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

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock /news-archive/tag/commencement-2018/ ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Tue, 18 Dec 2018 14:36:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 ��Vlog��ý Little Rock student fulfills dream of earning college degree /news-archive/2018/12/18/carlene-akins-grad/ Tue, 18 Dec 2018 14:36:03 +0000 /news/?p=73007 ...]]> On May 15, Carlene Akins, 44, of Little Rock, fulfilled her decades-long dream of earning a college degree as she graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication surrounded by family cheering for her. “I am so excited about graduating because I didn’t think I was smart enough,” Akins said. “I used to think that people who didn’t go to college were just lazy or not smart enough, but now my whole mind frame of going to college is different. I think if you want to achieve that goal, that you should do it, no matter how long it takes you, no matter what stands in your way.” Akins grew up in Ferguson, Missouri, one of 10 children and the first in her family to earn a college degree. “I’ve always wanted a college degree,” she said. “My mom said I wasn’t college material, that I would just be a wife and mother. I have two kids and two grandchildren. I had my oldest daughter at 21, but I still wanted to go to school. I saw the difference between having an education and not having one. Mostly, I want to show my two girls that no matter how your life turns out and what happens in it, that you can turn it around. At the same time, I wanted to prove to my parents that I was more than just a wife and mother.” Before she moved to Little Rock, Akins worked as a paramedic in the St. Louis area. She decided to return to school after realizing that paramedics made less money than what she used to make in Missouri. She first attended University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College and then transferred to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2014. “I chose mass communication because I have the gift of gab. I could sing, and I wanted to learn how to produce audio,” Akins said. “I ran into David Weekley (senior mass communication instructor), and he said, ‘Why would you chop your legs off and do one thing, when you can do a whole array of skills?’ I went home and thought about what he said and did the assessment to see what I was interested in. After I took a few classes, I got good grades. I took an audio and media broadcasting class, and I felt like I found my voice. I felt like I wasn’t important because I didn’t have a voice. I took more classes about media production and creating content. I felt like I was telling the story of how I feel.” Akins has faced many challenges in earning her degree. While at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, she was diagnosed with cancer in 2015. Her diagnosis was so grim at one point that her husband took her on a spontaneous vacation to Europe because the doctors told him she would not survive. “It was a learning experience,” she said. “I survived, and I’m stronger for it.” Born three months premature, Akins has severe visual impairment due to Retinopathy of Prematurity, which made it difficult for her to read class materials and get to class since she cannot drive. “I did use Disability Resource Services a lot. They are a lifesaver,” Akins said. “My vision kept me from doing a lot of stuff. Sometimes, I get a little anxious when it comes to my disability, but I don’t use it to make excuses. It makes me stronger.” Akins credits Weekley, who inspired her to expand her horizons in mass communication, as well as Sonny Rhodes, associate professor of mass communication, and Jana McAuliffe, assistant professor of philosophy, for inspiring her to do her best at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “Dr. Sonny Rhodes was good. He made you want to do your homework, and he made you want to learn,” Akins said. “He valued you as a student and made sure you were getting what you needed to learn. He was one of my most valued professors. Jana McAuliffe taught me ethics. She was very challenging, but she made me want to succeed. She made me become a critical thinker.” Akins, who currently works at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, is looking forward to traveling to Tokyo, Japan, in May 2019 to begin a six-month internship, where she will get experience in mass communication, broadcasting, public relations, and analytics. In the upper right photo, graduate Carlene Akins (right) receives her diploma from Dr. Julien Mirivel, dean of the College of Social Sciences and Communication. Photo by Benjamin Krain.]]> New degree leads to dream career for single dad /news-archive/2018/12/14/anthony-alexander-grad/ Fri, 14 Dec 2018 14:18:59 +0000 /news/?p=72972 ...]]> Less than 48 hours after Anthony Alexander graduates from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a bachelor’s degree in applied communication on Dec. 15, he will begin his dream job as the dean of students at in Little Rock. “��Vlog��ý Little Rock has given me the tools I needed to get where I am now as dean of students,” said Alexander, 32, of Little Rock. “It’s an enormous honor to come right out of graduation and start a dream position. Because they were so impressed with my resume and the education I was receiving, in their words, they couldn’t help but offer me the position. Without my education, I would not have the future I have going forward.” Alexander first started at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2004 after graduating J.A. Fair High School. He left in 2006 after learning some life-altering news. “I had to drop out due to having a child on the way,” he said. “Of course, you don’t make any money at school, and I had to go make money. Two years after Anthony Jr. was born, his mother passed, and I became a single parent. He’s 10 now.” Alexander always had a dream of finishing his education and making a difference in the lives of young people. It was that dream that led him to come back to school at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in spring 2014. “Anthony found a home in the Department of Applied Communication and started succeeding in his coursework,” said Dr. April Chatham-Carpenter, chair of the Department of Applied Communication and Alexander’s advisor. “He eventually switched to the online program for his major in order to work multiple jobs to support his growing family. Anthony is an example of a resilient and persistent student, who overcomes hardships to pursue his dreams. He is already paying it forward to other young people who need to be inspired to go after their dreams as well. We are very proud of Anthony’s achievements to reach his dreams!” One of Alexander’s motivations for completing his degree was to show the importance of education to his son. “That is the reason I got back into school,” he said. “I wanted to show my son that no matter how long it takes, you can always finish what you started. I can’t preach the gospel if I don’t practice it myself. It’d be hard to tell them they need to go to school when I dropped out myself. My grandmother helped me out through school. She would watch him when I had to take a final or go to class.” Over the past six years, Alexander has found his passion working with children in the Little Rock School District. “I love kids. They fulfill my life. They give me a sense that I am working for a purpose,” he said. “It’s a new experience every day when you are working with kids. I like to think that I can help mold a kid into a direction that I could have had at our age. I don’t look like your typical educator, so they tend to latch on to me. The kids at the school I work at call me ‘Unc,’ because I became the uncle of the school.” When Alexander was a child, he was raised by a wonderful single grandmother, Carol Alexander, but says he missed out on having a positive male role model in his life. “When I was in school, I was a little class clown,” Alexander said. “I’d like to crack jokes and talk a lot. My grandmother raised me, so I didn’t have either parent. I never had a male role model try to guide me when I needed to be guided. I feel like a lot of our young men need that. Education is a women-driven field, so I think young men sometimes need an adult male to guide them.” He’s a proud member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and has found a mentor in Chatham-Carpenter. “Dr. Carpenter was a great mentor at the university,” he said. “She’s met my oldest son since I’ve had to bring him to her office several times over the years. She has always been very understanding since I am not your typical student. We’ve always had great communication. She has been really great and fun too.” Now Alexander and his fiancé, Leyonda Foote, have another son, Aceton, who will turn one the day after Alexander’s graduation. “I’m a semi-professional rugby player, and I play on the U.S. Select South team,” Alexander said. “My fiancé complimented one of the photos I did for a rugby calendar. Since then, we’ve never been apart, except when I travel. It’s like it was meant to be. She’s always treated my son like he was hers. She helped out a lot too to keep me motivated and in school.” In his new career, Alexander is looking forward to implementing new programs to help students learn and be more active. “I’ve never the type to just stay stationary or complacent,” he said. “Dean of students is a couple of stages past where I was going to start at. I would like to move up in administration and add programs that could help students learn in the future and fun activities. I’m big on physical education. Maybe I’ll be a principal of my own school one day.” In the upper right photo, Anthony Alexander will begin his job as dean of students at eStem Elementary School in Little Rock just two days after his graduation from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Photo by Benjamin Krain.]]> ��Vlog��ý Little Rock grad is taking the Information Technology world by storm /news-archive/2018/12/14/karen-watts-grad/ Fri, 14 Dec 2018 14:10:58 +0000 /news/?p=72973 ...]]> As a sophomore information science major at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2010, Karen Watts of Bryant faced a difficult choice. Watts is a single mother of two children with special needs, and the youngest, Gabe, now 11, was in and out of the hospital with health issues. “I wanted to stay in school, but I couldn’t do both,” Watts said. “I had to leave after my first year at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. I got my cosmetology license, so I could work around my boys’ appointments and schedules.” Inspired to help other families, Watts opened Artistik Salon, which catered toward children and adults with special needs. The business was even recognized by local broadcast station with a Pay It Forward Award. “I had people travel from all over the state because they couldn’t go anywhere else to have their children’s hair cut,” Watts said. “A lot of the children have sensory issues, so it could easily be too loud or crowded, so I catered to each child that came in. It was really hard to close in 2017, but I really wanted to finish my degree. It was a really hard decision since I helped a lot of kids.” Watts returned to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2016 and was accepted into the Accelerated BS to MS program, enabling her to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree in five years. In addition, Watts took four graduate classes as a senior. When she graduates from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock on Dec. 15, she will earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Science as well as a Graduate Certificate in Data Science. At ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, she is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, an ambassador for the College of Engineering and Information Technology, and a research assistant with the Collaboratorium of Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS), a research group led by Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and distinguished professor in the Department of Information Science. She credits Agarwal, Dr. Elizabeth Pierce, chair of the Department of Information Science, and all the information science professors with helping her succeed. “Dr. Elizabeth Pierce and Dr. Nitin Agarwal are my mentors, but every professor I’ve had in information science has been wonderful and supportive. Dr. Pierce supported me going to different hackathons to gain skills and network. It’s been great to continue my research with Dr. Agarwal at COSMOS. It’s a big change from working at a salon.” As part of her burgeoning hackathon career, Watts and her teammate, Michael DiCicco, beat out 28 other teams as the first place winner of CrimsonHacks in April for their multicurrency cryptocoin wallet called “Tweety Wallet.” The prototype app retrieves tweets from Twitter with hashtags that correspond to cryptocurrency. The app then runs a sentiment analysis to determine if current views of the digital currency are positive or negative. This information helps users determine if they should buy, sell, or hang on to their digital currency. In October, she also won the J.B. Hunt Use Case Award at the ��Vlog��ý Blockchain Hackathon along with DiCicco and Brenda Nyangweso. Watts and her team, sudoIntellectual, created an electronic bill of lading system for J.B. Hunt that they named “Truck Hunt.” That led the team to travel to J.B. Hunt’s corporate headquarters in Lowell, Arkansas, where they made a presentation to the company’s executives. Watts has received a promising job offer from the company, which would allow her to work with emerging technologies. “I stay busy, and I don’t sleep a lot,” Watts said of her hectic schedule. “It’s very important for my kids, Blakely, 12, and Gabe, 11. They are my life. Everything I have done is for them. I always knew I wanted to come back and finish my degree. The time came, and I was able to, and I hit the ground running. I’m the first woman in my family to get a college degree.” Watts has also interned at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service for over a year, where she has completed some innovative information technology projects. She collaborated with her boss, Amy Cole, to develop the Arkansas Extension chatbot platform, VeggieBot, which is likely the first extension chatbot developed in the U.S. A chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate conversation with people. In the case of VeggieBot, the chatbot will answer basic questions about gardening, which will free up time for the employees and provide a self-service channel that can respond at any time. Additionally, Watts created a new internal employee website. She also assisted in developing a new web app, replacing an outdated system, that assists Arkansas rice producers in managing their rice crops for a senior capstone project. She presented this project at the College of Engineering and Information Technology Open House in April and received the Mainstream Technologies Professional Presentation Award. After completing her master’s degree in December 2019, Watts plans to earn a Ph.D. in computer and information science at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, where she will research strategies to fight disinformation campaigns online using blockchain technology with COSMOS. “��Vlog��ý Little Rock has given me opportunities to be involved in a research group that opened a whole lot of new doors and helped me decide on my master’s degree,” she said. “The hackathons were another opportunity I wouldn’t have had outside ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. I don’t know of any other schools that offer the 4+1 program where I could earn my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in five years and work on my graduate certificate during my senior year. The professors here are incredible and full of knowledge.”]]> Bowen Law School grad plans to right rural wrongs with second career in legal aid /news-archive/2018/12/14/cynthia-aikman-gradu/ Fri, 14 Dec 2018 14:05:45 +0000 /news/?p=72977 ...]]> A U.S. Army veteran has plans to spend her “second act” helping local residents in her rural home county of Yell gain access to legal representation. “The reason I went to law school is I want to do legal aid in my community,” said Cynthia Aikman, 55, of Bluffton. “We don’t have any legal aid services in Yell County. The closest one is an hour away. It is a major problem for this rural county, so that’s my goal.” Aikman will graduate from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law on Dec. 15. Although she already has an MBA, Aikman was inspired to attend law school after seeing so many changes that hurt her local community. “Our school district consolidated after 50 years. We thought we were protected because we were so isolated. Kids are on the school bus up to two hours each way,” Aikman said. “There is also the whole cell tower issue. I testified in front of our state senators about how not having cell phone coverage affects our lives, and we need it more than anyone. We are away from our houses doing possibly dangerous jobs in agriculture, and we can’t dial 911. Many of our rural post offices were closed. All of this stuff was happening, and I decided I needed to go to law school to get on the other side of things. I am just trying to right some of these rural wrongs. I’ve learned a lot. I might even run for the legislature one day.” While starting law school with the best of intentions in 2013, Aikman was forced to leave after a year due to health problems. “I have Lupus, and stress is a trigger,” she said. “Everyone in my family was worried that I wouldn’t be able to do it. The second time, I decided I am going to do it for fun, and I won’t be stressed out. The Disability Resource Center had lots of ideas. I wasn’t trying to be the top of the class. I was just in it to learn it.” Living nearly two hours away, Aikman drove in weekly and stayed with her daughter on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights so she could attend night classes at Bowen. While in law school, she was a member of the Christian Legal Society, where she ran a multi-year Bible study, as well as the Black Law Students Association and Outlaw, a student organization dedicated to promoting diversity, raising awareness of legal issues affecting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people, and maintaining an open atmosphere of respect, equality, and justice for all. “Cindy is loved by her fellow students and respected by her professors,” said Jessie Burchfield, Bowen’s associate dean for information and technology services. “In the fall semester of 2018, she volunteered over 200 hours at the Center for Arkansas Legal Services. Her passion is to provide pro bono services to those who need legal help and can’t afford it.” Aikman said she loved working pro-bono cases for people in need but found the experience eye opening. “It’s crazy what the full-time lawyers take care of. The lawyer I worked for probably had 80 cases at any one time,” she said. “There are so many cases coming in, and there is such a need for it. You knock out case after case after case. Anyone who volunteers there wants to work in legal aid because you see such a need for it.” Aikman credits Sarah Jenkins, Charles C. Baum Distinguished Professor of Law, and Burchfield, who have both served as advisors to the Christian Legal Society, for serving as her mentors at Bowen. “They made themselves available to all the students and especially everyone who was in the club,” she said. “They would take us to lunch if any of the students had any problems. When students have personal problems, they show up, and they are interested. They are accessible, and they are sincere.” In January, Aikman will begin a two-month course to help her study for the bar exam, which she will take later in the semester. As she reflects on her time at Bowen, she is sad to see that part of her life come to an end, but excited to start the next chapter in her career. “I just loved every minute at Bowen,” Aikman said. “I loved all my classes and all my professors. I would recommend it to anyone. You are never too old to change careers, and law is a good one.”]]> ��Vlog��ý Little Rock grad researches validity of patient data found on social networks /news-archive/2018/12/12/kim-tran-social-networks-ipf/ Wed, 12 Dec 2018 15:35:15 +0000 /news/?p=72926 ...]]> A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student who is graduating on Dec. 15 is making it easier for medical researchers to validate patient data found on social networks that can be used to make important decisions about what medical products are advanced for future development. When Kim Tran of Little Rock was working at Arkansas Capital Corporation a decade ago, she noted that there was a statewide discussion on the critical importance of computer and information technology. “I was working with business and government leaders throughout Arkansas who were talking about technology and how important it was to have access to the infrastructure in order to enable that technology,” she said. “At the time, people were also starting to talk about this thing called big data. With this in mind, I wanted to learn more. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock had also just partnered with MIT to develop a curriculum that was focused on the science of data and that is what brought me to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock.” Tran, who began the Ph.D. program in computer and information science in 2010 as a part-time student who worked full time, said one of the most challenging aspects of the process was selecting a topic for her dissertation, citing the more than 1,200 articles she reviewed before choosing a topic. She’s grateful for her professors who served as mentors during her time at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “Dr. Rolf Wigand was always pushing the boundary for me,” she said. “Every time I felt good about where I was at, he would challenge me to look around the next corner. Ph.D. students need this kind of feedback in order to strengthen the quality of their research. Dr. John Talburt and Dr. Meredith Zozus especially helped me contextualize my research. I also developed lifetime friendships with many professors at the university. They were an exceptionally supportive group, and I was lucky to have that.” Having a support structure during her doctoral endeavors was something she especially owes to her dissertation advisor, Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and distinguished professor in the Department of Information Science and director of the Collaboratorium of Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (). “The great thing about the Ph.D. process is that you have an advisor who will guide you through the process and help open doors so that you can grow and develop. Dr. Agarwal guided me through the process,” she said. Tran’s research brings together the fields of machine learning and natural language processing, psychometrics, and social networks, all of which are applied to Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), a lung disease which results in scarring (fibrosis) of the lungs for unknown reasons. An estimated five million patients worldwide and 150,000 patients in the United States are affected by this disease. “Kim’s research bridges the disciplines of statistics, health sciences, information sciences, and social networks by developing a computational framework to assess social media’s validity in capturing patient reported outcomes from Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis patients,” Agarwal said. “Her research has far-reaching implications to the health domain by facilitating exploratory efforts in the medical product development process.” Since 2009, regulatory reviewers have been looking at ways to incorporate patient input into its drug selection process, in order to bring drugs to the market sooner, Tran said. In 2015, a discussion held between regulatory reviewers, pharmaceutical companies, and a patient group generated consensus on the potential of social networks in supporting the validity of patient outcomes identified for medical product development and her dissertation creates a scalable framework from which the validity of social networks can be determined. “Healthcare is very unique domain since research in this area affects the lives of patients,” she said. “So any data you are deriving from any source will require a high level of scrutinization. Social networks are one possible platform that can be used as a source to develop patient-reported outcomes. While the ideal source of feedback is obtained directly from the patient, the way in which this information is gathered is highly variant in scope and in quality. The FDA, for example, still collects patient input through town halls. In the search for more efficient methods of gathering patient understanding, social networks serve as a unique source of observational data.” In order to study whether the data is valid, she uses advanced probabilistic methods to analyze and evaluate Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis messages from Twitter for the last 10 years across 34 different languages from around the world. Tran was drawn to study Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis after attending an international research conference where she spoke with patients and about this little known disease. “IPF is not as well known or studied as breast cancer,” she said. “When something is idiopathic, you don’t know the origin. The one thing you do know is that your disease is fatal and that it will result in markedly reduced lung capacity over time. I met with and spoke at length with many patients who were affected by this disease at an international conference. It was eye opening and also touching how driven and motivated these patients were to learn about IPF. They were there because they didn’t want to just be a patient, they wanted to be a part of finding a cure. That gave me the drive to learn more about the field and to help advance the understanding of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.” As part of her dissertation, Tran has collaborate with a researchers across the country who are planning to set up additional studies based on this research. “I have been fortunate to meet researchers from other institutions that I have been working with as well as others that I will begin to work with,” she said. “This is a group which will bring diverse perspectives and includes researchers from ��Vlog��ýMS, Yale, Georgetown, Northeastern, and Tulane University. There is much opportunity to extend this research to fully evaluate the validity of social networks, and I am really looking forward to it.” In the end, Tran is grateful for the opportunities that earning a Ph.D. brought her. “The Ph.D. process is an excellent development opportunity as long as you are able to commit to the process,” Tran said. “Through this process, you learn how to learn. I had an opportunity to work across a variety of fields that are all on the cutting edge of things that matter in today’s business environment and to make a novel contribution to the field.”]]> ��Vlog��ý Little Rock student’s degree is 20 years in the making /news-archive/2018/12/12/edna-rodgers-grad/ Wed, 12 Dec 2018 15:12:00 +0000 /news/?p=72934 ...]]> Most people may remember 1999 for the song (“Party Like It’s 1999”), the Y2K scare, and the excitement of the start of a new millennium. For Edna Rodgers, 1999 is the year she first embarked on earning her Master of Arts degree in professional and technical writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. After nearly 20 years, her hard work and heartaches have come to fruition with her upcoming graduation on Saturday, Dec. 15, at the Jack Stephens Center. “I feel great,” Rodgers, 66, of Little Rock, said. “I just feel like I have run that mile and finished the race. It’s a real good feeling.” Rodgers earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from Philander Smith College in 1995, but it wasn’t long before she realized she wanted to get a graduate degree to improve her chances at getting a better job. “When I worked at Children International, the former director, Cheryl Chapman, inspired me to pursue a field in technical writing,” she said. “I wanted to improve my writing skills and develop myself further professionally. Later, when I went to work at ��Vlog��ýMS, I had to take a lot of meeting minutes and help with CV revisions for faculty members. I also helped revise the course syllabi and post them online. When you do a lot of writing and editing projects like that, you really need to know how to write and format different documents. Besides personal development and helping me with my work assignments, I was interested in teaching at a junior college. I always wanted to be a teacher growing up, but I never pursued it. Since I have my degree, I can pursue that now. A lot of people have a second career that they love after they have retired. I am one of those people who would like to obtain a second career as a part-time editor and technical writer.” While working on her master’s degree, Rodgers usually took one course a semester as well as having to balance work and raising two daughters. “Another reason why it took me so long to get my master’s degree was because of a life-threatening illness, a battle that nearly cost my life,” she said. “I thank God each day for restoring my health. There were so many challenges in between that time, which is what took me so long to graduate. All of them were beyond my control. I was determined to finish what I had started because I just wouldn’t feel good about myself if I hadn’t.” After finishing the coursework for her master’s degree, Rodgers began working on her thesis in 2008. After facing a series of life challenges, Rodgers got back to her research and successfully defended her thesis this month, a project in which she researched methods designed to teach senior citizens computer literacy skills. “I remember when I first started out using a computer, I was actually intimidated by it,” she said. “I didn’t know how to use it, and I faced a lot of anxiety using the computer until I was given more assignments to use the computer instead of a typewriter. That is the main reason I wanted to do that topic.” She is thankful to her thesis advisor, Dr. Karen Kuralt, and her thesis committee, Dr. Allison Holland and Dr. Earnest Cox, for helping her complete this monumental achievement. After graduation, Rodgers wants to use the training manual she created as part of her thesis project to teach older adults at Dunbar Community Center in Little Rock. “A lot of the adults I surveyed mentioned wanting to learn computer technology to pay their bills, keep in touch with their family and friends, and wanted to get better job opportunities,” she said. Now that her school work is finished, Rodgers plans to spend time with her family before embarking on the search for a new job. “I got laid off from ��Vlog��ýMS in February, but it worked out for my good because I was able to go ahead and complete my thesis. I looked at it as a positive,” she said. “I feel like now that I have my master’s degree, I am hoping it will open doors for me to obtain a technical writer or an editor position. Now that my school work and thesis defense is completed, I am planning on relaxing for a little while and enjoying my only granddaughter, Jasmine, who is 2. I spend a lot of time with her. Eventually, I will start looking for an editor or technical writer position.” In the upper right photo, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock graduate student Edna Rodgers is surrounded by master’s degree thesis project papers dating back to 1999, the year she started working toward her own master’s degree. Photo by Benjamin Krain.]]> Graduating student plans to make difference by teaching in high-needs urban schools /news-archive/2018/12/11/jessica-tate-grad/ Tue, 11 Dec 2018 17:39:28 +0000 /news/?p=72930 ...]]> When Jessica Tate, a 22-year-old native of Nashville, Arkansas, spent this summer teaching English as a second language in China, what she experienced led her to make a life-changing decision. “What I saw in China blew my mind,” Tate said. “I went to five different schools over the course of my internship, so I got to see the disparities in educational access. It gave me a totally new perspective.” Tate will graduate from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Saturday, Dec. 15, earning two Bachelor of Arts degrees in international studies and Spanish. For many years, Tate assumed she would join the United Nations as an interpreter following her graduation, or perhaps a think tank to do research on international policies. But the internship she completed in China, a part of her requirement for her international studies degree, changed those plans. “The internship legitimately changed my life,” she said. “There was one school where we had to teach in this building that seemed so disconnected from the rest of campus. I remember being in this building that was meant to be a gym. I didn’t have access to a computer, projector, or desks. I only had a small board, and I had to squat down in order to write anything to teach. It was really that experience that opened my eyes to that I should be doing something that is fulfilling to me.” Tate applied and has been accepted to a four-year teacher residency position with the, a nonprofit organization operating in Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. The mission of Urban Teachers is to prepare highly effective teachers who are committed to teaching students in school districts that need them most. In June, Tate will move to Baltimore, where she will teach secondary mathematics in high-need schools, all while earning her state teacher license and earning a Master of Science degree in education from Johns Hopkins University School of Education. After graduating high school at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts in 2014, Tate started at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock as a recipient of the Donaghey Scholars Program. The campuswide honors program includes full tuition and fees, a living stipend, financial assistance toward a study abroad program, a housing subsidy, and a new laptop computer. “I was very fortunate to have the Donaghey Scholars Program,” she said. “I get to graduate debt free, and I am very thankful for that. Meeting new people was the most enjoyable part.” Dr. Simon Hawkins, director of the Donaghey Scholars Program, described Tate as an inspiring student who always rises to the challenge. “Jessica is one of those inspiring students who takes advantage of everything ��Vlog��ý Little Rock has to offer, both in the classroom and the world,” Hawkins said. “She is the model of a well-rounded student who always seeks challenges, whether it be teaching English in Mongolia or learning photography and piano or tackling world quality research with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty. She is driven by a desire to understand the world. Many of her experiences have been hard and have pushed her personally and intellectually, but she has always risen to the challenge.” She credits Dr. Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm and Dr. Joseph Giammo, professors in the School of Public Affairs, as two of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock professors who helped her the most. “I have been very lucky to have some professors like Dr. Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm and Dr. Joe Giammo. Dr. Brahm has helped me a lot to try to figure out my life. He’s been a great mentor to have, and I have learned a lot from him. He is one of the most knowledgeable people I know. He cares about his students and wants to see the best for them. Dr. Giammo was very helpful and understanding. I enjoyed his classes, and he was a good mentor.” Working with Wiebelhaus-Brahm also gave Tate amazing research experience. She completed three research projects with him. The most memorable project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a hybrid peace operation in South Sudan, a project that she presented in the university’s Student Research and Creative Works Expo and the College of Social Sciences and Communication Research Symposium. During the six months between graduation and her move to Baltimore, Tate plans to get a job and earn some money, but she also has some major life events to look forward to. As part of her graduation present, Tate and her mother will travel to the Philippines to visit her mother’s family. “My mom and I are going to the Philippines for a whole month as part of my graduation present to visit the homeland and visit my family,” Tate said. “My mom and I have been planning this for a long time. It’s part of the reason I studied so hard. I wanted to do this for my mom. I’ve never been there before, and I’m going to meet my family for the first time over there.” On May 17, 2019, Tate will marry her fiancé, Zachary Cochran, a senior economics major at the university who will graduate next May. They met at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock when Cochran was taking a Spanish class and needed a tutor, who turned out to be Tate. “I was reading a book, ‘The End of Poverty,’ she said. “He looked at the book, and said ‘I know that book.’ We talked about how much we like the Penguin publishing company. We hit it off first thing. It happens when you have two bookish people. We even have these book dates where we go to Barnes and Noble to sit down and read.” In the upper right photo, graduating senior Jessica Tate is an avid reader and origami artist. Photo by Benjamin Krain. ]]> Easterseals Arkansas honors graduating student as Volunteer of the Year /news-archive/2018/12/05/derrick-alexander-easterseals/ Wed, 05 Dec 2018 14:05:56 +0000 /news/?p=72868 ...]]> A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student who is graduating this month has been recognized for his outstanding volunteer service with children in the community. Derrick Alexander, a 36-year-old senior from Little Rock, was recently honored by as a Volunteer of the Year for the Academy. He will graduate from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock on Dec. 15 with a bachelor’s degree in health education and promotion. Alexander is an intern for Easterseals Academy at Riverdale, a school for children with developmental disabilities. Alexander jokes that he was selected as a Volunteer of the Year “because I’m awesome.” “The kids love me. The staff loves me,” he said. “I am there every day except Wednesday when I am here at class. I participate in all the activities. I’m just really involved. There are 35 kids in the academy, and I know everyone of them by name.” He call himself a “jack of all trades” who has done everything from working with the students, answering phones, assisting with lessons, and supervising recess, to installing security cameras in the classroom and organizing books in the library. His favorite activity was volunteering during the Special Olympics earlier this semester. “Working the Special Olympics was very fun,” he said. “I got to see the excitement on the kids’ faces when they bowled a strike, picked up a spare, and were just having fun. Whenever they won a medal, there were a lot of laughs and a lot of fun.” Dr. Janea Snyder, assistant professor of health education and promotion and Alexander’s internship supervisor, said it was a joy to witness how much the students and staff at Easterseals adored Alexander during internship site visits. “Health education and promotion majors often have a passion to serve, and this is true for Derrick as he has also served our country,” Snyder said. “While completing his 200-hour health education internship at Easterseals, his heart for serving others and going above and beyond was recognized in him being awarded their Volunteer of the Year Award for the Academy for 2018. He is respectful, generous, and overall just a great guy.” Alexander is a veteran of the U.S. Army, having served a tour in Afghanistan as well as relief duty during Hurricane Katrina. He started at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2016 after attending University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College. He remembers visiting ��Vlog��ý Little Rock as a sixth-grader at Franklin Elementary to visit Derek Fisher, former NBA player and coach, who played for the Trojans at the time. Alexander, a father of a son and two daughters, said his own kids made him want to major in health education and promotion. “One day, I know they will go off to college, so whatever knowledge I have can help them,” he said. In the end, Alexander’s time at Easterseals has left an impression. After graduating in December, he is considering attending graduate school to study special education, a decision he says was influenced by his time at Easterseals. “Everything about the kids and their progress makes me want to work in special education,” Alexander said. “They are all very amazing, the kids and their progress. There are a lot of things about them that are amazing.” In the upper right photo, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock student Derrick Alexander has been recognized by Easterseals Arkansas as Volunteer of the Year for the Academy. Photo by Ben Krain. ]]> ��Vlog��ý Little Rock graduate gets new lease on life after major heart problems /news-archive/2018/05/11/clarissa-coleman-grad/ Fri, 11 May 2018 15:19:55 +0000 /news/?p=70519 ...]]> On Valentine’s Day, 2013, Clarissa Coleman’s life would be forever changed. While attending choir rehearsal at Second Baptist Church, she started to feel hot and dizzy. After telling her friends she was headed to the bathroom to splash water on her face, she collapsed in the middle of heart failure and was rushed to the hospital fighting for her life. “God worked a miracle, and I didn’t have to have open heart surgery,” she said. “My doctor told me, ‘Name three things you want to do because you are going to live.’ I said, ‘lose weight, finishing writing my book, and I want to go back to college.’” Coleman says that she is thankful to God for giving her another opportunity to live and spread joy. And so Coleman got to work on her list, getting healthy, writing, and making plans to return to college decades after she started. Coleman will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in applied communication May 12 in the Jack Stephens Center – 34 years after the first time she set foot in a classroom at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Coleman grew up as one of 11 children, the daughter of a prominent pastor who wanted a good education for his children. “My father always wanted us to go to school,” she said. Two years later in 1984, Coleman got the chance to pursue higher education when Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, her employer since 1973, offered to pay for employees to attend college classes. She took classes part time at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock until 1986, when both her son and husband got sick. She later took classes at Philander Smith College from 1999 to 2002 when she worked in the college’s Office of Admissions. In 2014, Coleman started at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock for the second time and explored business and criminal justice as majors before landing in the Department of Applied Communication, where Chair April Chatham-Carpenter called Coleman a “keeper.” “Clarissa Coleman is one of the most amazing people I have known,” Chatham-Carpenter said. “As a senior citizen who had her dreams of getting her bachelor’s degree delayed by life circumstances, such as having a family and starting her own business, her resilience and fortitude to see her degree through to the end in these past three years has been amazing. Clarissa is an inspiration to all who meet her, and I often call her into my office to speak words of encouragement to other students who are struggling with finding their own ways through to achieve their dreams.” At ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Coleman made the Dean’s List, Chancellor’s List, and became a member of Alpha Sigma Lambda National Honor Society. The focus of much of Coleman’s recent life has been about bringing joy to others. Her motto is, “Blessed people are doing things, going place, helping one another!” She even named her company, Happy People Productions, which promotes her books, plays, and other original works. Her dedication to spreading happiness to others stems from her decision to turn a painful past into her motivation for doing the right thing. Coleman admonished people to spread joy and live. Coleman remains a woman of many hidden talents. She has worked as a radio announcer and television host and is an active member of multiple choirs. She is the author of two books, “Good About Me” and “Inspiration in His Image,” and the owner of Clarissa’s Elegant Fashions and Gifts Boutique. She and her late husband Joe have two sons and seven grandchildren. After graduation, Coleman will work as an underwriter at K��Vlog��ýR radio station and is in the middle of writing a third book. She also is considering going to graduate school so she can become a school counselor. ]]> Rwandan student fulfills dream of earning college degree /news-archive/2018/05/11/enatha-ntirandekura-grad/ Fri, 11 May 2018 13:30:47 +0000 /news/?p=70523 ...]]> When Enatha Ntirandekura was a little girl growing up in Rwanda, she would have been happy to finish her high school education. The chance to go to college, and later graduate school, seemed wholly out of reach. Ntirandekura was accepted to , a secondary school that empowers girls with the training and leadership skills they need to make a lasting impact on their world. After she scored high enough on her standardized science tests, she earned the Rwandan Government Presidential Scholarship, which allowed her to come to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. “I never used to think about going to college,” she said. “After high school back home, we normally take the standardized tests in science. If you do well enough, they give you a scholarship. I never thought I could score high enough to come here. I was the first person in my family to go to high school and college. For me, dreaming about college was never there. All of a sudden, I ended up landing the scholarship that I never expected and here I am.” She will graduate May 12 with a Bachelor of Science in biology and a minor in psychology. Life in Rwanda, where she left behind her parents, nine siblings, and around 25 nieces and nephews, was quite different than living in the United States. “I remember when I came here, I was so lost, and the accent was so different. It was so hard being away from my parents and siblings. In Rwanda, we walk three or four hours to get to the market. Everyone drives everywhere here. Sometimes, I just want to get out of the car and walk,” she said. “There is just so much of everything here. The language, the food, the way everyone is moving so fast – that is not what I was used to back home.” She arrived in the U.S. in May 2014 and took three months of English-language classes at Hendrix College before starting at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in the fall 2014 semester. “Thank you to Cicero’s family in Conway, who let me stay with them and their three beautiful kids as I was taking the English classes. And thank you to all the other American families and friends that have opened their homes to me during my stay in the USA,” she said. While at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Ntirandekura has served as president of the Rwandan Student Association and was a member of the Campus Garden Club. She received the ��Vlog��ýLRworks Perseverance Award and was on the Chancellor’s List and Dean’s List. As a part of ��Vlog��ýLRworks, she has worked in Student Affairs and Testing Services. “I love ��Vlog��ýLRworks,” Ntirandekura said. “It has been a great experience. It gives you the opportunity to be exposed to professional study, and it gave me the courage to keep going. This is one of the most amazing experiences about this school.” In the fall, Ntirandekura will begin the applied science Ph.D. program with an emphasis on applied biosciences at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. She eventually wants to research genetic disorders after a personal health discovery. “Last year, I kept getting sick,” she said. “I kept going to the doctor, and they would say nothing is wrong.” Ntirandekura was later diagnosed with anemia and sickle cell trait, a relatively mild condition caused by the presence of a single gene for sickle cell anemia. “I’m from Rwanda, and most parents, when their children are born, they do not think to check for genetic disorders,” she said. “Because I have sickle cell trait, I am a carrier, and my children are more likely to have sickle cell anemia. I want to help other people know what genetic diseases they are susceptible to.” Ntirandekura had a chance to get some first-hand experience in the lab when she researched Alzheimer’s disease while doing a summer internship in 2016 at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She is thankful to Dr. Scott Woolbright from the Department of Biology and her other professors for making her experience as an international student better. “Being an international student in a new country is challenging, but having those professors who are willing to understand and keep pushing is amazing,” she said. “That relationship you develop with professors and coworkers is something I will always remember about this school. That is just so amazing.” Ntirandekura’s journey to graduation has also been filmed by her high school. Ntirandekura is one of the first students from the Gashora Girls Academy to come to the United States and graduate from college. Since she arrived in the U.S., she has served as an advocate to help raise money for the Rwanda Girls Initiative, which runs the Gashora Girls Academy. Ntirandekura wants to give other girls from her country the same opportunity to get a college education. “If I didn’t finish school, I would have just ended up working in the fields. My mom pushed me to finish school,” Ntirandekura said. “Through the failures and challenges, we always have someone who pushes us. I think the person who pushed me the most is my mom. My mom was always willing to give me what she never had. My mom didn’t have much education. I will always attribute my success to my mom who has always worked to given me what she couldn’t have.”]]>