University of Arkansas at Little Rock

A team of students from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock College of Business have placed third in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Research Challenge on Feb. 23 at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. The students include Noah Asher, senior finance and economics major; Rita Chowdhury, Master of Business Administration student; and Alex Howell, senior finance major. Dr. Ashvin Vibhakar, Joe T. Ford Chair of Finance, served as the team's faculty advisor while Ben Bienvenu of Stephens, Inc. was their mentor. "The competition is sponsored by the CFA Institute with the goal of teaching students the practical side of equity research as well as understanding ethical principles," Vibhakar said. "The students learn institutional equities research. In the challenge, the students do exactly what a research analyst at Stephens would do."

Riley Pittman received the Player of the Week honor for his outstanding performances in Little Rock's 3-0 week, including two wins over No. 24 Coastal Carolina. Pittman had an incredible week at the plate, going 8-for-10 (.800) with a four-double performance against UAPB, tying the school record for doubles in a game. The senior scored seven runs, notched five RBI and blasted a crucial home run in the team's game one victory over the Chanticleers. In game two, Pittman went 3-for-4, driving in four runs. Pittman is leading the Trojans with a .345 average, 10 doubles and 32 RBI on the season, while racking up six home runs on the year.

A team of business students from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is one of 25 teams selected to participate in the Schulze Entrepreneurship Challenge at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Funded by the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, the challenge is the largest undergraduate-only venture pitch competition in North America in terms of cash prizes with a top prize of $75 and $250K in total prizes awarded. UA Little Rock's team is one of 25 finalists selected from more than 100 entries representing 61 colleges and universities across America. Students will participate in a "pitch slam" elevator pitch event and an innovation challenge in addition to the featured competition during April 11-13. The "Vascugenix" 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. Martial Trigeaud, a UA Little Rock adjunct professor and business consultant at the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, is mentoring the team.

UA Little Rock senior Li Morrow grew up fishing in her native China, using just a glass jar with bread in it. "I would tie a string around it and drop into one of the local creeks, ditches or flooded fields then jerk it up if a minnow swam into it," said Morrow, 33, who will graduate on May 11 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering technology . "If it was muddy the fish would often come up to the surface near the bank and I would scoop them up with a little net." Morrow became a U.S. citizen in 2013 and now lives in Lonoke. After a friend took her trout fishing, she was hooked.

A team of business students from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has been selected as one of 42 teams from some of the world's top universities who will compete for more than $1.5 million in prizes at the Rice Business Plan Competition April 4-6. The competition has been dubbed as the world's richest and largest student startup competition with a top prize of a $300,000 investment from the GOOSE Society. UA Little Rock was the only team from Arkansas selected to compete. The "Vascugenix" 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. Martial Trigeaud, a UA Little Rock adjunct professor and business consultant at the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, is mentoring the team.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student is researching the relationship between religiosity, sexual misconduct, and rape myth acceptance. Michael Meziere, of Little Rock, is examining if religiosity plays a factor in the misconceptions and myths surrounding sexual assaults on college campuses. To carry out this study, Meziere will conduct surveys to gather information on religious beliefs and sexual attitudes. "In society, the acceptance of rape myths, which lead to placing the blame on victims of sexual assault, is a real problem," Meziere said. "There are not many studies that focus on religiosity and rape myth acceptance, so this will hopefully add some good data to that research area. We hypothesized that people who identify as very religious will be less likely to engage"

More than 20 University of Arkansas at Little Rock students participated in the Bilateral Model Arab League Conference Feb. 15-17 in Houston. The Model Arab League is a student leadership development program created by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. It is a simulation of an international organization, the League of Arab States, which has 22 member countries. Students met with the Egyptian Consulate to help them prepare to represent Egypt during the conference. UA Little Rock students also represented Kuwait and Morocco.

Three University of Arkansas at Little Rock students won awards during the Bilateral Model Arab League Conference Feb. 15-17 in Houston. The Model Arab League is a student leadership development program created by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. It is a simulation of an international organization, the League of Arab States, which has 22 member countries. Julie O'Hara, senior political science major, won the Outstanding Delegation Award, while Solane Nemera, senior political science major, and Sydney Brazil, junior philosophy major, won the Distinguished Delegation Award.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student will share her knowledge of the government and culture of the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar after being selected for a prestigious international fellowship that included a diplomatic visit to Qatar. Mariam Bouzihay, a UA Little Rock junior psychology student from Jonesboro, was one of 10 U.S. college students selected for the Joseph J. Malone Fellowship in Arab and Islamic Studies cultural immersion program to Qatar, a peninsula nation with a population of 2.6 million that borders Saudi Arabia to the south and is surrounded by the Persian Gulf on all other sides. "The whole point of the program is to expose people to different countries," Bouzihay said. "There are many stereotypes about the countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Last spring, I got to represent Qatar in the Model Arab League, and then I got to experience Qatar in real life. It was an amazing experience."

Four University of Arkansas at Little Rock students presented research at the 29th annual Arkansas College Art History Symposium on March 8 at the Windgate Center of Art and Design.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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."