Haylie Sigmon, Health Education & Human Sciences

HEALTH. EDUCATION, AND HUMAN SCIENCES

Choosing Life and Happiness

Haylie Sigmon’s life could have easily gone in a diff erent direction. As a child, she was shuttled from home to home, too often fi nding herself in abusive situations. A perceptive child, she realized early that she would never fi nd stability beyond what she created herself. So, determined to improve her life, she threw herself into her education and learned to lean on God.

Her hard work in high school paid off in the form of several prestigious scholarships, including the Chancellor’s Leadership Council Scholarship, which made it possible for her to attend the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith. She set her sights on becoming a nurse and fulfi lling a life-long dream to better the world.

As a fi rst-generation college student with no immediate role models, she dove head-fi rst into her studies - and nearly every collegiate experience that came with it. At every opportunity, Haylie took the chance to develop herself, hone her leadership skills, and give back to her UAFS community.

She was active in the Lions for Christ Ministry and served as the director of Cub Camp. She served twice on the Student Government Association, once as secretary; and she was a student ambassador, coordinator of the Lions ROAR Drug and Alcohol prevention programs, and president of the May 2021 Nursing Cohort. Through it all, she excelled academically and socially and found time to plan a wedding and marry her high school sweetheart.

Her involvement helped her grow in many ways.

“I was encouraged to identify and stand up for the things I believed in,” she said. “Dr. Dave Stevens always says ‘leaders eat last’ and it’s become a mantra of my own. I learned what servant leadership looks like working with Dr. Stevens, Chancellor Riley, and Dr. Korvick.”

Through all of her life experiences and her triumphs over hardships, Haylie found the strength she would need to battle fi rst a small tumor on her pituitary gland and then a brain malformation. In January of 2021, doctors told her she needed immediate cranial surgery.

But Sigmon had other ideas, ideas that included graduating on time. And so her surgery, ultimately successful, waited until mid-May, just days after she crossed the graduation stage.

Sigmon has high praise for the Nursing faculty, including executive director Dr. Paula Julian, who encouraged and supported her during her last semester. But her gratitude goes further.

“I am eternally grateful to the faculty, staff , and administrators that I have met here at UAFSwho have encouraged me to take leaps of faith, speak in front of crowds, plan events, train peers, and stand up for positive change. I can say with certainty that due to my time here and the people I have met, I can move forward with confi dence in my future career and personal goals.”

In August, Haylie started her career at Baptist Health as a nurse in the Cardiac Stepdown Unit and Cardiovascular ICU.

HAYLIE SIGMON: No matter what stands in her way, Sigmon fi nds a way around or above it to reach her goals.

WORLD VIEWS: At the annual Block Party, some of the registered student organizations celebrate ethnic heritage that engage students’ interest.

Around the World and At Home

In December, UAFS announced Diversity Studies will be available as a minor.

The measure was approved by the University of Arkansas System Board of Trustees and the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board. But those were only the last two steps in a process that began in 2017, said Dr. Svetla Dimitrova, assistant professor of Sociology and one of the faculty members who helped develop and flesh out the new program.

While she and other faculty members were researching and refining their ideas for a new minor, students also were considering the issue. Dimitrova recalled at Chancellor Chat – periodic town-hall style gathering with Chancellor Terisa Riley – a student requested courses that directly confronted issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As part of continuing effort to create a more welcoming campus community where everyone can be seen and heard, in early 2021 the university appointed John Blue as executive director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Although the creation of the minor was underway before Blue joined the university, both reflected the goal of inclusivity.

The minor is multidisciplinary so students who take it will take classes across various department. And the classes provide an international focus

“Students who engage in a conversation about social justice must see it, not just in this country but in a global context,” Dimitrova said. “The United States is a country of migrants. Students need to see why people came here and why they keep relationships in a global context.”

When asked the value of studying inequities, mobility, and poverty, UAFS student Megan Sonnenmoser said the study challenged her to think about ideas she hadn’t considered before. Even familiar topics were discussed in a new way, a way that built an urgency in her, she said.

“The class helped explain the importance of anti-poverty initiatives both on campus and in society as a whole,” she wrote. “It also highlights antipoverty initiatives that help people wanting to gain social mobility. These initiatives will help motivate people like me to get involved with anti-poverty initiatives to better society.

“College is about education, and part of that education should include the world around you and the problems within it. I know this is not the kind of class that provides a fast track to a career, but it does help one become a better and more aware human,” Sonnenmoser said.

Megan Sonnenmoser