NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — Mario Almaraz, a student at Rogers High School, won the poetry competition at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith’s annual Hispanic Heritage Festival Oct. 19.
Almaraz won for his poem “Borders.” Paloma Guadarrama, also of Rogers High School, took second place for her poem “Pandillas ,” and Jesus Garcia was third for the poem “The Gridiron.”
Tom Cochran, a retired dentist from Springdale, won the local 2010 Veterans Creative Arts Program competition for his Irish candlewick afghan.
Cochran’s work took second place in the national competition, which featured more than 3,625 entries. His work also won a blue ribbon at the 2010 Washington County Fair in Fayetteville.
Jon Hochstetler, a University of Arkansas graduate student, won athletic training scholarships set up to honor former Razorback athletic trainers Dean Weber and Bill Ferrell.
The Weber scholarship is presented to the top student in the athletic training education program. Hochstetler will work with the UA track team this fall.
Other Ferrell scholarship winners include Kurt Andrews, Taylor Ludy, Hillary Plummer and Brittany Widman . Andrews, Ludy and Widman will work with the Razorback football team, while Plummer will work with the women’s softball team.
The scholarships were created and supported by the 1979 Razorback football team and the Razorback A Club, a group comprised of former UA athletes and lettermen.
Micah Hale, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Arkansas, and Jamie Hestekin , an assistant professor of chemical engineering, were selected to take part the National Academy of Engineering’s second Frontiers of Engineering Education symposium.
Hale, Hestekin and 51 other young engineering educators will take part in the symposium. Participants were selected because of their innovative educational approaches.
The symposium will be held Dec. 13-16 in Irvine, Calif.
Hale is the 2010 winner of the Charles and Nadine Baum Faculty Teaching Award, the UA’s highest teaching honor. Hestekin won the John A. White Award for Faculty-Student Collaboration for research on creating bio-fuels from algae.
Rebecca Timmons of Fort Smith will be the director of assessment and accountability at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith starting Dec. 1.
Timmons will serve as co-chair of the university’s assessment program and will be the university’s liaison to the Higher Learning Commission, UA Fort Smith’s regional accrediting agency. Timmons has served as the director of the university’s Center for Lifelong Learning since 2007.
She has a doctorate in workforce education from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business education from Texas Tech University.
Northwest Arkansas Achievers is an opportunity to give recognition to those for their achievements.
Civilian and military achievements are accepted. Please follow these guidelines: Achiever(s): 1) Must be an Arkansan or have graduated from a school in Arkansas. 2) Received an award, scholarship, medal or promotion.
Pageants, deans’ lists, graduations or military enlistments aren’t accepted.
No Photographs Please. To submit an Achiever mail information to: Northwest Arkansas Achievers, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Northwest Edition, P.O. Box 7, Springdale, Ark. 72765.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 10/25/2010