University of Arkansas at Little Rock

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student is conducting research on how measures to address histories of violence affect conflict-affected societies after spending the summer at a prestigious research and graduate preparatory program. Solomon "Ra'phael" Davis, a junior Donaghey Scholar double majoring in philosophy and international studies, spent June and July at theNational Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) in Conflict Management and Peace Science at University of North Texas. Students participating in the program receive a $4,000 stipend, free room and board during the program, and paid travel expenses.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock doctoral candidate has been selected for a prestigious workshop designed to prepare graduate students for careers in the computer science industry. Adewale Obadimu, a fourth-year computer science doctoral student from Nigeria, has been selected for the 2019 URMD Grad Cohort Workshop March 22-24 in Waikoloa, Hawaii. The Computing Research Association, an organization dedicated to bringing industry, government and academia together to support research and advanced education in computing, hosts the workshop, which is designed specifically for underrepresented minorities and person with disabilities who are attending graduate school in computing fields.

Three University of Arkansas at Little Rock students took second place at the annual Beta Alpha Psi regional meeting in Dallas on Feb. 23. Senior accounting major James Hubbard from Wabbaseka, junior business major Shibani Lal from Little Rock, and senior accounting major Joseph Griffith from Benton competed in the conference's "Best Practices" competition, during which they presented about UA Little Rock's "Reality Fair" financial literacy workshop.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock students competed at the annual Beta Alpha Psi regional meeting in Dallas on Feb. 23.

Sophomore guard Tori Lasker has received Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week honors for her outstanding performances against Georgia Southern and Georgia State over the weekend. This is the first time Lasker has received the award, and the second time a Trojan has received the honor this season. Lasker averaged 22.0 points per game while shooting 60 percent from three-point range. She also totaled 10 assists to lead Little Rock to two huge victories. In the first game against Georgia Southern, the sophomore notched her first career double-double with 16 points and a career-high 10 assists. The Mayflower, Ark. native poured in a career-high 28 points with eight three-pointers in the Trojans' 82-50 win over Georgia State. With that performance, Lasker tied Little Rock alum, Jocelyn Love's all-time record for three pointers in a game with eight.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock congratulates its fall 2018 graduates.

The art work of several University of Arkansas at Little Rock students is being spotlighted in a debut pop-up show, "Twenty-somethings," at South Main Creative from March 1 to April 30.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor and his students are shedding light on Arkansas's history as the first and only state in the country to legally evict its entire free black population. In 1859, the state passed legislation that required all free blacks and mulattos to leave the state by Jan. 1, 1860. Any who chose to stay would be captured and sold into slavery. Dr. Brian Mitchell, professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, refers to the forced migration of free blacks and mulattos as "Arkansas's other Trail of Tears." "It's an interesting piece of Arkansas history that we know very little about," Mitchell said. "Most people know about forced migration in Native American history, but very few people know that there was a forced migration of free blacks. Arkansas has its own homegrown African-American Trail of Tears that nobody talks about." Mitchell's research was aided by EAST Scholarship Program students, including Evan Alden, Larry Dicus, Ian Thompson, and Cheyenne Shelton. The project is an effort by EAST Scholarship Program students and the College of Arts, Letters and Sciences to highlight the use of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the humanities.

Two University of Arkansas at Little Rock art history students are spotlighting the talent of up and coming artists in central Arkansas by curating a debut pop-up show at South Main Creative from March 1 to April 30.

A husband and wife team, who are both pursuing a Ph.D. in information science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, are mentoring middle school students by sharing their love of games with a science fiction and fantasy club in South Carolina. Katrin and Rick Galeano, online students who live in South Carolina, visited with members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Federation, SF3 for short, at Alice Drive Middle School in Sumter, South Carolina, on Feb. 1.

Another record was written in the Little Rock swimming and diving record books on the final day of the Missouri Valley Conference Championships. The relay team of Claire Bristow, Imre van Huyssteen, Laura Ruiz Astorga, and Lindsey Butler posted a school record time of 3:25.24 in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Social media researchers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock have been recognized with the best paper award at an international conference for their research on the behavioral analysis of digital societies formed on the video-sharing platform YouTube. 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 (COSMOS), presented the paper that was co-authored by Muhammad Nihal Hussain, doctoral student in information science; Kiran Kumar Bandell, doctoral student in information science; Dr. Serpil Tokdemir, postdoctoral researcher at COSMOS; and Dr. Samer Al-khateeb, UA Little Rock alumnus and assistant professor of computer science and informatics at Creighton University.

A team of business students from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock have won second place and a $3,000 prize at the international Ivey Business Plan Competition held Jan. 25-27 in Ontario, Canada, for their business plan for a device designed to help interventional cardiologists perform minimally invasive heart surgery with greater safety and efficiency. The team is comprised of UA Little Rock students Noah Asher, senior finance and economics major, Abigail Resendiz, senior international business and management major, and Zach Cochran, senior economics major. The group collaborated with Arkansas Cardiology Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Dwight Chrisman and Baptist Health Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit Nurse Anna Helm to commercialize a medical device invented by Chrisman. The device, the "Speed-Torque," is a medical torque device used by surgeons in minimally invasive heart surgery, also known as interventional cardiology procedures.

Fifteen members of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock swimming and diving team were named to the Missouri Valley Conference's 2019 Scholar-Athlete Team. Scholar-Athlete honors require athletes to have completed at least one year and maintain either a 3.2 GPA and obtain all-conference honors, achieve a 3.5 GPA and finish top-16 in an individual event at the conference championships, or maintain a 3.8 GPA and participate in the MVC championship.

Members of UA Little Rock's Alliance barely missed record cold temperatures as they returned from the National LGBTQ Task Force's annual Creating Change conference in Detroit from Jan. 23-27. Each student who attended took part in two discussions about issues that affect LGBTQ students on college campuses. They spoke about how those issues affect students at UA Little Rock.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student has been selected for a competitive new entrepreneur accelerator program for early-stage, minority, and women-owned businesses in Arkansas. Nora Bouzihay, a doctoral student in education from Jonesboro, is one of 10 participants in the Arkansas Women's Business Center and Remix Ideas' unique program designed to support a segment of entrepreneurs that is often overlooked. A part of Winrock International, the Arkansas Women's Business Center helps women-owned small businesses start, grow, and compete in global markets by providing quality training, counseling, and access to capital. Momentum, the five-week accelerator program, is unique in that it targets early-stage startups with little to no revenue, some of which have not yet been organized or incorporated.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student has received a $2,750 Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) award from the Arkansas Department of Education to research an outdated maritime law that lawyers invoked in an attempt to avoid or limit legal damages sought by victims and their family members in a tourist boat accident that killed 17 people last summer. Madeline Burke, a junior international and legal studies major and Donaghey Scholar from Little Rock, is thankful to receive the prestigious award that is a "great opportunity for people to research special topics of their interest." Burke said she was inspired to investigate the 1851 maritime law after reading newspaper articles that explained how lawyers for two companies, Ripley Entertainment Inc. and Branson Duck Vehicles, facing multiple lawsuits over the July 17 accident used the obscure law.

At 71, Carolyn Wilkerson of Little Rock loves life as a full-time college student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, working to fulfill a lifelong goal of earning a college degree. "The fact that I have decided to obtain a degree at my age would be surprising to most people," she said. "Many of my peers are in awe when they discover a grandmother in their classes." Wilkerson started attending UA Little Rock in 2016, fulfilling a promise she made to herself many years ago.

Several University of Arkansas at Little Rock students volunteered their time by helping to organize the High School Model Arab League Feb. 22-23, where more than 170 Arkansas high school students participated in an annual international leadership program that gives students a taste of life as international diplomats.

Three new school records were set for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock swimming and diving program Feb. 21 during the Missouri Valley Conference Championships in Colombia, Missouri.

When Austin Waters began law school at UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, she joked she would be a space lawyer. She soon found, to her surprise, that space attorneys are a real thing. "That's just everything I wanted in life," she said. "I had a telescope when I was little, and I'd stare at the sky. I wanted to be an astronomer or astrophysicist, but I'm very bad at math, so that didn't work out so well."

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate student is shedding light on long-overlooked contributions black communities in Arkansas made to the World War I effort. Crystal Shurley, an archivist at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies who completed her Master of Arts in public history in December 2018, wrote her thesis on the history of the Arkansas Colored Auxiliary Council, an early archivist group that was active during World War I and has remained a relatively undocumented part of Arkansas history. "This is an important piece of black Arkansas history that has not been investigated," Shurley said. "I think it's important that we remember that history is made by everyone, and not everyone that is a history maker is a white male. Unfortunately, in history we often focus on people who are in the limelight instead of ordinary people who have worked hard to achieve great things and often get no credit."

Nine University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law students have been selected to clerk for the state of Arkansas by Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office for the spring 2019 semester. "The law clerk program exposes students to the fulfilling experience of public service," Rutledge said. "Law clerks play a valuable role for the state performing research and writing for Arkansas's top attorneys in a great service-learning environment." The new law clerks include Sarah Fendley, Hannah Johnston, Edward Mader, Robert Murphy, Amanda Partridge, Sydney Sadler, Christian Scott, Chandra Smith, and Katelyn Spellman.

Freshman Tilde Bocker sits among the individual top-20 through the first two rounds of the Texas State Invitational at Plum Creek Golf Course in Kyle, Texas. Bocker's performance has helped Little Rock sit 14th among the 16-team field after day one of the first tournament of the spring season. Bocker is tied for 20th after posting a 3-over 145 on day one, beginning with a 1-over 72 in the morning round. Bocker then shot a 2-over 73 in round two, pacing the Trojans to a 31-over 599 after 36 holes.

An article written by University of Arkansas at Little Rock researchers, students, and collaborators has been accepted for publication into "Nanoscale," a peer-reviewed scientific journal, as well as included in the 2018 Nanoscale HOT Article Collection. The article, "Quantification of cellular associated graphene and induced surface receptor responses," presents a new, combination-based way to quantify and analyze the effect of graphene at the single cell level.

Several University of Arkansas at Little Rock students are working at a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program for the second year in a row to assist members of the public and the campus community file their taxes free of charge.

Four UA Little Rock students have received the prestigious Student Undergraduate Research Fellowships from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education to conduct research this spring with help from faculty mentors. The Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program provides up to $2,750 to undergraduate students to conduct in-depth research projects in their specific fields of study with the assistance of faculty mentors. To be eligible, all fellowship recipients have a minimum grade-point average of 3.25, at least 30 hours of credit toward a degree, and support of a faculty mentor. Funds also are provided for students to travel to conferences to present their accomplishments.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock announces students who have made the Dean's List for the fall 2018 semester, recognizing more than 900 students whose academic performances have been superior at the end of each semester. To be on the Dean's List, UA Little Rock students must earn at least nine credit hours and maintain at least a 3.5 grade point average. The student must not have any D, F, I, or "No Credit" grades on their semester grade report.

UA Little Rock announces its fall 2018 Chancellor's List, recognizing more than 700 students with superior academic performance in the fall 2018 semester. To be eligible for the Chancellor's List, students must earn at least nine credit hours and at least a 3.9 grade point average. Students must not have D, F, I or "no credit" grades on their semester grade reports.

Julie Evans Sanders has always known that she wanted to run her family's 66-year-old construction company one day. Earning a Master of Science in construction management at UA Little Rock has helped her develop the skills she will need to do just that. Sanders has been working at H.W. Tucker Company Inc. for years, learning all aspects of the company's work - from project management to preparing bids to handling billing and accounts payable.