Class of 2024 marks 30th commencement; 3,000th graduate recognized

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts held its 30th annual Commencement celebrating the graduation of the Class of 2024 at the Oaklawn Event Center on Saturday, May 18.

The ceremony honored 111 graduates from 33 counties. The graduates earned $24.5 million in scholarship offers, pushing the overall total to more than $328.5 million in the school’s 30-year history. The event also included a special recognition of the school’s 3,000th graduate — Tim Palmer of Mena.

Matt Bell — who is co-founder, president and chief executive officer for Origami Sake in Hot Springs — served as Commencement speaker. Daniel Nkunga of Sherwood, Kaira Harper of Jonesboro and Gwen Oliver, formerly of Jonesboro — all members of the Class of 2024 — were student speakers.

Bell told the graduates that the day marked the culmination of years of hard work, dedication and perseverance. He said perseverance is “one of the most essential virtues you can cultivate in your lives.” As an example, Bell shared the story of Origami Sake, which officially opened for business in 2023, and its other co-founder, Ben Bell (’00). The two men are not related.

“As the co-founder of Origami Sake, I can attest to the power of perseverance firsthand. Our story of starting Origami Sake right here in Hot Springs is one of dedication, passion and, most importantly, perseverance,” Bell said.

“Ben refused to give up on his dream. He persevered, learning from failures, adapting to new circumstances and staying true to his vision.”

Bell emphasized that perseverance “is not a solitary endeavor. It requires the support of those around you — mentors who offer guidance, friends who lend a listening ear and family who stand by you through thick and thin.”

Matt Bell, president and chief executive officer for Origami Saké in Hot Springs, served as the guest speaker at this year’s commencement ceremony. Bell cofounded the sake brewery with ASMSA alumnus Ben Bell (‘00).

He encouraged the graduates to remember to lean on each other for support as they embark on the next chapter of their lives because they would be stronger together than they could be alone.

Harper spoke about the cyclical nature of life, which for the Class of 2024 was focused on their education over the previous 13 years.

“Naturally, graduations are a very important step in that cycle, as they allow us to look back on our progress every couple of years, express hopes for the future and reflect on the past,” she said.

“Each of us has participated in a ceremony similar to this one before; having conquered kindergarten or elementary school, we were sent off in caps and gowns, striding purposefully towards new chapters in our lives to the tune of ‘Pomp and Circumstance.’ And now we’re here again, stopping to take a quick breath before the cycle begins anew. I don’t doubt that some of us will repeat this ceremony once, twice, maybe even three times more as we achieve higher levels of education.”

Harper encouraged her classmates to take with them the lessons they have learned during their time at ASMSA. Harper, who came to ASMSA as a sophomore, said the school provided an environment where she saw her own initiative mirrored in her classmates and teachers day in and day out over her three years at the school.

“As a result, sixteen-year-old me can proudly say that I have matured in a way that I’m not sure would have been possible if I had stayed content with where I was,” she said.

Oliver spoke about how she and many of her peers grew up watching movies set in a high school, such as “Mean Girls,” “Clueless” and the “High School Musical” films. The movies often made them wonder what their own high school experience would be like. What they learned, she said, was that high school was nothing like those movies.

But she found one movie that perhaps was more relatable to the ASMSA experience — Disney-Pixar’s “Inside Out.” The film focuses on Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear — characters who represent the emotions inside the character of Riley, who goes through life changes when her family moves from her hometown in Minnesota to San Francisco. She must adapt to living in a new city and making new friends.

“When we all decided to come to ASMSA two or three years ago, we took a huge leap of faith and made sacrifices. We left our loved ones, our home high school and our friends, making a choice that pushed us to grow. This decision led us to a lot of core memories,” Oliver said.

Oliver took a moment to express how she and her classmates had experienced each of the emotions featured in the movie through shared ASMSA experiences.

“Deep down, we are all like the character of Riley in ‘Inside Out.’ We have experienced all of these emotions and so much more at [ASMSA]. Today, Joy prevails as we graduate from ASMSA. And just like Bing Bong [Riley’s imaginary friend], when he says his final words to Joy, this is my message to all of my ASMSA friends: ‘Take her to the moon for me, OK?’”

Nkunga, who served as the president of ASMSA’s Student Government Association this year, spoke about finding his version of a utopia of sorts at ASMSA. His sister is an ASMSA alumna, and he would listen to the stories she would tell about the friends she made, the interesting classes that challenged her and the experience she could not have had anywhere else when she would visit home on the weekends.

Tim Palmer (‘24) of Mena was recognized as the 3,000th graduate of ASMSA during this year’s commencement ceremony. A fun part of the surprise recognition was Palmer being awarded a set of balloons marking the occasion.

Her stories reminded him of a character in Thomas More’s “Utopia,” which depicts a fictional island of the same name “where people live and are only guided by their own rational thought,” he said. Much as the fictional character shared stories of this island, his sister’s stories told of a place where the smart students took classes in which they were interested in taking and lived in a community where they could make friends who were passionate about learning.

Nkunga said he soon was able to experience all of that himself. “I got to live in a community where the smartest people I’ve met weren’t just passionate in the classrooms but were ever-present in the clubs I took part in and the events the school put on — a place where I could be my own person no matter how nerdy that interest was,” he said.

But then the second semester happened. Nothing had changed about the school or the people, but

Nkunga found himself at a place where the pace of classes and extracurriculars began to catch up with him.

“The perfect society I imagined and I lived in slowly faded away to reveal the insane amount of effort I needed to give to maintain it,” he said.

He learned that the word utopia translates to “no place.” So, there is no place in society where people could just exist together in harmony to work and live, he said.

“And maybe that would’ve been the actual case if not for you,” he said to his fellow graduates. Nkunga said each of them had made ASMSA better, regardless of if it was in big or small ways. “Every single one of you has made my ASMSA experience better and better and has forced it to approach the edge of utopia.”

“The Arkansas School for Math, Sciences and the Arts might not be the utopia, but it is my utopia, and it’s only because you were all here to do it with me,” he said.