Wagstaff earns Eagle Scout
Austin Wagstaff, 18, a Fayetteville High School 12th grader, has attained the rank of Eagle Scout in Troop 430. He is the son of Heather and Mark Wagstaff.
He completed his project at the Hickory Creek Cemetery in May 2014. Wagstaff directed adults and youth from his church, troop and school in building and installing three benches in the cemetery. He saw a possible service opportunity after he heard that the cemetery had their former benches stolen. After gathering donations, Wagstaff brought friends and family together to assemble the benches in his garage. Once the benches were assembled, he directed church, troop and school members in installing the benches in concrete to ensure their permanence. The benches now serve the families who frequent the cemetery. He received donations from Lowe’s, Meeks Lumber, ABC Block & Brick and Bolt & Screw Supply.
Young earns Eagle Scout
Blake Young, 18, of Fayetteville has attained the rank of Eagle Scout. He is the son of Jeni and Deryn Young. He is a member of Troop 430 in Fayetteville.
With the help of many friends and volunteers, Young installed a cement patio pavilion with picnic benches at the Hickory Creek Cemetery as his service project.
Carlson earns Eagle Scout
August Carlson, 18, of Troop 430 in Fayetteville, has attained the rank of Eagle Scout. He is the son of Kristal and Chris Carlson. He is a homeschooled 12th grader, a concurrent student at Northwest Arkansas Community College and plays varsity basketball at Fayetteville High School.
For his Eagle Scout project, Carlson worked with the Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Department to fix an erosion problem and re-route a section of the hiking trail at Gregory Park in Fayetteville. A large section of the trail was cleared of overgrown vines and debris. The erosion issue was caused by water running off of a parking lot that backs up to the park. A dam was created using 12 tons of rock and eight large boulders to effectively redirect the water run off. The section of trail damaged by erosion was blocked, and a new section of trail was cleared and tied into the existing trail.
UAFS students visit cancer patient
University of Arkansas — Fort Smith students from the Love Your Melon chapter recently visited Saylor, a local 14-year-old girl who has battled leukemia since August. The visit affected the students as much as it did the patient.
“Our job as a Love Your Melon crew was to make her feel like a normal teenager, even if it was for only a few hours,” said Morgan Kratts of Greenwood, founder of the local chapter. “We ended up staying at her house for two hours just listening to her talk about all the activities she still does while going through treatment. She left an impact on my life through her courage and strength in the face of a debilitating disease.”
Kratts started a UAFS chapter of Love Your Melon after receiving a hat for Christmas. The present quickly blossomed into her determination to put a hat on every child battling cancer. Kratts received the gift from her aunt and realized it was from Love Your Melon, an organization that works to give a hat to every child battling cancer in America. The company includes more than 2,500 college students at more than 225 different schools across the nation. After learning the story of the organization and having several deep-hearted conversations with her aunt, who was personally battling cancer, Kratts decided to bring the movement on the UAFS campus.
“My aunt is one of my role models, and seeing her fight cancer time and time again with such positivity is why I wanted to help with Love Your Melon,” Kratts said. “This organization focuses on children, and I think the more we impact their lives and show them why it is so important to fight, the easier it will be on them. Cancer isn’t easy for anyone, but if I can do something so minor like buying a hat and that can impact a child’s life, then I will do it.”
The Love Your Melon UAFS campus crew currently has 20 members. Local members include Shelby Rye of Bentonville and Ashley Anderson of Rogers.
Information: facebook.com/lymuafs, [email protected].
UAFS Campus Fishing Team
Justin Harris of Elkins recently founded BassCatz, the the 10-member bass-fishing team at UAFS. The squad recently competed in the Fishing League Worldwide College Fishing, Southern Division, conference qualifier tournament, and plans to compete at several upcoming tournaments, including the FLW College Series at the beginning of the spring semester and other tournaments on the college circuit.
Members include: Kalen Peters, president, Alma; Harris, vice president, Elkins; Andrew Kaelin and Ben Neumeier, both of Fort Smith; Daniel Schwartz, treasurer, Fort Smith; Daniel Peek, media communications director, Fort Smith; Matthew Seiter and Michael Seiter, both of Greenwood; and Blake Tedford, secretary, West Fork.
The team is also in the process of planning a kid’s camp to take place this summer, as well as hosting a tournament themselves to help raise money for the team. The team is sponsored by Fort Smith Centennial Bank, Barling Boat Sales, Z-Launch Watercraft Launch Cord and H&H Muddy Water Tackle.
Girls selected for STEM program
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Jodie Mahony Center for Gifted Education recently announced that some local eighth-graders were named Girls in the Middle grant recipients for the 2015-2016 academic year. They include Lily DeSpain of Springdale, Arthi Krishna of Bentonville, Sara Manos of Springdale, Isabelle Shackelford of Springdale, Christine Shackleford of Fayetteville and Anna Sherwood of Fayetteville.
Girls in the Middle was developed to encourage girls pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). All girls invited to the 2015 Duke TIP Recognition Ceremony held in May were invited to apply, and 30 students were invited to participate in Girls in the Middle. The recipients attended STEM sessions at TIP Scholars’ Day, held in conjunction with the recognition ceremony, and went to the UALR campus for the Girls in the Middle Re-connect Day.
Girls in the Middle is funded through an Enrichment Opportunity Grant from AGATE.
Tesseract Studio wins awards
An academic course that feeds students to monsters and hands them the bow of Odysseus has won two awards for the Tesseract Studio at the University of Arkansas.
The studio received the awards at the ninth European Conference on Games-Based Learning this month in Steinkjer, Norway.
David Fredrick, head of Tesseract Studio for Immersive Environments and Game Design, and his team of students and former students won the international awards for Mythos Unbound — a game-based, semester-long academic course that immerses students in Greek and Roman mythology, a world teeming with heroes and monsters. Fredrick is also a classical studies professor and director of the humanities program in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. He teaches the course that uses Mythos Unbound.
Mythos Unbound won first place in the “installed on a computer” category and third place overall, rising to the top of more than 60 original contest entries.
The course is just one of the projects underway at Tesseract Studio, an interdisciplinary game design lab where for undergraduate and graduate students from across the Fayetteville campus develop game-based learning content that is then used in UA academic courses taken by other students.
Mythos Unbound first was offered as an academic course at the university in fall 2013. It required students to review lectures, read classical works like Homer’s Odyssey and immerse themselves in an educational online video game to reinforce ideas. Students in the game become the heroic characters they are studying, and they — as Odysseus — face the ravenous Scylla, a mythical monster.
In Norway, Tesseract employees Greg Rogers, narrative and design lead, and Chloe Costello, art director, represented Tesseract Studio in competition by giving presentations on Mythos Unbound to spectators and judges.
Last April in Atlanta, Tesseract Studio, Educational Development Corp., and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art jointly received a gold award from the American Alliance of Museums, for their online course, Museum Mash Up: American Identity through the Arts. For this course, Tesseract Studios developed Gallery 5, an interactive virtual gallery application.
In spring 2016, UA students can enroll in Tesseract Studio’s next game-based online course, Saeculum, which explores Roman civilization.
Rogers and Costello worked on Mythos Unbound as undergraduate students. Rogers connected with Tesseract Studio in 2009 and Costello in 2011. Both graduated with bachelor’s degrees in May 2013, and then were hired on the Tesseract team to work with the next wave of students.
In the future, Tesseract Studio intends to develop more game-based or game-enhanced modules for online and face-to-face teaching. Fredrick said he hopes to broaden the role of game design and immersive visualization across the disciplines, while formalizing the game design curriculum. Learn more about Tesseract Studio in the Fulbright Review.
The studio partners with the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies; the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design; the Honors College; Global Campus; Crystal Bridges Museum; students and faculty members from the social sciences, visual and performing arts, the humanities, natural sciences and computer science in the College of Engineering.
UAFS Theater winners
The University of Arkansas — Fort Smith’s theater program continued its run of success at the state Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival during this year’s event held on the UAFS campus.
The center’s regional committee chose Theatre @ UAFS’ performance All My Sons as the top production of the festival, in addition to students winning a slew of awards for acting and makeup, scene and sound design. The program’s recognition marked the sixth time in seven years that Theatre @ UAFS has received top choice at the festival.
Faculty members and students winning awards were:
Suzi Wright of Newtown, Conn., meritorious achievement in hair and makeup design; Brett Alexander of Rogers, meritorious achievement in sound design; Pablo Guerra-Monje of Fort Smith, associate professor of theater arts, meritorious achievement in scenic design; Alex Sanders of North Little Rock, Irene Ryan acting award; Sara Kincannon of Fort Smith, Irene Ryan acting award; Randall Marks of Fort Smith, Irene Ryan acting ward.
Additionally, UAFS faculty, staff and students in the theater program earned hosting awards recognizing their efforts in organizing the festival. Faculty and staff receiving awards were Guerra-Monje; Stevenson; Christopher Barrick, head of the department of music and theater; and Paul Hankins, dean of the College of Communication, Languages, Arts and Social Sciences. Students receiving awards were Alexander, Wright and Josh Smith of Van Buren.
The awards committee also recognized UAFS students handling the production of all the performances during the festival. Students recognized were Alexander, Sanders, Cory Wray of Perry, Kyle White of Alma, Hannah Lovins of Fort Smith, Tony Corbell of Alma, Jacob Price of Charleston and Mykaela Sparks of Alma.
UA ranks among best colleges for veterans
University of Arkansas has been ranked 46 among the best colleges for veterans by College Factual (collegefactual.com), which uses customizable tools and outcomes-based rankings systems to guide students through the college selection process.
A number of factors important to veterans were used to determine the ranking. Some important data points are how affordable the school is to veterans, the size of the veteran population at the school, whether the school accepts ACE credits and offers flexible learning options, and availability of veteran resources such as a veterans office on campus.
The ranking also includes important data such as graduation and retention rates, reported earnings of graduates, the percentage of full-time teachers and the average student-loan default rate.
In addition to University of Arkansas’s placement in Best Colleges for Veterans Overall, the institution also ranks highly for veterans in business administration and management, earning a 77 spot out of 758. The institution also is ranked 48 out of 465 for veterans in health and physical education/ fitness.
School’s rankings: collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-arkansas/rankings/badges/.
National Philanthropy Day to recognize Kincaid
The Northwest Arkansas community gathered recently to celebrate National Philanthropy Day. Northwest Arkansas National Philanthropy Day, sponsored by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Northwest Arkansas chapter, is a special day set aside to recognize and pay tribute to the great contributions that philanthropy — and those people active in the philanthropic community — have made in the lives of many.
This year, Missy Darwin Kincaid, director of donor engagement at the Walton Arts Center, will be recognized as outstanding fundraising executive.
Kincaid joined Walton Arts Center in 2000 as the director of development and led a development team of three in raising $1.3 million to support a $3.7 million operating budget. Since then, she has helped to lead the development staff to outstanding fundraising success each year. Most recently, she has led the organization’s current $23 million capital campaign to renovate and expand the Fayetteville facility. Her leadership has allowed Walton Arts Center’s annual Art of Wine Festival to grow from one evening to a full weekend of dinners, wine tastings and auctions, raising more than $1.5 million for arts education since 2000.
Students to perform in ‘The Crucible’
Theater students at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia will perform Arthur Miller’s The Crucible at Harton Theater starting at 7 p.m. today to Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Students earning a role in this production from this area included:
Darby Taylor of Barling, sophomore musical theater major, will play the role of Mrs. Ann Putnam.
Mercy Fuentes of Van Buren, junior theater major, will play the role of Rececca Nurse and work as a carpenter.
Kelsey Padilla of Fort Smith, senior theater major, will play the role of Elizabeth Proctor.
Mikayla McCoy of Rogers, freshman theater major, will play the role of Sarah Good.
Tickets can be purchased at showtix4u.com or by calling SAU Theater at (870) 235-4291. Prices for an adult general admission ticket is $10; children 12 and younger are $5; SAU students, faculty, staff are $5.
The performance Saturday will be followed by an actor talk back. There are two acts, with a 15-minute intermission. There is a cast and crew of more than 40 SAU students and staff. Costumes are being provided by Broadway Costumes of Chicago.
Miller, an American playwright, authored “The Crucible” in 1953 after his experience of being tried and convicted of contempt by the U.S. Congress for simply refusing to identify any friends who might have had any connections with the Communist party. The play is set in 1692, and is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. This was a time when paranoia, hysteria and deceit gripped the Puritan towns of New England.
The production won the 1953 Tony Award for best play. A year later, a new production succeeded, and the play became a classic. It is a central work in the canon of American drama.
Information: saumag.edu/Theatre.
Best teams to compete
Thirty-two teams will compete at The Frontier Trails BEST regional robotics competition Dec. 4-5 at the Fort Smith Convention Center.
The competition will take place throughout the weekend. Events open to the public begin at 1 p.m. Dec. 4 and culminate in an awards ceremony at 4 p.m. Dec. 5.
Finalists from eight robotics competitions held in states including Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado will compete for awards, including the BEST Award and awards for the best marketing presentation, the best team exhibit and the team displaying the best spirit and sportsmanship. Participating teams will then battle it out in the robot game Dec. 5.
The competition continues the theme of “Pay Dirt” used in the local BEST competitions. Local schools will compete in the event, including Fulbright Junior High in Bentonville, and Chaffin Junior High and Northside High School in Fort Smith. The teams advanced to the regional competition after earning top placement at the River Valley BEST robotics competition.
Local hubs and schools competing in the competition include Ambassadors for Christ Academy, Bentonville; Northark BEST in Harrison: Bergman School District; Valley Springs High School; River Valley BEST in Fort Smith; Chaffin Junior High School, Fort Smith; Fulbright Junior High School, Bentonville; Northside High School, Fort Smith.
BEST stands for Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology and is a nonprofit volunteer-based organization. BEST seeks to engage students in engineering-related activities situated in real-world working environments, hoping to inspire them to pursue careers in STEM-related fields — science, technology, engineering and math.
The event is open to the public, and admission is free. To view the schedule of events or find out more information, visit cast.uafs.edu/best/frontier-trails-best.
Golden Paddle winners honored
The Illinois River Watershed Partnership has announced the winners of the 2015 Golden Paddle Awards given to recognize excellence in natural-resource conservation and stewardship in the Illinois River Watershed.
Six awards are given to individuals or entities who exemplify leadership in protection, preservation and enhancement of the watershed. Groups and individuals are nominated in six stakeholder categories: agriculture, business, conservation, construction, government and the technical, research and education fields.
Additionally, nominees are named for the Ron and Jennifer Michaels Volunteer of the Year award.
This year’s Golden Paddle Award winners are:
• Agriculture: Dynamic Dairy, Bentonville, Mary and Don Mayer.
• Business: Mars-Wrigley — Alison Fox-Carney Jones, senior in logistics; Harvey Millar, vice president; Matt Tice, senior category manager.
• Conservation: Watershed Conservation Resource Center — Sandi Formica and Matt VanEps.
• Construction: HHT Design and Professional Landscape — Hank Thomas and Keith Hunter.
• Education: Helen Tyson Middle School E.A.S.T — Brittany Berry, E.A.S.T facilitator.
• Government: Arkansas Forestry Commission — Patti Erwin, urban forestry coordinator.
• Volunteers of the year: Vicki and Hal Johnson, Arkansas Master Naturalists.