Four state graduates get UA fellowships

FAYETTEVILLE — Four recent high school graduates are receiving $72,000 Sturgis Fellowships to attend the University of Arkansas.

Fellows are: Mia Alshami, Pulaski Academy in Little Rock; Josie Carson, Lake Hamilton High School in Pearcy, near Hot Springs; Sarkis “Sam” Kalajyan, Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs; and Beck Williams, Southside High School in Fort Smith.

They were chosen from 924 applicants to UA’s four major fellowship awards: the Sturgis, Honors College Fellowship, Bodenhamer Fellowship and Boyer Fellowship, a UA spokesman has said.

Sturgis Fellowships supporting students in UA’s J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences were established in 1985 by the Roy and Christine Sturgis Charitable and Educational Trust.

Grant awards increased from $70,000 to better cover “general cost of living expenses,” Andra Parrish Liwag, the Fulbright College director of communications, said in an email, adding that Bodenhamer awards also increased to $72,000.

The grants cover tuition, room-and-board and other support, including computer or musical equipment.

The four fellows had an average ACT overall score of 34.25, Liwag said. The average composite score for the high school graduating class of 2017 was 21 nationally and 19.4 in Arkansas, according to the most recent information available from the nonprofit organization ACT.