School briefs

NPC Diversity Club welcomes poet

National Park College’s Cultural Diversity Awareness Club will host a local author and poet on Wednesday in its “We Belong” guest speaker series.

Kai Coggins will serve as a guest reader and speaker for the Wednesday event at noon in the NPC Library. Student life and library staff will provide refreshments.

November is observed as Native American Heritage Month.

NPC events to celebrate Apprenticeship Week

National Park College’s Community and Corporate Training will host two events to spotlight electrical and heating, ventilation and air conditioning apprenticeship programs as part of the United States Department of Labor’s National Apprenticeship Week.

An open house will be held on Tuesday for the recently established HVAC apprenticeship program from 5-6:30 p.m. Prospective students, area HVAC contractors and the public were invited to tour the facilities, interact with students and instructors and learn more about how apprenticeships can benefit their businesses. The event is free to attend.

A joint event for electrical and HVAC apprenticeship students will be held Thursday from 6-7 p.m. in the Southside Student Center. Apprenticeship advisory boards, local employers, instructors and students have been invited to attend.

Proclamations from Gov. Asa Hutchinson and County Judge Rick Davis will be presented. Hutchinson declared Nov. 11-19 as National Apprenticeship Week in the state.

ASU to utilize ACT ‘superscores’ for fall 2018

JONESBORO — Arkansas State University Chancellor Kelly Damphousse recently announced the institutions will utilize the “superscore” method for ACT scores for the majority of incoming student admissions and institutional scholarships starting in the upcoming academic year.

“Using the superscore for determining a student’s ACT puts Arkansas State in line with peer universities and it is the common practice across the state of Arkansas,” Damphousse said. “We had been denying access to students based on a strict interpretation of ACT scores that our peers have not been using. We believe this will create greater access to our university.”

The “superscore” is the composition of a student’s best subscores, regardless of test date on the ACT. According to The Princeton Review, the superscore method is used by more than 200 private and public universities nationwide.

The current admission standards are a 21 ACT and a 2.75 high school grade-point average for unconditional admission. A 19 ACT and 2.3 GPA are required for conditional admission.

The change does not apply to the A-State Scholar competition nor the Honors College admission criteria.