School news

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK

University of Arkansas at Little Rock students put on a successful production of William Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It Oct. 10-14 in the Center for Performing Arts’ Haislip Theatre.

Local UA Little Rock students who participated in the play included Selena Gordon of Fort Smith, playing Rosalind, and Jessica Ley of Rogers, playing Celia.

BIOLA UNIVERSITY

Jacob Keeney of Rogers was one of approximately 1,500 students who were named to Biola University’s (La Mirada, Calif.) dean’s list in spring 2018, with a grade point average of 3.60 or higher while enrolled in 12 or more credit units and whose cumulative grade point average is at least a 3.20.

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Bernadette Holt, a Northwest Arkansas Community College student pursing an associate of science degree in business, was recently named Outstanding Student by the Arkansas Community Colleges Association. She is president of Sigma Kappa Delta and was a founding member of the Honors Student Association.

She presented a paper at the Great Plains Honors Council Conference and was the featured speaker at the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of NWA’s “Spark of Hope” fundraiser. She has been a volunteer with the Museum of Native American History, the Lester C. Howick Animal Shelter and the NWACC Career Pathways office. After graduating, she plans to seek a bachelor’s in business administration.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT FORT SMITH

Haylie West of Prairie Grove has been named director of Cub Camp at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

Cub Camp is a three-day event held on the UAFS campus for incoming freshmen that introduces them to the campus, faculty, classmates and campus traditions. Entirely led by UAFS students, the camp helps new students create a connection to campus and ease the transition from high school to college.

West will lead the yearlong complex process of planning for Cub Camp, beginning in early October with the interviewing and selecting of director and support staff. From there, West will help plan and lead training for staff, overseeing freshmen registration, and planning the camp’s schedule.

GRANTHAM UNIVERSITY

Brittany Howes of Van Buren graduated with an online AAS medical coding and billing from Grantham University.

SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY

Simon Tursky of Van Buren was part of Southern Arkansas University Theatre’s production of Antigone at Harton Theatre Nov. 8-17.

Tursky is a sophomore performing arts: musical theater major and is an electrician and is Haemon on the Gold Cast for the play.

Written by acclaimed French playwright Jean Anouilh and translated to English by Lewis Galantiere, Antigone is based on the Sophocles play of the same name. It focuses on a young woman who is faced with the moral dilemma of following the law decreed by her uncle Creon, the king, or doing what she believes will provide justice for her family.

The play is under the stage direction of Wally Eastland, production manager and resident designer. He is also the scenic designer for this play.

SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY

Savannah Paxton earned first place and $100 and an honorable mention in Fiction and Poetry in the 2018 Southern Arkansas University Writing Contest for “The Life and Deaths of Daniel Zakarian” and “Fighting Dragons”

Paxton is a sophomore English teaching certification major from Bentonville.

This year’s Writing Contest featured 46 SAU student writers who submitted a total of 74 works for consideration. This fall, the Department of English and Foreign Languages will make decisions about which submissions will appear in the next issue of Emergence, the SAU student literary journal. All works that placed or earned honorable mention will automatically be included in the publication.

This year’s judges included faculty and staff from the Department of English and Foreign Languages, which funds the SAU Writing Contest; the English as a Second Language Program; and the Honors College. Each submission is scored “blind,” that is, without the evaluator knowing writers’ names.