- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

International student athlete prepares for next chapter of her education

Mon, 20 May 2019 13:25:59 +0000

This spring, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Senior Laura Ruiz Astorga found herself facing the difficult choice of where to continue her education following her graduation in May. Fortunately for her, she had already been accepted to not one, but two of the top schools in her field, and this fall she will begin a master’s program at the London School of Economics. Ruiz Astorga came to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock from Madrid and was introduced to the world of international relations at a young age through her father, who works for the Spanish government. While in high school in Spain, she was recruited by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s swim team and soon began her freshman year of college in a city thousands of miles away from her home. Aside from being a student-athlete, Ruiz Astorga also chose to double major in international studies and psychology. “At first, I wasn’t sure I was in the right major for me, but then I got here and made friends with some of my professors and things got much better afterwards,” Ruiz Astorga said, “Dr. Wiebelhaus-Brahm especially got me interested in international studies and taught in a really engaging way.” As a student-athlete, Ruiz Astorga represented ��Vlog��ý Little Rock with the same level of dedication that she put into her coursework. In February, she and three other swim team members set a new school record for the 200-yard freestyle relay. “I really loved being a student-athlete, we have a really great athletic department here,” Ruiz Astorga said. “Everyone is very close to each other. We were also friends with all the other teams, and it all felt like one big family. I like how this campus is small enough to where you really get to know everyone.”

Swim Team Member Laura Ruiz Astorga is honored during the Trojans final home meet of the season. Photo by Ben Krain.

Today, Ruiz Astorga is looking towards the future as she prepares to pursue a master’s degree in human rights at the London School of Economics. Although she’s excited to return to Europe, she’ll be forever thankful for her time at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and encourages all students to look into it for their own education and development. “��Vlog��ý Little Rock may be small, but that’s anything but a bad thing. We have great professors who really care about your success,” Ruiz Astorga said, “I came from Madrid and had never even heard of Arkansas or Little Rock, but I had so much fun here. This state is beautiful, and I feel like I had a great academic experience overall.” After completing her graduate program, Ruiz Astorga plans to devote herself to protecting human rights on an international level through work with nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations. In the upper right photo, Laura Ruiz Astorga, left, participates in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock commencement ceremony on May 11. Photo by Ben Krain.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Senior prepares for international service

Thu, 16 May 2019 13:45:29 +0000

A graduating student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. This summer, senior Spanish major Autumn Payne will leave the U.S. for an internship in Slovakia, where she will teach music to teens while pursuing her passion for ministry through mentorship and Bible study. Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, to American missionaries, Payne grew up in Mexico until moving back to Little Rock, her parents’ hometown, at age 9. Since becoming a student at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, she has developed a passion for service through volunteering as a Spanish teacher at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Children International. This semester, Payne enrolled in an applied communication course Persuasive Presentations, where she has spent the last few months preparing a policy speech about a proposed law in Massachusetts that would encourage undocumented immigrants to report crimes to law enforcement without the fear of deportation. “I was wanted to learn more about what life is like for immigrants in the United States and found out through my research that they’re often targets of crime because they have a fear of reporting it,” said Payne. “I came across an act created in Massachusetts, which allows immigrants to report crime without fear and makes communities safer overall because there are less criminals getting away with crimes.” Over the course of her project, Payne also decided to see if she could get a similar law in the making in Arkansas and got in contact with Rep. Fred Allen. “Your legislator’s contact info is public information, so I just called him and he was very willing to talk to me. In the end, he was even willing to meet with me about it if I could get a group of people behind me,” Payne said. After presenting her final speech in April, several of her classmates became interested in following up with Allen and are currently preparing to speak with him. Through her experience with Persuasive Presentations, Payne learned several valuable lessons. “What I really learned from this class is how to take information and give it to people in a way that’s easily understandable and motivating,” she said. “Being clear and making sure that you actually guide them through information is extremely important, especially because I want people to actually act on that information.” After her internship in Slovakia is over, Payne hopes to pursue being a full-time missionary overseas.

International student leaves behind a legacy of leadership

Wed, 15 May 2019 18:53:23 +0000

For the past four years, Ann Kharlamova has considered the University of Arkansas at Little Rock her second home, where she has been able to grow, make friends, and gain invaluable professional experience. Kharlamova, a native of Cherepovets, Russia, first came to the United States as a high school exchange student in Texarkana during her junior year. After returning to Russia and graduating, she was recruited by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s swim team. On May 11, she graduated with two bachelor’s degrees in marketing and business analytics. “Ann has been a pillar of leadership in our program over the last four years,” said ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Swimming and Diving Coach Amy Burgess. “She left an impression wherever she went on campus.” Kharlamova’s accomplishments go beyond the swim team. She also served as an ambassador in the Chancellor’s Leadership Corps and worked for Testing Services. “I’m not going to lie. It was challenging,” Kharlamova said. “There was a lot of time management involved, but I realized that the sky is your only limit.” Outside of her busy life as a student, worker, and athlete, Kharlamova still found the time to make lifelong friends despite being thousands of miles away from her friends and family in Russia. “I enjoyed every night I spent with my girls on the swim team, and every single practice we had was memorable,” Kharlamova said. “Our freshman year training trip to Puerto Rico was especially memorable. We got to go to the best beaches, but it was also very challenging. It really prepared all of us for competitions.” As a student, Kharlamova excelled in her coursework and became very involved in research during her senior year. She and another student recently gave an award-winning presentation at the 2019 Student Research and Creative Works Expo and also presented the same project at a major business law conference in San Antonio. “It’s great to see how your hard work pays off. I’m very thankful to Dr. Casey Rockwell (Kharlamova’s faculty mentor) for convincing us to do this with her,” Kharlamova said. After graduation, Kharlamova plans to stay in Arkansas and work a few years before pursuing a master’s degree in a business-related field. She encourages anyone, regardless of where they live or what they want to do, to consider ��Vlog��ý Little Rock for their education. “Your experience is what you make it, no matter where you go. I truly believe that you need the heart of a Trojan to be here, and I see that in my classmates and teammates,” she said. “We have great programs, and you get a level of one-on-one attention from your professors here that I don’t see at other schools. I’m very thankful to have been here.”

Ursin named 2019 Edward L. Whitbeck Memorial Award Winner

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 18:04:07 +0000

A Donaghey Scholar who is passionate about preserving and sharing history through her work at museums has been chosen as this year’s recipient of the Edward L. Whitbeck Memorial Award at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Nicole Ursin, 21, of Batesville, has earned a 4.0 GPA while double majoring in anthropology and history with a minor in nonprofit leadership studies, all while working at nine different museums and historical organizations throughout her college career. The Whitbeck Memorial Award is the single greatest distinction the university annually bestows on a graduating student through a competitive application process that comes with a $2,000 prize. Ursin will receive the award during a luncheon beginning at 11:30 a.m. Friday, May 10, at the Clinton Presidential Center Great Hall in Little Rock. In the fall, Ursin will begin a dual master’s degree program in applied anthropology and historic preservation at the University of Maryland. Once her education is complete, she would like to continue her historic preservation and education work at a museum and consult for communities that want to increase tourism based on historical sites. When she started college in 2015, Ursin looked to ��Vlog��ý Little for an affordable, in-state education the provided her access to museums and culture in the heart of the capital city. She was also accepted into the prestigious Donaghey Scholars program, which provides tuition, fees, an on-campus housing subsidy, and a yearly stipend for up to four years, as well as financial assistance toward a Study Abroad program and a computer. “I wanted to stay in Arkansas for the affordability of staying in state, but I also wanted to be in Little Rock where I would be at the center of where things are happening in heritage and culture,” Ursin said. “I wanted to work and intern at museums and historical organizations, and being a part of the Donaghey Scholars helped me get the liberal arts education that I wanted.” During her study abroad experience, Ursin interned at the Národní (National) Museum in the Czech Republic. She preserved historic human remains from medieval times as well as worked in the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and Native American Cultures. “I even got to piece together a human skull that was broken into fragments,” she said. In Little Rock, Ursin has interned the National Archives and Records Administration, the Center for Arkansas History and Culture, and the Clinton Foundation. For the past two years, she has worked at the Historic Arkansas Museum, where she researched the factors that drive museum audience demographics and diversity. Throughout her internships, she has developed educational materials for the Clinton Presidential Center’s traveling exhibits and photographed and rehoused museum artifacts from President Bill Clinton’s administration. She also created an online exhibit about the life of, the vice principal for girls at Little Rock Central High School who was responsible for protecting the six female members of the Little Rock Nine. Ursin loves the opportunity to bring history to life for people to better understand the past. During her last two years with the Historic Arkansas Museum, she has learned some invaluable 19th-century skills like candle making and butter churning, to the delight of visiting children.

Nicole Ursin, the 2019 Whitbeck award winner, has worked at the Arkansas Historic Museum for two years. Photo by Benjamin Krain.

“I love my time at the Historic Arkansas Museum,” she said. “I have learned the most and been given the most opportunities to work in different parts of the museum. I am on the education staff, so I help coordinate programs and give historic tours. Recently, I coordinated the museum’s spring break week activities where we do a lot of living history demonstrations. We show people how to do historic cooking and laundry, candle making, butter churning, and a printing press. Kids usually love to make butter. People often don’t understand how much of a chore it would be to do these activities back in the 1840s.” Additionally, Ursin has volunteered at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Sequoyah National Research Center, the Quapaw Quarter Association, and the Old Independence Regional Museum in Batesville. She has curated a permanent exhibit panel about school in early Arkansas, helped develop a database of Arkansas obituaries from newspaper records, and researched historic buildings in Arkansas to aid in historic preservation. On the anthropology side, Ursin put her skills to use by studying an immigrant community of Micronesians living in Corsicana, Texas. Along with her mentor, Dr. Juliana Flinn, professor of anthropology and gender studies, she has visited Corsicana on multiple occasions to meet with community leaders and longtime residents to learn about daily life in the community. “I think one of the most interesting components of the research is how much the immigrants are working to preserve their culture while maintaining a deep connection by visiting the island, sending money back to relatives, and staying active in politics,” Ursin said. “They are really trying hard to preserve their culture and share their culture in Texas.” The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Faculty Senate Honors and Awards Committee selects the Whitbeck scholar based on t citizenship, scholarship, and leadership. Frank L. and Beverly Whitbeck established the award in memory of their son, Edward Lynn Whitbeck, who was a senior at Little Rock University, the predecessor of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, at the time of his death in 1965. Each scholar receives a personalized plaque and a monetary award and will lead the graduating students during the academic processional at spring graduation on May 11.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

International student athlete prepares for next chapter of her education

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Senior prepares for international service

International student leaves behind a legacy of leadership

Ursin named 2019 Edward L. Whitbeck Memorial Award Winner

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Senior prepares for international service