At first it is going to feel weird whenever you get to college. You’re just going to feel out of place, but you need to try to embrace that and just jump right in. A-State is open to trying new things and it’s open to every kind of student that there is.”

LUKE GRIFFIN | FINANCE | ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

“Make college count. We all want the degree and to have good grades to get on with our lives, but it is important to also live in the moment. There are plenty of clubs and organizations on campus to get involved in, so find your people on campus and make it your home. Once you become more comfortable, school stops feeling so much like school and really does begin to feel like home and friends start to feel like family.”

ABIGALE BRANTNER | BIOLOGY WITH A PRE-MED CONCENTRATION | LYON COLLEGE

“I think most people come into college wanting to reinvent themselves but inevitably settle back into the comfort of conformity. Find the confidence to be unapologetically authentic, and the good times and good people will come your way.”

CAMPBELL CHRISTIANSEN | STUDIO ART/FILM | HENDRIX COLLEGE

“College is your second home and everyone is ready to help you, but the main role falls on you. From the first day, read your syllabus, make a schedule for due dates, do your assignments, go to your classes early and email your professor with any questions. Don't wait until the last minute to do your assignments and ask questions.”

RANA OLWAN | COMPUTER SCIENCE MAJOR | UA LITTLE ROCK

EXPECT MORE FOR YOUR FUTURE WITH UA LITTLE ROCK

At UA Little Rock you can immerse yourself in a vibrant campus community, explore exciting internship opportunities, and receive personalized support every step of the way. Plus, with a two-year 1/2 off tuition scholarship, you can pursue your dreams while keeping college costs in check. With UA Little Rock, you can expect more value, more adventures, and a future full of opportunity.

Scan for more information or visit ualr.edu/admissions

HOME SWEET DORM

HOW TO SURVIVE LIVING ON CAMPUS.

Moving onto campus is an exciting part of the college experience and the launchpad for the next four years. But most freshmen don’t know what they don’t know about dorm life, leading them to bring too much, think too little and run afoul of roomie and neighbor alike. Fear not ― the following hacks and tips are designed to make your first year of school comfortable and harmonious.

DO’S DON’TS

DO KNOW THE RULES.

Each school has specific guidelines for what students can and can’t have in a dorm room, from cooking to electronics to decor ― KNOW THESE and abide by them.

DO TOUR A ROOM AT LEAST ONCE BEFORE MOVE-IN DAY.

A campus tour is a great time to see what will fit and what to leave at home, if bathrooms are shared or private, and what the laundry setup is.

DO ALLOW A FULL DAY TO MOVE IN.

Move-in day is hot, crowded and takes twice as long as you expect. Allow lots of time and maintain patience.

DON'T BE AN IDIOT.

Campus security measures are in place for a reason, so never loan your card key to someone or prop open doors or leave your room or car unlocked. Common sense can save the day!

DON’T BE “THAT” ROOMMATE.

College may be the first time you’ve had to share space with someone, so mind your housekeeping and respect the other person’s space and property.

DON’T OVERBUY!

This isn’t a house, an apartment or even all your own space. This is a single room, often shared with another person. Bring the minimum and add to it as needed after school starts.

3 GENIUS HACKS

1. Always have a consult with your roommate before move-in day. Negotiate who’s bringing what, especially concerning furniture, mini-fridge or other appliances that can be shared.

2. Always keep the plastic bags from grocery or Walmart runs — they take almost no space and there are a thousand uses for those things.

3. Sleep is golden in college; invest in blackout curtains and noise-canceling headphones to drown out the neighbors.

DATA SCIENCE & DATA ANALYTICS

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT

SPORTS MEDIA PRODUCTION

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

MATERIALS HANDLING

KNOW YOUR NUMBERS ADJUSTING

TO COLLEGE LIFE.

No matter how much you’re looking forward to going to college and all the new freedoms and independence that comes with it, the facts are that this change of life can bring students new and unfamiliar challenges.

The following are some of the not-so-great statistics about college that every new student should be aware of:

• Last year, Boston University researchers released the findings of a massive study involving 350,000 college students across 300 campuses over eight years. The report compared mental health data from 2013 to 2021and found an overall 135% increase in depression and 110% increase in anxiety. Moreover, the number of students who met the criteria for one or more mental health problems in 2021 had doubled from 2013.

Meanwhile, the American Psychological Association noted during the 2020-21 school year that more than 60% of college students met the criteria for at least one mental health problem, according to the Healthy Minds Study, which collects data from 373 campuses nationwide.

• People have long warned new college students about the Freshman 15 ― supposedly the average number of pounds a freshman gains during their first year of all-nighters and all-you-can-eat cafeteria meal plans. The good news is, as U.S. News and World Report noted last year, that’s largely a myth, with the more realistic weight gain being five pounds or less. The bad news is, eating disorders and fad or extreme diets have taken root in the college demographic.

The risk of developing an eating disorder increases during periods of transition or stress in life, and when you throw in the desire to fit into a new environment and the overall obsession Americans have with so-called ideal body types, its easy to fall into unhealthy behaviors.

• College life is widely portrayed as being one and the same with partying, and while stereotypes need to be taken with a grain of salt, there’s no question that alcohol and drugs are a problem on college campuses from coast to coast. The 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found about one-third of college students aged 18-24 in the United States reported binge-drinking in the past month. About 1 in 5 college-aged adults reported using illicit drugs such as heroin, cocaine and crack in 2014, and about half report using marijuana regularly.

• Overall, the news is good regarding campus crime. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, on-campus crimes decreased 20% between 2009 and 2019. However, when looked at categorically, the view isn’t quite so rosy. Forcible sex offenses increased from 2,500 to 11,800 during the same period, according to the 2021 Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety. Hate crimes have also spiked, with 757 such offenses reported, more than half centered on race. And stalking also appears to be on the rise, with one study reporting nearly 4 in 10 college students having been stalked.

Colleges and universities have recognized the problems that affect students, from addiction to mental and emotional health and physical safety. Throughout the school profiles in the back of this issue of College Guide, you can read how schools across Arkansas are investing more than ever in security and the medical and mental health resources to assist students who are struggling in their transition to college or managing their decisions once they get there.

TIPS FOR STAYING SAFE AT SCHOOL

TAKE

BE CAREFUL WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.

A SELF-DEFENSE COURSE.

AVOID ALCOHOL OR DRUGS, ESPECIALLY AMONG STRANGERS.

BE ALERT OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS.

LOCK DOORS AND SECURE BELONGINGS.

Be distraction free when you’re behind the wheel.

archildrens.org/safedriving

DRIVE NOW, TALK/TEXT LATER

Driving Distracted Poses Serious Danger to Teens

Heading off to college is an exciting time in a young person’s life. The anticipation of new experiences, the promise of new friendships and as-yet unexplored personal freedoms add up to a big adventure for many college students.

Sadly, many of these experiences will be cut short as a result of traffic fatalities. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A significant number of those crashes are the result of driving while distracted.

Teens injured in an accident in Arkansas are likely to be treated at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) in Little Rock or Arkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW) in Springdale, which is why the state’s leading pediatric health system has partnered with the Arkansas Highway Safety Office to end distracted driving.

Marisha DiCarlo, vice president of community engagement, advocacy, and health at Arkansas Children's, heads the organization’s injury prevention work

“Whether it’s through our car seat safety program for very young children or ensuring teens know the risks of distracted driving, Arkansas Children’s is committed to improving the health and well-being of every child in the state,” DiCarlo said.

The CDC lists these as examples of distractions:

• using a navigation system

• eating

• sending a text

• talking on a cell phone

Other sources add to the list:

• applying makeup

• interacting with passengers

• reading

• adjusting the radio

In recent years, cell phone use has risen to the top of those concerns, partly because data from cell phone towers enables researchers to track cell phone use at the time of accidents. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) conducts and shares research related to traffic safety. According to IIHS reports, the research on talking on a cell phone while driving is inconclusive. However, the data is clear on texting while driving — “crash risk was 2 to 6 times greater when drivers were manipulating a cellphone.”

One of the most chilling statistics regarding the dangers of distracted driving comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which reports, “About 1 in 5 of the people who died in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2019 were not in vehicles — they were walking, riding their bikes or otherwise outside a vehicle.”

Because of these dangers, it is illegal to text and drive in Arkansas, regardless of the driver’s age. For drivers under the age of 18, the law is stricter and prohibits all cell phone use. The maximum fine for texting while driving is $250 for the first offense and up to $500 for subsequent offenses. Organizations including Arkansas Children’s and the NHTSA focus on promoting safe driving through education and awareness.

“U Drive. U Text. U Pay.” is NHTSA’s national campaign highlighting the dangers of using a cell phone while driving. NHTSA has also sponsored billboard design competitions that generate ads ranging from the serious (“Text and Drive” sponsored by a funeral home) to clever wordplay (“Driving? Park your phone.”)

While billboards and ads help build awareness of the issue, putting aside a phone is easier said than done. Cell phones are addictive and the urge to check a text or scroll through social media is powerful. To combat those urges, and keep the roads safe for those inside cars and those ‘otherwise outside a vehicle,’ recommendations include putting the phone in the trunk or using smartphone apps that mute notifications while in a moving vehicle.

According to the CDC, distracted driving is the cause of about 3,000 deaths a year. Arkansas Children’s and the Arkansas Highway Safety Office are asking teens in the state to be a part of reducing those numbers.

Check out more road safety tips at archildrens.org/safedriving.

NEVER TOO EARLY A HIGH SCHOOLER’S YEAR-BY-YEAR GUIDE TO

PREPARING FOR COLLEGE.

Ask any high school freshman what their plans are after graduation and most will simply look back with a blank stare (as will some sophomores, juniors and, yes, sadly, even seniors). After all, most freshmen are just trying to find their classrooms, adjust to coursework and get into step with high school. Compared to that, college feels like a long time off. But the facts are, high school goes by quickly and, before you know it, you’ll be an upperclassman who really needs a game plan for the next step. The following recommendations are taken from a checklist at collegesofdistinction.com, detailing some of the things to do each year to take the stress out of preparing for college.

FRESHMAN YEAR

Your first step is to set the right expectations for yourself. Few freshmen have their lives completely mapped out, so don’t compare yourself to others. Even the kids who think they’ve got it figured out can change their minds over the next four years. And that’s OK; the point is to get the thought process rolling by covering some basic steps of planning and assessing your goals and interests. This year:

Meet with your school counselor

As the resident expert in all things college and career, your school counselor can provide you with a wealth of general information on how to make the most of high school, and help you start connecting the dots between what you like to do and what you’re good at (see next point).

Perform a self-evaluation

Nobody knows you better than you do when it comes to your likes, talents, goals and dreams. There are plenty of talent and skills assessment tools out there (ask your counselor) that can bring your future a little clearer into focus. Again, this isn’t set in stone, but it can at least give you a start.

Get involved

High school is more than what happens in the classroom, so find some extracurricular activities to get involved in (both at school and in the community). Not only does this teach you time management and develop leadership skills, it’s a great way to make new friends and experience new things. Plus, many colleges and universities look for students with volunteer and extracurricular participation as a marker of future success.

SOPHOMORE YEAR

By sophomore year, high school will likely feel very different than it did just 12 months earlier. You know your way around, you’ve lived through your classes and maybe even joined a club or two. Don’t lose sight of the fact that in just nine months, your high school

career will be half over! Start the year with a follow-up meeting with the guidance counselor and then: Take the PSAT/NMSQT® or PSAT™ 10

One of the reasons people sweat the college entrance exams so much is because of all that’s riding on the outcome. The PSAT is a practice test that lets you familiarize yourself with the format and time constraints without all the pressure. It can also show you where to improve for when you take the tests for real. Research your future career

You can’t get somewhere if you don’t know where you’re going. Make a list of some possible careers and take the time to look into them. You can get a lot of free information about specific jobs through the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov). Start your college search

It’s not too early! Think about what you want out of college as it relates to the career you’re considering. Request information from those schools and compare them based on cost, acceptance rates and available financial aid.

JUNIOR YEAR

Things really pick up for juniors, both in their high school coursework and in college planning. You’ll be thankful for everything you’ve been doing up to this point that puts you that much farther ahead of the crowd.

Once again, check in with your counselor and make sure you’re on track to graduate and that you have a strong enough transcript to get into college. Run for a class office if you haven’t already done so. College-focused activity

Junior year is when the college selection process hits its peak. Go to college fairs at school and tour campus at some of your top college choices. Reduce your list of 20 schools to 10 no later than midterm and down to five by the end of the school year. Take the college entrance exams (ACT, SAT) College entrance exams are stressful. If you’re real-

ly nervous about it, enroll in some test prep to help you get more practice. Also, know you can (and should) take the test more than once; the more you take them the easier they get and your best score counts. Make the most of your summer

Invest some of your summer downtime into the process. Brainstorm essay ideas and gather other required materials for application to the colleges of your choice. Contact companies in your desired job field to inquire about job shadowing or unpaid internships.

SENIOR YEAR

Hey, you made it! You probably can’t believe that you’re in your last year of high school, having finally reached the top of the ladder. The temptation is strong to back off a little, and while there’s nothing wrong with enjoying your final year, don’t let “senioritis” trip you at the finish line.

Apply

If you didn’t apply in your junior year, do it now and do it soon. Applying to college requires some paperwork (how much depends on the school) and may include letters of reference, a resume or an essay.

Go after the money

Complete and submit the FAFSA form no later than October to find out how much student aid you qualify for. Research additional scholarships that might require additional paperwork or application and make sure you meet all printed deadlines.

Make your decision!

You’ve weighed all the pros and cons, compared schools and visited campus. Now, take a look where you’re accepted, take a deep breath and go with your gut. Once you’ve decided, contact the school to enroll and then sit back and soak up the rest of senior year.

This list only hits the highlights; see the full year-byyear checklist at collegesofdistinction.com.

COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY PROFILES

Choosing the right college is one of the most important decisions a student will ever make. Many factors go into the process of choosing an institution of higher learning, from quality of educational programs to on-campus amenities to employability after graduation.

All of the participating colleges and universities in the 2023 Arkansas Times College Guide have their own outstanding qualities, engaged faculty and network of alumni. We have prepared profiles of them here to give you, the aspiring collegian, a small taste of what they offer. We’re sure you’ll agree Arkansas enjoys a multitude of outstanding educational opportunities to fit every learning style, field of study or career aspiration.

Without further ado, may we present for your consideration these fine Arkansas institutions of higher learning.

Celebrating 150 years of excellence in higher education, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff is a cornerstone of Arkansas history and the source of knowledge, inspiration and leadership for generations of graduates. This 4-year, land-grant university has distinguished itself in a number of academic disciplines by staying on the cutting edge of instruction in some of the marketplace’s most in-demand content areas.

UAPB’s superior educational outcomes ― informed by decades of excellence in the classroom and through campus activities that draw out the best in students through service, innovation and mutual respect ― produce graduates who are ready to embrace the challenge of the future in the workplace, their communities, the nation and the world.

DIVERSITY RULES

The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff has always stood for equal opportunity and access. As one of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), UAPB can point to a long and proud history of providing all students ― especially students of color ― the chance to better themselves through higher education.

Over the past several years, UAPB’s student body included learners from 40 different countries. Last year, the leading student demographics were 89% Black students, 2.4% Hispanic students, 3.2% white students and 2% students of two or more races.

Diversity is also reflected in the university’s faculty, the most racially and ethnically diverse of any public university in Arkansas. Leading demographics among professors include 62% Black, 21% Asian American, 13% Caucasian of European descent and 2.5% Native Hawaiian. Overall, the faculty represents 18 different countries.

EXCELLENCE THAT’S AFFORDABLE

Helping students manage the cost of attending college is the goal of the UAPB Financial Aid Department, which last year awarded 93% of the 2022 Fall cohort with some kind of aid.

The university references “How to Pay for College,” a publication developed jointly by the Arkansas Student Loan Authority and Arkansas Department of Higher Education, which provides federal aid in-

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT PINE BLUFF

formation and tips related to college financing, and highlights programs specifically for eligible Arkansas students.

UAPB’s institutional scholarships provide additional money to students based on a variety of criteria. Six scholarships are offered for incoming freshmen, starting with the Chancellor’s Scholarship, providing $16,500 per year; the University Scholarship, worth $12,000 per year and the Dean’s Scholarship, awarding $5,000 per year.

Three other awards ― the Leadership, Golden Lion and Diversity scholarships ― provide assistance in amounts ranging from $1,000 per year to $2,000 per year. For full details on these and other forms of aid, visit uapb.edu.

FIRST-CLASS FACILITIES

The campus of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff is undergoing a transformation, thanks to ambitious capital projects that are improving the livability and usability of campus buildings. The most ambitious project of these is the forthcoming Student Engagement Center. This $33 million center will offer 62,000 square feet of space and be the hub of campus and community health education and engagement. A few of the attractions housed here will include the Student Success Center and Career Services; a wellness center with indoor track; a 1,200-seat theater; and many more amenities.

Consistent with UAPB’s land-grant mission, the Student Engagement Center will also provide outreach services to the Arkansas Delta region through sponsorship of community health fairs and other events to inform the community on public health issues.

Other campus improvement projects include upgrades to Larrison Hall, home to UAPB’s School of Agricultural, Fisheries and Human Resources and renovations of classroom building Henderson-Young Hall (School of Business and Management) and Kountz-Kyle Hall (biology) as well as to the L.A. Davis Student Union.

WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION

By enrollment, the most in-demand majors among UAPB’s 70 baccalaureate degrees are, in order, business administration; nursing; health and physical education and criminal justice. New this year are

bachelor’s degrees in engineering and cyber security, which are both a first for an Arkansas HBCU. The school also offers more than a dozen master’s degree programs, including in business administration, teaching and Arkansas’s only graduate-level addiction studies program, available online.

FAST FACTS

• Founded: 1873

• 2022 enrollment: 2,387

• Degrees/certificates offered: 59, certificate through Ph.D.

• In-state tuition and fees: $8,574 annualized

CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE

“Access and opportunity are the foundations of the educational experience at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Since our inception, UAPB has educated and inspired some of the world’s greatest minds to reach beyond their circumstances and be who they want to be. UAPB’s designation as an 1890 land-grant institution means our mission to serve a diverse student population and foster learning, growth and prosperity will never change. Our core values of empowerment and accountability drive our tight-knit community of educators and learners. Strong support from faculty and administration and a familial atmosphere creates the optimal environment for student success. And our 1890 land-grant designation continues to pave the way for innovations in technology, agriculture, medicine and business. UAPB shapes minds that go on to reshape the world.”

Dr. Laurence B. Alexander University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

The University of Arkansas is the state’s flagship institution of higher learning and one of the nation’s top public research universities. The land-grant university has a sterling reputation among peer institutions for excellent instruction, a diverse and thriving campus community and the professional success and many societal contributions of its alums.

ACADEMICS ABOVE ALL

The University of Arkansas is made up of several colleges, schools with a specific focus on a given area of academic subject matter. They include:

Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

The Bumpers College prepares leaders for careers that matter in areas of food, family and the environment. The School of Human Environmental Sciences is a part of the Bumpers College.

Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design

The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design offers architecture, landscape architecture and interior design education, with the architecture program ranked among the nation’s top 20.

Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences

The Fulbright College is the largest academic unit on campus with 19 departments and more than 30 academic programs and research centers. The School of Art, the School of Journalism and Strategic Media, and the School of Social Work are all a part of Fulbright College.

Sam M. Walton College of Business

Founded in 1926, the Sam M. Walton College of Business offers outstanding academic programs and a wide range of experiential learning to help students connect world-class scholarship with real-world business practice.

College of Education and Health Professions

The College of Education and Health Professions focuses on disciplines as diverse as teaching, nursing and community health promotion to human resource development, kinesiology and sport management. The college includes the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing.

College of Engineering

The most comprehensive engineering program in Arkansas, the College of Engineering offers ABET-accredited bachelor's degrees, plus master's degrees and doctorates. Led by a dedicated, supportive faculty, the College of Engineering provides an environment of exploration and innovation.

Honors College

The endowed Honors College unites the university's top undergraduate students and professors from all disciplines, as detailed below.

Global Campus

The Global Campus supports the development and delivery of online, distance and professional education offerings. University of Arkansas ONLINE is the platform for online and distance education programs and courses.

Graduate School and International Education

Graduate School and International Education is home to all graduate students and all international students, both graduate and undergraduate, and all students seeking an educational experience abroad.

School of Law

The School of Law is a National Jurist top 15 value in legal education and among U.S. News and World Report's top 36 public law schools.

HONORS COLLEGE

The University of Arkansas Honors College brings together more than 2,600 high-achieving undergraduate students and the university's top professors. This "college within a college" boasts a select community fueled by discovery, creativity and service.

Honors students enjoy small, in-depth classes, priority registration, special housing, increased interaction with faculty and enhanced opportunities for hands-on research. The Honors College Path Program prepares exceptional high school students from underrepresented populations to excel at the University of Arkansas. Once on campus, students are paired with peer and professional mentors who help them make the most of their college experience.

As part of their experience, Honors Students have secured internships and participate in leadership experience on campus and beyond. A diverse community of scholars unite around their shared intellectual curiosity and passion, traits that result in a lifetime of success.

DID YOU KNOW?

As the state’s flagship university, it’s not surprising that the U of A has produced four Arkansas governors: Asa Hutchinson, Mike Beebe, Dale Bumpers and David Pryor. But most people do not know that Princess Areej Ghazi of Jordan is also a proud Razorback.

THE WORLD IS YOURS

Studying abroad is often the highlight of a student's academic career, but the benefits extend beyond graduation day. International travel and study indelibly shape a student for life, building a more nuanced worldview, showing the value in each experience, and honing invaluable skills such as intercultural communication, resiliency and adaptability.

The university’s Office of Study Abroad supports students seeking a study abroad experience, walking them through various program options and working through the details of living and studying in a foreign country. The University of Arkansas also provides generous funding to help make the dream of international study a reality. To learn more, visit studyabroad. uark.edu.

“The University of Arkansas is proud to have students from every county in the state and every state in the country. We are a destination school for students in state and out because we have the most comprehensive range of majors, classes, research and artistic opportunities and world-class faculty. We also provide more than 200 different degrees and certificates at a quality and cost that routinely has us recognized as one of the best values in the country. Embracing our land-grant mission, the U of A has been at the center of higher education in Arkansas for more than 150 years and we’re just getting better. If you are looking for a once-in-a-lifetime experience that sets you up to achieve lifelong success, I encourage you to come check us out. I think you’ll find you belong.”

CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE

Charles Robinson University of Arkansas

In 1914, the Henderson State campus was ravaged by a fire. With nearly the entire campus destroyed, a group of Henderson students gathered under the pine trees with a decision to make — either transfer to other schools in the area or rebuild Henderson. In the end, the choice was easy; they decided to rebuild Henderson, and at that moment the Reddie Spirit was born.

Henderson formally recognizes this moment of resiliency with the Pine Tree Speech to kick off every fall semester. And HSU celebrates the Reddie Spirit in every student by instilling a quality education infused with the principles of determination and leadership.

SOAR HIGH

Henderson State University has distinguished itself for high-quality instruction in a number of academic areas, including business and health sciences.

“When I was searching for colleges, I knew Henderson State was well-known for its Teachers College and nursing program, but the university’s business school was, like, out of this world,” said Hannah Cissell, a senior marketing major from Arkadelphia, “I saw all the different degrees available, and marketing was exactly what I was interested in.”

The university is especially famous for its aviation program, the only four-year aviation degree program in Arkansas. An HSU degree allows you to soar like no other degree can.

“I always wanted to fly, ever since I was a little kid,” said Kevin Taylor, a recent aviation graduate now living in Massachusetts. “It’s something I always dreamed about. I’m from Massachusetts, but I have a lot of family in Prescott, Arkansas, and a lot of them attended Henderson. With Henderson having an outstanding aviation program, it all lined up for me.”

The school is equally well-known for its elementary education program, with a long history of providing generations of qualified, motivated teachers. And with new legislation upping the minimum annual salary of full-time Arkansas teachers to $50,000, there’s never been a better time to be a part of this important profession.

CAMPUS AMENITIES

A recent enhancement to the university’s scenic and tranquil campus is the newly renovated Caddo Center, home to the Admissions Department. All

prospective students will utilize this comfortable, welcoming new space, as all campus tours start here. The building will also welcome financial aid, housing and advising offices starting in 2024. Plan to visit campus soon, or take a virtual tour of Henderson today by visiting hsu.edu/campustour.

Henderson State University is also served by various health professionals to help ensure the wellness of Reddie students, faculty and staff. General health care services and medication management are provided by registered nurses and an advanced practice registered nurse, while mastered prepared counselors provide confidential individual counseling to currently enrolled Henderson Students at no cost.

Henderson State University’s campus is kept safe by a campus security team made up of police officers on duty 24/7. Reddie Rides is a nighttime shuttle students can call for late-night rides or escorts on campus, while Rave Alerts provide critical emergency communication.

EXCELLENCE WITHIN REACH

Henderson State University strives to bring its top-quality educational program within the reach of as many students as possible through its robust financial aid program. In addition to helping students navigate state and federal aid programs, the university also offers its own slate of scholarships, which recognizes prior academic achievement while investing in students’ potential for success in the future.

These awards include:

• Chancellor Scholarship for students with a 4.0+ GPA, worth $6,000 for residents/$3,000 for commuters

• Centurium Scholarship for students with a 3.53.99 GPA, worth $4,500 for residents/$2,500 for commuters

• Red & Gray Scholarship for students with a 3.13.49 GPA, worth $2,500 for residents/$1,250 for commuters

• Reddie Spirit for students with a 3.1 GPA or lower, worth $1,000 for residents/$750 for commuters

The university also offers a limited number of Distinguished Freshman Scholarships awarded to a select group of students. This prestigious full-tuition scholarship is open to residential students with a 26+ ACT

score (or SAT equivalent) and 4.0 cumulative high school GPA. Recipients of this scholarship are automatically enrolled in Henderson State University’s Honors College.

FAMILY HELPING FAMILY

To help students navigate the challenges of college, the Reddie Help Center is available to all students and assists in navigating registration, financial aid and campus operational questions. The office connects students with tutoring and other assistance to help ensure their success in the classroom and beyond.

The Reddie Help Center also provides critical assistance such as a food pantry, clothes closet and a life skills education center. The center works with community partners to stock food and clothing, collaborates with the Henderson Foundation to administer the Reddie Student Emergency Aid Fund, and partners with Sodexo to allocate meals from the Swipe Out Hunger Fund.

“Founded in 1890, Henderson State University is known for its excellent academic programs, engaging student life and affordable tuition. Our mission is to open the doors of access and opportunity to college for all students. We offer comprehensive academic programs in the areas of business; applied professional science and technology; health, education and social sustainability; and the arts and humanities. We are committed to helping you be Reddie for What’s Next in your life and future career.”

CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE

Dr. Chuck Ambrose Henderson State University

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

As its mission statement says, Arkansas State University educates leaders, enhances intellectual growth and enriches lives. The four-year university in Jonesboro provides a dynamic curriculum providing student-centered instruction, a full suite of clubs and extracurricular activities, and experiential learning opportunities that prepare students to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing workplace and world.

UNIQUE, PROGRESSIVE FIELDS OF STUDY

A-State was the home of the first osteopathic medical school in the state, the NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State, a venture achieved in partnership with the New York Institute of Technology. Soon, A-State will become the first (and only) campus in Arkansas to have a medical school and a veterinary school. The A-State College of Veterinary Medicine is slated to become the university’s newest college, with the inaugural dean already on board.

Other curriculums and projects that break the mold of traditional colleges and universities include:

A-State is one of only two universities to launch an experiment to the International Space Station in 2022 through NASA’s SPOCS program.

Arkansas Biosciences Institute at Arkansas State conducts research projects on rice, the state’s most important crop. Developing rice varieties that thrive in warming climates and finding ways to use plants to create new medicines and medical materials are just two of the major research projects underway.

Red Wolves aren’t just a mascot, they are also the subject of research and preservation programs by Arkansas State University. The institution is a national repository for DNA and other essential materials related to the American Red Wolf, listed as the most endangered canine species.

Overall, Arkansas State is in demand for the following academic majors among undergrads: nursing, economics and finance, psychology and counseling . Among graduate students, Arkansas State’s education programs (education leadership, special education and teacher education) as well as psychology and counseling are most popular.

ONLINE EXPERTS

In addition to award-winning classroom and field instruction, Arkansas State University has also been a pioneer in the field of online learning. The school offers 15 undergraduate degree and certificate options, conducted 100% online to allow maximum flexibility to meet students’ schedules.

ASU makes getting a college degree easier than ever with a streamlined admissions process and multiple start dates throughout the calendar year. Plus, with university-approved credit for prior learning, students can gain academic credit for work experience, employer training programs, military service, independent study and community service. Combined with shorter courses (7 weeks versus 9 weeks), this helps students complete their degrees in record time without sacrificing quality teaching or challenging coursework.

MONEY MATTERS

More than 80% of students receive some sort of financial aid, enabling them to attend ASU. Some scholarships of note include:

A-State Scholar: Provides up to $14,000 annually, split between fall and spring semesters. This includes up to $3,000 for on-campus housing and up to $3,000 for on-campus meal plan, with remaining award for tuition and fees. Eligible students have a minimum 31 ACT Superscore or New SAT Total of 1400 and a high school minimum GPA of 3.50 on a six-semester transcript.

A-State Chancellor’s Scholarship: Provides $10,000 annually, split between fall and spring terms, for students living on the A-State campus or $8,000 annually if living off campus. Eligible students have a minimum ACT Superscore of 28 to 30 or New SAT Total score of 1310 to 1399 or a high school GPA of 4.00 on a six or seven-semester transcript.

A-State Leader Scholarship: Provides $8,000 annually, split between fall and spring terms, for students living on the A-State campus or $6,000 annually if living off-campus. Students must have a minimum ACT Superscore of 25 to 27 or New SAT Total score of 1210 to 1309 or a high school GPA of 3.75 on a six or seven-semester transcript.

For more information on these or other financial aid and scholarships, visit astate.edu/scholarships.

FAST FACTS

• Founded in 1909

• Offers degree programs in 160 undergraduate and graduate fields across six different colleges

• Enrollment: 14,100

• A-State is one of only four Division I athletic programs in Arkansas offering 14 intercollegiate sports as well as four elite/national-caliber club sports

• Annual in-state tuition and fees: $9,680 undergraduate/$9,290 graduate

DID YOU KNOW?

There are three named statues of the ASU mascot around campus: Rufus, Mohegan and Tiago. Rubbing Mohegan’s nose is said to bring good luck; find him on the first floor of the Reng Student Union. If you can’t make it over there, head to Aggie Circle where Tiago is said to impart good fortune to those who rub his paws.

CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE

“I am committed to continuing the student-centered success of Arkansas State and strengthening it with a servant leadership that has a people-first focus. A-State has that special balance for its students with faculty who are incredible teachers in their classrooms and labs. My goal is to help us become the best A-State possible for our students, faculty, staff and our growing community.”

Todd Shields Arkansas State University

At Arkansas Northeastern College, the mission is to serve students and the community to the fullest by providing affordable, top-quality instruction that leads to fulfilling careers and serves the area’s growing needs for skilled labor. Offering instruction in a wide range of job categories, ANC educates students of all ages and backgrounds through cutting-edge instruction, unmatched facilities and industry-leading technology.

From Classroom to Career, Fast ANC programs range from short-term, one-semester and one-year certificates to associate degrees. Many students gain credentials to head immediately to the workforce, while others are preparing to transfer to the next educational level.

The college puts a focus on short-term programs that can be completed in a year or less and offer excellent earning potential. These programs, along with the lowest tuition rate in the state, allows ANC to provide the best return on investment for students among all of higher education in Arkansas.

The school is very well-known for its Steel Industry Technology program, the only college in the state offering such a curriculum. ANC maintains very strong relationships with industry partners and local community leaders alike, which allows for constant refinement and improvement of the curriculum. This makes ANC graduates highly sought-after for challenging, high-paying jobs in the local steel mills. According to MyAR Dashboard, 100% of steel program graduates are placed full time at an average annual salary of $95,000.

ANC is also known for the quality of its nursing program, housed in the state-of-the-art Angela Wren Nursing and Allied Health Building. Graduates enjoy a high pass rate on nursing credentialing exams and are in high demand for employment statewide, averaging $53,000 per year, per MyAR Dashboard.

HELPING STUDENTS SUCCEED

Arkansas Northeastern College’s service extends well beyond the classroom and workspace when it comes to meeting students’ needs. Through its Academic and Career Advising (ACE) Center, the college guides students in their educational and career goals. The ACE Center is staffed with highly qualified individuals who focus on specific fields of study to best

meet the needs of the students.

ACE advisers assist students in the enrollment process, from placement testing to career services and also work one-on-one with students to help them make decisions about programs of study, scheduling classes and time management.

The college also invests in programs and services to help meet circumstances in life that can derail a student’s progress. ANC offers tele-mental health services to all students at no cost. This, along with community volunteer mentors, a Career Closet offering free clothing to students, and the ANC Food Pantry, allows the college to help the mental, emotional and physical health of its student body.

HIGHLY AFFORDABLE

The college offers the lowest tuition and mandatory fee cost of any school in the state, at $75 per credit hour for Mississippi County residents and just $85 per hour for Arkansas out-of-county residents and certain counties in adjoining states. With an average starting salary over $55,000, ANC graduates begin earning more, faster, with a minimum of student debt.

A LEADER IN DIGITAL EDUCATION

In addition to providing quality hands-on instruction, Arkansas Northeastern College has emerged as a leader in online education. In 2019, SR Education Group ranked ANC the No. 1 online community college and in 2020, ranked the school first in Arkansas and 13th nationally for affordable associate degrees overall.

The school has also been ranked by Affordable Colleges Online for the quality of specific online degrees, including criminal justice (sixth nationally), education and teaching (fifth nationally) and overall affordability among 2-year colleges (first in Arkansas, 16th nationally).

FAST FACTS

• Founded: 1975

• Student-faculty ratio: 16 to 1

• Ranked No. 1 most affordable college in Arkansas; No. 17 in the nation (affordablecolleges.com, 2019).

• Student body is 61% female; average age of students is 24.

• Minority enrollment makes up about 30% of the student body.

• In Fall 2023, ANC welcomes its first Steel Tech Academy paid interns, made up of high school seniors, in partnership with Entergy and U.S. Steel.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

"As the new president of Arkansas Northeastern College, I am thrilled about our future and deeply honored to lead this distinguished institution. Our legacy of academic and vocational excellence continues to propel our college as we continuously build on our past accomplishments. Student success remains the cornerstone to what we do, and we will continue to work diligently to provide a multitude of services and programs to support that success, no matter their academic or career goals. ANC offers a foundation for academic pursuits, cutting-edge career training and vocational pathways that consistently change lives. Join us at ANC, where every day we strive to shape a better tomorrow."

Dr. Christopher Heigle Arkansas Northeastern College

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS LITTLE ROCK

Little Rock|501-916-3000|ualr.edu

Founded in 1927, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities. Home to more than 8,000 students, nearly half of whom are part-time or nontraditional, UA Little Rock serves individuals from a wide range of backgrounds.

Located in the capital city, UA Little Rock offers a vibrant urban environment with access to numerous professional, cultural and networking opportunities, enriching students’ college experience and preparing them for success in their chosen fields.

A driving force in Little Rock, the university is a major component of the city and state’s growing profile as a regional leader in research, technology, economic development and job creation.

EXCELLENT ACADEMICS

UA Little Rock offers 175 academic programs to suit every career, talent and interest. The university is known especially for its health care, technology and business programs, with the most in-demand majors including psychology, biology and social work (BSW, MSW). Also in high demand are accounting, management and criminal justice.

Some of the school’s fastest-growing majors include cybersecurity, information quality, counseling, information science, nursing (BSN and AAS) and marketing. Construction technology is another booming field, with UA Little Rock graduates enjoying a 100% job placement rate in this lucrative and rewarding field.

In addition, UA Little Rock has several programs that stack, specifically in cyber and nursing. These allow students to obtain credentials sooner, begin earning in their field, and also ensure they can return to their education with minimal lost time and resources.

CONNECT ON CAMPUS

In addition to supporting a full range of academics, various social activities and more than 100 clubs and organizations including a Greek system, UA Little Rock has invested heavily in the health and well-being of its students and the security of its campus.

Students enjoy in-person and telemedicine access to campus health care professionals, and also have access to in-person and online counseling. Social workers are also embedded within each college to assist students in navigating the stressors that come

with college life.

Additionally, the campus is secured by licensed law enforcement personnel who patrol the campus 24/7. Numerous security boxes located around campus provide instant connectivity with security, who also provide lockout assistance and campus escorts as no charge.

TIPS FOR AFFORDING UA LITTLE ROCK

Trojan Works work study program ― Providing on-campus work opportunities for students and supporting a broader range of students than federal work study, this unique program can help defray your expenses.

Half-off scholarship from UA Little Rock ― This oneof-a-kind scholarship program allows students to receive two years for half-off, helping ensure college is affordable. Using this, and combining it with other awards such as the Arkansas Challenge Scholarship, one can earn a degree for a baseline of $14,000, with many students paying much less thanks to Pell Grants and other private scholarships.

Complete the Scholarship Universe application ― This free tool helps match UA Little Rock students to private and national scholarships. This year alone, students received more than 9,200 national scholarships, helping them lower the cost of attendance.

THE BOTTOM LINE

• In-state tuition and fees, annual: $9,618.60 (Fall 2023)

• 71% of UA Little Rock students receive aid

SCHOLARSHIPS TO CHECK OUT INCLUDE: Fall Freshmen Scholarships

Awards ranging from $1,000 to $6,000 per year based on academic merit, mentored programs and other criteria. Qualifying SAT/ACT scores and high school GPA may apply.

Transfer scholarships

Finish your degree with these financial awards, available to students of Arkansas two-year colleges or those in select states.

Consult ualr.edu/financialaid/ for complete details

FAST FACTS

• Quality four-year education

• On-campus housing

• Study abroad and graduate programs

• Highly diverse; 40% of UA Little Rock students are First Generation

• Division I athletics in 15 intercollegiate sports

• Job placement and internship services available

• Average starting salary after graduation: $56,280

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

• Welcome Week ― Aug. 19-26

• Barbeque at Bailey ― Oct. 4

• Homecoming ― Fall 2023

DID YOU KNOW?

UA Little Rock has 16 corporate partners that help the university access the community. Partners receive a discount on tuition, helping ensure access across a wide spectrum of students.

CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE

"As a metropolitan research university in Arkansas's largest city, UA Little Rock capitalizes on its location to develop partnerships in every key economic sector and builds those connections into the student experience. Students will find a wide variety of internship, field work, clinical practice and client-based project opportunities that bring what they learn in the classroom to life. By offering a large number of merit and need-based scholarships, we provide access to an affordable, quality education for a diverse student body. UA Little Rock is more than its location; it's a place where you can find your unique sense of belonging and realize your full potential.”

Dr. Christina S. Drale University of Arkansas at Little Rock

The Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts offers central Arkansas arts patrons a unique opportunity to experience visual art, theater and music all under the same roof. The cutting-edge design allows students and faculty to foster new collaborative partnerships across multiple disciplines, producing graduates who are critical thinkers and creative problem-solvers.

The University of Central Arkansas, a four-year institution of higher learning, boasts a rich 115-year tradition of educational excellence. Through innovative and collaborative teaching, UCA ensures each student is immersed in a challenging yet supportive culture.

UCA’s five colleges are home to faculty who truly love what they do and it shows through research, experiential learning opportunities and internships that students complete annually. Academic rigor, small class sizes and engaging programs help each learner prepare for a rewarding career and fulfilling life after college.

IMPECCABLE INSTRUCTION

Over its history, the University of Central Arkansas has distinguished itself for innovative teaching methods that enrich students’ individual learning experience. The school has grown into one of Arkansas’S leading institutions, especially for students in health and behavioral sciences, art, humanities and social sciences.

The school also continues to advance innovative curriculums that prepare individuals for the needs of today and the jobs of tomorrow. Through its Department of Computer Science and Engineering, UCA is home to the only enterprise-class cyber range at an Arkansas university and its applied data analytics curriculum is also unique.

Plus, UCA’s insurance and risk management degree is ranked among the strongest in the country as well as being the only such degree in Arkansas. The university is also notable for having one of the largest nursing programs in the state and the first and longest history of occupational and physical therapy education programs in Arkansas.

AFFORDING COLLEGE

Earning your degree is a substantial investment in yourself, both of time and money. To help more students achieve the dream of a college education, UCA offers a range of financial aid, as well as an experienced Admissions Department staff to help students understand their options. Overall, 96% of first-time, full-time undergraduates receive financial aid.

The school’s financial awards include Freshman academic scholarships, offering between $1,500 to

$8,500 annually, and Incoming Transfer scholarships worth $4,000 annually for those students who qualify. There are also a number of awards available by academic department and a wide range of scholarships available through the UCA Foundation.

Plus, additional federal grants and state scholarship programs are also available for qualifying students. Your high school guidance counselor can provide more information or speak to a UCA admissions counselor. You can also get information online at uca. edu/financialaid/.

BEING WELL, STAYING SAFE

College can be physically and mentally exhausting. UCA takes the health and safety of its student body, faculty and staff very seriously as seen through the medical and security resources deployed on campus.

UCA is secured by its own police department, an effective and skilled organization made up of 25 fulltime sworn police officers, 10 full-time support staff and several part-time staff members. Together, they provide around-the-clock law enforcement, public safety, emergency management and 911 services to the UCA community.

Campus medical services available to students include patient-centered health care delivered by highly trained professionals. Most services provided are included in the student’s health tuition fee, including general family practice services, lab and x-ray, immunizations including free flu shots, women’s health services and COVID testing and vaccination.

Currently enrolled UCA students needing to talk to someone can take advantage of a wide range of mental health services, including consultations. This arm of the campus health services is accredited by the International Association of Counseling Services.

FAST FACTS

• Founded in 1907

• Division I athletics in 19 combined sports

• More than 250 campus clubs and organizations, including Greek system

• Enrollment: 9,900

• In-state tuition and fees: $5,059.15, annually

• FirstGen@UCA program serves unique needs of first-generation students

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

• UCA Family Weekend (October) ― A fun weekend of events for the whole family.

• UCA Homecoming (October-November) ― Festivities include homecoming football game, tailgating, pep rallies and more.

• Bear Facts Days (October-December) ― This event for high school seniors and their families gives students a sneak peek at campus life, academics and housing facilities.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Norbert O. Schedler Honors College at the University of Central Arkansas was the first honors college in the state and one of the first in the country. As such, it has been copied by numerous honors programs and honors colleges nationwide.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

“The University of Central Arkansas is committed to the success of our students. Our faculty are some of the best in the nation and provide the academic rigor to set students up for success after graduation, allowing them to join the outstanding UCA alumni who are making a huge difference in Arkansas and beyond. Our dynamic and growing campus provides a sense of place for our students. When you combine these qualities with our vibrant and diverse student body, UCA provides a complete collegiate experience that is second to none. Go, Bears!”

Dr. Houston Davis University of Central Arkansas

Little Rock|501-202-6200|bhclr.edu

As one of the state’s leading institutions of higher learning in the health care space, Baptist Health College Little Rock proudly serves students and the community alike by offering high-quality instruction and producing graduates that serve the health needs of people statewide.

Offering instruction in nine critical areas of medicine, the college is a longstanding and wellrespected institution, with thousands of graduates at work throughout Arkansas in a wide range of rewarding health careers.

Baptist Health College Little Rock, a part of Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock, shapes the health of Arkansans by educating and mentoring health care professionals with excellence and Christian compassion.

EDUCATIONAL FOCUSES

Baptist Health College Little Rock offers nine programs of study, in a variety of medical fields. Each program offers excellent opportunities with realworld experience. These include:

• LPN/Paramedic ― Nurses provide and direct others in the provision of nursing care to patients in an acute care setting and a variety of other health care settings. This accelerated track is an option for paramedics and LPB/LPTNs who wish to become a nurse.

• Medical Laboratory Science ― Medical technologists perform tests on blood and body fluids to determine the presence or absence of disease, monitor response to treatment and aid in health maintenance.

• Nuclear Medicine Technology ― Nuclear medicine technologists use small amounts of radioactive pharmaceuticals for diagnosing and treating various diseases.

• Occupational Therapy Assistant ― Occupational therapy assistants help clients of all ages learn or regain the skills required to function as independently as possible in self-care, work, play and leisure activities.

• Patient Care Technician ― Patient care technicians work under the supervision of nurses, advanced practice personnel and physicians to provide direct patient care of basic needs, draw labs and perform electrocardiograms.

• Practical Nursing ― Under the supervision of a registered nurse (RN), a licensed practical nurse provides direct patient bedside care such as personal hygiene, treatments and medication administration.

• Radiography ― Radiographers are medical professionals who perform diagnostic X-ray examinations using ionizing radiation and assist physicians in the diagnosis of diseases.

• Sleep Technology ― Sleep technologists are medical professionals responsible for patient care and outpatient procedures associated with the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders.

• Surgical Technology ― Surgical technologists work under the supervision of a surgeon or registered nurse (RN) and anticipate the needs

of the surgeon utilizing surgical equipment while providing for the needs of the patient, and serving the surgical team.

• Traditional Nursing ― Nurses provide and direct others in the provision of nursing care to patients in inpatient, outpatient, clinical and community health care settings.

ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

Baptist Health College Little Rock-School of Nursing assists students wishing to continue their education in the health sciences by maintain a robust slate of partnerships with other institutions of higher learning in Arkansas. The college is proud to coordinate with these colleges and universities to provide seamless online options for graduates to complete a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree.

Partnering with Baptist Health College Little Rock in this arrangement are Arkansas Tech University, Ouachita Baptist University, University of Arkansas, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Capella University and the University of Central Arkansas. These agreements serve current and historical graduates from the BHCLR-School of Nursing program.

Other transfer partnerships exist between BHCLRSchool of Practical Nursing and Arkansas Baptist

College and a general education support agreement with Geneva College-Portage Division.

Baptist Health College Little Rock maintains an affiliate network with numerous schools of allied health including Arkansas State University, Arkansas Tech University, Geneva College Portage Division, Henderson State University, Southern Arkansas University, Ouachita Baptist University, Harding University, Louisiana Tech University, Missouri Southern State University, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College and the University of Central Arkansas.

PAYING FOR SCHOOL

In order to bring higher education within reach of more students, Baptist Health College Little Rock assists students in understanding available financial aid programs. Among these are federal and private student loans and state aid programs, including the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship, as well as scholarships awarded by the Baptist Health Foundation.

Through the generosity of its many donors, the Baptist Health Foundation supports myriad scholarships for students. For specific financial aid information and application guidelines, contact the school at (501) 202-6200.

No matter their interest or ambition, Hendrix College strives to bring out the scholar and leader in every student. Offering 30 majors and 33 minors, Hendrix College’s caring professors and closeknit campus family environment have prepared generations of students for graduate or professional school, the workforce and the world.

Steeped in the liberal arts tradition, yet progressive in its approach to higher education, Hendrix has forged a long and distinguished reputation for academic excellence, community service and molding students into well-rounded critical thinkers.

SACRIFICE NOTHING

Despite its small size, Hendrix College provides many of the amenities as much larger schools, including intercollegiate athletics, tutoring, international study opportunities and more. There are more than 70 clubs and organizations on campus to suit almost every interest ― and if you can’t find one that fits, you can start your own.

Hendrix also provides a range of residential options, from the classic dorm experience to apartments and a selection of living-learning

communities organized around common interests. Students have access to quality health care through the Hendrix Medical Clinic, a partnership with Conway Regional Health System, offering three free visits each academic year. The Office of Counseling Services welcomes all students to see a counselor in a private and safe environment, available to all Hendrix students at no cost.

The beautifully landscaped campus is the center of Hendrix life, a place of gathering with friends or quiet reflection and me-time, as the need demands. Campus security personnel monitor and patrol the grounds 24/7.

CHART YOUR OWN PATH

One of the more unique academic programs Hendrix offers is The Odyssey Program. Through this innovative and flexible curriculum, Hendrix students complete at least three engaged learning experiences. Odyssey credits can be earned through self-designed and proposed experiences, participation in pre-approved co-curricular activities, and successful completion of pre-coded courses or course modules.

INVEST IN YOURSELF

FROM THE PRESIDENTS

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

“We are privileged to educate the young people upon whose shoulders the responsibility for our future rests, and I am dedicated to strengthening and preserving the residential liberal arts experience because it is the best preparation for life in a free society. Our commitment to the liberal arts allows Hendrix to honor the traditions that brought us to this moment while adapting to the challenges of the 21st century, always staying centered on our life-changing mission to inspire students to lead lives of accomplishment, integrity, service and joy.”

RODERICK L. SMOTHERS SR., PH.D. PRESIDENT AND CEO PHILANDER SMITH

Dr. Karen K. Petersen Hendrix College

Recognizing the need many students have in affording college today, Hendrix supports a generous financial aid program where 100% of the student body receives aid.

FAST FACTS

• Founded: 1876

• Enrollment: 1,142

• Male/Female student ratio: 49.56/50.44

• Mascot: Warriors

• Athletics: Division III, offering 23 varsity sports

DR. JEROME GREEN SHORTER COLLEGE

• In-state tuition and fees: $36,300, annually

DR. EVELYN E. JORGENSON NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

The University of Arkansas-Fort Smith is a regional public university in the Arkansas River Valley that brings transformational education to more than 5,000 students a year. Offering an enriching and empowering learning environment and hands-on experiences both in and out of the classroom, UAFS truly serves its students and the River Valley region.

DR. KEITH PINCHBACK PHILLIPS COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

office helps undergraduates and young alumni build mentor connections with Fortune 500 executives, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and world-famous muralists.

DR. BEN R. SELLS OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY

INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT

DR. RODERICK L. SMOTHERS, SR. PHILANDER SMITH COLLEGE

WORLD-CLASS ACADEMICS

“While life as we have known it has been drastically altered in recent months, it remains true that Philander Smith College is a beacon of hope for those with a thirst for knowledge and big dreams of scholastic achievement. Our guiding principles of caring for our community, remaining student-centered and mission-focused, and executing in operational excellence are leading us in the new normal — providing the inspiration for our commitment to produce world-class graduates who are making a positive difference in the world. Through the lens of a global health pandemic in the midst of civil unrest in our country, and 144 years after its founding, Philander Smith — with its liberal arts curriculum and focus on social justice — has a steadfast position as an educational pillar for the next generation of leaders who desire to move us FORWARD into a healthier, more diverse and equitable future.”

“NorthWest Arkansas Community College seeks to empower lives, inspire learning and strengthen community through accessible, affordable, quality education at locations throughout Benton and Washington counties. We focus on providing what our learners need, whether that’s adult basic education, new job skills for today’s workplace, or the foundation to pursue a four-year degree and post-graduate study. NWACC creates an environment that inspires students and encourages them to maximize their potential.”

“Ranked by Niche.com as the top private university in Arkansas, Ouachita is a Christ-centered learning community that prepares students for ongoing intellectual and spiritual growth, lives of meaningful work, and reasoned engagement with the world.

UAFS professors are renowned for their expertise in more than 70 subject areas, including computer science, nursing, studio art, geoscience, business administration and advanced manufacturing. Instructors bring their students into the field with them, preparing them from their first semesters to enter highdemand career fields and top-tier graduate schools.

Each year, hundreds of UAFS students conduct advanced-level research such as addressing microplastics in Arkansas waterways, periodontal disease in Arkansas children and economic improvements in the River Valley.

UAFS students also have access to the acclaimed Babb Center for Career Services, which pairs students with internships at the state’s biggest corporations. The

Ouachita is rising to further innovate and achieve so that the students of today will be able to meet the challenges and embrace the opportunities of tomorrow. Students benefit from the university’s liberal arts tradition and unique high-impact learning opportunities, which afford valuable perspectives and experiences in their respective fields. With a 99 percent placement rate for new graduates and record retention for current students,

CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE

UAFS also boasts a welcoming campus community of more than 100 registered student organizations, including the Student Government Association and Campus Activities Board, which lobby for student interests and plan major campus events. These are among more than a dozen cultural clubs and university-wide which help marginalized populations build community.

Dedicated staff members advance the inclusive campus environment, with bilingual admissions advisers who ensure families are prepared when students apply to college. First-generation programs connect students with staff and faculty mentors who have navigated life as first-gen students themselves.

Ouachita is committed to providing students with a college experience that shapes their lives and sets them on a trajectory for success. At Ouachita, our students are truly known–by the dedicated faculty and staff who take a personal interest in them, and the close-knit campus community they do life with.”

The university’s state-of-the-art Recreation and Wellness Center, Powell Student Health Clinic and Campus Counseling Center ensure students stay physically and mentally healthy while academic

“I am very excited about the upcoming year and the great things that it will bring to Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas and to you! In today’s fast-paced world, change has become one of the most important factors in our lives. With new programs and ongoing improvements to our facilities, we are committed to preparing you for active participation in an ever-changing economy with training and skills that will benefit you for a lifetime. PCCUA is the oldest community college in Arkansas, which means we have more experience doing what we do than any other community college in the state. Our three locations in DeWitt, Helena, and Stuttgart combine traditional college experiences, state-of-the-art technology, and unique Delta heritage, and our campus life provides a unique balance of studies with a multitude of recreational activities. In addition to maintaining high standards and achieved accreditation, PCCUA will provide you with committed faculty who are dedicated to your individual success. We truly believe that the quality and value of an education at PCCUA will help prepare you for highly successful roles in your future. We are eager to help you begin and complete your educational journey. Let’s get started!”

“For 142 years, Philander Smith College has been inspiring and educating the next generation of leaders who seek to enact change in our communities, state, nation and world. Our legacy of providing a quality liberal arts curriculum, with a focus on social justice, has withstood the test of time and asserted Philander as an educational pillar in Arkansas. Though a small, private institution, PSC dreams big. Our dreams include making education accessible to students who have a desire for knowledge and academic achievement. As we celebrate this great milestone in our history, we know our greatest assets are our students and our faculty and staff. It is with a student-centered approach to learning and a steadfast dedication to helping our scholars thrive that we continue to move FORWARD into the future.”

"UAFS is more than an institution of higher learning — it is an engine of change, bettering the lives of every student who enrolls here, and growing the economy of our entire region. Our faculty and staff are practiced experts who truly care about our students and offer them real-world experiential learning and cutting-edge research opportunities. Because of this, our alumni are exceptionally competitive as they begin their careers and enter graduate programs, crossing the commencement stage both educated and empowered."

Dr. Terisa C. Riley University of Arkansas-Fort Smith

“Shorter is committed to its motto, ‘Your Path to Possible.’ We are graduating students that are capable and equipped to compete not just within the state of Arkansas, but nationally. Since our founding, Shorter College has been in the business of transforming lives by providing our students with a premier, quality higher education. One of our primary goals is to enrich academic instructional programs and student services to endow students with the knowledge, skills and abilities to become scholastically and professionally productive in today’s global society. Shorter has remained steadfast in ensuring that our students are receiving all of the necessary tools required to effectively complete their educational journey. We are supplying our students with laptops and mobile hotspots at no out of pocket cost. As we continue to move the college forward, it is imperative that we work together to build on our past achievements and plan for continued successes.”

centers such as the UAFS Writing Center and Academic Success Center ensure students stay prepared in the classroom.

AFFORDABLE EDUCATION

Paramount to UA Fort Smith’s mission to bring this exceptional education to all is keeping its campus financially accessible. Last year, 99% of UAFS undergraduate and graduate students received financial aid and the UAFS Foundation awarded more than $2 million in private scholarships. This comprehensive financial aid program makes UAFS, already Arkansas’s most affordable 4-year campus, an even better investment.

Increasing the return on investment, UAFS students can earn credentials throughout their academic journey, advancing their careers progressively with stackable options that fit together seamlessly from certificates of proficiency to master’s degrees.

DR. TERISA C. RILEY, CHANCELLOR UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT FORT SMITH

DR. CHRISTINA DRALE, CHANCELLOR UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK

DR. TERISA C. RILEY, CHANCELLOR  UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY Russellville|479-968-0389|atu.edu

Institute for high schoolers each summer and offers programming to support first-generation students throughout the school year.

CLASSROOM EXCELLENCE

The most in-demand majors at ATU include nursing, management, psychology, health and physical education and elementary education. Some of the unique curriculums include electrical and mechanical engineering, recreation and parks administration, fisheries and wildlife science, applied statistics and game and interactive media design.

FAST FACTS

• 2022 Enrollment: 9,445

• In-state tuition and fees: $9,972.30 annually

Arkansas Tech University is a small school that thinks big. Students enjoy award-winning instruction and a full suite of activities on a cozy campus that feels like home.

FOCUS ON FIRST GEN

Arkansas Tech University is among 22 higher education institutions nationwide selected by the Center for First-Generation Student Success to advance to the First Scholars phase of the First Scholars Network in 2023.

First-generation students, which make up about onethird of ATU’s student body, are defined as those whose parents or legal guardian did not graduate from a fouryear institution. Arkansas Tech serves these students through the ATU Office of First-Generation Student Experience, which oversees the ATU First-Generation

NATIONAL PARK COLLEGE Hot Springs|501-760-4222|np.edu

• Campus Ambassador: Jerry the Bulldog

• Ranked in top 5% nationally for improving students’ economic standing (CollegeNET)

• Robotics team ranked 16th in the world

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

• ATU Involvement Fair (August) ― The signature event of ATU Welcome Week to start the year.

• ATU Family Day ― (September or October) Arkansas Tech students and their families enjoy social activities including tailgating and a home Wonder Boys football game.

• Time Out for Tech (February) ― ATU welcomes high school seniors to campus for a preview of its academic programs and campus life.

DID YOU KNOW?

In addition to 11 Division II intercollegiate sports, ATU offers two unique club sports: bass fishing and rodeo. The university athletic program is also one of the few with two nicknames, Wonder Boys and Golden Suns.

“Higher education is a pathway to a better life for you and your family. Independent research by CollegeNET has ranked Arkansas Tech University No. 1 in Arkansas and top 5% in the United States when it comes to improving the economic position of its students. It’s a distinction that reflects our focus on student access and student success. Invest in yourself. Invest in your future. Choose Arkansas Tech University.”

Dr. Robin E. Bowen Arkansas Tech University

of 80%. The Registered Nursing Program averaged 95% first-past rate compared to the state and national average of 80%. Most importantly, every graduating nurse that wanted to go to work had a job waiting for them.

The school’s graduates are in high demand in the workplace as well as sought after by 4-year institutions where they can finish their bachelor’s degree. NPC offers more than 70 course-for-course transfer degrees allowing students to transfer as a junior with no loss of credit and without being required to retake courses.

YOUTH MOVEMENT

cybersecurity degrees. Every faculty member at NPC is trained in online instruction and every course has some basic online elements for communication purposes. NPC regularly embraces technological advances and strives to provide students with flexible learning environments to meet their needs.

PAYING FOR COLLEGE

• National Park College offers a variety of scholarships to help traditional and nontraditional students reach their educational goals. A few of these include:

One of the most innovative and fastest-growing colleges in Arkansas, National Park College provides the unexpected around every corner. Featuring programs, extracurriculars and amenities not generally found at 2-year schools, NPC is on the forefront of what a campus community can be with the right vision.

STEM RULES

NPC offers some of the best STEM, nursing and health science facilities in the state while still maintaining small class sizes for individualized instruction. Thanks to a vast network of donors and grant programs, equipment is top-notch, including medical manikins and other classroom and lab technology.

This has led to nursing and health sciences programs regularly producing the highest scorers in the state on board and certification exams. In 2022, NPC’s practical nursing students’ first-time pass rate on the required NCLEX Licensure exam was 96.3% compared to the national average of 79.93% and the state average

Unlike most community colleges in Arkansas where nontraditional students are the main population, National Park College’s student body is getting younger. Greater than 65% of students attending NPC are 18- to 19-year-olds and come to NPC straight from high school.

SEVERAL WAYS TO LEARN

NPC offers several degrees 100% online, including the associate of arts degree, business degrees, and

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

• Academic Achievement Award (high school students only) covers a year of tuition and may be renewed for a second year of schooling.

• NPC Nontraditional Student Scholarship (degree-seeking individuals at least one year removed from high school) pays $500 to $1,000 for tuition, fees and books, depending on the number of hours enrolled.

• GED Scholarship (students looking to complete their GED through NPC’s Adult Education) offers half tuition for up to four semesters.

“There’s a place for you at National Park College. Join Nighthawk Nation and be a part of amazing student life, campus organizations and athletics. We offer transfer opportunities and if your ACT is 19 or higher, you may qualify for scholarships. Nearly 90% of NPC students receive financial aid, which last year totaled nearly $8 million. National Park College offers a supportive college experience at about half the cost of the average 4-year university. Our experienced faculty and staff are committed to your success in the workforce.”

John Hogan National Park College

As the oldest independent college in Arkansas still operating under its original charter ― and located in the oldest city in Arkansas ― there are a lot of things about Lyon College that have stood the test of time. Foremost among them are small class size, individual attention from professors and a challenging curriculum in the liberal arts tradition.

But the college is more than just its heritage. Lyon has always been on the cutting edge of higher education, starting with its first incoming class in1872 and continuing right through to today.

THE FUTURE IS YOURS

Lyon College’s reputation is built on delivering an education that helps graduates realize their potential in the workplace and the world. That continues today with the school’s most popular majors, those being business administration, biology, psychology and computer science.

It’s also reflected in the college’s fastest-growing majors ― anthropology, data science and exercise science ― showing Lyon College’s commitment to maintaining a dynamic catalog that keeps up with the needs and opportunities of the modern workplace.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

As a matter of fact, one unique element of Lyon’s curriculum is the opportunity it affords students to design their own major to meet specific interests, career goals and personal fulfillment.

Finally, the college’s forthcoming schools of dentistry and veterinary medicine show Lyon’s commitment to bold new ideas and preparing graduates for careers that make a difference in communities throughout the state.

DID YOU KNOW?

Lyon College was built on inclusivity. The first class of graduates in 1876 included three young women, the state’s first females to receive a bachelor’s degree.

BRINGING LYON WITHIN REACH

In the continuing effort to make the Lyon College experience available to those who seek it, the college’s admissions and financial aid departments go to great lengths to assist students and their families.

Among the many services Lyon College offers is the First-Year Advising Program supporting first-year students pursuing a challenging liberal arts education by providing them with individualized, holistic guidance to

“Lyon College has been educating students to be leaders and changemakers for over 150 years. Our strong liberal arts curriculum prepares students for post-graduate success in a wide variety of careers, including health care, business and education. With an expanded undergraduate curriculum, the first graduate programs at the Batesville campus beginning in fall 2023, and two new professional schools in development for our Little Rock campus, Lyon College continues to invite students to join us as we build a better world, starting in Arkansas.“

Dr. Melissa Taverner Lyon College

Boasting an attractive campus, multiple clubs and organizations and generous financial aid, Southeast Arkansas College provides the complete college experience that’s within reach of every student. Founded in 1959, the school has long been a cornerstone of higher education in the region, helping students reach their dreams of a better job and a brighter future.

JOB READY

SEARK built its reputation on providing a quality education that’s applicable across a wide segment of business and industry. Long known for its programs in nursing and patient care, welding and EMT, the school has also welcomed a growing number of students in HVAC, cyber security and practical nursing, to name a few.

“Southeast Arkansas College is convenient and offers affordable tuition,” said James Stephens, a student. “It allows me to stay close to home while still getting a quality education.”

In addition to the cutting-edge instruction and facilities, SEARK also provides students with other amenities typically not found at a school this size. Job placement services, professional internships and various community partnerships all provide students with outstanding opportunities to transition from the classroom to the workplace.

START HERE, GO ANYWHERE

The college makes it easy for graduates to attend class on their time, thanks to a robust online learning platform providing flexibility for working students. SEARK alums can also build upon their associate degrees and finish their bachelor’s degree thanks to partnerships with several 4-year institutions in Arkansas.

“Being able to study online has changed my life,” said Jessica Derrick, a student. “My studies can be balanced with my work and other obligations.”

A WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT

SEARK strives to provide a welcoming, nurturing environment where every student can enjoy a sense of belonging. The campus hosts multiple special events throughout the year, including guest speakers and cultural celebrations, to provide a vibrant college experience.

In addition, the school boasts a high degree of diversity in its student body, including a substantial percentage of first-generation students. SEARK provides a robust support system for these learners, including the Tutoring Central facility and faculty mentorship. Plus, the school’s impressive 11-to-1 student-teacher ratio ensures every learner gets the attention and help they need to be successful.

“The college’s commitment to diversity and inclusion at the college resonated with me,” said student Damir Johnson. “It was important for me to be part of a diverse community that celebrates different perspectives and backgrounds.”

match their needs and goals.

Lyon College welcomes transfer students from 2-year colleges and offers a very competitive scholarship program for students coming from Arkansas 2-year colleges, including the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville and other community colleges in the state.

About 98% of the student body receives some sort of financial aid, plus help that extends beyond graduation. The Lyon Pledge is a loan repayment assistance program available to all new and incoming students with two years remaining. It can help graduates repay their federal student, parent PLUS and private alternative loans if their income after graduation is below $44,000.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS-PULASKI TECHNICAL COLLEGE

North Little Rock|501-812-2200|uaptc.edu

SUBSCRIBE TODAY.

Today’s college students are just as likely to be busy parents with full-time jobs as 18-year-olds just finishing high school. University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College is a place where all students are given the support and resources they need to achieve academic success and rewarding careers.

SERVING OUR STUDENTS, SERVING OUR COMMUNITY

UA-Pulaski Tech provides access to high-quality education that promotes student learning and enables individuals to develop to their fullest potential. The college serves the community by providing an affordable university-transfer curriculum, relevant workforce training that leads to lucrative employment, and economic development initiatives. These exciting opportunities enable UA-Pulaski Tech graduates to earn a competitive edge in today’s job market.

Students benefit from an unequaled learning environment of small class sizes and individual attention from qualified and highly trained professors.

“College faculty are experts in their fields, but they also must know how to teach,” said UA-PTC Chancellor Summer DeProw. “At UA-PTC, we’re investing in ACUE programs to reach every faculty member to the benefit of every single student. Quality teaching is transformative.”

STUDY WHAT YOU LOVE

The college offers numerous associate degrees and certificates graduates can take directly to the workforce. Allied health and human services programs include nursing, dental assistant, respiratory therapy, radiography and health information technology among other fields.

UA-Pulaski Tech’s business and IT division trains future entrepreneurs, accountants, managers, computer programmers and cybersecurity professionals. The UA-PTC Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute boasts facilities and instruction on par with the best in the country for aspiring chefs and hospitality professionals.

Graduates of the college’s technical sciences areas are highly sought-after professionals in welding, automotive technology, HVAC, advanced manufacturing, aerospace technology and more!

2 + 2 = Future

UA-PTC awards associate of arts and associate of science degrees to graduates of the university-transfer program. Families can significantly reduce the cost of a four-year bachelor’s degree by taking advantage of the 2 + 2 Degree program. For example:

The Metro 2 + 2 Degree program is an agreement between UA-Pulaski Tech and UA Little Rock where students complete their first two years at UA-PTC in

one of four degree areas, then transfer to UA Little Rock for their final two years to earn a bachelor’s degree from one of 44 degree options.

What’s more, some UA System institutions like the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and UA Little Rock may honor the UA-Pulaski Tech’s significantly lower tuition rate for a student’s junior and senior years!

FAST FACTS

• Two-year education in a nurturing environment

• 2022 enrollment: 10,877, taking 99,800 credit hours

• High degree of racial and ethnic diversity

• In-state tuition just $142 per credit hour

• Designated programs assisting veterans and single parents

DID YOU KNOW?

A full 98% of full-time UA-PTC faculty are certified by the Association of College and University Educators, the only nationally recognized college teaching credential endorsed by the American Council on Education.

CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE

“As a leader in higher education, the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College is a student-focused institution that serves Arkansas and the region. Employers look to us for qualified employees, and students look to us for enhanced employability and earning power. UA-Pulaski Technical College offers relevant education that leads to sustainable careers and foundational education for transfer programs to four-year institutions. We work closely with employers to ensure that the education we offer prepares our graduates for the jobs available in the region today and we provide the skills necessary to adapt to an ever-changing environment. Today’s students need affordability, mentoring and excellent instruction, and they need to see a return on their investment. UA-Pulaski Technical College is meeting this challenge.

Dr. Summer DeProw

UA-Pulaski Technical College

ARKANSAS COLLEGES OF HEALTH EDUCATION

Fort Smith|479-308-2243|achehealth.edu

Educating future generations of health care professionals is the mission of Arkansas Colleges of Health Education. Located on 542 acres, the campus features two award-winning facilities that house state-of-the-art learning environments while creating spaces for graduate-level students and community members to engage in healthy living.

ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) ― A four-year doctor degree, mission-driven to educate and train compassionate osteopathic physicians through excellence in teaching, research, service and scholarly activity.

Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) ― A three-year, entry-level doctoral program focused on training successful physical therapists through handson, clinical experiences taught by the nation’s top PT faculty and employing brand-new equipment powered by cutting-edge technology.

Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) ― Students are trained in learning spaces such as Live and Learn, Pediatrics, and Splinting/Modality, labs that feature “real world” practice over their three years in the program.

Master of Science in Biomedicine (MSB) ― This one-year, 30 credit-hour program provides students with sufficient academic rigor in biomedical sciences to prepare students aspiring for a career in the medical and health professions.

Master of Public Health (MPH) ― Coming in 2024, this two-year program will develop diverse and skilled public health professionals who champion equitable access and promote the health and well-being of populations to strengthen communities.

HEALTHY LIVING

Students have the opportunity to model healthy behaviors by taking advantage of on-campus amenities. ACHE offers two on-campus housing options, which include restaurants, shops and amenities like a swimming pool, fitness center, basketball court, dog park and entertainment pavilions. The ACHE campus itself includes Celebration Garden & Wellness Park, an eightacre park that features walking trails, lake, playground, labyrinth and more.

Arkansas State University Three Rivers (ASUTR) is a comprehensive, public, 2-year institution of higher education in Malvern. The college, part of the Arkansas State University System, provides accessible, high-value associate degrees and certificates in a quality academic environment that is focused on both student success and the economic development needs of the communities it serves.

Offering more than 50 programs of study in academic, career and technical disciplines to about 3,500 credit, noncredit and adult learners, ASUTR operates three campus locations in Hot Spring, Clark and Grant counties. It also serves local industry by providing educational programs to workforce students.

LOCALLY FOCUSED, GLOBALLY RELEVANT

Serving the culturally and economically diverse populations in the five-county service area of Hot Spring, Saline, Clark, Grant and Dallas counties, Arkansas State University Three Rivers prepares graduates for the challenges of the workplace in a rapidly changing world.

Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, ASU Three Rivers offers some of the region’s best professional and technical programs. Through its divisions of Applied Science Technology, Arts and Sciences and Health Sciences, the college offers certification in a number of academic, law enforcement, medical and vocational fields.

Some of ASU Three Rivers’ most popular associate degrees include nursing, computer information systems, engineering and manufacturing technology (mechatronics), general technology, criminal justice, accounting, office administration, management and early childhood education.

From here, students can continue on to complete a bachelor’s degree at a 4-year institution. ASU Three Rivers maintains 2+2 articulation agreements with Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Or graduates can put their ASU Three Rivers degree to work immediately in one of any number of high-paying careers in high demand statewide.

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

“Arkansas College of Health Education (ACHE) is changing the direction of health care in Arkansas and beyond through the power of education. Whether you pursue becoming a physician, physical therapist, occupational therapist, achieve a master in biomedical science or graduate from our forthcoming master of public health program, ACHE is ready to make your dream a reality. Our mission to educate and train a diverse group of highly competent and compassionate health care professionals to improve the lives of others is the driving force behind the outstanding faculty and staff that make up ACHE.”

Kyle D. Parker Arkansas Colleges Of Health Education

"Arkansas State University Three Rivers is committed to improving the lives of the residents in the communities we serve. For more than 50 years, the college has been committed to making a positive difference in people’s lives. ASU Three Rivers ensures its students have the opportunity to achieve their educational goals by providing programs and services designed to prepare those planning to seek immediate employment, transition to a new career or earn a 4-year degree. Visit us at One College Circle in Malvern or at asutr.edu. At Arkansas State University Three Rivers, you will discover a Higher Degree of You!”

Dr. Steve Rook Arkansas State University Three Rivers

CHANCELLOR'S MESSAGE

PARENTING IN THE DIGITAL AGE

HOW TO RAISE TECH-SMART KIDS.

BY TRICIA LARSON

For children born in the age of social media, their digital footprints begin before they’re even born. Parents post pregnancy announcements, due dates, gender reveals and baby’s first photo. While these posts are made with the best of intentions, are there inherent risks to putting young children’s information online? Should parents think about consent and how these cute and funny photos may age as their children do? And once children are older and have social media accounts of their own, how do we teach them to be safe and responsible online?

To answer these questions and more, we turned to the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub and its team of experts. The Innovation Hub is a statewide resource for digital literacy education and serves to equip Arkansans with the tools they need to be successful in today’s digital world.

Innovation Hub director Errin Stanger, senior education officer Elizabeth Whitley and communications manager Claret Alcalá Collins answered our questions and shared their knowledge to help parents navigate the digital age and raise tech-smart kids.

How can parents set a good example on social media? What are the best practices for sharing family content online?

Parents can set a good example for children by monitoring the time they spend on their phones or devices, especially in a family setting or when a child is wanting to spend one-on-one time with a parent. Some families ask that all devices be put away at family meals, and this goes for the parents as well. It is also important to remember that as your children grow and have their own accounts, they can see what parents are posting.

The best practices for sharing family content online start with ensuring privacy settings are in place and that all users understand the settings. It’s a great idea for parents to let kids know when photos of them are posted to social media, who can see that photo and what the purpose is in posting. Allowing kids to have a say at a young age empowers them and helps them learn what is acceptable. Parents should invite children into the conversation about what is acceptable family content for social media

OVERWHELMED: From avoiding cyberbullying to moderating inappropriate content and monitoring screen time, there's a lot to juggle as a parent of a kid in the internet age.

posting and what is best left for a face-to-face conversation.

Most kids access the internet and social media sites on their phones. What privacy settings and third-party apps should parents familiarize themselves with?

Making sure that parents are checking their children’s privacy settings on social media platforms is the number one step they need to take to make sure kids stay safe in the digital world. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook or TikTok and streaming services such as YouTube all offer different privacy settings. Parents should familiarize themselves with the privacy options available on the platforms their children use and adjust these settings to control not only the kind of information their children have access to, but also who has access to the child's profile, posts and personal information.

The great thing about today’s technology is that mobile devices now offer privacy features that allow parents to have control, letting them man-

age and restrict access to certain apps, websites and overall content. These features may include app restrictions, content filters, screen-time limits and more. Parents should take the time to explore the parental control settings on their child's device to customize them according to their age and family rules.

To keep explicit or inappropriate content from appearing in the search engines of the devices children have access to, parents can use monitoring and content filtering tools. Some popular ones include Bark, WebWatcher, SafeDNS, FamilyShield and CleanBrowsing.

As children get older, how can parents prepare them for the responsibility of a phone or unsupervised time on a computer?

Due to the availability of technology, education should start at a young age and consistency is key. Parents may start strong in this area but find they are not checking on their children as they get older. If you set certain timelines and rules when a child is young, remember to be consistent and have good communication as

your child grows. It is important to teach kids best practices around cybersecurity and keep teaching them until they understand the hidden dangers and how best to avoid them.

Parents need to decide how passwords are shared, set rules about posting personal information and teach children to not accept requests from people they do not know.

Digital consumers of all ages struggle with too much screen time, but research shows that logging more time on our devices is especially harmful to children. What are practical ways that parents can help kids and teens manage their screen time in a digital world?

Parents need to keep in mind that it's important to regularly assess children’s screen time habits to ensure they are balanced and aligned with their family's values and goals. Some practical ways parents can help kids and teenagers manage their screen time are leading by example, setting clear rules and boundaries, using parental control features on mobile devices and encouraging physical activity and outside play time.

What are common online dangers and what can parents do to help their child navigate these inherent

risks?

Unfortunately, common online dangers include cyberbullying, online predators, phishing, scams and excessive screen time. In addition to maintaining open communication with their children, fostering trust and staying engaged in their child’s online activities, it is essential that parents regularly discuss online safety, encourage questions and provide guidance as kids navigate the digital world. Teaching your kid to recognize signs of cyberbullying, being familiar

LOOKING OUT FOR KIDS: Errin Stanger is the director of the Innovation Hub.

Rock

Bryant

with basic guidelines for responsible behavior and healthy internet usage and understanding the importance of reporting online incidents are crucial to keeping children safe and making sure they are setting a good example for their friends and other kids.

How big of a problem is cyberbullying? What are the warning signs a child is being cyberbullied or is cyberbullying? What can be done to prevent and stop it?

Cyberbullying is a significant problem, especially in today's digital world. Cyberbullying involves using digital technologies such as social media, messaging apps or online platforms to harass, intimidate or harm others.

Some warning signs that a child is being bullied can be:

• Emotional distress: increased irritability, sadness, anger or mood swings, or exhibiting signs of anxiety, depression, low self-esteem or self-destructive tendencies;

• Avoidance of devices or reluctance to use the internet or social media;

• Sudden withdrawal from social activities or friends;

• Declining academic performance or loss of interest in school;

• Reluctance to share details about online activities or sudden secrecy regarding online interactions.

Some warning signs that a child might be cyberbullying are:

• Increased aggression or anger, both online and offline;

• Frequent discussions or laughter about others' distress, or lack of empathy for others' feelings or well-being;

KEEPING TECHNOLOGY SAFE: Elizabeth Whitley is the Innovation Hub's senior education officer.

• Excessive time spent online, especially during odd hours;

• Possession of multiple online accounts or secretive online behavior;

• Having a large number of friends or followers on social media, especially if they seem to use it as a tool for power or control;

• Declining academic performance or disciplinary issues at school.

Parents must monitor a child’s online activity to stay informed about their digital behavior and experiences. If parents observe multiple warning signs or notice a pattern of concerning behavior, it is important to take action sooner rather than later. Approaching the child with empathy and open communication — and keeping an open mind regarding the need to involve the appropriate authorities, school or counseling services — is key to facilitating an intervention.

As technology advances and new social media channels arise, it is important that parents, educators and society as a whole stay alert and actively address the issue of cyberbullying by promoting digital literacy, fostering empathy and kindness, establishing clear guidelines and consequences for online behavior, and providing support and resources for both victims and perpetrators to address the underlying causes of bullying behavior.

It’s clear parenting in this digital age is an ever-evolving journey filled with both challenges and opportunities. By being mindful of their own digital habits, setting commonsense rules and healthy boundaries, and fostering open communication, parents can overcome the complexities of raising children in a hyper-connected world and help them become responsible digital citizens.

DIGITAL LITERACY IS KEY: Claret Alcalá Collins is the communications manager at the Innovation Hub.

Q.G. THE BLACKNIGHT, “BOUT TIME”

“This Love Thing,” the recent EP by Eudora native and Conway-based rapper Q.G. the BlacKnight, has a tenderness you don’t often hear in hip-hop music. The final cut, “Bout Time,” is no exception. Over slow-burn beats, Q.G. employs a buttery but dejected delivery to rap plainly about feeling left behind by the person he’s pining for most: “You doin’ good and I’m doin’ bad cuz you doin’ good without me.” He’s unafraid to own the pettiness of being a lovelorn mess, and that’s something special.

SONIC SUNSCREEN

EIGHT TRACKS TO DISTRACT YOU FROM THE HEAT.

BY DANIEL GREAR

What makes a great summertime song? Radiant and lush arrangements? Upbeat tempos that leave the listener with no choice but to flail their limbs? Lyrics that evoke a carefree lack of responsibilities? Maybe I’m in the minority, but the older I get, the more I’m inclined to just listen to whatever’s good, regardless of whether the style and the season are aligned. Here are eight recently released tracks from Arkansas’s finest musicians that deserve a place on any summer playlist, despite only being occasionally sunshiny.

JUPITER’S FLYTRAP, “HONEY HONEY”

I’ve been seeing Jupiter’s Flytrap show up on posters around town for gigs with angsty rock bands like Tiny Towns, Salon Blonde and Frailstate, so I assumed they probably existed in the same sonic vein. The Central Arkansas quartet’s first single, “Honey Honey,” corrects that misconception by way of a hazy aesthetic replete with soft synths, chorus-dominated guitar, slinky bass, syncopated bongos and a hand brushed across the chimes. The most important element is singer Indi Minett, whose languid, dreamy vocals hang in the air like a friendly ghost in search of a real connection: “What a dream to see you for who you truly are / And not just what you carry on about.” Stick around for a quirky keyboard solo that trickles in at the eleventh hour.

SAD PALOMINO, “WHAT IT FEELS LIKE”

“What It Feels Like,” the badass finale from Sad Palomino’s sophomore record “Asleep in the Saddle,” is pretty much three songs in one. For the first two minutes, the Fayetteville band intuitively alternates between two diametrically opposed versions of themselves: a fuzzy, high-energy blend of Pavement and Parquet Courts and a slightly dissonant soft rock persona, full of longing. Just when you think you’ve got this band figured out, they hop into a jam session shuffle, which introduces their third and most joyfully goofy identity.

SHINE EYE YELL, “THIS ROAD”

Some songs keep you waiting for their most moving element, but “This Road” — the somber opening track from Tomahawk-based Americana band Shine Eye Yell’s debut album, “Buffalo National River Songs, Vol. 1” — puts its strongest foot forward with an arresting orchestral flourish that recurs throughout. That wistful string line alone is enough to keep you listening, but the group has another trick up their sleeves that slips in at the 1:14 mark: a distortion-free electric guitar lick delivered so smoothly and subtly that its technical prowess risks going unnoticed.

German Wine Dinner with Fassler Hall and Vino Distribution at Rusty Tractor Vineyards

August 4 Sunset Lodge at Rusty Tractor Vineyards

August 10-13

- Pulaski Tech’s Center for Humanities and Arts

ALWAYS TIRED, “THE BETTER PART”

Included on “Contact Sports,” the debut fulllength by Fayetteville’s Always Tired, “the better part” is a slight reprieve from the chaotic emo of their other material. I say “slight” because the track is certainly never soft and eventually blooms into heaviness, but the straightforward groove and looping bass line of the first half is a side of Always Tired we haven’t seen yet, one that makes room for singer Michael Sweater’s scorched melodies to take center stage.

HONEY COLLECTIVE, “SUMMER ’02 (FEAT. MARCELESE)”

Honey Collective, the Brooklyn-via-Fayetteville future soul/hip-hop/jazz group, is no stranger to dabbling in a variety of genres, but their newest single, “Summer ’02,” is the farthest they’ve strayed from their original sound. Trading live drums and elegant piano for stuttering electronic grooves and deliciously warbly synths, Honey Collective is thrusting themselves into conversation with artists like Noname.

JOHN MCATEER AND HIS DEMANDS, “WHEN YOU SAY LOVE”

Throughout their new record, “Mid-Century Mod,” Little Rock’s John McAteer and his Demands have a lot in common with early Green Day, except they’re cooler and more jangly — light-footed, tuneful and digestible all the same, but with better guitar tone and tastier production overall. “When You Say Love” is the first song I’d recommend, simply because it’s the most fun and has that quintessential album-starting kick, but if you’re inclined to venture toward some slightly darker territory, check out “Finally Dreaming,” which opens with a sizzling, resonant riff.

NICK SHOULDERS, “WHOOPED IF YOU WILL”

To compliment Fayetteville folkster Nick Shoulders on his vocal gymnastics is something like praising a fish for its ability to swim, but damned if “Whooped If You Will” doesn’t make it seem like he’s turned another corner with his yodeling. No later than seven seconds into his newest song, Shoulders unveils a back-andforth melodic jiggle that’s unprecedented in his work, at least to my ears. Also a thrill is to hear Shoulders in 6/8, a playful time signature in which he sounds right at home.

POP THE CORK

IS THE CENTRAL ARKANSAS FOOD SCENE’S PANDEMIC SLUMP IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR?

BY KEVIN SHALIN PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON

TRUSTY FAVORITES: Raduno Brick Oven & Barroom has been a stalwart of the SoMa neighborhood since 2015.

If years of pandemic dormancy kept the Little Rock food scene’s energy bottled up, the cork has decidedly been popped. Don’t believe me? Drive down Main Street in the heart of Little Rock’s SoMa District on a Saturday night. Notice anything different? It is no longer easy to find street parking. People are walking around, lingering in front of gallery windows. Once-empty storefronts on the 1500 block now bear signs of life. There is a palpable spark, and food and drink bear a substantial responsibility.

Longtime favorites Community Bakery and Boulevard Bread Company have your breakfast needs and sweet tooth covered. Raduno Brick Oven & Barroom’s pizza game is as strong as ever, and the Honduran food-truckturned-brick-and-mortar El Sur Street Food Co. has delighted the masses. A few doors down, Mockingbird Bar & Tacos has added brunch service to its approachable staples — burgers, fries, smoked wings, cheese dip. “We absolutely subscribe to the ‘rising tide’ effect,” Mockingbird owner Johnny Campbell said. “The more successful ventures in the area give credibility to the district. We champion the other restaurants in the area and truly want to see them succeed, and we are looking forward to the new additions that are coming soon.”

The Bagel Shop and BCW (bread, cheese and wine) are two of those newbies. They will join stalwarts like The Root Cafe, Loblolly Creamery and Rock Town Distillery to help round out one of the more eclectic food pockets in Little Rock.

About half a mile north on Main Street, you’ll find another mix of restaurants in the heart of downtown Little Rock. Places like Samantha’s Tap Room & Wood Grill, Bruno’s Little Italy and Allsopp & Chapple Restaurant + Bar bring in regulars and River Market visitors alike.

“If you don’t have a reservation, it can be difficult to get a table on Friday and Saturday nights,” Allsopp & Chapple general manager Dillon Garcia said. Even midweek shifts can be busy for the Main Street restaurant, he added.

At Allsopp, take a load off at the bar and enjoy one of Garcia’s craft cocktails and a filet mignon. The 8-ounce center cut, espresso-cured beef comes with a cabernet demiglace along with sides of mashed potatoes and asparagus. It’s one of the best steaks in town.

BUSTLING WEEKENDS: Downtown restaurants like Allsopp & Chapple (pictured above) can be busy on Friday and Saturday nights, so don't sleep on getting a reservation.

EXPLORING THE SCENE: Clockwise from top left: Blackberry Market, chicken-fried steak from Blue Heaven Restaurant & Bar, fried grit cakes with a Salem de Saison beer from The Rogue Roundabout, a busy night outside Loblolly Creamery in SoMa.

The weekends have also been kind to Brood & Barley, the popular Argenta restaurant just across the river in North Little Rock. Dishes like the Legit Cheesesteak, raclette burger and pork tenderloin sandwich have helped build a loyal following.

“Brood certainly sees big crowds on the weekend,” executive chef and co-owner Brayan Mcfadden said. “Between the Argenta Vibe series, Dogtown Throwdown and just the natural lore of the neighborhood itself, we have everything to offer. Breakfast at Blackberry Market, dinner with us and late nights at Four Quarter Bar or Reno’s are the way to go. Argenta is the total package.”

Good times in North Little Rock don’t stop in Argenta. Eateries like North Bar, Hogg’s Meat Market, Dark Side Coffee Co., Gadwall’s Grill and Littlefield’s Cafe line both sides of JFK Boulevard. Nearby Sherwood is home to culinary veterans Chang Thai and Mama’s Gyros Grill, along with Bennett’s Casual Dining, a restaurant that took over the former Zaffino’s space. At Bennett’s, order the cheeseburger and fries; or request the four-course, dinner-for-two special during dinner service — an absolute steal at $60.

Heck, even the area where Maumelle meets North Little Rock is starting to change its food narrative. Cypress Social has it all, from a killer bar program to desserts galore to periodic special dinner events showcasing the creativity of chefs Aaron Fowler and Sara Horton. Chef Horton’s Coffee-Toffee Chocolate Tres Leches dessert is the stuff of dreams. On that note, and in the same area, have you been to Coffee Corner for an espresso? What about the new Enjoy Chicken & Rice for cucumber kimchi? You won’t be disappointed in either.

Back in Little Rock, the East Village neighborhood on the edge of downtown is now a wonderful mix of dining hot spots. The Rail Yard is under new ownership and is likely to regain prominence among the food truck community, while the beer and bites at Camp Taco and Lost Forty Brewing, brainchildren of Yellow Rocket Concepts, are sure to please. Coffee roaster Fidel & Co and its newly opened sister food hall, Sterling Market, are down the block, boding well for the neighborhood’s short term and extended future.

“Summertime is an exciting time for us because we witness our talented chefs showcasing different local, seasonal ingredients that tend to be popular ones amongst Arkansans,” Fidel

owner Fidel Samour said. “We expect the alley area to be finished soon, where folks can enjoy food, drinks and various types of entertainment. The alley will have big fans and cooling units to make this inside/outside area enjoyable during those hot summer months.”

Speaking of new, The Rogue Roundabout, a gorgeous beer hall that also offers patrons a full menu of creative eats, has already taken the Conway food community by storm. Polish off an order of fried grit cakes with a brew, then head next door to BMB Creations Bakery for a loaf of sourdough and a couple cookies, cupcakes and mini cheesecakes. Conway is also bakery central, so don’t forget about established spots like PattiCakes Bakery for a cinnamon roll and Kassi’s Cookies for oatmeal crème pies. Before heading out of town, a to-go order of a spicy pork bowl and chicken wings from Bulgogi Korean BBQ needs to happen.

Should I keep going?

Saline County, an area once known for its plethora of chain restaurants, is making strides with local eats, thanks in large part to Heather Baber-Roe and Craig Roe, co-owners of RŌBER, Revival and Baja Grill.

“The Benton community, people who are from here and transplants, have been very welcoming, appreciative and wonderful supporters of all three of our downtown restaurants. With RŌBER, we constantly hear, ‘I can’t believe this is Benton, Arkansas. Thank you for bringing this here.’ It means a lot when they thank us, more than they probably realize,” Heather Baber-Roe says.

On that note, Heather and Craig, thank you for serving those Cuban nachos and killer margaritas at Baja Grill. Your clothesline bacon appetizer and cheeseburger at RŌBER aren’t too shabby, either.

Other notable spots in the area include Blue Heaven Restaurant & Bar for a chicken-fried steak, Speakeasy Cafe for a breakfast sandwich and cup of joe, Tim’s Tavern for amazing fried catfish, and breakfast at both Niecy’s and Blue House Bakery and Cafe.

I think you get the drift.

Our culinary scene continues to make great strides, but it takes two to tango; consumers must support the local scene with our patronage. If restaurants can foster creativity, churn out consistently excellent food and drink, and do so in settings that inspire return visits, the sky’s the limit for Central Arkansas.

GETTICKETSNOW!

FALL FESTIVAL 2023

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 14TH FROM 6-9PM @ARGENTA PLAZA

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS $30

General Admission includes Margarita samples from your favorite local restaurants such as Mockingbird Bar, The Arlington Resort Hotel, XYZ Bar, Mi Paella and Peppermint Hippo! Food will be available to purchase from food trucks.

VIP TICKETS $ 100

Hang out in our VIP ONLY area, sample high end Milagro Tequila, exclusive margaritas, catered food, and early entry (5:30 PM)

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Must be 21 to enter. No exceptions.

BUDTENDERS RECOMMEND

CANNABIS PROFESSIONALS MIX EXPERTISE AND EXPERIENCE TO NAME THEIR TOP PICKS.

Is the best medicine the strongest, its effects overpowering and undeniable? Plenty of budtenders in Arkansas take issue with that notion. A real marijuanaphile aiming to maximize medicinal effects is better off paying attention to more than just how zonked they can get.

We spoke with some of Arkansas’s most knowledgeable and experienced budtenders about the cannabis products they’ve been obsessed with lately. As you’ll see, there’s lots of nuance to consider while you shop.

BY GRIFFIN COOP

JENNIFER BURR

TRAINER/WELLNESS CONSULTANT NATURAL RELIEF DISPENSARY SHERWOOD

Jennifer Burr, voted the state’s best budtender by Arkansas Times readers in 2022, likes the live rosin gummies made by Revolution Cannabis because they are made using a solvent-less method that is “more natural” and “less manipulated,” making them easier for the body to process, she said. Burr recommends the gummies, which come in grapefruit, stone pear and mimosa flavors, for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia or chronic pain. Burr’s other favorite product is the three-in-one anti-inflammatory topical from Natural State Medicinals, a cream made up of three parts CBD and one part THC. Burr said it helps with problems like arthritis, osteoporosis and chronic pain. She added that she uses it on her lower back where she has a herniated disk. It’s great for clear-headed effects with pain management, she said.

ZACH HAGER KEYHOLDER THE SOURCE ROGERS

Zach Hager, who works the sales floor at The Source dispensary in Rogers, said he likes the 20-to-1 Blueberry Elderberry gummies by Good Day Farm. They’ve got a high concentration of CBD, a nonpsychoactive substance with other helpful qualities. “Cannabis is about a lot more than just getting high,” Hager said. When you mix that amount of CBD with a small amount of THC, it really helps prolong the beneficial pain relief effects of THC, he said. Hager uses the gummies in the mornings and said they help him with pain relief and keep him “nice and happy throughout the day.” Hager also chose The Source’s dispensary-grown flower Donny Burger, sold under the brand name “In the Flow.” A real heavy hitter with a THC percentage of 28-31%, he likes the terpene profile that includes myrcene, caryophyllene and linalool because he finds they help with chronic pain and inflammation.

JUST GETTING HIGH."

"CANNABIS IS ABOUT A LOT MORE THAN

HELEN MOAK TRAINER/BUDTENDER HARVEST CANNABIS DISPENSARY CONWAY

Helen Moak, who trains all of the new employees and works as a budtender at Harvest Cannabis in Conway, had no trouble selecting chocolates from Natural State Medicinals as her favorite product. Moak said the Lemon Icebox Pie Little Bark Chocolates are “overall amazing” and that she’s purchased six packs of them so far. The chocolates have both great flavor and effect, while a lot of edibles sacrifice one for the other. Moak said she takes them an hour or two before bed to help slow her mind. The effect is low and slow while also giggly and mellow. “I love it,” she said. Moak’s other product pick, which clocks in at about 21% THC, was the Fruit Cake flower from Carpenter Farms Medical Group. Moak said Carpenter Farms has a good variety of products that she enjoys but selected Fruit Cake because it offers her a “happy, mellow time.”

MERRY WATSON BUDTENDER OSAGE CREEK DISPENSARY EUREKA SPRINGS

Merry Watson, a budtender who writes creative product reviews for Osage Creek Dispensary, chose two strains of flower from Osage Creek Cultivation in Berryville. First up: Purple Cough, a hybrid strain that Watson said treats symptoms such as pain, mental duress and nausea. This purple-hued flower (pictured above) offers a berry flavor with a raspberry aftertaste, according to Watson. It has 16% THC and is a cross between Strawberry Cough and Anthocyanin Man with terpenes that include alpha-pinene, limonene and beta-caryophyllene. Watson chose Strawberry Banana flower from Osage Creek for her second personal fave, which she called “one of the most mentally uplifting flowers I’ve discovered.” This indica-dominant hybrid with about 20% THC has been potent enough to treat Watson’s intractable pain but gentle enough not to trigger slight heart arrhythmias, she said. Watson recommended it for headaches, muscle spasms, gastrointestinal disorders and all kinds of stress.

CARL PATTERSON BUDTENDER CROP DISPENSARY JONESBORO

Carl Patterson, a budtender at CROP Dispensary who previously worked in cultivation at Revolution Cannabis, chose Blackwater flower by Natural State Medicinals as his personal favorite flower, noting its strong relaxing qualities. It’s also an aphrodisiac, he said. Patterson said his suspicions about the flower’s sexual side effects were confirmed when other customers in the store noted the same impacts on their libido. Blackwater, which checks in at around 27% THC, offers scents of blueberry and leather and is a great stress reliever, he said. This flower gets patients down in the couch and flipping through the TV if they can keep their eyes open, he said. Patterson also chose the four-in-one gummies from Good Day Farm. These gummies come in Pink Lemonade, Tiger’s Blood and Cherry Bomb, but Patterson said he prefers the Berry Blast. Packaged in units of around 300mg, with pieces around 35mg that can be broken into smaller parts, they’re strong enough that Patterson reports he might not need to smoke if he uses the gummies. They're good for numbing pain and for taking before bed, he said.

August

4th

11th - Ed Bowmanandthe Rock City Players

12th - Billy Ruebenandthe Elevated Enzymes

16th

Check out upcoming bands at Fourquarter.com

Open until

AUGUST CANNABIS HIGHLIGHTS

CHURRO CHEESECAKE

Natural State Medicinals has partnered with Loblolly Creamery to infuse their delicious Churro Cheesecake ice cream into their Little Bark Chocolate Mini Bars. Unleash the nostalgia and indulge in the whimsical world of Little Barks Churro Cheesecake Chocolate Mini Bars. These sophisticated, yet playful, bite-sized delights are a perfect fusion of childhood flavors and adult sophistication. With each pack containing two bars infused with 40mg THC per bar, Little Barks offers a tantalizing escape. Experience the captivating dance of cinnamon sugar and creamy chocolate as you savor the Churro Cheesecake sensation. Share the bark-worthy joy with a friend or keep both bites to yourself. Get ready to elevate your chocolate experience and let your taste buds howl with delight.

HELPS WITH: Chronic Pain, Insomnia, Stress, and Anxiety $13.22 PER 80MG PACKAGE ($15 WITH TAX)

NATURAL RELIEF DISPENSARY 3107 E. Kiehl Ave. Sherwood naturalreliefdispensary.com

OMG OG

You can’t help but utter “OMG” when you get your first savory taste of Harvest’s in-house OMG OG strain. Expect couch-locking, face-melting chillaxation on this new indica hybrid strain from Ripper Seeds.The name is a play on "GMO," one of the dominant cultivars of 2022, where GMO x Chem Cookies x Kush Mints were crossed to yield a crazy-strong combination of its progenitors. OMG OG’s lovely structure of dark-colored purple flowers and snowy buds emit a sweet, lemony fragrance that tastes astringently kushy with a hint of mint, and yields powerful, heady, day-melting effects. Best of all, it’s Clean Green Certified® and only at Harvest.

HARVEST CANNABIS

1200 Thomas G. Wilson Dr. Conway

501-504-6065

harvestcannabisarkansas.com

GO CARTS BY GOOD DAY FARM

GO Carts are vape cartridges filled with pure cannabis oil and the same mind-blowing flavors found in your favorite GO Pens. These 0.5g carts are jam-packed with a larger volume of GO power than the all-in-one GO Pen. Inspired by the sticky, sweet flavors of grape soda, throw this indica GO Cart on any 510-thread battery, and... Ready. Set. GO.

$40

BERNER'S BY GOOD DAY FARM

11600 Chenal Parkway

Little Rock

501-441-0944

gooddayfarmdispensary.com

Marijuana is for use by qualified patients only. Keep out of reach of children. Marijuana use during pregnancy or breastfeeding poses potential harms. Marijuana is not approved by the FDA to treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Do not operate a vechicle or machinery under the influence of marijuana.

Moxie needs that perfect forever home with a loving family. I have taken care of getting her fixed along with her shots, heartworm pills, flea and tick treatments and ask that you reimburse me for that. If interested, please call Kaytee Wright at 501-607-3100.

A MORNING IN CHICKEN PARADISE

The Observer’s favorite type of conversation is the kind that arises with a stranger. Like many, I struggle with small talk, but sometimes when you meet someone who already knows what they want to say, that doesn’t matter. You smile and nod and say, “Tell me more,” and when you’re lucky, the end result is something thoughtful, engaging and — best of all — eccentric.

One such occasion presented itself on a recent weekend morning. It was one of those rare summer Saturdays when one has nothing to do but meander about, made better by doing so in the company of good friends.

My party and I decided to shuffle down to the Hillcrest Farmers Market, where we selected bread, jam, cucumbers and radishes. Feeling accomplished with our fresh local produce in hand, we continued onward and were met with a curious sight. The chicken man had set up shop.

Anyone who regularly drives down Kavanaugh has seen the chicken man. David Boyett regularly sits on the Promenade near the Allsopp Park entrance, where he has the world’s smallest petting zoo, consisting solely of a couple of chickens. He also sells eggs and officiates marriages.

On this day, David wore a rooster-patterned button-up and chicken-themed shoes. To his left were the chickens, and on his right was a handcrafted box dispensing penny fortunes. A painted sign advertised “C.C.T.,” or chicken cuddle therapy. One of my companions, charmed, stopped to take a picture, but she was caught.

“Young lady! You took a picture without

asking! You know what you have to do now?”

We hesitated, fearing the worst. Some recollected moments of extortion from tourist traps and college town characters, others thought back to the stranger danger song we all learned in elementary school. David, thank goodness, broke the tension with kindness.

“Hold a chicken!” he exclaimed. We understood then he was joking, but holding a chicken is actually a pretty sweet deal, so we stuck around.

My friend, the offending player, went first. It was her first chicken-holding. David instructed her on the proper way to position her arms, gave her a safe word (“pineapple”) in case she or the chicken became uncomfortable, then gently placed Tilda (!) into her arms.

Tilda-Jane, he explained, is a Wiccan chicken. She casts a spell on everyone who holds her that makes them want to take her home. “She’s a tease,” David joked.

Indeed, she was enchanting. When my turn came around, Tilda rested peacefully in my arms for about 20 minutes. She was by far the calmest chicken I have ever held (my authority here comes from chasing and catching many chickens as a child, which — obviously after being cornered — were far from calm). I feared my hands were sweaty, but it’s not like a chicken is bothered by such things, especially one as gracious as Tilda.

While we stood there receiving Tilda’s bewitching healing powers, we also gained some valuable wisdom from David.

We had no pennies, but he kindly permitted us to take fortunes anyway. David insisted he

was NOT a psychic, but merely an astute judge of character.

With varying degrees of accuracy, he proceeded to help interpret our fortunes and what they said about us. The first to go was declared the speculative sort; he’s “never going to buy a pig in a poke.” The next, frequently underestimated because of her good nature, was “effervescent.” Another was declared to be in a dedicated relationship. Perhaps a lucky guess? As for me, I am “the type who cried when they shot Old Yeller.”

As time passed, his quippy remarks evolved to something more insightful. On sadness: Sometimes your friends just need you to sit with them, you can’t fix everything. On insecurities: Oftentimes the things you feel are most ugly about yourself are actually what make you the most special.

Right when we thought things couldn’t get any better, our new friend pulled out a ukulele. David said he’d been teaching himself to play, and though he wasn’t any good, he decided to embrace it anyway.

He performed an original composition for us, inspired of course by his dear chickens. I cannot impart to you the sheer delight this evoked, but the lyrics were something to the tune of “chicken paradise.”

The final notes seemed to be a natural conclusion to our little sidewalk congregation. I reluctantly returned Tilda the Wiccan chicken to her caretaker, and we bid our goodbyes, feeling changed.

David saw us off with a friendly imperative to “keep it between the ditches.”