Summer 2022 Tangents

THE TEACHING BUG

Instructor finds inspiration in and out of the classroom

Earlier this spring, a photo came up in my daily Timehop app from 2013 when the late Dr. Jon Ruehle gave us a first look at ‘Razorback Scratch.’ Dr. Ruehle had been approached by The ASMSA Foundation that year to develop a piece similar in nature to a project he had previously completed for the University of Texas at Austin with the goal of recognizing major donors. His willingness to do so remains one of the greatest acts of kindness a member of our community of learning has offered during my time at the school.

‘Razorback Scratch’ would become a tangible show of gratitude to members of the ASMSA Founders Society. The society includes supporters who contribute to either endowments or capital projects with cumulative gifts greater than $50,000. Contributors’ donations have often supported significant and sometimes immediate needs for our school and students.

Each time we had the opportunity to present one of these bronzes to a friend of the school, Dr. Ruehle was able to give it to this champion for ASMSA in person. Though Dr. Ruehle was a celebrated wildlife artist and an exceptional scholar in life sciences, he was — first and foremost — an educator. Generally soft-spoken, he would beam with pride in each of the photos where one of his works was awarded.

The moment was bittersweet last semester when my wife Stephanie and I were presented with our own ‘Razorback Scratch’ at this year’s Community of Learning Luncheon for our cumulative gifts to The ASMSA Foundation. The event was one day shy of the tenth anniversary of when we first set foot on the ASMSA campus for my interview to become Director of the school, but it was also the first Founders Society presentation since Dr. Ruehle’s death in October 2020.

Since moving to Arkansas, Stephanie and I have enjoyed becoming part of the community and witnessing the impact that philanthropists and visionaries can have on the school. Philanthropic investment in the potential of these young people helps make their academic and personal growth possible and ensures a brighter future for all of Arkansas.

The endowments or capital support that leads to membership in the Founders Society leaves a lasting legacy and shapes ASMSA for years to come. However, the kind of legacy that Dr. Ruehle created through mutual admiration with his students and colleagues, the sparking of so many careers of emerging scientists, as well as his service to the school is a unique form of support that transcends financial investment and continues to be an inspiration for us all.

Director

Corey Alderdice

Dean of Academic Affairs

Stuart Flynn, J.D.

Dean of Students

Rheo Morris, Ph.D.

Director of Finance

Whitney Moore

Director of Admissions

Charlie Feick

Director of Institutional Advancement

Sara Brown, Ph.D.

Director of Human Resources

Nia Rieves

Board of Visitors

Timothy Barnes, Chair

Fletcher T. West, Vice Chair

Brian Reed, Secretary

Marlene Battle, Pharm.D. (‘97)

Mary Alice Chambers

Gary Dowdy

Mary Zunick

Ex-Officio Representatives

Arkansas Department of Education

Krystal Nail, Program Director, Office of Gifted and Talented and Advanced Placement

Arkansas Division of Higher Education

Maria Markham, Ph.D. Director

Arkansas Economic Development

Commission Science and Technology

Tom Chilton, Division Director

Department of Arkansas Heritage

Patrick Ralston, Executive Director, Arkansas Arts Council

ASMSA Foundation Fund

Board of Ambassadors

Tricia Curreri, Chair

Association for Alumni and Friends of ASMSA

Amy Stvartak (‘11), Chair

ASMSA Governing Council

Thomas Dempster, D.M.A., President

ASMSA Student Government

Talana Small (‘23), President

ASMSA Parents Advisory Council

Kyle Day, Ph.D., Chair

For more information about ASMSA, visit our website at asmsa.org or call (501) 622-5100.

Writer and Graphic Design

Donnie Sewell

Corey Alderdice Director

Photography

Mike Kemp

School nurse has pulse of campus life

Page 24

Determination, work ethic keep runner on the move Page 22

features

2 Selig Hall Named New residential space memorializes longtime advocate.

11 If You Ask Me ... Students learn the art of debate in successful first year for course.

14 Greece is the Word Travelers get glimpse of ancient and modern-day civilizations during trip.

16 Finding Their Voices

Creative Writing Capstone students build confidence in themselves.

20 Value of an Education Contests provide participants finance-related lessons.

27 Central Meeting Place

Alumna helps create interactive platform for client’s caregivers.

On the Cover: Biology instructor Dr. Allyn Dodd leads a discussion during a field trip to a park near campus. Dodd just completed her first year as a member of ASMSA’s faculty. Story on Page 6

#ASMSA

Helen Selig, third from left, was one of ASMSA’s earliest advocates. She helped lead a community effort to persuade the state to choose Hot Springs as the site for the school in 1992. Selig and her family’s support of the school never wavered, and two of her grandchildren are alumni, including Lacy Selig (‘08), center. Selig’s husband John is also pictured with students in 2017 after the announcement of the Helen Selig Promise Kept Endowment.

Honoring a Promise Kept

Renovated convent/chapel

A part of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts’ campus that represents an important aspect of both its past and its future will soon bear the name of one of the school’s earliest supporters.

The University of Arkansas System Board of Trustees approved a resolution in May to formally name the renovated St. Joseph Hospital convent and chapel complex on the ASMSA campus Helen Selig Hall. Selig died on February 18, 2022, after a long-term illness.

Selig was among the earliest and most vocal proponents to bring the then Arkansas School for Mathematics and Sciences to Hot Springs and was a prominent leader of a community group that lobbied the state to choose Hot Springs as the school’s home in 1992. She and her family have continued to support the school throughout its existence.

Her feelings for the school were matched by her long-term dedication to Hot Springs as a whole. Selig served as mayor of Hot Springs from 1994-2000, and she never stopped promoting the success of the city she grew to call home after her family settled here in 1985.

The complex is currently undergoing a $5.5 million renovation that will transform the convent into

complex named Selig Hall

additional residential housing for students, offices for the school’s professional mental health staff, as well as a new student union. Renovation of the convent will be completed this summer in time for students to move into for the start of the fall semester. The chapel will become an auditorium used for various campus events.

Selig’s family members were pleased to find out that the buildings would be named for her.

“The family is honored that the school would name such an important piece of Hot Springs’ history and the renovation of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts for our grandmother, mother and wife,” said Lacy Selig, who is Helen’s granddaughter and a 2008 ASMSA alumna. “She was a matriarch in the truest sense for us as a family, but she also was in many ways a matriarch of Hot Springs and was so motivated to make Hot Springs a beacon within the state of Arkansas.”

ASMSA Director Corey Alderdice noted that the tribute is fitting as the school enters its fourth decade of educational excellence.

“Several members of our staff took time last summer to explore the earliest days of the school’s history as we began preparations for ASMSA’s thirtieth anniversary

Lacy Selig (‘08) holds a copy of a photo of one of her first visits to ASMSA. She is being held by a family member during a ceremony her grandparents, Helen and John Selig, attended at the school when Lacy Selig was a young child.

in 2023,” Alderdice said. “No matter the discussion or document, Helen Selig’s name and her advocacy were always in the mix for bringing this school to fruition. When Helen died earlier this year, we knew there was no better way not only to honor her legacy but also inspire a new generation of emerging female leaders than by naming the building in her memory.”

Lacy Selig said that the chapel being included in both the renovation and the naming is special to her. As a student, she recalls performing in plays there as well as presenting Fundamentals in Research Methods (FIRM) projects.

“It is a meaningful space for me personally because I spent time there. To see it brought back to life is wonderful. I can’t wait to see the finished space,” she said.

Selig said her grandmother would also be pleased that the new residential space will serve as home on campus for female students.

“I know that would be something that would really touch my grandmother because she was such a proponent of education for everyone, but particularly for girls from rural communities like she was,” she said.

Enrollment trends in recent years have seen growth in the number of female students applying to ASMSA. In order to meet that demand, Selig Hall will allow the school to enroll an additional 26 female students.

“A brighter economic future for Arkansas requires elevating young women to leadership roles in the innovation economy,” Alderdice said. “ASMSA has always been at the forefront of ensuring access to advanced programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As ASMSA continues to grow and evolve, closing gender gaps in STEM must continue to be a priority.”

Helen Selig was the granddaughter of a teacher, learning the lessons of education early. Many other family members also served as teachers and administrators. When she and her husband, John, moved to De Queen, Ark., in 1969, she helped establish the town’s Head Start program. She also served on the board of the libraries of each town in which she and John lived.

Once Selig and her family settled in Hot Springs in 1985, she focused her attention on improving the

community. That included helping community leaders organize the campaign to bring a new statewide public residential high school to Hot Springs in the early 1990s.

The Arkansas General Assembly established what was known then as the Arkansas School for Mathematics and Sciences in 1991 without a host site picked for the program. A site selection committee received more than 50 applications from cities and towns across Arkansas hoping to serve as the host for the new school. Hot Springs was eventually one of seven finalists considered for the site.

Hot Springs’ supporters adopted the slogan “Clear As A Bell,” signifying that the city was the obvious choice to host ASMSA. In cooperation with the City of Hot Springs and the Garland County community, a plan to house the school in the recently vacated St. Joseph Hospital was proposed. Among those leading the charge was Selig.

Helen Selig and other volunteers convinced the city to make a big commitment to the project to win the selection committee over. The city agreed to buy the building from the hospital and committed to perform maintenance on it. She also began pursuing civic support for the project.

In September 1994, a year after the school opened and during Selig’s first term as mayor, a dedication ceremony was held on campus to recognize the efforts of the city and citizens to ensure promises made during the site selection search were kept. Selig presented a bronze school bell to ASMSA as a symbol of the community’s efforts to keep the promises made to get the school placed in Hot Springs. The bell now stands in front of the Student Center.

“Hot Springs is proud to have been selected for the honor of being the home of this fine school,” Helen Selig said that day. “Hot Springs is proud that we have kept our promise to you and the people of Arkansas that we would give you

the best possible facility for the Arkansas School for Mathematics and Sciences.

“Hot Springs is proud of what this school will do for the students who attend and for the communities from which they come. We are proud, on this day, to present to you and the people of Arkansas this outstanding facility to be used for our children, for our state, for the future.”

Lacy Selig remembers a photo of her when she was 3 years old on campus for a special event, quite possibly the day of the bell dedication. It was a precursor of the time she and her brother Jack, a 2019 alumnus, would spend on the campus.

“From the youngest ages, our Nana was a proponent of us reaching for the greatest education possible,” Lacy Selig said. “Absolutely as I was growing up, there was a lot of encouragement that I would attend the school, not because my grandmother was involved in the founding but because it was an excellent place to get an education.

“My grandmother was not someone who was interested in a quick win. She was interested in things that were meaningful and lasting. I know she would have been advocating continually for the success of [ASMSA],” Selig said.

“She was mayor for many years. She didn’t finish her mayoral duties and then stop promoting the city of Hot Springs. She was interested in the city’s success for years and years after her time as mayor because her

getting are far beyond what I got 15 years ago, and that’s fantastic. It’s exactly as it should be. It should continue to grow and serve these students so they can serve the state of Arkansas and the country.”

Helen Selig was not someone who looked for recognition as long as projects were successful, and she didn’t mind who received the credit, Lacy Selig said. But her grandmother would be very touched and honored by the naming of the renovated buildings after her.

‘I hope that as future students pass through the halls they take a moment to look up or Google who was Helen Selig ... and see that this was someone who was a proud Arkansan, a proud resident of Hot Springs, and who worked very hard at her own education and in lifting up the education and economic opportunities of others.’

“That’s what she cared the most about. It was not a vanity project for her. Instead she was incredibly proud that the state of Arkansas had this school and was achieving such great things within its walls. She wanted us as her grandchildren to take advantage of that opportunity.”

To see the school still growing and adapting in order to continue offering those kind of educational opportunities to students across the state after 30 years would be pleasing to her grandmother, Lacy Selig said. Her support for ASMSA and the city of Hot Springs never dwindled.

“I hope that as future students pass through the halls they take a moment to look up or Google who was Helen Selig and read an obituary, read an article from ’90s when she was mayor, and see that this was someone who was a proud Arkansan, a proud resident of Hot Springs, and who worked very hard at her own education and in lifting up the education and economic opportunities of others,” she said.

Lacy Selig (‘08), granddaughter of Helen Selig, one of ASMSA’s earliest advocates for whom the renovated convent and chapel complex is being named

passion for the city’s growth, the city’s economic success, the city’s educational success continued beyond her job.

“It’s the same for the school. She will be so proud to look down and see that it is continuing to grow and thrive and provide new, exciting opportunities for young people. Even today the opportunities in education these students are

At the time of her death, Helen Selig had spent a decade and a half dealing with the effects of dementia, Lacy Selig said. For the school to honor her is especially meaningful to her grandfather and Helen’s husband, John.

“He is touched and heartened that the woman that he loved and championed is being remembered at her greatest,” Lacy Selig said. “Dementia robs a person of who they are. For ASMSA to create this space in her name, a testament to all that she was, is deeply moving to my grandfather. He is thankful to the school and the greater Hot Springs community for carrying forward my grandmother’s legacy through Helen Selig Hall.”

Associate Deans ready to advance dual missions

Dr. Brian Monson and Dr. Thomas Dempster have been named associate deans in the Office of Academic Affairs.

Monson, who most recently served as a physics instructor, is the new associate dean for STEM. Monson is in his 22nd year at ASMSA, joining the faculty in August 2000 after previously teaching at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics and the University of Tulsa. He has served as chair of the Science Department since February 2003.

Dempster, a music instructor and conductor of ASMSA’s bands, is the new associate dean for Arts and Humanities. He joined the ASMSA faculty in August 2018 as the school’s first full-time music instructor. He previously taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, South Carolina State University and Claflin University, both in Orangeburg, S.C.

Stuart Flynn, dean of academic affairs, announced the addition of the educators to the academic affairs team earlier this spring. He said they will play an important role in ASMSA’s continued academic development.

“AS ASMSA enters its fourth decade serving Arkansas students, the landscape of education seems to shift every semester,” Flynn said. “Everything is in flux, partly as a result of COVID-19. In such uncertain times, we need experienced educators who are content experts to guide curricular development and ensure instructional effectiveness in ways that reflect the particular needs of STEM as well as Arts and Humanities.”

The associate deans’ primary roles will be to guide curricular development in their respective

Dr. Thomas Dempster, left, has been named Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities while Dr. Brian Monson was selected to serve as Associate Dean for STEM.

areas, work closely with teachers to support their classroom and professional needs, and contribute to strategic decisions that will shape ASMSA’s future, Flynn said. The associate deans will continue to teach two courses, which will provide them opportunities to stay engaged in their individual fields as well as in the classroom with students. That will be crucial for their effectiveness, as they must be responsive to the changing needs of students and teachers as well as their continued growth as an educator, he said.

“I think it’s important that they maintain a balance for their own personal fulfillment,” Flynn said in regard to one of the goals of having the associate deans continue to serve as classroom instructors in addition to their new duties. “Both associate deans are accomplished instructors with many years of experience, and teaching is a part

of what defines them as individuals. I believe that keeping them in the classroom will result in benefits to them, our students and ASMSA in general.”

Monson said the dual role was one of the reasons he decided to apply for the associate dean for STEM when the new positions were advertised. He also saw it as an opportunity to have a larger role in curriculum development.

“I thought it would be a way to have a bigger say in the administration of the school without completely giving up teaching,” he said. “Curriculum development is primarily done by the Teaching and Learning Committee. This new position will make me a part of that process but not the sole developer of new curriculum. I will be more concerned with ensuring the implementation of the curriculum is consistent across departments.”

See Deans, Page 13

Heeding Her Calling

One day late in the spring semester, Dr. Allyn Dodd led a small group of students down the street to a nearby park to look for some different living species she could speak to them about.

After gathering around a tree to look at something that was growing from it, Dodd, a first-year biology teacher at ASMSA, decided to see if she could find an example of another species she had been describing to students in a nearby creek. Although she wasn’t dressed for a creek visit, she climbed down the embankment. After a short moment, she made a sound of excitement and pointed to what she was speaking about.

After climbing back up to even ground, Dodd continued to excitedly speak to the students about the different living species they could find in that area. That moment likely resembled Dodd’s childhood growing up in central Arkansas in White County.

“I grew up playing in the creeks and woods with my brother near our house in Bald Knob, and my parents loved to camp and fish,” Dodd said. “I didn’t think of that as a career, though. I just loved being outside.”

Dr. Allyn Dodd leads a discussion in her classroom earlier this year. Dodd joined ASMSA’s faculty as a biology instructor in August. She knew after reading the job description that she had to apply for the position. ‘It was as if I had basically been preparing to come here with the training I had,’ Dodd said.

Instead she went to Lyon College in Batesville where she earned a bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in chemistry. The degree was tailored more toward cell and molecular biology since she originally planned to go to medical school.

During her free time, she read a lot about the history of the environmental movement and deep ecology. It was completely separate from her initial studies and career interest., but her undergraduate mentor, Dr. Tim Lindblom, encouraged her to follow her interests wherever they led.

“I did research in his C. elegans lab for two summers, and I would look longingly out the lab window while I made microinjection mixes and ran the thermal cycler,” Dodd said. “My junior year in college, I took a biodiversity seminar with [Lindblom] and fell in love with E.O. Wilson’s writing. That piqued my

interest in environmental biology, and then I took ecology second semester for my senior year. That was it for me.”

E.O. Wilson was an American biologist, naturalist and writer. He translated his lifetime study of ants into a larger picture of human and the planet’s biodiversity, earning him recognition from the Royal Swedish Academy as well as two Pulitzer Prizes over his long, distinguished career.

Dodd went on to earn a master’s in biology from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and a doctorate in biology from the University of Arkansas. Her interest moved toward ecology and environmental biology.

She had an inkling that teaching might be for her while still in college at Lyon. She helped Lindblom teach children how to extract DNA during a summer day camp.

“I loved it. It felt like magic,

sharing my excitement with the kids and answering their questions,” Dodd said. “Still, I wasn’t planning to teach. I put it out of my mind until I finished college and found work with the Upward Bound program at Lyon. I taught summer session courses, one of which was Environmental Science, and realized that teaching was a great fit.”

She worked two years in Lyon’s APPLE Project Upward Bound program before leaving to go work on her master’s degree. While at UCA as a graduate student, she taught organismal biology labs. After earning her master’s, she worked as an environmental scientist for two-and-a-half years at GBMc and Associates, a regional environmental consulting firm in Bryant. She then left to work on her doctorate, during which she conducted research on carbon dynamics in streams and riparian

soils in northern Arkansas.

After completing her doctorate in aquatic ecosystem ecology in 2018, she was back at Lyon College. She was excited to have the opportunity to teach at her alma mater. “I always felt that taking the place of my own ecology professor was a dream come true,” she said.

She soon found that as a professor she didn’t get to teach as much as she desired. She also didn’t have time to innovate in her teaching since much of her time outside of class was focused on the research side of academia — finding and writing grants, writing and revising manuscripts, writing grant reports, coordinating and working with her research interns, and reviewing manuscripts for journals, among other tasks.

Dodd received a grant to conduct a two-year field research campaign in her lab. The second year of the grant was when COVID-19 hit, resulting in her losing all of her research interns. She had to collect the data on her own.

“That was tough. I love research, but I lost a lot of sleep over whether I was publishing enough or whether I was going to be funded in two years. I felt like I was doing a fine job as an academic, but it was breaking me,” Dodd said.

She also found that many students had already made up their mind about what they wanted to do before they reached her as a freshman. She wanted to introduce environmental science to younger people, being able to focus on teaching and mentoring a greater breadth of research.

That opportunity came when she saw an advertisement for an open biology instructor position at ASMSA.

“When I read the job description, I knew I had to apply. It was as if I had basically been preparing to come here with the training I had. I was especially excited about the Research in the Park Capstone course. Plus, Hot Springs is a great place to be if you enjoy outdoor

Dr. Allyn Dodd talks about a certain plant species that can be found in a local creek. She often leads field experiences to various sites near ASMSA.

activities! I got a little teary on the phone when (Director of Human Resources) Nia Rieves called to offer me the position. I’m grateful every day that the hiring committee let me come work here,” Dodd said.

Part of that gratefulness is spurred by her current students. Dodd said she anticipated ASMSA’s students would be high-achieving, but they have surprised her in

additional ways.

“They are some of the most driven scholars and deep thinkers I have ever taught,” she said. “I’ve been blown away by them, and they have taught me a lot this first year. My ASMSA students care deeply about local and global issues, and I’ve found them to be more aware of what’s going on in the world around them than I was as a young adult.”

Dodd experienced this firsthand during a Global Learning Program trip during spring break in March. Along with Spanish instructor Fernanda Espinosa, Dodd led a group of students on a research trip to La Paz in Baja California Sur, Mexico. She said the Gulf of California is a hotspot for biodiversity that allowed students to see marine life in person while also allowing them to experience staying in a desert ecosystem.

The group spent four nights on Isla Espiritu Santu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Park. While there, students took part in marine invertebrate surveys as well as designing and conducting their own research projects. They camped on the beach and swam with sea lions and a whale shark.

Dodd had never taken a trip with students like that. She said the trip gave the students some muchneeded context for their ASMSA classes and how to integrate what they learned into being a good global citizen.

“It was incredibly rewarding to see them using concepts and skills they learned in classes here at ASMSA while we were in Mexico. The course instructors were impressed with the level of our students’ research and knowledge of marine systems and organisms. We have an outstanding group of scholars here, and I was so proud of how well they worked together and with the other students from outside ASMSA,” Dodd said.

She said the skills and concepts they learned in zoology, oceanography, Research in the Park and Spanish language courses were all put to good use. The trip also reflected how she prefers to teach — using hands-on exercises and field sampling that put her lecture concepts into practice.

“I’d have to say my favorite part of teaching is taking students out in the field so they can learn sampling techniques and become more cognizant of the various forms of life all around them. I think we all care

more about things with which we are familiar, so taking students out to meet the organisms we discuss and see trends in data we collect in Hot Springs that correspond to ecological models deepens their understanding. I do like to lecture, but I prefer for it to be more of a conversation. Whatever we are doing, I try to make it fun and use examples that are pertinent to their lives or tell a joke or use a meme that will help them remember key concepts,” she said.

Perhaps that’s why Morty is so popular among her students. Morty is a stuffed groundhog who Dodd found while cleaning out a lab at Lyon College. There was a box full of stuffed, dead animals. While going through the box, she found a mostly flat stuffed groundhog that had lost its fake eyes.

“It was love at first sight,” Dodd said. “I started making jokes with him and before I knew it, he was playing pranks on my colleagues and students at Lyon. He’d come to class and be sitting at a microscope in the lab. During COVID, I gave Morty googly eyes. For the past few years, students have really taken to him. I’ve had students offer to take

him on dates.”

As accepting as she has found the students, she said fellow faculty members have been just as welcoming and helpful. She looked to Dr. Lindsey Waddell (’99) for advice and guidance throughout the year, especially as they cotaught the Research in the Park and Environmental Science courses.

“I knew northern Arkansas very well in terms of places to sample, vegetation, soils and natural history. I have learned a lot about this new region from her. When I had a question about pretty much anything, she had an answer. She helped me prepare for Baja since she’d been on many trips with students before. I feel very lucky to work with her. She is just an allaround delightful person,” she said.

Other members of the Science Department and other departments have been very helpful throughout the year. Dr. Brian Monson, formerly chair of the Science Department and current associate dean for STEM, helped her feel at home as a member of the department. Dr. Whitney Holden and Dr. Patrycja Krakowiak, both life sciences instructors, were helpful throughout the year as well.

Dr. Allyn Dodd and ASMSA Spanish instructor Fernanda Espinosa led a Global Learning Program trip to La Paz in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

If You Ask Me ...

Members of ASMSA’s Debate Club learn that research and preparation are key components to presenting a good argument

More than likely when you hear someone speak about a debate, the thoughts of an event featuring politicians seeking a specific office come to mind.

You may envision candidates speaking over one another, bursting through time limits or asking the helpless moderator for one more chance at rebutting what their opponent just said, which more than likely was far off topic from the original question.

Maybe you envision a television screen full of talking or screaming people, each trying to be heard over the din of the other yelling analysts and experts that leaves you questioning whether you learned anything about the topic.

You won’t find that in ASMSA’s Debate Club. Instead, you’ll encounter a group of dedicated students, many of them in their first year of participating in an organized debate, excited to learn how to research, organize and prepare for competition.

This was the first year that ASMSA sponsored a full

team as well as a class for credit. The class was two years in the making thanks to student interest.

Claire Green (’22) was a member of the first cohort of sophomores admitted to ASMSA in the 2019-20 academic year. Her brother, Max (’21), was admitted the same year as a junior. Claire began participating in debate competitions as early as sixth or seventh grade, she said. Both she and Max participated in an online homeschool debate league prior to coming to ASMSA.

During her sophomore year, both she and Max participated in a debate club, but it didn’t meet much, Green said. During her junior year, Max took over the club and they competed in Paladin, an online debate league. She and Max won their first tournament in Fall 2020. Green and Talana Small (’23) won second place in another tournament.

Green, Small and Jessica Williams (’22) presented a proposal to Director Corey Alderdice encouraging the school to start a debate class. They weren’t sure how

receptive he would be to the idea at first.

“I went through and put all of our thoughts in a PowerPoint presentation,” Green said. “We had originally suggested the idea of Director Alderdice teaching a class or leading a club because of his experience,” though Alderdice’s background in forensics focused on oral interpretation and public address events.

“But he was really open to our successes and the idea that we could do this well. That really opened the door. He suggested possibly getting an adjunct once a week. It was like we’re going to try it out and see how it goes, and I think it’s turned out pretty well.”

‘By the time a student arrives in a debate round, they have a broad and deep understanding of complex issues. By the time they emerge from the round, that understanding has grown even larger because of the clash of ideas and information.’

Green said that while the group was excited after the meeting, they were still hesitant about what kind of response they would get. Then when there was a delay in hiring a teacher before the Fall 2021 semester, they weren’t sure it would happen.

“I had faith that it was going to happen,” Green said.

Their request led to ASMSA hiring Tonya Reck as an adjunct debate teacher in August 2021. Reck had eight years of experience teaching junior and senior high school in Arkansas and Texas. She previously coached speech and debate teams in Texas as well as serving as a high school theatre director. She has a bachelor of education in speech and theatre from Henderson State University and a master’s in communication from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Tonya Reck, ASMSA Debate Club Adviser

Reck said having students who were excited about the opportunity to learn to debate made it an easier situation to step into.

“This team was started by students wanting to debate,” Reck said. “This is their team, and that’s what I came here to do. To serve these students by giving them a deeply rewarding experience in academic debate.

“I’m so honored to be part of their team. I’m proud of each student. I know a student is having that rewarding experience when they come out of a debate round and they are lit up like a thousand watts. I can see the fire in their eyes. The energy is all over them. I know they gave it all they had. Win or lose: they want more.”

Reck said initially she was going to treat it as a class as well as a team

meeting where the students could prepare for tournaments and competitions, including focusing on National Speech and Debate Association events. She said they started as if no one had any experience, but the students learned the formats quickly. They showed they already had the ability to research and understand complex issues as well.

That led Reck to change the format of the class a bit. They began discussing debate strategies — including how to approach various topics — and holding practice debates against each other.

“Debate is an experience class,” Reck said. “The best way to learn to debate is to start debating. That is what we’ve done. We rolled up our sleeves, dug down deep into the research, and had some heavy duty discussions about all sorts of big topics.”

The results from tournaments throughout the year proved that the approach worked. ASMSA students earned recognition throughout the year in the various competitions including:

• Green winning second place at the Varsity International Public Debate Association (IPDA) tournament at Bentonville in October and first place in Public Forum at the Cabot tournament in January;

• Arindam Deb (’22) winning third place in the Big Questions or Big Questions Speaker category at three separate tournaments: Cabot in January and two separate Bentonville tourneys; and

• Madison Arenaz (’23) winning first place in the Lincoln-Douglas

category at the Bentonville Wild West tournament in February and third place in the Arkansas Communication and Theatre Arts Association Arkansas State Championship held in April in Fayetteville.

Deb also qualified for the National Speech and Debate Association Tournament held in Louisville, Ky., in June by winning first place at the National Speech and Debate Association Arkansas District Tournament. He was unable to attend the national competition, however, because of a conflict. He also won first place in the Arkansas Communication and Theatre Arts Association Arkansas State Championship held in April in Fayetteville.

What is even more impressive about Deb’s accomplishments is that it was his first year to participate in debate. His win in the district tournament was also at the first event that was held in person as all of the previous tournaments were conducted virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Debate, honestly, was all that I hoped it would be, and the success wasn’t the only aspect,” Deb said. “I had an amazing time in tournaments and spending time preparing, critiquing and finding new arguments with my peers that was outstanding. I always really liked the idea and premise of debate, but this was the first time I had a formal avenue to learn to debate.”

There are five common debate formats: Lincoln-Douglas, named after the famous Abraham LincolnStephan A. Douglas debates for the 1858 U.S. Senate election; Public Forum; World Schools, which has three students from each team using the British Parliamentary style of debating; Big Questions; and IPDA.

Each one provides a different style of debate, allowing students to find a format that they are most comfortable with — whether it’s a one-on-one competition or a team approach. Students must be prepared to argue both sides of a topic, as the sides are randomly drawn before the beginning of a round.

“Students have to prepare two cases for a topic — one for and one against a resolution,” Reck said. “In a given tournament, a student will debate either side of the argument multiple times. So they have to learn to see issues from both directions. No matter how much research has been done, preparing for debates leads students to one certain conclusion: more research is needed.

“By the time a student arrives in a debate round, they have a broad and deep understanding of complex issues. By the time they emerge from the round, that understanding has grown even larger because of the clash of ideas and information.”

Green, who served as captain of the team this year, said that is one of the benefits of debate for any student involved in the competitions — they are exposed to different arguments not only from their competitors, but also from their peers and their teachers or coaches. It includes being able to convey their arguments in a clear, understandable way that isn’t too complex for judges to understand.

“It was really good because I think often times especially at ASMSA we are in a bubble,” Green said. “Then we talk to other ASMSA students who are on a level everyone doesn’t necessarily understand super well. So our coach this year, ‘OK, yeah that’s right. You have this complex thing down, but how do you make it understandable?’

“That’s probably been the best thing about having a coach is further refining not the argument aspect but the communication aspect in how to get the argument across.”

Reck’s ultimate goal for her students was not just about winning competitions.

“My hope for each student is more than just a trophy made of wood and plastic. Those are great, and we are so thrilled with each success we have made. But my hope is that these students will use their debate skills to advocate and make a real difference for others,” Reck said.

Dempster said that continuing to be in the classroom and having student engagement will be integral to the position.

“It will help with student success and retention and to continually refine aspects of the educational experience for our students,” Dempster said. “We’re at a juncture, too, where we are seeing a time where it’s more necessary than ever to understand the world around you; to critically think about the world’s past, present and future; to know what it means to grapple with a subject from multiple perspectives.

“Less globally, particularly with the arts, I’ll be better able to step back, take stock and continue to steer the directions for growth and adaptation in the visual and performing arts at ASMSA. I’m also looking forward to how we can better integrate interdisciplinary approaches into the arts, humanities and STEM fields across the board.”

Flynn said the institutional knowledge both educators already have about ASMSA will be beneficial as well. ASMSA’s unique mission, structure and position within the University of Arkansas System requires thorough knowledge of both ASMSA operations and the system’s expectations and policies.

“Dr. Monson and Dr. Dempster each have that knowledge, and because they are familiar faces to everyone on campus, they bring continuity to these new positions,” Flynn said.

“Both are incisive, even wise. There is little that Dr. Monson has not seen during his time at ASMSA, and in all situations, no matter how difficult, he is calm, thorough and precise in his decision-making, always the scientist.

“Dr. Dempster is a bandleader, so he understands how to bring together disparate personalities for a collective purpose, and I believe that experience and skill will translate well to his new role.”

Greece is the Word

Global Learning Program trip provides students a glimpse into both modern-day and ancient Greece

By Mika Brown (‘22)

A

Mika Brown (‘22) stands Sounion. The site is where sea below resulting in mythology. Below:

The Gate of Athena Archegetis is on the western side of the site of the Roman Agora in Athens. Julius Caesar and Augustus donated the funds to build the gate in 11 BCE. Athens is said to be a city built upon many cities as ruins of previous Greek civilizations continue to highlight the modern-day city’s history.

stands near the remains of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape where King Aegeus threw himself to his death in the in it being named the Aegean Sea, according to Greek A ship floats in the Aegean Sea near Cape Sounion.

I stumbled onto the slick-gray travel bus parked in front of the Oasis Hotel in Glyfada where we had spent the two previous nights. Still waking up, I sat down in a window seat and took in all around me. We would be leaving Athens and wouldn’t return until it was time to head back to Arkansas.

I knew that I would miss Athens, a stunning, bustling city of 3 million people with its constant juxtaposition of ancient landmarks and modern streets, countless swarms of pigeons, and, of course, the never-ending hunt for the illustrious ‘water closet.’ Despite this, I longed to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city to a quieter atmosphere. I was ready to explore the countryside of Greece.

Before I knew it, we were off and headed to the next small town near our hotel to pick up our tour guide for the day, Katerina. She boarded the bus and — in her careful British accent — started pointing out roadside shrines called kandylakia and beachside construction sites as we trudged our way on through the rolling chaparrals to the southernmost tip of the Attica peninsula.

I spent about an hour being utterly fixated looking out the window, constantly switching between the large rocky hills on my left and over the heads on my right to catch a glimpse of the Aegean Sea. We finally stopped on the roadside to take in our destination, the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion. It had been slightly overcast that morning, but looking out at a cliff jutting through the ocean, we could finally see it. It seemed like a magical moment right out of a movie; rays of sunlight peeked through the clouds and fluttered down onto this distant tiny-looking ancient landmark.

We were soon trekking up the hill and were slowly approaching the massive archaeological site; no longer was it the tiny blip that it was a half-hour ago. The ancient monument towered over our tour group with its massive Doric columns. As we gathered around the site, Katerina explained that in mythology Cape Sounion was the spot where King Aegeus plummeted to his death, giving the name to the Aegean Sea. Built in the 5th century BCE, it is mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey and has survived countless wars and disasters. I couldn’t help thinking as I looked at the various century-old names etched into the temple that this monument has truly lasted the test of time.

We were then left to our own devices to explore the area around the temple for a bit. I explored the winding dirt paths surrounding the monument that were lined with wildflowers of vibrant reds and purples.

At one point, a couple of other students and I went a little off of the trail to peer at the ocean from the edge of the cliff. We had to link arms to avoid getting pushed around by the strong wind. A bright orange ship slowly passed through the bright blue water, and waves crashed against the craggy rocks directly below us.

Despite our hotel in Glyfada being by the beach, I wasn’t able to get a true glimpse of the ocean until now. Though it was only mid-March and cold, all that I wanted to do was plunge into the water below me. At that moment, I remembered what one of our other tour guides said days before: ”No one ever comes to Greece only once; everyone always manages to return at some point in their life.”

I knew right there, that if I was able to return to Greece someday, the one place that I would go to was here.

Mika Brown (’22) is from Hope. She plans to attend the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville on an Honors College fellowship in order to styd physics and astronomy.

Chelsea Nwankwo (‘23) reads an excerpt from one of her manuscripts during a workshop in her Creative Writing Capstone class prior to the Arts and Humanities Research Capstone Symposium in May. Workshops such as these are considered vital to the development of student writers in the class, according to the course instructors Brian Isbell and James Katowich.

Finding Their Voices

Students build confidence in the Creative Writing Capstone

Every ASMSA student is required to complete a capstone project during their junior year. The capstone program is designed to provide students meaningful research opportunities that include substantial experiences that reflect their passions as well as a depth of learning.

When Kacie Koen (’23) came to ASMSA, the possibility of becoming a playwright wasn’t on her radar. She originally had thoughts of pursuing a more “practical” career — becoming a lawyer. After sitting in an information session about the Creative Writing Capstone, she decided to pursue her interest in writing.

“Originally, I did not expect to find opportunities this rich on the artistic side of the humanities program at ASMSA,” Koen said. “I decided to take the creative writing class because I wanted to deepen my understanding of writing as a practice, and I wanted to learn how to better my craft. Now speaking at the end of my capstone experience, joining the Creative Writing Capstone was a choice I am grateful that I made. I have

grown tenfold in my creative ability, and I have grown close with my peers in my class.

“I have learned not only how to better my technical skills, but my creative mindset also grew. I learned how to see the world as an artistic medium, and as a playwright, I am now able to use the true stories of the world around me to help make resonating pieces of literature.”

Brian Isbell and James Katowich co-teach the Creative Writing Capstone. Both have a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing — leading Isbell to point out that one would be hard-pressed to find another high school creative writing class with two MFA instructors. Both instructors offered creative writing courses as electives before the capstone was created.

Having two instructors with their terminal degrees in creative writing allowed them to design the capstone to resemble their graduate writing programs.

“When he and I first designed the capstone class, we envisioned a compressed version of the best parts

of the graduate writing programs we knew: supportive mentorship, a community of fellow young writers, and a nurturing space to create something new,” Katowich said.

Their students spend two full semesters undertaking a deep dive into the process of planning, creating and revising a significant body of original written work, Katowich said. The first semester is taught collaboratively with multiple readings from various genres ranging from poetry, fiction, drama, screenplays and creative non-fiction, Isbell said.

At the end of the fall semester, the instructors split the group into genres. Katowich works with students interested in drama, creative non-fiction and screenwriting. Isbell works with student poets and fiction writers. Depending on the genre, students are expected to complete 30 to 60 pages of manuscript, Isbell said, but some students complete up to 120 pages of original writing, Katowich added.

Students participate in workshop days, during which they share parts of their manuscripts with the class. They receive feedback from both the instructors and their peers. They are critiqued and praised in roughly equal measure, Katowich said.

“As a result of this process and the added time and focus, our students’ writing projects have become more ambitious and their sense of themselves as writers has deepened,” Katowich said.

Receiving that kind of feedback from both instructors and peers is critical to their development, Isbell said.

“The students grow over the course in multiple ways from close analysis of their own writings to those of their peers, in addition to the reading material during the first and second semester,” Isbell said. “They improve and revise; their style improves, and sometimes they find their voices on the page — they’re the ones who ‘revise, revise, revise’ ad infinitum until they just let it fly, if it will.

“It also exposes them to the rigors of writing in a collegiate environment. There comes a point in revision where one says, ‘I’ve exhausted it, for now.’”

Koen won first place overall in the Arts and Literature category of the 2022 Arts and Humanities Research Capstone Symposium in May for her work “Withered Away.” She credited the workshops for providing her vital feedback for her play.

“My capstone’s periodic workshops helped me realize faults in my plays that were not initially obvious to me while writing,” Koen

‘There is no feeling quite like seeing your work bring an emotional reaction to many people packed into a room just to see it performed. It was ethereal. I was grateful to see my work influenced so many people in the audience.’

Kacie

Koen (‘23),

speaking about

the

reaction an excerpt from an original play she wrote in the Creative

Writing Capstone received during the Arts and Humanities Research Capstone Symposium

‘It convinces me that I might be heading somewhere artistically. It allows me to express myself the way I want to and create independently. Not everyone is going to like what I do.’

Ben Romero (‘22), speaking about the recognition he earned by competing in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards in which he won a Gold Key for his original poetry as well as the Poetry Out Loud competition in which he placed first in ASMSA’s contest and qualified for the state competition for a second year in a row

said. “Many of the crucial edits that I made to my current feature-length play are dedicated to these workshops. Although at times they were nerve-wracking, I feel like as a writer I have learned how to communicate ideas on revision well through those workshops.”

Ben Romero (’22) found himself gravitating toward poetry while taking the creative writing course last year. He said he found writing poetry “because it was the place I could put all my disjunctive ideas and get away with it” unlike with prose. An Instagram post from a friend also led him to compete in the Poetry Out Loud competition.

Poetry Out Loud allows students to recite a certain number of poems. They are graded on accuracy as well as presentation. Romero placed second in the state last year and qualified for the state competition again this year. His favorites to recite were poems by Wanda Coleman and Octavio Paz.

This spring, he also entered five of his original poems in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards sponsored by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. He received a Gold Key, the top regional award in the competition. He was surprised to learn he had earned the recognition.

“Genuinely, I was shocked because what I try to pursue in writing doesn’t really align itself with award recognition,” Romero said. “I set up all these artistic goals throughout the year, and they all fell through. So when I got that award, after being rejected so many times, it felt good to know somewhere people liked and enjoyed my work enough to recognize it.”

Romero said the recognition encouraged him to continue the direction he was taking with his poetry, which comes from random, clashing ideas that he latches onto and allows him to expand his thoughts.

“It convinces me that I might be heading somewhere artistically,” he said. “It allows for me to express myself the way I want to and create independently. Not everyone is going to like what I do. Other students should enter these kinds of competitions because it’s great to throw yourself into dangerous territory.

“It’s great to feel the fear that comes with exposing yourself in some capacity; it’s great to mutilate all the preconceived notions you have of yourself to find new sensations and sides of your person. The greatest thing that you can hope for is your work to emotionally resonate; when it hits right, your deepest passions can shine through like a diamond chain in sunlight.”

Koen said she had that same kind of feeling during the Arts and Humanities Symposium. Seeing the audience reaction as a portion of her play was read by voice actors was eye-opening.

“During the Humanities Symposium, I felt that I finally could see the fruits of my labor,” Koen said. “There is no feeling quite like seeing your work bring an emotional reaction to many people packed into a room just to see it performed. It was ethereal. I was grateful to see my work influenced so many people in the audience, and I was honored by the number of people asking to read my entire work.”

Koen is spending several weeks of her summer break participating in two of the nation’s most prestigious writing camps. She will attend the playwriting workshops in the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio at the University of Iowa and the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference at Sewanee, The University of the South.

Koen was surprised that she was accepted into either of the programs much less both of them during the same summer. She had to submit a writing sample of an original play as well as essays about theatre as a craft and a statement of

purpose

“Before these acceptances, I doubted myself as a writer. I wanted that outside validation that many other writers are given later in their careers, but I was not at that stage in my journey yet. Sewanee was the first acceptance/award that confirmed my validity as an artist. The confidence gained in myself and my creative ability was the most impactful award I could have ever been given,” Koen said.

Koen received a grant from the ASMSA Foundation’s Residential Student Excellence Fund to help pay the fees for both workshops.

Isbell would like to see more students enter submissions to regional and national awards programs for their writing. He also wants to see the school’s Poetry Out Loud competition —which Katowich officially organized this year with an event during Hot Springs’ Wednesday Night Poetry at a local coffee shop — continue to expand and engage as many students as possible, including those who aren’t in the Creative Writing Capstone.

“If they are serious about becoming dedicated writers, it is absolutely necessary [to continue the Creative Writing Capstone],” Isbell

ASMSA instructor James Katowich offers feedback to a student after they shared an excerpt of one of their manuscripts during a workshop in the Creative Writing Capstone course. Feedback from the instructors as well as their fellow students provides the young writers with information that helps them correct possible flaws in their pieces.

said. “We teach them to stop thinking as readers and start thinking as writers. Every word, every line, every sentence matters to the essential process of becoming a better writer, no matter the genre.

“The capstone also includes a good deal of in-class writing; this aspect is intentional — most students find it difficult to find a ‘writing space’ and a disciplined schedule which is so very important. Even those who aren’t that serious about becoming writers in their long-term goals benefit from the exposure of reading like a writer, transcending their appreciation of language, making for better writers no matter the field of inquiry they pursue.”

Katowich said that every humanities course is about the study of human societies and culture, nearly always using language as either a subject or tool of analysis.

“Students are gaining more thorough and complex understandings of what it means to be human and how language reflects and affects us,” Katowich said. “In a creative writing class, our students are effectively ‘answering back’ to those classes, raising their own voices and taking part in the larger conversation about what it means to be human in the early 21st century.”

for the Iowa program and similar materials for Sewanee.

Ca$hing In

Students find value in finance-related contests

Walt Disney is credited with a quote that is often used for business inspiration — “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

Essentially, you can’t be successful at your chosen target if all you do it talk about it but never start. Self-motivation and dedication is often at the core of a person’s success. Without them, work toward your goal will slowly wither and eventually die.

ASMSA students participate and compete in various economic and finance-related competitions during the school year. Competitions include the Stock Market Game, in which students try to improve an investment portfolio of stocks to the Arkansas Economics Challenge and Personal Finance Challenge as well as FBLA.

An ASMSA student won the yearlong as well as the fall and spring sessions of the Stock Market Game competitions in the 2021-22 academic year, repeating as the yearlong champion. A team of juniors finished first

in the Arkansas Economics Challenge and second place in the Personal Finance Challenge. Five students qualified for the FBLA National Competition this year with many others earning recognition in the district and state competitions.

“This success is entirely their own making,” said Carl Frank, a computer science instructor who serves as faculty adviser for the students in the competitions. “Win, lose or draw it is. The students do the work. The students at ASMSA have always done well at these and other events. ASMSA students develop collaborative skills through study sessions, peer mentoring, etc. They like helping one another.”

Talana Small (’23) was a member of the team who competed in both the Arkansas Economics Challenge and the Personal Finance Challenge. She said she participated in the competitions because she enjoys math and wanted to see how that interest meshed with finance and economics. She is happy that ASMSA students have opportunities to participate in these kind of competitions.

“It’s important to offer these opportunities to students because it increases teamship and camaraderie within the school,” Small said. “ASMSA students have always been super competitive, and team events such as these give us the fun and confidence boost that comes with winning without the guilt and overzealousness that comes when you defeat someone you intimately know.”

Connor Bailey (’22) made a splash in Spring 2021’s Stock Market Game competition. He took the virtual $100,000 portfolio each student is given at the beginning of a session and grew it to a $1 millionplus portfolio. It was the first time a student had topped the $1 millionmark in the state competition. He followed that up this year by winning the spring session again as well as the fall and yearlong sessions.

Bailey said competitions such as the Stock Market Game can teach

students valuable financial lessons. They also can help inform students about world events, allowing providing a different perspective.

“I’m constantly reading the news and just generally looking at current events,” Bailey said. “I made sure I was up to date with what was happening around the world and what companies had to deal with certain regulations being passed, new promising sectors, etc. My biggest takeaway from the Stock Market Game is that what is happening around the world can affect the markets dramatically.”

The Stock Market Game teaches students financial literacy and how to best prepare themselves for the future, he said. The real-life practice a student can receive from playing the Stock Market Game is unmatched. The various competitions allow ASMSA students to display their versatility while also providing challenging opportunities to grow.

“This allows for students like myself to try something different and possibly find their new passion,” Bailey said. “The great part about ASMSA students is that we love new challenges. ASMSA students continue to place very high in all the competition we compete in because of the drive we have in all different aspects.”

Frank said making sure that students have such real-world activities is one of the main reasons he helps facilitate the competitions for the students. Without them, they lose out on learning experiences.

“Whether the activity is for individuals or teams, there is a growth opportunity,” Frank said. “Opportunities to learn about different subjects or content; opportunities to collaborate, a chance to network with other students and professionals; and in some instances opportunities to travel, either to student conferences or awards/recognition programs.

“For some, the benefits are minor and fleeting, for others they can be long lasting, impacting their intended major, choice of college, and career.”

List of honors ASMSA students earned in business competitions

2022 FBLA State Conference

ASMSA had 17 students who qualified to compete at the state conference. The competitors earned the opportunity to compete in the state tournament by placing in the top six in their category at the FBLA District IV competition.

Students who qualified for the state competition included seniors Arindam Deb, Jaysee Magby, MK Mashburn, Bear Moore and Blake Smith; juniors Madison Arenaz, Kiley Barton, Beth Catron, Abigail Finney, Izzy Funes, Buckley Harrison, Talana Small, Alyssa Thomas, Jaden Williams and Vicky Zhu; and sophomores Carter Horton and Shane Wood.

Ten students earned recognition at the state conference. Five of those students qualified to compte in the National FBLA Conference competition held this summer in Chicago.

Qualifying for the national competition were:

• Trey Clark, third place, Data Analysis;

• Carter Horton, third place, Introduction to Business Concepts;

• Abigail Finney, third place, Job Interview; and

• the team of Madison Arenaz and Blake Smith, first place, Marketing.

Blake Smith also completed a term as District IV FBLA President and State FBLA Vice President in 2022.

2021-22

The Stock Market Game

Senior Connor Bailey was a repeat champion, winning the Afterschool Yearlong Division in The Stock Market Game sponsored by Economics Arkansas a second year in a row. He also added first-place titles for the Afterschool Fall and Spring competitions.

The Stock Market Game gives students a virtual $100,000 portfolio to invest. Bailey finished with a portfolio of more than $365,000.

2022 Arkansas Economics Challenge and 2022 Personal Finance Challenge

Teams from ASMSA won first place in the Arkansas Economics Challenge and second place in the Personal Finance Challenge.

The team of juniors Talana Small, Bethany Catron, Kiley Barton and Madison Arenaz won first place in the David Ricardo Division of the Arkansas Economics Challenge. The division is for students who have had no more than one economics course. The team qualified for the national competition this summer with the win.

Small, Barton and Arenaz teamed together to place second in the Arkansas Personal Finance Challenge.

Both competitions were sponsored by Economics Arkansas.

Ready to Run

Andreas Bradley (‘22) relied on his work ethic to come back to compete in track. Now he’s ready for the next challenge.

Frequent visitors to the path that winds through Whittington Park likely passed by Andreas Bradley (’22) — or perhaps it’s more likely that he passed by them very quickly.

The loop on Whittington Avenue around the park is where Bradley could be found training to run track for Hot Springs World Class High School. ASMSA students may participate in athletics at the school through a partnership program.

He would practice a couple of times a week at Hot Springs High’s track, but his other four training days were spent running miles around Whittington Park, often by himself. He followed a training plan he developed over time, taking advice from his coach, but he is mostly self-trained.

Hot Springs High Coach Milton Williams said that is what made the Jacksonville native a great example for his teammates.

“He has a tremendous work ethic,” said Williams, who is a member of the Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame recognized for both his own NAIA All-American shot put and discus career in college at the University of Arkansas at Monticello as well as his coaching career that includes four Sun Belt conference titles while serving as head coach at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

“He does lots of things that should serve as a model for young athletes. He is a great mentor and role model for the younger members of the team. Andreas does all the little things right. He does all the little things to prepare to run well. I can use him as an example at any time. His attention to detail, his warmup, his cool down. His teammates can learn from him.”

That kind of attitude continues to drive Bradley’s ambitions as he will begin his college career at the University of Oregon this fall. Oregon has one of the top collegiate track programs in the nation. Since 2012, the university has won 14 NCAA Team Championships in indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country.

Bradley earned a $40,000 academic scholarship to attend Oregon. He also will have an internship with the school’s sports media unit, where he will work with the track team to take photos and manage media. He will also walk on to compete on the track team, he said.

William’s statement is especially meaningful as this was only Bradley’s second full season of high school track and the first where he was healthy the whole season. Injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic cut short previous seasons.

Bradley began his track career when he was 10. Running in general was something he always enjoyed and was good at, he said.

“I was always running as a kid,” Bradley said. “I’d run even around the house and school. When I was 9, I played baseball and I was fast getting around the bases. I tried track the next season, and it just stuck. I found success early.”

He participated on a couple of travel teams and in AAU track. His team would travel to other states to participate in meets. He had a goal of trying to qualify for the Junior Olympics. Bradley was a sprinter early on — qualifying in 400 and 800 meter races — before transitioning into distance races.

Bradley joined the high school team during his freshman year. He ran varying distances from the 800 meters to a half-marathon, but focused heavily on 5K, 10K and 1-mile races.

An injury slowed him down near the end of his freshman season. The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out his sophomore season at home and his junior season once he entered ASMSA in Fall 2020. He also couldn’t do a majority of his training, including his weightlifting sessions, because the school’s workout room was closed because of the pandemic and students’ activities offcampus were limited, which meant he couldn’t go for longer runs.

“It was hard not being able to race and then to not be able to train consistently as I needed to or at all. It set me back a lot farther than I wished. When the gym did open, I would go two times a day, six days a week to get back what I had missed. Over the summer, I had to work extra hard,” he said.

As some restrictions began to ease as the pandemic numbers began to shrink, Bradley picked up his routine of training. He raced cross country for Hot Springs during the fall semester, seeing Williams almost every weekday during that time, getting tips on how he could improve. In the spring, he led Hot Springs’ 4x800 team in the Class 5A State Meet in May. Bradley ran the first leg of the race along with three freshmen teammates.

Bradley raced the 800 meters in the Arkansas High School Invitational indoor races in January. It was the first time he ran on an indoor track. It didn’t go as well as he hoped, but Bradley didn’t let the unexpected results bother him,. He went back to training, preparing for the slate of spring events in which he would compete.

“A lot of it is definitely mental,” Bradley said. “You have to have self confidence that you will get better. Knowing I have friends who were trying to do the same thing, a group of friends who are working hard helps you. And I had a coach who is a really good coach. He helped to make sure I was hitting the right energy systems. He knows where you’ve worked hard and where you may have some doubt and can offer advice for both.”

Williams said that being able to let go of races in which he may not do as well as hoped is one of Bradley’s biggest strengths.

“My impression of Andreas is that he’s a very mature athlete,” Williams said. “He keeps things in perspective very well. He’ll take things in stride and doesn’t get discouraged. One bad race doesn’t change him. Good or bad, he keeps going forward. He certainly embodies all the characteristics you want in an athlete. Everything about Andreas is a positive.”

Nurse Has Pulse of Campus Life

Monica Jaskovic knows families put their trust in her to care for their children

Some of the most frequent questions parents of prospective students ask concern safety. It’s not surprising since they are considering sending their teenaged child to a residential school — often many hours away from for some.

The questions at times focus on the physical safety of campus. Is security onsite around the clock? Are there adults who oversee the residential quarters at night? Is there a curfew? Are buildings locked to prevent unauthorized visitors?

Just as important as those questions, however, are ones about the students’ health and wellbeing. Many students have daily prescriptions they must take. Others have medical issues which may need to be frequently monitored. And then there’s just the typical illnesses that come along with living and learning in a residential setting.

That’s where Nurse Monica Jaskovic plays an important role in maintaining a healthy campus. She is there each weekday morning to hand out the daily prescriptions. When a student feels ill during the day, she’s ready to diagnose and treat them.

In case of a medical emergency, she’s ready to be a first responder and either transport or arrange transport if needed.

Jaskovic joined ASMSA’s Residential Life Staff in October

2018. She is a Registered Nurse, starting her career in 2004. She worked on the pediatric floor of the then-St. Joseph Hospital before moving to St. Joseph’s Women’s Center for six years. In 2011, she became the school nurse at the Fountain Lake School District.

She knows that parents rely on her daily to help take care of their children.

“Parents put their trust in me to care for their children,” she said. “My days at ASMSA are never the same. I assess students daily with any medical issue they may be having and then determine if they need to be seen by a physician. I am responsible for medications, immunizations, CPR/Stop the Bleed training (which every student is required by the state to take before graduation) and medical emergencies that may happen. This

job is different because this is the students’ home; they are in our care at all times.”

That includes the times while she’s not on campus. She conducts training for members of the of Residence Life Staff who live in the residence halls with the students so that they may be prepared to step in when needed.

“Her role is important to the operation of Residence Life because she does a lot of education with the staff,” said Dr. Rheo Morris, dean of students. “She ensures that we are all CPR and First Aid certified and know how to use EpiPens and Glucagons. She also teaches about signs of different illnesses and how to take care of a student if they are experiencing an episode of hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia and seizures.

“Parents are, at the foremost,

School Nurse Monica Jaskovic often has students stop by to visit her office even when they aren’t ill. These visits help her get to know students personally.

concerned about the safety of their children when they are away from home, and Nurse Monica is a big part of that.”

Jaskovic said it is important to have a good working relationship with all of the residential staff because they work as a team. That may have come into deeper focus over the past couple of years as ASMSA along with the rest of world had to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

What started as a two-week break in the March 2020 to try to circumvent cases of the virus turned into something much longer lasting and more impactful than first imagined. Students never returned campus that spring. The majority who did return in August 2020 found a much different atmosphere.

Gone were weekends returning home, and time off campus in town was severely limited. Masks were required everywhere on campus except in your own room, and even then concerns about spreading the virus to suitemates were of high concern as variants of the virus forced changes in approach sometimes almost daily.

workgroup that met often. They relied on my nursing knowledge to help enforce policies and decide the best way to keep our students safe.”

Morris said Jaskovic’s medical knowledge was an important tool for the workgroup.

“She was very vital as we tried to navigate the pandemic because she understood the science and was able to bring a critical health perspective when creating policies. She could be guaranteed to remain levelheaded and positive throughout the entire ordeal all while remaining consistent,” Morris said.

“Medicine is always changing. That was definitely true during this pandemic,” Jaskovic said. “It was a struggle dealing with the unknown and the always changing nature of COVID-19. We had some very strict policies in our residential housing that was hard for a lot of students and their families, but we made these decisions based on one goal: That was to keep our students safe while staying open and in person.

“It was very stressful at times; the positive cases seemed to come in clusters. I was part of the COVID

Following the students’ fulltime return to campus in August 2020, following the protocols and advice of the COVID workgroup, including Jaskovic’s advice, helped the school avoid a virus outbreak on campus. ASMSA had zero cases on campus during the 2020-2021 school year.

In such a highstress situation, Jaskovic tried to make her office even more of a safe space for students who needed advice or someone just to listen.

“I am definitely a sounding board for a lot of students,” Jaskovic said. “Students come to me often wanting advice or suggestions and sometimes just to vent. I try to make my office a safe and comfortable space for students to be honest and not feel judged.”

Having that kind of contact with students also helps Jaskovic play a key role in two other campus areas — helping students’ receive mental health care if needed and serving on the campus Strategies Team.

“I am frequently the first contact for some students who may be facing a mental health issue,” Jaskovic

Nurse Monica Jaskovic demonstrates the proper technique for chest compressions during a CPR training session. Students are required by the state to take a CPR class as a graduation requirement.

Amy Hoang (‘22) received national recognition in this year’s National Center for Women and Information Technology Award for Aspirations in Computing.

4 students earn NCWIT recognition

Four ASMSA students received recognition in the National Center for Women and Information Technology Award for Aspirations in Computing.

Amy Hoang (’22) earned a National Certificate of Distinction in addition to being recognized on the regional level in this year’s program. Three other students —Ash Hong (’22), Vicky Zhu (’23) and Nasya Choy (’24)— received recognition as Regional Affiliate Winners for Arkansas.

The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing honors ninth- through 12th-grade women, genderqueer and non-binary students for their computing-related achievements and interests while encouraging them to pursue their passions. Award recipients are selected on their aptitude and aspirations in technology and computing as demonstrated by their computing experience, computing-related activities, leadership experience, tenacity in the face of barriers to access, and plans for post-secondary education.

National Certificate of Distinction awardees are students who merit recognition and entry into the Aspirations in Computing community, according to the organization’s website. National award winners are selected by the NCWIT and Bank America representatives. Regional Affiliate winners are students who have significantly demonstrated interest and aptitude for computing. Regional awards are made by each individual affiliate.

Hoang said being recognized as a female is empowering because it can show others that they can pursue a field that isn’t just male-dominated.

“I was really shocked when I found out that I was recognized on a national and state level because I had more experience with statistical analyses rather than coding,” Hoang said.

Hoang plans to major in nursing at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville this fall. She said her computing, data and statistics experience while during research will help her better understand the use of technology in her field in the future.

said. “I speak with our mental health professionals often and contact them with any needs that arise. They are always ready to respond.”

Staci Stich, who serves as a licensed mental health counselor on campus, said Jaskovic’s knowledge of the students is vital in helping her and Maddisyn Karn, ASMSA’s licensed social worker, provide needed services for students.

“Monica, Maddisyn and I work closely together to keep each other informed about how students are doing,” Stich said. “Monica often refers students to us as they often go to her first identifying symptoms they are having. Sometimes it is easier for a student to identify a physical health issue that then Monica can see relates to mental health issues.

“Monica knows every single student and knows them well. Students are aware of how sincere she is in caring about them. She not only uses her medical expertise but also life knowledge in working with these students.”

That knowledge is important information for members of the Strategies Team as well. The committee meets weekly and discusses issues students in general may be having — academic, physically, mentally — as well as specific students who may need various members of the committee to intervene.

On the academic side, the committee includes the dean of academic affairs, associate dean for college counseling and the student success coordinators. The dean of students as well as the mental health staff and Jaskovic represent the Residential Life component.

Morris said Jaskovic plays a vital role on the committee as students’ health issues can adversely affect their time and experience at ASMSA.

“Actions or inactions that cause academic concerns are often traced back to the student’s physical or mental well-being,” Morris said. “She can give insight on whether a student’s behavior or the way they carry themselves is due to a medication change, new medication or weaning from a medication. She can also note changes in behavior and contact parents.”

Stich agreed with Morris about Jaskovic’s role on the Strategies Team.

“She has a lot of direct contact with students and a lot of contact with parents as well. She often has information for the Strategies Team that helps us see a better picture of what is really going on with a student,” Stich said.

Jaskovic said being able to help students in any way possible is what drew her to become a school nurse.

“I have always enjoyed being able to help people in any way I can. I became a school nurse to be able to help students in our community. A school nurse is often the first contact and only resource some students may have. The best part of working with students at ASMSA is watching them grow into responsible independent adults,” she said.

It Takes a Meerkat Village

Dr. Crystal Morrison

(‘95)

helps create platform that brings together a child’s caregivers in central place

If you’ve ever seen videos of meerkats, you’re likely to remember them. The small mammals are mongooses that are about the size of a squirrel. What makes them memorable in nature videos is that they are always standing, staying alert to their surroundings. When there is danger, they communicate it quickly among their large community.

It was that sense of community that spurred Dr. Crystal Morrison (’95) and her business partner Dan Richason to co-found Meerkat Village, a software company focused on leveraging technology to promote social and emotional wellness for children and families.

A child with social, emotional, behavioral and medical needs often will visit with various doctors, mental health professionals, special education teachers, school administrators and other caregivers. The information is usually shared directly only with the child’s parent, who is then responsible for navigating all these bits of information on their own into one cohesive plan.

“Parents have that burden to try to keep people on track,” Morrison said. “It’s unbelievable the amount of time a parent can spend trying to get their child’s treatment team on the same page.”

Meerkat Village offers a digital platform where all of the providers involved in a child’s care may have a central space to share information and suggestions with each other. Whether it’s the child’s doctor, coach, teacher, parent or other caregiver, they can provide updates and suggestions in the shared space where everyone in the child’s village can see it and respond to it. Everyone has access to all of the information at once.

Morrison and Richason met at a random networking event in Pittsburgh, Pa., three years ago. The event was focused on creating tech that made a good social impact on society. Richason had a concept for a collaborative treatment system. It was a random meeting between two professionals who didn’t realize the similarities in background they had.

Richason has a Master’s of Education in special

education and teaching. His career has included time as a family therapist as well as a college educator teaching courses focused on disabled learners and behavior disorders.

Morrison has a bachelor’s in chemistry and a master’s and doctorate in macromolecular science and engineering. She spent many years in the corporate world working as a scientist as well as in research and development.

She also had first-hand experience raising a child who required various levels of special needs care. Her oldest child Jacob was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism which affects a person’s ability to effectively socialize and communicate. She quickly became familiar with how the treatment of a special-needs child was handled.

“I’ve navigated what we call the ‘system of care’ in this country for almost 18 years,” Morrison said. “It’s an incredibly siloed-system where the people who are part of your children’s teams actually don’t talk to each other. And there’s no reason for it. There’s no reason that if given consent by the parent my treatment team for my child can’t actually talk to each other and collaborate and communicate. There’s nothing preventing that.”

In her professional career, she was building high-performance teams to deliver research and development, but she couldn’t get her child’s treatment team to behave like a high-performance team, she said.

Morrison’s family was living in New Mexico when Jacob — who was almost 3 at the time — began receiving early intervention services. She said the situation was overpowering at times, being a new mother who was also working full-time. There also weren’t many resources in northern New Mexico.

“It was completely and totally overwhelming because I had known for a long time that my child was a little different from other kids. I knew it. I felt it. I tried everything I could to support him and get him the help and resources he needed,” she said.

Even so, she felt guilty and questioned her ability as a parent. She didn’t have any kind of support system. She would go to work every day praying that she wouldn’t receive a call from his day care to come get him.

Morrison didn’t know any other parents with children with developmental needs. She recalled battling an eating disorder herself in which she dealt with mental illness and depression. She remembered a “village of supporters” who helped her and her parents through that time, but she didn’t have that with Jacob.

“It was just this unbelievable feeling of desperation that I dealt with for years just trying to find people to help me help him,” she said.

Over time in New Mexico, she did gain some support through his day care as well as through an early intervention program and a therapist for Jacob. He later had a classroom therapist in kindergarten as his village began to grow.

“I had all of them engaged, but again I had to try to keep all of them on the same page on what was going on,” she said.

When the family moved to the Pittsburgh area, more resources became available nearby. Once again, Jacob’s village of caregivers had grown, all of which it was up to Morrison to try to pull together.

“That meant more people to try to keep on the same page supporting him. With just my oldest son alone, between teachers, therapists, specialists, neighbors and friends, I’ve probably interfaced with at least 100 people in two different states over the past 15 years on behalf of my son’s care,” she said.

That’s why Meerkat Village’s platform can be advantageous for all involved. The company currently works with special groups such as behavioral health programs, educational organizations and other institutions that buy a certain number of licenses for “villages” on

Dr. Crystal Morrison (‘95), second from right, has years of personal experience dealing with the struggles of finding the right kind of care and support for her children. Her son Jacob, right, began receiving early intervention services around the age of 3 after he was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome.

the company’s platform.

Those organizations can then give clients a license to use, allowing the parent or guardian to invite any caregiver they wish into the village. When the caregiver is invited into the child’s village, HIPPA and other privacy paperwork is included, allowing information to be share freely without any violations.

Using such a platform provides greater access to possible caregivers as well, Morrison said. That is important for families who may be in more rural areas with limited access as she was in New Mexico or such as rural Arkansas.

The platform is currently webbased and with an initial focus on individuals with special needs such as autism or medical challenges. Eventually they want to see the platform to provide what they call “village-driven” care for anyone that needs extra care including eldercare, veteran services, the unhoused, chemical dependencies or other needs.

“Village-driven” care refers to the care an individual receives from the support group around them. It’s similar to what inspired the name of the company in the first place. Adult meerkats work together to raise all of the pups in their communities by providing food, safety and

companionship for the young.

They also expect to launch an app later this year that will allow clients to use mobile devices to create and manage their villages. Having the app will also allow individuals and caregivers across the nation to more easily access the service.

Morrison said all three of her children have been very engaged in Meerkat Village. She asked Jacob, who was taking computer programming in high school, about coding for the program. They also helped stuff envelopes to send to potential investors.

She received possibly her highest compliment about a year ago from Jacob. They were having discussions about the scale of the company, trying to determine what would be the best starting size.

“Jacob looked at me and said ‘I just wan you to know how proud of you I am for helping parents deal with the situation you had to deal with me.’ It was one of those moments as a parent you just want to cry. He recognizes that some of the things we’ve faced as a family — both challenges as well as successes — that he’s had some small part creating something that will help a lot of families. That doesn’t come lightly from someone like him,” Morrison said.

ASMSA team wins state coding contest

The team from ASMSA won the Governor’s All-State Coding Competition held April 30 at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

ASMSA took top honors among the 17 teams participating in this year’s state competition. The team — comprised of Trey Clark (’22), Joshua Stallings (’22) and Robert Boerwinkle (’23) — qualified for the competition earlier this year through a regional competition.

In the contest, teams work to solve various coding problems based on various scenarios. Each problem receives a score, and in the event of a tie, the amount of time used to answer the questions is used, with the team entering the most correct answers in the least amount of time earning the advantage.

Each member of the winning team received a $2,000 award to be deposited into a 539 College Savings Plan. ASMSA also received $10,000 to support its computer science program for the team winning first place. The prizes were provided by a grant from ARCodeKids.

Nicholas Seward, a computer science instructor at ASMSA, served as the team’s adviser. He said he was very proud of the team’s performance, especially as the competition from across the state grows stronger thanks in part to Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s focus on broadening the scope of computer science education in Arkansas.

“We have gone from 25 CS teachers before the governor’s initiative to 650 now,” Seward said. “There are some exceptional students and teachers spread across the state. I have been very careful to temper my expectations. To have a chance at winning requires careful planning and preparation. I am so proud of the work they put in and the performance they have brought.”

Both Stallings and Clark said their experience from the previous year’s competition helped them

better prepare for this year. In regional competitions, each team member may use a computer to work on problems, however in the state competition, the team is limited to one computer.

“We knew to do some practices using only one computer, and Josh’s and my experience competing last year let us know what to practice with and where to delegate our time,” Clark said.

Stallings said the team split the six questions evenly between team members to get started in the competition, writing code for the problems on notebook paper. They then took turns on the computer copying code into the computer. Improving on problem areas from last year was a key to their performance this year, he said.

Seward said he sees competitions such as this as a way for team members to assess and validate their abilities. While the competition may not directly prepare them for future careers in computer science, it can serve as an inspiration to learn more.

“Students are inspired for so

many varied reasons,” Seward said. “Some by competition, money, learning, and/or solving problems. What makes this competition special is it so clearly shows how much Arkansas values developing native computer science talent.”

Clark said ASMSA classes provide a foundation for students to build on and then finally display the skills they’ve developed.

“Seward helped me take it much farther and enabled me to do things faster, more efficiently and more clearly,” Clark said. “I was amazed at the level of things we did and how well Seward taught them.”

Stallings said the breadth of classes available at ASMSA also helps students in competitions because of the various topics that are covered. “From the research-oriented capstone class to the variety of electives here, there’s a lot more opportunity to learn about computer science,” Stallings said.

Seward and Carl Frank, who is also an ASMSA computer science educator, were recognized as state finalists for the Arkansas Computer Science Educator of the Year.

Joshua Stallings (‘22), Trey Clark (‘22) and David Boerwinkle (‘23) worked as a team to win the 2022 Governor’s All-State Coding Competition. Nicholas Seward served as their adviser.

Final Frame

Jonathan Soos of Soos Stained Glass in Maumelle stands next to a window version of the ASMSA seal created in his family’s studio. The piece — which is about 6 feet in diameter — has been placed in the former chapel on campus. Selig Hall — which includes the chapel and convent — is under renovation for use as additional residential living and campus event space. The $5.5 million project is scheduled for completion this summer.