Pappas named ASU Three Rivers' 2023 Academic All-star
Arkansas State University Three Rivers is proud to announce that student Rusty Pappas has been chosen as the college’s 2023 Academic All-Star, through the Arkansas Community Colleges (ACC) nonprofit association. The honor comes with a two-year, full-tuition scholarship to any four-year public university in the state.
Pappas has made a great impression on his teachers and the other faculty, staff and students at ASU Three Rivers since he enrolled in the Fall 2022 semester. Not only was he chosen as the Academic All-star, he was also recently asked to take over responsibilities as President of the college’s Student Government Association.
Teachers and administrators at ASU Three Rivers picked Pappas as the Academic All-star based on things like grades, on-campus involvement and personal character. Pappas excels in the classroom and has a 4.0 grade point average, and he’s been a regular attendee of the SGA meetings long before being asked to take the lead role. He also helped event organizers put together the recent campus-based Health Fair.
“His long-term goal is to teach science at the middle or high school level in the Malvern area, where he hopes to share his love of nature with the young minds of the community,” as stated on a social media post from ACC regarding Pappas being chosen for the honor.
Rusty is a non-traditional student and former resident of Texas who moved to the Magnet Cove area in September 2020 with his wife, Katherine, and his then- twoyear-old son, Cash. He will graduate from ASU Three Rivers in December with his Associates in General Studies before transferring to the University of Arkansas in Little Rock early next year— the next step in his journey toward becoming a biology teacher.
Rusty worked for many years in customer service, training and management for Southwest Airlines back in Texas, before he and his family moved to the Natural State. He has spent the past few years serving his family very well as a stay-at-home dad, while his wife works and he pursues higher education.
“When Cash was born, I left the company and stayed home with him for awhile, and that was a really interesting opportunity that we had, and so I thought, let’s try it,” Pappas said.
“When he went to school, I knew that I wasn’t going to be a stay-at-home dad anymore because he wasn’t going to be at home for me to stay with,” he said. “And so I thought, well, this is kind of my second chance, what am I gonna do with myself now? And school came to mind.”
Pappas said teaching wasn’t his first thought or even close to a concrete plan when he enrolled at ASU Three Rivers.
“Originally, it was just, I wanted to get there, just find something that could get me a decent job,” he said. “I thought about nursing, I thought about going to radiology, but my heart just wasn’t really in that.”
The summer before Cash started school, Pappas was working part-time through a janitorial company and did some work at local schools.
“It was when I was spending time in elementary schools that the gears started turning a little bit and I thought, you know, I think a teacher is what I should really do,” Pappas said. “It’s a job you can be proud of, there’s a shortage of teachers in Arkansas, particularly in the subjects that I’m interested in, and so I thought it ‘d be a good way to have a job that I could be proud of and that actually serves a real purpose.”
Pappas is thrilled with his ultimate decision and excited to begin a new chapter in his life and career, once he gets that bachelor’s degree under his belt. He said his time in Mr. Starkey’s class at the ASU Three Rivers really helped him solidify his career plans and showed him how important a teacher’s particular knowledge, guidance and instruction can be.
“He’s a fantastic teacher, and he knows his stuff,” Pappas said of Starkey. “He’s just a wealth of knowledge in the subject. And it was the hardest class I’ve taken, but it was a really fun kind of challenge. It was his class that made me realize I wanted to teach.”
Pappas wants to teach kids at the middle school- or high school level when he graduates from UALR but said he might like to go back to get his master’s degree and teach at the college level one day.
“I’ve really kind of come to appreciate what college teachers do for students, spending so much at Three Rivers,” he said.
Pappas said he would love to establish a community garden and find other ways to bring his love of biology and gardening to serve a greater purpose. Congratulations to Rusty as the 2023 Academic All-star, and to ASU Three Rivers! We wish Pappas all the best in his future educational and career pursuits and look forward to having yet another great teacher in Hot Spring County.