ASMSA Summer 2018 Tangents

A PUBLICATION OF THE ARKANSAS SCHOOL FOR MATHEMATICS, SCIENCES AND THE ARTS

SUMMER 2018

IN THE LAB, OUT FRONT Life science research, outreach bring distinction

Director Corey Alderdice Dean of Academic Affairs Bob Gregory Dean of Students Rheo Morris, Ph.D. Director of Finance Ashley Smith Director of Admissions Valerie Carpenter Photo courtesy of David Yerby

Three years ago, ASMSA was one of the first organizations to accept Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s challenge to radically expand opportunities for Arkansas high school students to explore computer science. While many decision-makers and districts were looking for turnkey solutions, we believed that specific investment in the state’s existing math, business, language, science, and other teachers would be the best long-term strategy. After all, there were only about two dozen computer science teachers in Arkansas at the time. In April 2015, we unveiled Coding Arkansas’ Future, a new outreach initiative that combined various elements of the school’s legislated mission to meet the state’s new mandate.

In this format, master teachers provide dual instruction to both local faculty and students. Framed around a cohort experience that consists of a summer “boot camp” and ongoing professional development throughout the year, ASMSA’s faculty guide the cohort of teachers through the state’s new, yearlong high school computer science classes and frameworks. The program builds confidence in teachers as they explore a new subject, and it provides them with a community of practice to share in the challenges, setbacks, and triumphs of trying something new.

The results of efforts by dozens of groups have been remarkable for Arkansas.

Since the passage of Act 187 of 2015, the state has seen a 480 percent growth in computer science course enrollment, reaching more than 6,000 students this year. Of that population, ASMSA provides direct instruction for one in five of those students through Coding Arkansas’ Future. Moreover, one quarter of the state’s newly licensed CS teachers have participated in the yearlong training cohort. Most exciting is that our general outreach and professional development programs have reached 40 percent of all CS teachers in the state. ASMSA, its faculty, and leadership was recognized last December by Code.org as an inaugural member of its Champions of Computer Science. ASMSA and our faculty have benefited from support and acknowledgement by Google CS4HS, The Infosys Foundation, and the Computer Science Teachers Association for our national leadership in this domain.

Shortly before announcing Coding Arkansas’ Future, a member of the governor’s staff asked if I was worried this new push might make ASMSA’s excellence in computer science less special. I replied that we were not worried.

If anything, the program would ultimately position ASMSA as the front-runner in computer science education, allowing us to impact exponentially more lives than traditional coursework alone. Isn’t that, after all, the core of our mission?

Corey Alderdice

Director

ASMSA Foundation Executive Director Marta Collier-Youngblood Board of Visitors Hayward Battle, Chair Gary Dowdy Steve Faris, Vice Chair Ann Xu (’10) Timothy Barnes, Secretary Brian Reed Fletcher T. West Ex-Officio Representatives Arkansas Economic Development Commission Science and Technology Tom Chilton, Division Director Arkansas Department of Higher Education Maria Markham, Ph.D., Director Arkansas Department of Education Mary Katherine Stein, Ed.D., Public School Program Coordinator for the Office of Gifted and Talented and Advanced Placement Department of Arkansas Heritage Stacy Hurst, Director ASMSA Student Government Alex Kaye (‘19), President Tangents is published by the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, a campus of the University of Arkansas System.

For more information about ASMSA, visit our website at www.asmsa.org or call (501) 622-5100.

Writer and Graphic Design Donnie Sewell Photography Donnie Sewell Mike Kemp Sara Reeves

inthisissue SUMMER 2018

Rice ventures into teaching entrepreneurs

Page 16

Alumna creates ketchup company Page 21

features

#ASMSA

2 In the Not Too Distant... 20 Pitchworthy Win A new class introduces students to time travel science and stories.

ASMSA team wins high school business pitch competition.

5 Walk-off Home Run

26 Magical Gathering

Vicki Hinz leaves ASMSA on top with a record fundraising year.

Alumni’s game shop a place for all kinds of players.

12 Advanced Mentorship 31 Robots for Everyone Biology instructors lead effort to improve AP Biology program.

Alumni’s company working on inexpensive robots.

On the Cover: Sani Tripathi (‘18) received accolades for his research on a way to make Alzheimer’s disease medications more effective.

Dr. Patrycja Krakowiak, his project adviser, earned National Board Teacher Certification recognition. Stories on Pages 9 and 11

#ASMSA student Malik Barnes (‘19) had the opportunity to attend a Joint Session of Congress to hear French President Emmanuel Macron speak in April. Barnes was the guest of Congressman Bruce Westerman, above. You can read more about Barnes’ experience at https://asmsa.me/barnescongress18.

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In the Not Too Distant ...

Class introduces students to time travel science, stories

What if you had a time machine? Would you go to the future or visit the past?

What if you were stuck in a time loop?

Would you enjoy living the same day over and over? Would you try to find a way to end the loop?

Or what if you could travel at the speed of light on a ship to other planets? Would you leave your home planet knowing that if you return time will have passed more quickly there than during your travels thus making everyone you knew much older?

Each of these scenarios were among the topics students discussed in the Time Travel course held this spring semester.

The class was the brainchild of Dr. Neil Oatsvall, a history instructor, and Dr. Jack Waddell, a physics instructor. The course focused on the physics that make time travel theoretically possible and science fiction stories that illustrated various forms of time travel.

The course grew from an idea that Oatsvall had as a possible Fundamentals in Research Methods project for a student.

In the project, a student would have studied the history of time travel science and compared it to the history of time travel fiction. He never had a student choose to do the project, however.

One day after a nap he thought it might possible to teach a class that focused on the two topics. He texted Waddell to see 2

if he would be interested in co-teaching the course. Waddell immediately agreed.

“I had considered teaching a science of science fiction course before,” Waddell said. “I think time travel lends itself to a really good lens to look at science fiction.

It gets at a specific field of modern physics where it’s inherently speculative but built on a ground of good, solid physics.

“And there are a number of ways you can approach the fiction, some of them on real physics and some a little more fantastical. And no matter which way you approach them, I believe you learn something — either about physics or about the way people yearn for something.”

Oatsvall said one of the things that was interesting to him was that time travel appeared in science fiction long before serious scientists gave consideration to time travel.

“I think it’s because we like the idea to be able to experience the future or the past in new ways. The idea that we might be able to change the past is a human emotion shared across a lot of cultures in both time and space,” Oatsvall said.

Waddell said he teaches a modern physics elective course each spring that includes discussions of general and special relativity, which are both important cogs in any discussion of time travel. He saw the time travel class as an opportunity to do that in a unique way.

Gigi Powell (‘18) speaks about time travel throughout the animated TV series ‘Phineas and Ferb’ during a meeting of the Time Travel class. Students found various examples of time travel in popular media and discussed how the elements of time travel they had previously discussed in class were used in the show or movie.

Oatsvall said he approached Bob Gregory, dean of academic affairs, with the idea of the class with the expectation that it might get turned down.

“He said ‘That’s great. Let’s do it,’” Oatsvall said. The committee that considers new curriculum options also approved it. “I was a little surprised. It’s a sorta wacky idea. I guess this is a place where wacky ideas are OK.” The student response was immediately positive. During a survey focused on possible courses for the next year, at least 25 students said they wanted to take the course.

“That’s more than I normally get interested in the modern physics course,” Waddell said.

For Waddell, it was fairly easy to decide what physics content would be relevant in broad terms. Then came the harder part — deciding what fiction they would use for the class. They decided to go with a collection of written stories and movies that cov-

ered the wide spectrum of time travel, starting with Washington Irving’s 1819 short story “Rip Van Winkle” in which a man falls asleep under a tree in the Catskills Mountains only to wake up 20 years later having missed the entire American Revolution.

Other written works included H.G. Wells’ classic “The Time Machine” from 1895 and stories by Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein and Joe Haldeman’s military science fiction classic “The Forever War.” The list of movies included films that presented the physics of time travel in a serious way — “Interstellar” and “Primer — as well as more fun films such as “Back to the Future,” “Groundhog Day,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” and “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”

They chose pieces that were respected historically or in the field as well as pieces that were dear to their hearts. Each piece of fiction — both written and film — were analyzed in a scholarly, academic fashion. Each

presented time travel in a different fashion, whether it was through physics and science or magic or perhaps the unexplained. Each offered the students and faculty members to look at time travel fiction in unique ways.

“Part of this was to create students who look at fiction more critically.

What are they doing both scientifically and creatively? What are they doing with the narrative? What are the themes? It wasn’t just about having a good time, but to look at these pieces with a more critical eye,” Oatsvall said.

Oatsvall said he took heavy notes on each piece of fiction, including probably 30 to 40 pages of notes on each “Bill and Ted,” “Groundhog Day” and “Back to the Future.”

“In ‘Back to the Future,’ you begin to question how many timelines are going on and what does it mean to ‘fix’ a timeline. It results in us not actually worrying about fixing the future but in getting the Marty we like into a timeline we like,” he said.

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Time-worthy page turners Time travel was introduced in literature long before science took the subject seriously. Instructors Drs. Neil Oatsvall and Jack Waddell share why they chose these particular works to read and discuss.

Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving (1819) A lazy man wakes the morning after a party to find that decades have passed, including missing the Revolutionary War. We chose the story to show how old the idea of time travel in fiction is and to demonstrate how it previously was not a scientific or technological phenomenon but a mystical or spiritual one.

The Time Machine, H.G. Wells (1895) Wells is sometimes called the ‘father of science fiction,’ and this is the first work to have the concept of a time machine. Wells believed that a science fiction story should only contain one extraordinary assumption and everything else should be human and real. We chose this story because it is a classic, and also to show how science fiction (and time travel) are most often just ways to get at issues perplexing to society at the time.

A Sound of Thunder, Ray Bradbury (1952) This short story is about what is commonly known as the ‘butterfly effect,’ although that term would not officially be coined until 1963 by Edward Norton Lorenz. A man uses a time machine to go into the past to hunt a Tyrannosaurus rex, but runs away when he comes face-to-face with one. In the process, he steps on a butterfly, which has drastic future consequences.

The story allowed the class a chance to talk about causality in time travel.

All You Zombies, Robert A. Heinlen (1959) The short story embodies a ‘djinn paradox’ in the life of a single human. A djinn is when something only exists because of time travel. In this story, the only way a child is born is by a person traveling to the past.

Time travel via a time machine is the only way for the story to work — or the child to be born — and it helped the class discuss various paradoxes in time travel and how those might or might not be resolved.

The Forever War Joe Haldeman (1974) Haldeman was a Vietnam War veteran, and this story is, in many ways, about the conflict. In it, a young man is recruited to fight aliens, and he travels all around the galaxy doing so. Because of special relativity, time dilation occurs as he approaches the speed of light. Thus he experiences time much more slowly than those not traveling. We chose this book because it is a classic work of military science fiction and because it allowed us to discuss the ethics of time travel that was real and physics-based.

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Both Oatsvall and Waddell said their favorite piece of fiction to discuss during the course was Haldeman’s “The Forever War.” The story serves as an allegory of sorts for the Vietnam War. The main characters, who are from Earth, are sent into space to fight a war against an alien race. They travel on spacecraft that travel faster than the speed of light thus experiencing one of the effects of physics’ special relativity — time dilation. Those on the ship age slower than those they left behind on Earth. Thus when they return to the planet, more time has passed on Earth than they have experienced in space.

Waddell said why the narrative may not have been his favorite, it had many aspects of physics to discuss. For Oatsvall, a historian, the story allowed him to enter the discussion from a different perspective.

Oatsvall said that’s why he felt the class worked so well — team teaching the course with Waddell allowed them to cover more ground than if they had taught it alone. Waddell agreed.

They cited other ASMSA courses such as Folk Music and Acoustics and Infectious Diseases that are also team-taught. Such courses are the hallmark of the school’s curriculum which encourages interdisciplinary learning.

“This is the epitome of what we can do here,” Waddell said.

“We’re both good at teaching in our respective fields, but it works even better when given the opportunity to work together.”

Oatsvall credited his and Waddell’s friendship outside of the classroom as a key factor as well.

“Jack and I are close friends, and we bring a sort of camaraderie to the class. I’ve always been someone who didn’t like being put in an intellectual box. For me, it felt like sitting in on a science course. I was able to go back to school and learn something fun,” he said.

For Sam Baxley, a member of the Class of 2018, the class gave her the opportunity to take a class from two teachers she liked. The combination of it being a literature course combined with a physics course intrigued her.

“I thought the class would focus on these different theories about time travel, but it was interesting to see the physics and science behind many of the stories. Other times it was just a ‘what if’ scenario. I think it was just a really unique class. Everyone had a section they understood best,” she said.

Students also led discussions in class. One assignment required students to speak about a film or television show which featured time travel. Ranging from a murder mystery to episodes of the cartoon “Phineas and Ferb,” students explained the plots of the stories and how time travel affected them.

The other major student assignment was their final project which required them to write their own time travel story. Some chose loops while others featured space travel. Oatsvall and Waddell put the stories into a collection called “All You Dolphins,” in reference to Heinlen’s classic short story “All You Zombies.”

At first, the teaching duo thought about using the writing exercise as a fun activity. “But it became more important later that [the students] take these concepts and show that they not only understand them but were able to recreate them,” Oatsvall said.

The instructors said they plan to offer the class again in the future, though their movie list in particular may require some tweaking. They asked the students for help in creating a database of fiction and movies that include time travel. They’ll also use feedback from this first class in considering which pieces to keep or to trade out for others.

Walk-off Home Run Hinz leaving ASMSA on top with record fundraising year

In baseball, a team may be described as playing a system described as “small ball.” The team’s offense focuses on getting one base hit at a time, building momentum over time. When it’s working, it can produce great results.

That’s the fundraising strategy that Vicki Hinz, who retired as director of institutional advancement and the ASMSA Foundation Fund at the end of June, deployed with Director Corey Alderdice. While going for the home run may result in a large, one-time gift that might get some notice, using the small-ball strategy of establishing a series of smaller gifts that built upon each other to produce better long-term results would be better for the institution.

And it has worked. Very well, actually.

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Since Hinz assumed leadership over the institutional advancement efforts in 2013, the ASMSA Foundation Fund has experienced tremendous growth. Gifts and grants to the foundation were about $62,000 for fiscal year 2011-12. Each year since has shown growth with this year’s revenue expected to top $630,000.

That will bring the total during Hinz’ fundraising total during her tenure at the school to more than $2 million in revenue for the foundation.

That includes a $300,000 grant from the Oaklawn Foundation, the single-largest gift in the school’s history. Those funds were dedicated to the Creativity and Innovation Complex, the school’s first new academic building on campus which is currently under construction.

Hinz says the credit should go to many others besides just her. She credits Alderdice for his guidance on establishing a pattern of smaller gifts first. His ideas on how to grow the academic program at ASMSA lead to a strategy of securing endowments and grants to pay for them.

She said she also developed stronger relationships with faculty members who knew they could approach her to help develop grant requests for specific equipment or programs that enabled them to make their classrooms better for the students.

“I would tell them, ‘Let me know what you need,’ and we would put together a wish list and do our best to fulfill them when we heard about different grants and monies,” she said.

“Part of it is just being there, being visible and knowing what’s available.”

Alderdice notes that the purpose of the Foundation is to test innovative ideas, provide direct support for students with need, and to position faculty and students to represent Arkansas on both national and global stages.

“The State of Arkansas ensures that ASMSA is able to meet its core mission through the residential experience and myriad outreach programs. The ASMSA Foundation under Vicki’s stewardship has been the engine that keeps us all at the forefront while ensuring our community of learning has access to extraordinary opportunities,” he said.

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$633,000

Vicki Hinz joined ASMSA in 2011 as a development specialist for the Office of Institutional Advancement.

In 2013, she became the director of institutional advancement. During her tenure as director, the ASMSA Foundation has experienced a steady growth of revenues each year. This year’s revenues are more than $650,000, at least 10 times the amount raised by the office when she joined the staff in FY12. $259,093

$370,043

$278,816

$140,110 $140,899

$60,483

FY 12

FY 13

FY 14

FY 15

While there is plenty of work to be done for her successor, Hinz said the recent “Leave Your Mark” campaign helped make some inroads with alumni. About 100 alumni responded to the campaign encouraging them to buy bricks with their names or messages that will be placed in a section of the CIC courtyard.

“I think our alumni are now getting to an age where they realize — and this is their words — that ASMSA helped mold them to be what they are today. The brick campaign has given them opportunities to leave their mark at the school. Hopefully, if it’s the first time they’ve given to the school it will lead to them giving more to the school they love so much,” she said.

Hinz and her husband, Ernie, moved to Hot Springs in 1992 when

FY 16

FY 17

FY 18

the company he worked for gave him the opportunity to move into sales in the region that included Arkansas.

She initially helped him by working as an office manager. While he traveled in the five states of his region, she handled the paperwork here.

She began doing a lot of volunteer work in the community. That included begin heavily involved with the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

She helped with numerous of other events across the community as well.

“I kind of became known as an event person. I got the chance to meet a ton of movie stars and a ton of people in Arkansas through the documentary film festival,” she said.

One of the organizations she started volunteering for was ASMSA. A friend who was helping organize the

school’s annual fundraiser asked if she could assist the school with a silent auction. When the school’s annual giving and events coordinator left for another job, she was encouraged to apply.

“I said it sounds interesting, though I didn’t have the background. But given that I knew so many people and had relationships with so many folks from the documentary film festival, I applied and got the job,” she said.

She began working for ASMSA in February 2011. Eventually her title changed from annual giving and events coordinator to development specialist. By late 2013 she had become interim director of institutional advancement and eventually settled into a full-time role as the director.

She took on the job after realizing that it was a job she was already doing.

“Vicki was hesitant to step into the leadership role despite strong relationships with our Board of Ambassadors and stakeholders,” Alderdice said. “We looked over the numbers for the past few years, and I highlighted so much of our core giving was the result of her direct efforts. It made perfect sense.”

It was when Hinz accepted the foundation’s directorship that she and Alderdice began deploying the strategy that has led to the fund’s impressive growth. Using the relationships she had built in the community as well as talking to the longtime supporters who helped bring the school to Hot Springs, gifts and grants to the fund began to grow.

It’s all about the relationships you build, she said, but her to be successful, she and the school’s administration had to show they were dedicated to growing the institution.

“You have to show your love and your passion before you get others to jump on board with you,” Hinz said.

“Being a part of this community and seeing all that goes on a regular basis, you just become passionate about the school and how we are changing lives, giving kids opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise.

“It’s absolutely amazing to be able to get up every day and to love coming here and love what I’m doing. That passion shows, and when people are

To honor her efforts as director of institutional advancement and the executive director of the ASMSA Foundation, Vicki Hinz was presented her own ‘ASMSA Flame No. 5 Razorback Scratch.’ The limited-edition bronze statue is by Dr. Jon Ruehle, a biology instructor at ASMSA and a nationally renowned wildlife sculptor.

Corey Alderdice, right, and Ruehle presented Hinz with the statue at a special reception at the end of the academic year in May. looking to give somewhere and they hear you talk about the school and the opportunities these kids have, they believe you. Your belief in the school is contagious.”

Two examples of getting people to show their passion for ASMSA are the annual Community of Learning Luncheon and Arkansas Fall Golf Classic.

The luncheon encourages members of the Foundation Fund Board of Ambassadors and other friends of the school to bring together potential donors to hear about the mission of the school, the latest efforts ASMSA has undertaken to make it a better experience for students both at the school and across the state, and to personally meet students.

The school held a golf tournament fundraiser annually, but about three years ago, ASMSA partnered with the Greater Hot Springs Chamber of

Commerce for an ambitious plan to grow the tournament. With the help of the chamber and other key sponsors such as CHI St. Vincent, proceeds from the annual tournament have grown significantly.

Another group whose passion ASMSA has begun to be able to tap into better are the alumni. Hinz has heard numerous stories from alumni about the difference the school has made in their lives.

Many alumni discuss the opportunities they had at ASMSA that they would not have had back home. They tell meaningful stories about how without the school they would not have been able to accomplish what they have later in life.

She has also been able to learn about the student experience up close and personal. The Students Ambassadors are a group of seniors who are 7

selected each year to work with the office of institutional advancement.

The students act as an external face of the institution in a way, allowing students the chance to attend fundraisers and other events. They share their stories with friends of the school and potential donors, giving them a taste of what life at ASMSA is like from the individuals most closely affected by the experience.

“Whenever I would take them with me, folks just flock to them and want as much information as they can get. When students do the talking, it makes a much more compelling story than anything I can say,” she said.

This wasn’t Hinz’ first educational experience. She spent 15 years as a business and English teacher in Michigan. “That was before computers. We had those big manual Underwood typewriters,” she said. But when Ernie’s job moved them from Michigan to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Virginia, she decided to become a stay-at-home mom for her son Alex.

Her time at ASMSA almost ended last year. She had announced her plans to retire in June 2017, work part-time for six months to help her successor be selected and get settled in and then relax. But with fundraising for the Creativity and Innovation Complex still needing an experienced hand guiding them, Alderdice convinced her to stay for another full year.

Now that year has come, Hinz said it is time to pass the reins to the next person.

“The last year has been incredible.

You look at 2012 and to what we did this year. You leave with a satisfaction knowing you made a difference. I definitely feel like I left it better than I came in on, and that’s all you can ask,” she said.

As for what she’s going to do with all the free time she’ll have, it’s still up in the air. She definitely plans to get back to working out at the YMCA, an organization for which she still volunteers as a member of its board of directors. Trips to visit her son in Washington, D.C., are a must. Otherwise, it’s playing it by ear.

“I have no direct plans other than taking a breath and be happy to be able to walk away and volunteer again [at ASMSA] when I’m ready,” she said.

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Growing the ASMSA Foundation Hit-by-Hit One of the important steps Vicki Hinz and the fund’s Board of Ambassadors took to grow the ASMSA Foundation was to focus on establishing endowments. These kinds of gifts help provide institutional support for various campus demands including classroom equipment and student needs. Others endowments encourage students to do research during their summer breaks or to provide a service to their hometown. Highlighted below are a few of the endowments established during Hinz’ tenure.

Helen Selig Promise Kept Endowment Family members established this endowment to honor Helen Selig, a longtime supporter of the school. Selig led the charge to get the state to select Hot Springs as ASMSA’s home. The endowment provides an annual grant each fall to an ASMSA faculty member to use for their classroom, a research project or their department.

Trustees Service Fellowship Dr. Johnnie Roebuck served on the original Board of Trustees when the school first opened. She, along with other members of the original board, established this endowment to encourage students to complete a service project for their home community.

Daniel Benton Endowment The Benton Award is named for Dan Benton, who was a member of the ASMSA family for five years before he died in 2010. Michelle Barnes, a former colleague of Benton at ASMSA, helped establish the award. Each year, the fund provides a $500 award to a senior who demonstrates interest and excellence in history, one of Benton’s passions.

Murphy USA Summer Research Fellowship The fellowship was created through gifts from David Boerwinkle of El Dorado and a matching gift from his employer, Murphy USA. The fellowship provides a grant to a rising senior who has demonstrated exceptional achievements both in and beyond the classroom. The student must enter one of two national research contests.

Greenwood Endowment for the Arts The endowment was established by Reed and Mary Ann Greenwood to support arts education at ASMSA. The endowment helps ensure that students have access to supplies needed for art classes. Providing support for arts education is a passion for the Greenwoods.

Sani Tripathi (‘18) was inspired to research ways medical technology could be better used to find successful treatments for patients after visiting his grandfather who had lung cancer two years ago. A magazine article on Alzheimer’s disease treatments led him to work on improving the effectiveness of medicines prescribed for the condition.

Making an Impact Student’s Alzheimer’s disease research earns recognition in competitions, publication in international medical journal

Sani Tripathi (’18) had to make an emergency trip to India the summer of his sophomore year of high school. His grandfather was in the last stages of lung cancer.

The trip provided him an opportunity to witness how the combination of medical knowledge and technology — or the lack of it globally — can have a great impact on the treatment a patient receives.

“I didn’t know at that point in my life what I wanted to do in the future,” he said. “Seeing how [medical technology] in the United States is so developed and in India where medical technology could have an impact on so many lives — I go to see first-hand how health care and medical technology could really enhance not only my grandfather’s life but other people’s lives.

At that moment I really had a spot for global health care and social innovation.”

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Despite medical care being unable to cure his grandfather’s illness, what he learned about medical technology and global health care at that time helped him decide medicine was the right path for him.

Upon his return to the U.S., he read a Scientific American article about Alzheimer’s disease. The article discussed the lack of drugs to actually treat the disease. Treatments that were available usually were administered in the later stages of the disease when they would not have as much effect.

“There is really no efficient way to stop the progression of the disease,” Tripathi said. “At that point, I thought about trying to find a creative approach that could be used.

“Currently, there are approximately 47 million people around the world who have Alzheimer’s disease. That number is expected to triple by 2050.

It’s the sixth-leading cause of death in the world.”

He decided to try to find a way to use existing medical technology to better way to administer existing treatments or discover new treatments. Using computational molecular modeling program, Tripathi studied ways to modify molecules in 21 existing compounds to make them more effective.

What he found is that by adding oxygen, chlorine and fluorine atoms to the compounds, the molecules could more easily bind to the proteins that form plaque in the brain that can cause numerous health problems and culminate in Alzheimer’s disease.

Binding the molecules to the protein marked them for excretion in the body preventing the plaque buildup.

Tripathi did his testing in a laboratory at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock under the guidance of Dr. Jerry Darsey, a chemistry professor whose primary interest is computer modeling techniques of atomic and molecular systems. He also has conducted research in drug design that uses artificial intelligence procedures and quantum mechanical simulations.

“I was the first high school student that Dr. Darsey allowed to work in his lab. Not very many professors have the time and resources to invest in a high school student. I pitched him the 10

‘I wouldn’t have been in the same position if I wasn’t at ASMSA. It opened my eyes to what I want to do with my life.’

Sani Tripathi (‘18), on learning about his career passions idea of what I was thinking, and he agreed to allow me to use space in his lab,” Tripathi said.

He also received guidance from his ASMSA mentor Dr. Patrycja Krakowiak. She was the perfect mentor to have, he said.

“She really understood the goals I had for myself. She advised me on the best way to reach those goals and really knew what to do,” he said.

Those goals included winning recognition in the school’s science fair, earning a trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and being published in a biomedical engineering journal.

Mark him down for three-for-three on the goals.

He accomplished perhaps the most daunting of his goals in December when he had an article on his research published in the journal Current Trends in Biomedical Engineering and Biosciences. The journal is a peer-reviewed international medical journal, meaning a group of other scientists and scientific readers had to find value in his research in order for it to be published. It is unusual for a high-school student to be published in such a journal.

He followed that by winning second-place overall and first place in the chemistry category in the West Central Regional Science Fair at ASMSA in February, earning a trip to ISEF in May. He also earned recognition for his research by placing first at the Arkansas Junior Science and Humanities competition. That earned him a trip to the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in Hunt Valley, Md., in May, where he presented his project.

His father was with him at the state AJSH competition. It was special for Tripathi because he had made a special bargain with his father, who is a software engineer. His father hoped Tripathi would also become a software engineer, but he was more interested in biology and medicine. The bargain was that Tripathi somehow include computer science in his studies.

“I wasn’t a computer science person before this,” he said. “I found a way to incorporate programming into biology which pleased him.”

To use the computational modeling software at UALR, Tripathi had to learn how to use Linux. He learned the programming language to run the test on each compound. Each test took about 30 minutes to complete.

When he began seeing successful results, he showed Darsey. “Even my professor was surprised that I got a breakthrough. When I got the results and showed them to him, he thought my research could go on to save many lives,” Tripathi said.

Krakowiak praised Tripathi’s dedication to his project.

“As a mentor, one always hopes for a student like Sani,” Krakowiak said.

“He has been incredibly self-motivated and driven throughout the entire process. Sani came to me and proposed an incredibly interesting project all by himself.”

Tripathi isn’t sure which direction he will take his project now. He may consider trying to get a U.S. patent for it, but his main focus is informing the medical and pharmacy industries about his finding and possibly finding commercialization for it. He heard from a couple of professors after his research was published, with at least one offering a spot in his lab for future work.

He gave credit for where his research now stands to the rigorous coursework and mentors he’s had thanks to the opportunities provided

by ASMSA. “I wouldn’t have been in the same position if I wasn’t at ASMSA. This has been an eye-opening experience for me. It opened my eyes to what I want to do with my life. It has inspired me to push in that direction and find what I’m passionate about,” he said.

Specialist earns national certification Dr. Patrycja Krakowiak, a biology instructor and life sciences specialist at ASMSA, recently earned National Board Certified Teacher recognition by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

National Board Certified Teachers are accomplished educators who have earned the profession’s highest mark of achievement through a rigorous, performance-based, and peerreview process that demonstrates their proven impact on student learning and achievement.

Krakowiak was among 203 teachers statewide who earned certification in December 2017. She was one of only four teachers statewide to earn certification in the “Science/Adolescence and Young Adulthood” category.

Arkansas typically ranks among the top 10 states with the most new National Board Certified Teachers, according to the National Board’s website. The state offers comprehensive support to selected teachers interested in pursuing board certification, including fee support, a state candidate support program and three paid release days for teachers who have been chosen for the state support system.

Krakowiak said that becoming a National Board Certified Teacher was unlike any other task she has undertaken.

“Because it can be difficult as a teacher to find ways to advance professionally, National Board Certification offers a rare and unparalleled opportunity to discover new pedagogical approaches, increase student engagement and improve student learning,” she said.

“For me, it has been a grueling, intense and meaningful experience beyond anything else I have ever accomplished as a teacher or scientist. It reaffirmed my conviction that everything I do in the classroom should have a purpose and be designed to instruct in the most efficient way possible. For education to be truly transformative, students must be excited about and take responsibility for what they are learning. A teacher’s role is to be an effective guide along this journey.”

Dr. Patrycja Krakowiak earned National Board Certified Teacher recognition in December. She was one of four teachers in Arkansas to earn certification in the ‘Science/Adolescence and Young Adulthood’ category in 2017.

The National Board Certification process took Krakowiak several years to officially complete. She earned her state teacher certification through a nontraditional process that included several summer sessions as well as monthly weekend sessions. She then had to serve three years as a certified teacher in order to apply for a scholarship from the state for the national certification process.

The national certification process is comprised of four components that includes a standardized exam that covers a broad range of science knowledge for high school-aged students; a content-learning component; content delivery and student engagement assessment via video-recorded lessons; and a professional development component that focuses on providing educational benefits for

students. Each component included a large amount of descriptive, analytical and reflective writing, Krakowiak said.

“It quickly became abundantly clear, after I read the ‘book’ of standards that exists for each discipline, that the road to National Board Certification would be very long and bumpy; however, once I reached the destination, it felt like I had climbed to the top of a very tall mountain. I felt utterly exhausted but also exhilarated, and as I glanced at the promising landscape all around me, I felt the trip was well worth the effort,” Krakowiak said.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is an independent, nonprofit organization that works to advance accomplished teaching for all students. The organization was established in 1987.

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Dr. Whitney Holden, a biology instructor and life science specialist at ASMSA, helps a group of students from J.A. Fair High School of College and Career Academies in Little Rock with an experiment in an Advanced Biology Plus lab.

Advanced Mentorship

ASMSA biology instructors lead outreach program to improve AP Biology programs across the state Sometimes the best way to learn something new is through a hands-on experience. Instead of just reading about a biological process, it may be better to do an experiment that reveals how that process works.

For the 14 teachers from across Arkansas who participated in ASMSA’s inaugural Advanced Biology Plus cohort, they had plenty of opportunities to learn first-hand from ASMSA biology instructors and life science specialists Drs. Patrycja Krakowiak and Whitney Holden. The majority of their students in local classrooms did as well.

This was the first year ASMSA offered Advanced Biology Plus. The program was designed to help Arkansas school districts offer Advanced Placement Biology courses to their students. It is modeled after ASMSA’s successful Coding Arkansas’ Future program, which is in its fourth year. ASMSA instructors served as mentors for the teachers, offering guidance, providing valuable lab experiences, and advising them on possible course materials among other things.

For many of the teachers, it was the first time they 12

taught an Advanced Placement Biology course. Some were new teachers. Others had many years of experience, including teaching AP Biology, but were seeking expert support to help boost their students’ scores.

That support included professional development for the teachers by attending summer camps and two-day sessions throughout the fall and spring semester. Under Krakowiak and Holden’s tutelage, the teachers performed many of the same labs during the camp sessions that they would then ask their students to perform in class.

“Though our primary focus has been improving student engagement and understanding through hands-on activities that connect them to biology topics they find especially interesting, we have also provided professional development for teachers that utilizes state-of-the-art equipment available at ASMSA and focus on experimentation such as using probeware and amplifying DNA using a thermal cycler,” Krakowiak said.

As an example during a boot camp, teachers used molecular models to build various compounds such as

glucose and amino acids and their respective polymers. Teachers also measured rates of salt diffusion through dialysis tubing and oxygen/ carbon dioxide gas probes to study cellular respiration and photosynthesis in spinach leaves. They later led their students through similar labs in their own classrooms, Krakowiak said.

Krakowiak and Holden also visited several of the schools in person, bringing equipment and supplies from ASMSA to the schools so that the students would have opportunities to participate in lab experiments they may not have had otherwise. The ASMSA specialists also conducted live presentations through video conferencing as well.

“Many schools in Arkansas are not equipped with up-to-date laboratory technology,” Holden said. “Advanced Biology Plus has two goals to address this problem. One is to introduce

teachers to a variety of inexpensive lab activities that meet AP Biology inquiry-based lab requirements.

“The other is to ensure Arkansas students receive great access to the latest biology lab technology by gifting new equipment directly to the schools as part of technology expansion packages, hosting laboratory field trips to the ASMSA campus, visiting schools with the needed lab equipment and facilitating new relationships between Arkansas classrooms and their local STEM resource centers.”

Jennifer Cox, a biology instructor at Fountain Lake High School, is one of the cohort members who has several years of instructional experience and has taught biology at the school for 15 years. She came to teach biology through a nontraditional teacher program after earning a master’s degree in geology.

Fountain Lake has offered AP Biol-

ogy most of the time Cox has taught at the school. The district also participated in the Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science (AAIMS) in an effort to help students improve their AP Biology test scores.

Cox decided to give ASMSA’s program a try as she was familiar with Krakowiak through a different program. It was less expensive, which was important for her district. The majority of ASMSA’s Advanced Biology Plus class is underwritten through a STEM Pathways grant funded by the Arkansas Department of Education.

Cox also liked that she would have more personal communication with the program leaders and other cohort members.

“I felt more comfortable meeting on a regular basis. There was a group of other teachers who we could communicate with in the program.

We could turn to the group email if

Judy Bone, left, a biology teacher from Des Arc High School, and Ryan Mendoza, a biology teacher at Marianna High School, perform a lab experiment during a workshop on the ASMSA campus. Educators who were members of the first cohort of ASMSA’s Advanced Biology Plus learned to do the same experiments during their initial summer boot camp and quarterly workshop that their students would later be expected to do in class.

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A group of students from J.A. Fair High School of College and Career Academies in Little Rock work as a team on an experiment in a lab at ASMSA. One advantage the Advanced Biology Plus program offered participating schools was an opportunity to visit campus to allow students to work with advanced equipment that might not be available in their own labs. we couldn’t find something or finish something. We shared information with each other on activities and labs that worked well,” she said.

She said the camps and day sessions pushed her to be better in the classroom.

“It made me work harder. I’ve had to study more than I would have to do in my regular subject areas.

I’ve learned a lot more content that I wasn’t initially comfortable with.

There are still some new things that come around. I put a little more time in it, but [Krakowiak and Holden] have given me a support structure so I don’t feel like I’m hanging out on my own,” Cox said.

Her students have also shown good signs of adapting to the coursework, she said.

“It has benefited them that the pace is much increased to allow more rigorous classwork and more independent work. They are becoming the master of the subject rather than me.

It prepares them more for postsecondary work,” Cox said.

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Judy Bone, who teaches at Des Arc High School, said her students have had a similar experience.

“Before, I was providing the content,” Bone said. “Now they bring it to me. If they don’t understand it, we look at it together and figure it out.”

Bone said she has been teaching biology for 39 years and taught seventh- and eighth-grade science for another six years before that. She said she was mostly self-taught, putting things together with a little help. She decided to participate in ASMSA’s program “to see what I wasn’t doing right or what I could do differently.”

What she found was a support system she hadn’t had in her four decades as an educator.

“It opened my eyes to some things I haven’t even thought about,” she said. “You go to an AP conference and there is so much ‘apple pie in the sky’ talk. Here we talk about this is the foundation you need and this is what you have to do.

“The pacing is invaluable to what I’m doing. As a teacher, you can get

bogged down in a subject because you like it. This helps take you away from your pet interests a little bit. It gives you a lot of introspection to what’s going on,” she said.

Ashley Johnson, who was in her sixth year of teaching AP Biology at Malvern High School, said the course served a similar purpose for her students.

“It really opened my students’ eyes up to what they will get in college,” she said. “They are finally getting it.

They are having to realize deadlines.

They have to follow through and are being held accountable for content.

It’s just a little taste of their future.

“One of my seniors said it was hard but doable with all of the support they received. They just have to try and to put in effort.”

Ryan Mendoza was in his first year of teaching biology in Arkansas. He joined Marianna High School’s faculty through the Teach for America program. One of the things he realized over the summer in 2017 was that the school was not certified to teach AP

Biology on its own. Krakowiak and Holden, who are both certified AP Biology teachers, would be listed as the teachers of record, allowing Marianna students to take the AP Biology tests at the end of the school year and potentially benefit from state reward programs.

Mendoza also faced some other struggles initially. Many of the students didn’t have the previous knowledge base to take AP Biology, and the district didn’t have a certified textbook. ASMSA’s program provided the needed book and gave the students a good base to grow on.

“This program has done leaps and bounds in my opinion,” Mendoza said.

“We live in the poorest county (Lee)

as well, he said.

“We can talk about what we are doing in our classroom and pick and share ideas from each other’s brains.

We may have some students who are more visual learners. We also get a refresher in our own content, and they help us deliver it well. It is some of the best professional development I’ve had. You are really doing things that are beneficial for your own classroom and opening up a whole new set of options for your kids,” Mendoza said.

Holden said setting up the students for better success on the AP Biology exam is important reason for ASMSA to offer the program. According to the University of Arkansas’ Office of Education Policy, Arkansas

students who pass this college-level AP exam and receive college credit, thus saving money on college tuition,” she said.

Krakowiak said they were already able to see the program’s results after one semester. Students took a test at the beginning of the fall semester and were retested at the end of the semester.

“We have already witnessed a substantial increase in student understanding by analyzing the difference between pre- and post-test results after one semester. The average improvement was over 25 percent,” she said.

The students’ scores weren’t the only thing to grow over the school

‘It opened my eyes to some things I haven’t even thought about.

You go to an AP conference and there is so much ‘apple pie in the sky’ talk. Here we talk about this is the foundation you need and this is what you have to do. The pacing is invaluable to what I’m doing. As a teacher, you can get bogged down in a subject because you like it. This helps take you away from your pet interests a little bit. It gives you a lot of introspection to what’s going on.’

Judy Bone, a biology teacher from Des Arc High School, speaking about finding a support system in ASMSA’s Advanced Biology Plus program. Bone was a member of the first cohort of teachers to participate in the program, which offers educators from across Arkansas the opportunity to receive professional development from ASMSA’s biology instructors and life science specialists in all of Arkansas. There are a ton of challenges that come with that outside of trying to get ready to go to college.

“Having Drs. Holden and Krakowiak to bring a high level of content to our kids has been great. They provide us a full version of the class as well as a condensed version. If we need to do a little less work so we can focus on the main points, we can. Having those two different options as an instructor allows you to pick and choose what’s best for your class.”

Having a group of teachers who are from similar socioeconomic statuses from around the state to be able to visit with has been very beneficial

has an exam passing rate of 32 percent compared to the national passing rate of 52 percent, she said.

“AP Biology is one of the most commonly taken AP exams in the state, but its student outcomes are among the worst,” Holden said. One of ASMSA’s key missions is to improve education across the state, and by better preparing educators to share their knowledge with students, those scores have a chance to rise, she said.

“Arkansas schools will greatly benefit from this program, both in terms of the teachers who gain a more extensive skill set and increased access to resources and in terms of the intellectual and financial benefits to the

year. The number of districts enrolled for the next cohort also grew. Next year Krakowiak and Holden will have 26 teachers enrolled in the program.

That includes Bone, who said midway through the spring semester that she had already received approval from her district to keep Des Arc in the program.

“I’m a school junkie. If they let me come every year, it’s well worth my time and money to drive over here.

My district has been very supportive. I texted my principal about participating again next year, and he said yes. I was going to pay for it myself if I needed to. That’s how important it is to me,” Bone said.

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Venture Adventures

Rice leads students in new entrepreneurship program

W

alking quickly down a sidewalk in downtown Little Rock in the heat of August, Steve Rice leads a group of ASMSA students and staff to a tour of a company that recently began as a simple idea and quickly grew into a business bringing attention to a dynamic community of entrepreneurs in our region.

Apptegy, a company that provides school districts around the country a mobile platform to share information easily with students and their family members, started with five employees about three years ago. Now it has around 60 employees, including ASMSA alumni. The company announced a $5 million investment in venture capital funding by outside investors last year. It’s an example of entrepreneurship at its best — start a company that successfully provides a product that meets the needs of businesses and their customers.

group arrived at the Little Rock Technology Park that morning to begin the day of tours of Little Rock businesses, a couple of customers at the coffee shop that fills a spot on the Tech Park’s first floor called out to Rice and gave him a hug and a handshake.

Making those connections is a critical aspect of Rice’s new position as an entrepreneurship instructor with ASMSA. Working mainly from an office for ASMSA’s Coding Arkansas’ Future initiative in the Tech Park, Rice is striving to make connections within the startup community as well with established businesses which can later benefit ASMSA students and graduates.

He had a head start on that mission before he was hired at ASMSA last summer.

Rice previously worked for The Venture Center, a startup incubator that supports high-growth entrepreneurs and is located in Little Rock. The center encourages a growing startup community within Central Arkansas by offering various levels of support to new businesses. He also started his own small marketing firm.

Rice moves down the sunlit street still wet from a recent rain. The humidity doesn’t slow him down. As the group of 14 people following him through downtown remarks on the sweltering heat of the afternoon, he turns and apologizes.

Most of the visits on this day’s tour “I’m sorry. I’m just used to walking every- were easy to set up because of previous where,” he says. connections. The students’ tour included behind-the-scenes looks at the Tech Park Stepping into the first floor of the Sim- as well as a couple of vital businesses that mons National Bank building, he’s greet- call downtown Little Rock home. There ed by a passing colleague. It’s not the first was also a visit to the Little Rock Chamber time during the day he has been greeted of Commerce and the Arkansas Regional warmly by a familiar face. Soon after the Innovation Hub in North Little Rock.

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17

Steve Rice, ASMSA’s entrepreneurship instructor, discusses with students how new markets are developed based on the current needs of consumers. This is the first year of the program, which allows students to develop a capstone project . Rice works halftime on campus and spends his other time in the ASMSA office at the Little Rock Tech Park. That location allows him to build relationships with central Arkansas businesses with an eye toward potential internships and jobs for ASMSA students and alumni.

Maintaining those connections and finding ways to engage students with various business entities will be vital to the development of an entrepreneurship program at ASMSA, Rice said.

“I think it’s almost essential (to have a space in the Tech Park),” Rice said. “People are wanting to plug in.

People have all these ideas. I look forward to finding ways to leverage that for our students, to give them exposure to those people and to expose them to our students.”

He said some people may have an incorrect vision of ASMSA students when they first hear about the school.

“They are imagining a typical highschooler, but we don’t have typical high-schoolers,” Rice said. “We need to help them better understand what we’re doing here.

“My business colleagues are always wanting the top tech talent.

We have that in development (at ASMSA). Investing in our students is a value add for them in the long run. I believe that if we can prove this out at 18

ASMSA then we can do this with any student across Arkansas.”

Throughout the past academic year, Rice has continued to make connections between the students and business leaders throughout the state.

He taught a class on entrepreneurship this year. He would often take those students as well as other small groups on trips to visit companies in Little Rock and Central Arkansas.

He also held entrepreneurship nights at the Little Rock Tech Park where students could present their ideas to a varied group of entrepreneurs and business people. He also took teams to competitions such as the Accelerate High School Pitch Competition, where an ASMSA team won first place for an app they proposed.

Another team has garnered interest in a proposed digital service that would help students apply for scholarships.

It’s these kind of connections that will help build ASMSA’s reputation among business leaders in the state.

Students also have opportunities to

create a foundation to pursue their ideas, Rice said. By participating in the different competitions and expo programs, the students get to combine education and experience while making important connections.

Rice’s position falls under ASMSA’s Coding Arkansas’ Future initiative.

The program started in 2015 as a way to provide computer science instruction for students across Arkansas as well as professional development for a future corps of computer science teachers while using ASMSA’s computer science education experience.

A large number of the businesses associated with the Tech Park and The Venture Center are technologybased. Even if the business isn’t a technology company, they will have needs for employees with techbased skills. Rice is working with Daniel Moix (‘98), director of Coding Arkansas’ Future, to find ways to get ASMSA students involved in the program. Moix also works part-time from the Tech Park office.

‘I can’t say enough about my colleagues, especially Daniel Moix.

They gave me strong support that helped guide my classroom management and helped make my ideas more practical. ... I want to find ways that we can collaborate across platforms.

I want to see engineering students working with business students to develop real-world solutions.’

Steve Rice, speaking about the success of the first year of the entrepreneurship program and the direction he would like to see it take in the future The fall semester entrepreneurship capstone project class was the first time Rice had taught. He credited the help of his colleagues, including Moix, for the success the class had this year.

“I can’t say enough about my colleagues, especially Daniel Moix. They gave me strong support that helped guide my classroom management and helped make my ideas more practical. Their assistance helped me make the vision I had for the coursework. It created an experience for the students that provided a solid base,” Rice said.

Rice said an activity he plans to do again but would like to find a better way to integrate it into the course is a weekend innovation camp. Rice and Moix led the first ASMSA Weekend Innovation Bootcamp in September.

ASMSA students spent the weekend in an entrepreneurial bootcamp developing team-building, collaboration and problem-solving skills. It was initially designed to serve as a springboard for students to enter the Congressional App Challenge.

Students formed teams which then worked to create and develop a business idea. Teams followed the steps that a startup founder follows during the process of ideation, or the creative process of developing a business idea. Teams developed a hypothesis and solution to a problem.

They then created a viable product based of feedback they received from potential customers. Team members then designed the layout and features of the product or service followed by a public team presentation that highlighted each step of their ideation and development process. The teams

presented their findings to a panel of judges at the end of the three-day session.

Rice is taking that idea and turning it into a summer camp for rising sophomores. The Summer Entrepreneurship and Innovation Bootcamp will be held in July on ASMSA’s campus. The weeklong residential camp will introduce participants to the “lean startup” process which is the basis of successful business launch programs like the National Science Foundation’s i-Corps program.

Campers will spend the week exploring rapid product development and iteration, identify product/market fit, and business model development. The week will culminate with an expo in which attendees will prepare and deliver a public pitch for their ideas.

The “lean startup” process borrows from the lean manufacturing methodology developed by Toyota Motor Corp. as a way to manufacture vehicles more quickly with less waste.

Students apply the lean method to developing their own businesses. They develop a product hypothesis, similar to a scientific hypothesis. They validate their hypothesis through potential customers of their product, adjusting as needed. They are able to identify and test their business model before building a full product, thus ensuring they are building a product that customers actually want.

The class also featured several speakers, including tech and nontech entrepreneurs so students could see how skills discussed in the classroom could be applied. One speaker focused on developing Linked-In

profiles that students could to build a base of contacts for a career.

Rice said he is working with his colleagues on campus to try to find ways his class could be combined with their disciplines. “I want to find ways so that we can collaborate across platforms. I want to see engineering students working with business students to develop real-world solutions,” he said.

Rice said the success of the first bootcamp will lead to additional events both on the ASMSA campus and through outreach efforts across the state that would involve students from other schools. These kinds of events are good ways to naturally fit entrepreneurial concepts into the Coding Arkansas’ Future program.

“We can overlay some of those entrepreneurial concepts and introduce some of those ideas into computer science education. It’s a different sandbox but with the same kind of context. I’m interested in exploring how we can push those lines and create something for students who go through a coding block. It will help push those who want to learn to code an app beyond just learning how to code the app,” Rice said.

He and school administrators are also exploring ways that the entrepreneurship concepts could be incorporated into a Coding Arkansas’ Future course for computer science teachers across the state. Teachers who have participated in the program’s computer science instruction course could receive instruction on how to combine an entrepreneurship and computer science course for their students.

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ASMSA team wins pitch contest If you are a pet owner, it’s likely that you consider your animal a member of the family. And as a member of the family, you are also likely to spend a pretty good chunk of change on it.

Whether an owner is paying for food or vet care or a new toy, pets are the foundation of a big business market.

According to the American Pet Products Association, American families spent more than $69 billion on pets in 2017 — $28.3 billion on food products alone. That’s a lot of kibble.

For pet services such as grooming and boarding, the APPA said Americans spent $6.16 billion in 2017 and estimate it will grow to $6.47 billion this year.

Juniors Camille Jones of Arkadelphia and Gracie Gentzler of Haskell made a wise choice when they decided to focus their entrepreneurship class capstone project on an app that would provide pet owners with information on and reviews of groomers and pet boarders. Students in the class were encouraged to develop a real-world product —whether it was an app, a service or a physical product — that they could then market to the public.

Jones and Gentzler developed the idea for an app called Kennel Quest.

The app would bring together pet owners with pet service providers. A pet owner could enter what kind of service they were searching for along with their location. The app would then create a list of pet service providers in their area. It would include reviews by previous users.

“You would have a base search engine where you input your location and filter by the criteria you wanted. You could search by the days the business was open or by the care needs you have,” Jones said.

They reached out to family and friends, including their fellow ASMSA students, to get information on what they needed the most. They also emailed kennel clubs in Arkansas and Mississippi with a range of general questions in addition to speaking to boarders and a few pet bloggers The team entered their project into the Accelerate Teen Pitch Competi20

Camille Jones (‘19), left, and Gracie Gentzler (‘19) hold the trophies they won for taking first place in the Accelerate Teen Pitch Competition held this spring. tion sponsored by Junior Achievement or Arkansas in partnership with The Conductor and The University of Central Arkansas in Conway in April.

The Conductor is a public-private partnership between UCA and Startup Junkie Consulting. The competition was held at UCA’s McCastlain Hall ballroom in early April.

Jones and Gentzler pitched Kennel Quest and walked away with first place. They were confident about their performance in the competition but weren’t sure if they would win a prize.

“I thought we had a very strong pitch and that we might get some sort of recognition. I was really excited to win first place and bring it home. It was really nice because they gave us feedback and suggestions on how we could continue,” Gentzler said.

Jones said the competition results supported the validation they had received from pet owners and businesses while developing their business plan.

Steve Rice, their teacher and competition mentor, said the contest added further validation of the team’s idea.

“The Accelerate Pitch Competition is a great opportunity for students to get out of the classroom and present their ideas to the public,” Rice said. “I am especially proud of the hard work

and dedication that the Applied Research and Entrepreneurship Studies students have shown over the past two semesters. This win for Kennel Quest is just icing on the cake and validation of all their hard work.”

Despite the positive feedback they have received, Jones and Gentzler said they were not planning to pursue developing their app any further at this time. They cited the time they would have to spend on the project to make the app truly viable would interfere with their studies.

While they aren’t planning to continue developing their business, they both agreed they learned valuable lessons from the project.

“I learned about the importance of the customer. Always try to please and listen to the customer and apply it to the business. If they don’t need the product your offering, you need to change your business. Our business evolved,” Jones said.

Gentzler said she learned several lessons from the class.

“I learned how to better communicate with my partner and our customers. We developed skills for all kinds of communication as well as how to analyze data. We were able to network as well. I learned that Camille and I really make a good team,” Gentzler said.

Getting Saucy Alumna creates ketchup company from scratch

You may be familiar with the Heinz 57 commercials that tout the thickness of their ketchup by showing their product slowly pouring out of the bottle onto a plate of French fries or a hamburger.

Do you know what that thickness is called?

Amber Davis (’01) does. In fact, she’s become very familiar with the term viscosity — the rate of flow of a fluid. You may have heard the term often used with motor oil, but in Davis’ case, it’s all about how fast the ketchup flows down a ramp.

It’s serious business.

In order for a product to be called “ketchup,” it

has to meet a certain viscosity measurement. Davis uses a Bostwick Consistomer — a small ramp that resembles a trough with measurements in half-centimeters — to measure the sauce’s consistency. It can’t run down the ramp more than 11 centimeters in 30 seconds to be considered a ketchup by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It also has to have a certain pH level.

It’s unlikely that you know how much work goes into the ketchup you pile up on your fries, burgers, hot dogs and a myriad of other food.

You may wonder why Davis— who has a fulltime job as an attorney — is so concerned about the viscosity of ketchup.

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Davis and a friend, John Crowley, started Arkansas Ketchup Co. in 2017. The company uses only fresh, Arkansas-raised Roma tomatoes to make their specialty ketchup. They started the company in their own kitchens, trying different recipes using fresh tomatoes and other spices.

Davis became enamored with the idea of making her own ketchup after a trip to Portland, Ore. She noticed that each restaurant she visited had some version of a locally-made ketchup. She wondered why there wasn’t one in any of the restaurants back home in Little Rock. She decided she would try to make her own ketchup.

She mentioned the idea to Crowley, who thought it sounded like a fun idea. They would hold “ketchup parties” where they would invite friends over to try their latest recipe.

“John and his wife and I would get together on weekends, and our visits would revolve around food. That’s how the parties got started. We would tell other people about it, and we kept trying to make the ketchup better and better,” Davis said.

There wasn’t a discussion at first about starting a company. “It was just a little hobby to keep us interested in cooking,” she said. But as they continued to make new batches of ketchup and testing them on friends, Davis became determined to produce and sell their own product. She told someone at her gym about the idea and they said they knew someone who could connect them with a provider for Arkansas tomatoes. She went and met the person with the tomato connection and left the meeting very excited.

“I got home and wrote John this email. I probably sounded a little psychotic. It was two-pages, singlespaced. I probably sounded like a crazy person thinking this will work.

I told him you can do it or not, but I want you to know I’m a crazy person.

He emailed me the next day and said ‘Great,’” she said.

Davis used her attorney skills to set up a limited-liability corporation for the company. John, who is a sound engineer for a recording studio, had connections for graphic designers and voice actors. They knew the bottles would need to have a great label, 22

Amber Davis (‘01) stands over a steam vat filled with Arkansas Roma tomatoes, the base for her company’s ketchup. Davis and her partner use the kitchen at the Arkansas Food Innovation Center at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville to make their ketchup. and they did a Kickstarter campaign to try to raise funds for their initial batch.

“John’s skill set includes being able to look at the label and know what makes it attractive or not. He also did a video for us for our Kickstarter campaign. He’s really great at doing that kind of stuff,” she said.

They each had some savings that they contributed to the company. The Kickstarter campaign raised a few funds, but they were mostly taken up by the giveaways that were promised.

It did help them get their company’s name out there, however. It gave them a groundswell of support, even from a bunch of people they had never met before.

“Before we made our first batch, it was already sold. We knew we had support for the first batch of the sum-

mer. It wasn’t a huge amount of money that we had to invest. We would be able to take a real nice trip, maybe, but it was an amount that we felt comfortable that if it didn’t succeed that we would be sad but it wouldn’t break us financially,” she said.

A big kitchen Once they decided the company was a go, it took about three months for them to settle on a final recipe that included fresh, Arkansas-raised tomatoes and honey. They started talking to people in the food community for advice. They couldn’t make the ketchup in their kitchens, so they sought recommendations for a place to produce larger batches.

Someone directed them to the Arkansas Food Innovation Center at

‘I got home and wrote John (Crowley, her business partner) this email.

It was two-pages, single-spaced. I probably sounded like a crazy person thinking this will work. I told him you can do it or not, but I want you to know I’m a crazy person. He emailed me the next day and said ‘Great’.’

Amber Davis (‘01), speaking about her decision to start a company that would produce ketchup using fresh Arkansas Roma tomatoes and Arkansasproduced honey after a few months of making homemade ketchup as a hobby

the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The center was established in 2013 as a way to assist local food entrepreneurs in Northwest Arkansas. The early focus was to help local farmers to find a way to increase their profits by turning their crops into value-added foods and products to sell year-round.

The center provides access to the technical expertise of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s Institute of Food Science and Engineering, the Department of Food Science and other departments within the Division of Agriculture and University of Arkansas community.

The center has grown to where it assists a wide range of clients, from local farmers to entrepreneurs to nonprofit organizations. They’re expertise was vital to the early success of Arkansas Ketchup Co., Davis said.

Davis and Crowley were able to reserve different weeks at a time to produce their product at the center.

They were responsible for doing all of the cooking themselves, but the center provides all of the equipment they need. From big steam kettles to the Bostwick Consistometer to all of the needed utensils, the duo were able to produce their ketchup in a costeffective environment.

Experts at the center also helped them with various aspects of the product and the company. For example, not all spices in a recipe scale in the same fashion. The center’s food science engineer helped them figure out the right amounts to adjust their original recipe for the larger batches they were producing.

Other people at the center were experts with the FDA and Arkansas Department of Health paperwork that was necessary. The center knew how to write things in the way the Department of Health wanted them. A food scientist helped make sure their product was safe and helped with the nutrition label.

“For the folks who use the lab, it is a low-cost alternative. And they are a great, great resource,” Davis said.

She said it was interesting to see how the center operates. While they had the freedom to experiment with their recipe in their home the same way restaurants seem to be creative with dishes, the center’s kitchen was much more clinical.

“It was similar to a lab,” Davis said.

“It is a much more industrial and technical process. That was surprising to me, but it’s called food science for a reason. There is a whole lab work bench in there where you test pH lev-

els and other things that I still don’t know what they do.”

She said it was also interesting to watch other people work on their products at the center. She was surprised at the many different products people used the center to make.

Tested over time Davis and Crowley didn’t just step in and immediately make their first batch for the public. The center’s scientists and workers helped them make some test batches to get the recipe adjustments right before they made a product to sell. But once they had all the details down, it was time to turn up the heat and get started.

The duo would reserve a week at a time to produce a batch. Sometimes they would use vacation time while other times they would be doing work from the kitchen or the loading dock while waiting for their tomatoes to cook or cool. Davis said both of them have very supportive employers who would allow them to work from the site.

One batch of their ketchup requires 750 pounds of tomatoes. The finished product would result in 30 cases of 12 ounce bottles with about 12 bottles per case. That’s a lot of 23

cooking down required. So how do you get that many tomatoes down to that much ketchup?

The cooking process would take about three days. The tomatoes would be placed in a giant tub that was a 150-gallon steam kettle. The process took multiple days because the center was open only from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Every piece of equipment used had to be clean by the time the center closed at 4 p.m.

Davis and Crowley would have to remove their tomatoes from the steam kettle and keep them refrigerated overnight before coming back the next morning and placing them back in the steam kettle for further cooking. The full process would take about four days, including bottling the final product themselves.

“It’s a shorter window of time to get the work done. There would be times we were finishing up the bottling at exactly 4. We’d have to sit on the loading dock to put on labels so we could deliver it,” Davis said.

By the end of the summer, Davis and Crowley had produced four batches of their ketchup. She said she still gets excited each time they go to the center. “I get to wear boots and get messy. I get to watch all these other people doing the same thing.

There’s something about the mastery of it, not that we’ve mastered it, but even things like pumping from a steam kettle is fun. I know how to put together a vacuum pump now. It’s something to me about taking this set of parts and being able to put it together and know how to fix it that has kept it exciting for me,” she said.

Manufacturing challenges Davis and Crowley had success last summer with their product. They found several small specialty stores in Northwest Arkansas and Central Arkansas to sell their ketchup.

They briefly sold the ketchup on their website, but weren’t able to keep up with the demand. From the four batches they produced last summer, which would be just more than 1,400 bottles of ketchup, all that is left is perhaps one partial bottle in Davis’ refrigerator.

That is where being a two-person 24

Arkansas Ketchup Co.’s Arkansas Roma Ketchup was featured on a special burger — the Native Burger — by Big Orange. The Native Burger featured only locally produced items. The restaurant — ­ known for its gourmet burgers — featured the Native Burger and ketchup on its Instagram page. company using a small production site for a product based on a seasonal supply of fresh tomatoes has its limits. There are only so many batches the two can produce on their own.

Finding a larger manufacturer would result in a higher cost and would require more tomatoes over a longer period of time.

“Our manufacturing challenges have been a problem. The demand is there and we could sell more of our product and reach more people. We want to be able to do that, but it’s difficult not having a facility. That’s our biggest challenge — how to get out there more,” she said.

Throughout the process, the local food community has been very supportive, Davis said. From providing tips for tomato distributors to information about the center and providing space on store shelves, the community has been unbelievably accepting, she said. Their ketchup was even featured on a special burger at the Big Orange, a restaurant in Little Rock that makes gourmet burgers.

In June 2017, their Arkansas Roma Ketchup was included on a burger that featured all Arkansas products, including the cheese and vegetables.

“Anyone we’ve approached have been so giving with their time. I have learned how difficult it is to have a food business. The margins are so

thin. One piece of advice someone gave me was produce a good product and make a product people want.

Someone may ask who is going to pay this much for ketchup when they can get another brand for $1. If it’s a product people want and it’s better, they will pay for it. People care about what’s in their food,” she said.

On the company’s website, they proudly tout that their ketchup “has no high fructose corn syrup, preservatives or other weird chemicals you can’t pronounce.” They sweeten the ketchup with Arkansas-produced honey as well.

Davis describes the taste as a peppery, smokey flavor with a bit of sweetness. “It’s almost like a ketchup and barbecue flavor combined. Our ketchup actually tastes really good on meat — pork chops, steak.” But Davis’ favorite “ketchup delivery vehicle” is tater tots.

Davis and Crowley are gearing up for another summer of work on their product. They are also looking at different ways they may be able to produce other ketchups using Arkansas tomatoes that might carry them through the off-season for Arkansas Roma Ketchup.

“The year-round ketchup would be made more like a traditional ketchup but it would be better because it was made with fresh tomatoes,” she said.

Elise Mitchell, left, speaks with a group of students during a campus visit after this year’s Community of Learning Luncheon.

She is the founder and chairwoman of Mitchell Communication Group and CEO of Dentsu Aegis PR Network in Fayetteville.

Mitchell served as the featured speaker of the annual luncheon in April.

Speaker: Enjoy the Journey, Too

Community of Learning Luncheon features entrepreneur

W

hen Elise Mitchell moved to Fayetteville more than 23 years ago, she was at a crossroads of sorts.

She had established a successful career as a marketing and communications professional in Memphis. She was looking forward to bigger and better things in the future when her husband’s medical career led them to move to Fayetteville instead.

“As you all know, Fayetteville was not the same then as it is now,” she said.

Mitchell took the opportunity to start her own business, Mitchell Communications Group. She became focused on developing a successful company that would help her achieve her personal career goals. Her dedication and drive helped her establish Mitchell Communications as one of the top 10 fastest-growing firms globally and earn national recognition. She also gained clients such as Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Hilton Worldwide, Kraft, Canon, Del Monte and others.

Mitchell was the keynote speaker at ASMSA’s annual Community of Learning Luncheon on April 6 at the Ar-

lington Resort Hotel and Spa. The luncheon’s theme was “stARt here,” celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Mitchell focused most of her time on her business, always looking ahead to the next opportunity to grow and to add a new client. Someone suggested that since the company was in good standing after her years of hard work that she and her husband should take a vacation. They had not taken one in years.

After much discussion and negotiation, they decided to do something together that she had never considered — a motorcycle trip. Her husband enjoyed riding motorcycles, but she had never ridden one.

While she wasn’t sure at first about riding on the back of a motorcycle for a couple of weeks, that trip changed her perspective. She realized that she needed to make time not only for her business but for life outside her company as well.

“I realized that sometimes it’s better to forget the map and enjoy the journey,” she said.

Now Mitchell has her own motorcycle — “all you need 25

ASMSA teams top JOLT Hackathon

The Venture Center’s JOLT Hackathon in October brought together teams to compete in an event focused on cybersecurity.

By the end of the two-day, 20hour competition, a pair of teams with ties to ASMSA were atop the final leaderboard.

Rev365, a team comprised of ASMSA computer science instructor Nicholas Seward and ASMSA alumni Zach Lovin (‘12) and Jordan May (‘12), won first place.

Team[0] were ASMSA Class of 2018’s Ben Allen, Denver Ellis, John Ostermueller and Noah Sherry.

They finished 1,100 points behind first place but 350 points ahead of the third-place team, which were all technology professionals.

ASMSA also had two other teams of students participate in the competition. They finished in 14th and 15th place respectively.

The Venture Center is a business-focused nonprofit organization that serves as an engine for economic growth in Central Arkansas. The center’s JOLT Hackathon provides the development of soft skills such as communication, leadership and collaboration as well as real-world, technical hard skills.

The competition was divided into groups of categories that focus on different areas of cybersecurity.

More difficult challenges provide opportunities to score more points.

Teams work to find solutions to the challenges, completing as many as they can before time runs out.

Teams began working on the challenges at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning at the Little Rock Technology Park. Doors to the event didn’t close until midnight that night, meaning teams were allowed to work 16 hours straight on the various challenges. They then returned at 8 a.m. the next morning for another four-hour session.

Four other teams had at least one ASMSA graduate as a member of their squads, meaning 19 people with ASMSA ties on eight total teams competed in the event.

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Charleen Copeland, left, accepts a limited-edition ‘ASMSA Flame No. 4 Razorback Scratch’ statue from its creator — Dr. Jon Ruehle, an ASMSA biology instructor and nationally recognized wildlife sculptor. Copeland and her husband, Ed, were awarded the sculpture for their gifts and service to for the school. to know is that it’s red and it goes fast,” she said.

Mitchell said she decided to find ways to make more time for her husband and her children as well as for herself. She didn’t abandon her business; instead, it continued to grow. It did so well that she eventually sold it in 2012 to an international communications corporation.

She encouraged all those in attendance to find their own way to enjoy the journey of their lives while also seeking success in their chosen fields, whether they are longtime business owners or students in the audience who were still trying to decide what they want to do with their lives.

A special presentation concluded the luncheon. Ed and Charleen Copeland of Hot Springs were recognized for their contributions to the ASMSA Foundation Fund. The Copelands have been longtime friends of the school. Both serve on the ASMSA Foundation Fund Board of Ambassa-

dors. Ed Copeland is also the school’s representative on the University of Arkansas Foundation Board of Directors.

For their continued support of the institution, Vicki Hinz, director of institutional advancement, presented Charleen Copeland with a limitededition bronze hog by Dr. Jon Ruehle, an ASMSA biology instructor and nationally recognized wildlife sculpture artist. Honorees receive the bronze hog for giving at least $50,000 to the foundation.

The luncheon also featured a performance by the ASMSA choir. Before the luncheon, several students displayed projects they had worked on during this academic year. Members of the BEST Robotics team demonstrated the abilities of their robot.

Two students displayed works they had completed in their art classes, including several paintings and woodwork pieces. Other students stood by the posters for the science fair projects.

Josh Wilhelmi (‘97) worked in the tech industry for years, including starting his own computer solutions company. He and fellow alumnus Raymond Leung (‘95) decided to open a game shop together in 2012. Six years later, the store is profitable and serves as a meeting place for traditional gamers who love tabletop games of many different varieties.

Magic in the Gathering Alumni’s game shop place for many kinds of gamers

Video games have become a mainstay in a majority of U.S. homes.

According to a 2017 study by the Entertainment Software Association, 65 percent of American households are home to someone who regularly plays video games. The same study revealed that two out of three American households own a device to play video games.

That’s why when you visit the Game Goblins website, it prominently displays a header that flashes “Are you ready to unplug and play? YOUR MOVE.” Game Goblins is a gaming store,

but you won’t find PlayStation, Xbox or Switch games for sale. There aren’t any computers for you to log in to the latest edition of “World of Warcraft” or any other video massive multiplayer online platforms.

But you will find rows of board games, card games, miniature war games and the figures that go with them, role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, dice and other hobby accessories. Looking for the latest update of Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon? You can likely find it at Game Goblins.

Maybe you’re ready to start a War-

hammer 40k tabletop war or build settlements in a game of Catan or use your newest miniature in Warmachine. There’s room for that as well as another room of the store is filled with rows of long tables where visitors are encouraged to play their favorite game.

It’s what makes Game Goblins a great place to unplug.

“Nowadays people will get caught up in their devices,” said Josh Wilhelmi (’97), who co-owns Game Goblins with fellow alumnus Raymond Leung (’95).

“I do this a lot, too, if I don’t catch myself. I’m not in the world of the present.

27

“Tabletop games give us a chance to unplug, to disconnect from technology and actually socially interact with people. People who are friends.

People we might not even know. But we can connect through a shared meeting. You like board games? I like board games. Let’s sit down and play a board game. We know how to play board games, or we learn together and we have that shared experience.”

He said that’s something video games and the Internet don’t offer.

You can create relationships online, but you don’t have that face-to-face interaction, Wilhelmi said. “That’s what we sell. We sell experiences. I think that’s why board games have come back in the last few years. It’s a push back against the direction society has gone.”

Leung said Game Goblins gives people a safe place to meet and play.

It may be that you don’t know anyone to play with or you don’t want a big group of people at your home.

The store provides a place you can meet other players and have plenty of space for a large group.

“A lot of times those groups may develop into a home group. But if you don’t have your own playgroups, places like us are very handy. We try to provide an experience you can’t get if you get your games online,” Leung said.

Wilhelmi said in some ways we are more connected as a group than we ever have been in history, but we don’t have the face-to-face interactions anymore. “It’s not the same,” he said.

The store is designed to support creating those interactions and a sense of community. There are events for all levels throughout the month that feature different games.

“Our strategy is the ‘third place’ theory. Everyone has a third place.

They have home, work and somewhere else. For some, they go to a bar. Others may go to the movies or a bookstore. We want to be a gamer’s third place,” Wilhelmi said.

That’s how Game Goblins got its start, Leung said. It had been several years since a previous game store had closed. Leung said he and Wilhelmi had met as competitive Magic: The Gathering players at the store 28

Warhammer 40,000, or 40K for short, is one of the more popular tabletop miniature-based games on the market today. Players have armies of small figures.

Battles are conducted using dice and a set of tables or charts. The players often paint the miniatures themselves, allowing them to create their own style. and in tournaments. They wanted a place to play, and it was that shared enthusiasm for the hobby that led to them opening Game Goblins together, Leung said.

Leung said he heard Wilhelmi was looking for a store to buy or to open a new store. The two visited, and Wilhelmi shared his business plan. The plan included making a space that initially ran similar to a family-style business, Leung said. That carries over into how staff are prepared to help customers.

Ready with recommendations Staff members are fairly familiar with the games on the shelf. For many of the games, at least one staff member has played it so they can explain it for potential customers. Wilhelmi describes it as being able to do a 30-second elevator pitch on each game, but there are often times when workers will play games on their break to better learn games.

“They will be itching to play a new game and break one open during their lunch hour or break,” he said.

An example of that took place during the interview for this story.

Wilhelmi brought out a game called

Tak, a strategy game in which players use wooden or plastic pieces to try to build a “road” from one edge of the board to the other. The first player to do so wins the game.

Wilhelmi would question moves and guided this writer into better strategic moves that kept the game going. Eventually the writer “won,” but not until Wilhelmi had him take moves back, showing how it would ultimately benefit him instead of the writer and suggesting better moves that kept Wilhelmi from winning.

Staff members will ask customers questions about what kinds of games they like to play. They use that information to try to suggest the right game for the customer. Sometimes they may push customers toward a game a little bit out of their comfort zone, but if a customer buys a game that it turns out they don’t like, they can always return it. The store will swap the game back for store credit.

The staff members must be pretty good at matching customers with games. Wilhelmi said at most they maybe get four returns in a year.

“Usually if we put a game in someone’s hands, they will have a good experience with it. If they have a good experience here, they will carry that

experience to home. In the end, that’s what we sell. I don’t sell cardboard. I don’t sell plastic figures. I sell experiences. That may sound cheesy, but you gain nothing from buying a board game. What you get is when you open it and you call some friends up. Then you’re all sitting around a table, playing it and having fun. That’s the thing you’ll remember,” he said.

That is what makes people willing to pay a bit more for games at their store than they may online. They are coming into Game Goblins for the experience — whether it’s knowledgeable staff, the feeling of community, or the customer service.

“It’s what makes us a place to shop.

We’re not a place that puts a whole bunch of stuff on a shelf and hopes you buy it. That’s not a viable model,” he said.

Quick success and growth The strategy appears to be working well. He and Leung opened the original store in a 2,000-square-foot space in a west Little Rock shopping center at corner of Kanis and Bowman roads in 2012. Wilhelmi had worked in the tech industry for many years before that, eventually opening his own data solutions and computer software company.

Working for himself resulted in him having more free time than be-

fore. He would use some of that time trying to build a larger client list, but with the rest, he began playing Magic: The Gathering. He said he became really competitive, including traveling to tournaments.

Wilhelmi said he soon realized that he was better at buying and selling the cards rather than playing the game. He turned his hobby into a side business that continued to grow.

Little Rock didn’t have a game store at the time, and it looked like a ripe market.

He spoke to Leung about possibly opening a store. Leung said he wanted in on the store as well and became a partner with Wilhelmi. Having Leung as a partner has been good for the business, Wilhelmi said.

“Raymond is a lot more risk averse than I am. I’ll come up with a crazy idea, and he’s like ‘Hold on and let’s talk about this a little bit.’ He’s very level-headed and is able to see the bigger financial picture.”

Leung agreed that they are a good balance for each other but described it as more of an “optimist-pessimist” situation. Leung said the partnership works well as Josh looks for the positive outcomes while he is considering all of the worst-case scenarios.

“As long as you can identify those issues and figure out what the chance of those happening, you can be prepared for them to happen,” he said.

The store opened in April 2012.

The two signed a lease on April 1 and had the store open by April 20. Add in that Wilhelmi and Leung held onto full-time jobs and new children at home on top of that made it a stressful time.

“That was the first commercial lease I had ever signed. It felt like you’re signing your life away. We were on the hook for the entire amount of the lease. We were a brand new business with no track record. It was a stressful time,” Wilhelmi said.

By the end of the first year in business they were looking to expand.

Event attendance had the store bursting at the seams, Wilhelmi said.

The game tables sat in the middle of the store, making it not as customerfriendly as it could be, giving it more of a clubhouse feel.

Leung said that they should have anticipated the store’s popularity and quick growth.

“I would almost argue we got too popular too quickly,” Leung said. “We didn’t anticipate the type of growth we had. It’s not a bad problem to have, but we just didn’t have the space. We probably should have anticipated it since there was no gaming store in Little Rock for four or five years.”

They began looking for a new space, and just as the original lease was about to expire on their first location, another spot in the same

‘Our strategy is the ‘third place’ theory.

Everyone has a third place. They have home, work and somewhere else. For some, they go to a bar. Others may go to the movies or a bookstore. We want to be a gamer’s third place.’

Josh Wilhelmi (‘97), owner of Game Goblins, speaking about providing tabletop gamers a place to hang out to play games 29

Photo courtesy of Game Goblins Facebook page

The game room at Game Goblins is filled during a recent game day. The shop often holds special gameplay times for various games. Some times are set aside for new players to learn how to play a popular game. Others are for longtime players competing in local, regional or state tournaments. Summer camps for children are also available. shopping center opened up. It was formerly used by a martial arts studio and was three times the size of their current store. It was the corner store of the center, offering more exposure to passing traffic at the intersection.

Wilhelmi and Leung decided to take the space. It took time to adjust their operating budget to accommodate the new space. Their rent almost tripled. Their electric bill increased by about 500 percent until they changed the lights to LED bulbs. It required an entire new business plan, including deciding what new products they would cover to fill the expanded shelf space, more room for game demos and more room events.

“We began to look less like a clubhouse and more like a business. We no longer looked like a card shop that sells games but more of a game shop.

We have two to four people who work in our card room sorting and grading inventory. People were able to see that we were a game store. I think that has helped a lot in our sales,” Wilhelmi said.

“We were still a boutique store of sorts, but it was run more corporate30

style than family-style,” Leung said.

“We had the flexibility of a larger store while keeping the familiarity of a smaller shop.”

Growing reputation The various events get both experienced gamers and newcomers into the store as well. During the summer months, the store holds camps for youth. Special events for new players allow them to learn to play various games. Events are held during the day and at night to help fit various schedules. Players of equal skill levels are placed together. A new player isn’t going to face a very experienced player at first.

“We don’t throw you in with the sharks,” Wilhelmi said.

They are expanding their events to sites outside of the store as well. They are a permanent fixture at the Museum of Discovery’s Science After Dark series in Little Rock. They hold events for home schoolers once a month and take games to Arkansas Children’s Hospital as well.

Wilhelmi said that he feels as if they

have already outgrown their current spot, but deciding when to expand and finding the right place where they could expand could take some time.

There is also the possibility they could open a second store somewhere — perhaps in Northwest Arkansas where there isn’t a game store similar to Game Goblins, he said.

Leung said that the current store is still growing. Him being the pessimist, he worried at first that the expense of the larger space would be too much and it would be more than enough space for their purposes. “But now, I’m wondering if in the future we will move again,” Leung said. “It depends on the growth and how far it will take us.”

Wilhelmi takes pride in how the business has grown.

“I got into retail having never worked in retail. I like interacting with customers. I like showing people new games. I like the fact that I can walk into the store and see it and know I built this. It may not be where I quite want it to be yet; I’m never satisfied or complacent. But I am happy with where it is right now,” he said.

Alumni’s startup markets inexpensive-to-build robots Imagine being able to walk the aisles at your local Walmart and finding most of the pieces you need to build your own robot?

That’s what Canon Reeves (’16) hopes you will be able to do in the future. He and a team of classmates at the University of Arkansas have created a company — MORE Technologies — to encourage that. Reeves founded MORE, which stands for Modular Open-source Robotics Ecosystem, after his team won the Northwest Arkansas Startup Competition in March.

Reeves is interested in developing an inexpensive robotic system that could be used to help teach children such as his younger sister how to build a robot. He wanted to use lowercost components that could be easily found in the store aisles and inexpensively 3D printed. It would give more people more opportunities to experience robotics.

“I want to get these kids excited about robotics and give them a fair shot. I want to expose them to robotics and see if they are passionate about it,” he said.

Reeves didn’t sign himself up for the competition. A coworker at the McMillon Innovation Studio at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville signed him up. They had been working together on a nonprofit school called ArkanCode that focuses on teaching adults coding.

“We were working on the school together and wanted to check out that weekend. So he signed me up for it. A couple of days before it we were like ‘OK, what do we want to do for it?’

We decided to do the robot,” Reeves said.

On the night before the competition, Reeves built a prototype robot.

He took it to the competition the next day and made the company pitch. It resulted in a first-place award and served as the impetus to decide to develop the company further.

Canon Reeves (‘16) holds a prototype of a robot he and his teammates displayed at the Northwest Arkansas Startup Weekend competition. Reeves’ team won first place in the competition. His company — MORE Technologies — is working to provide open-source curriculum for schools to allow students to build inexpensive robots.

While it may seem that the idea for the company was a spur-of-the-moment concept, once he knew that he would be participating in the startup competition, the idea is something he has been thinking about for a while, Reeves said.

He and Rex Hearn (’16), a fellow ASMSA alumnus who serves as the chief technology officer for the company, had been discussing issues about existing robotics competitions and platforms. He had already been designing and printing some proto-

types during the week leading up to the competition.

“A lot of inspiration came from when I went to Walmart one night really late. I was thinking about how can I make this just as accessible as possible. So I thought I’m going to build it from parts that I can get at Walmart and 3D print. I walked up and down the craft aisle. I probably looked crazy, but I landed on the wooden dowels. It was something that was affordable but I had also used quite a bit for robotic development,” he said.

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Reeves was initially introduced to robotics at his home cubator and consulting business in Fayetteville. He took school — Riverview High School in Searcy, but he learned advantage of mentors’ advice throughout the projects. about 3D printing at ASMSA. Nicholas Seward, one of his “I really sought mentor feedback extensively. One thing computer science instructors at the school, is a big propo- I’ve found is that there is a lot I don’t know. The more ears nent of 3D printing and open-source products. Reeves saw and the more eyes I can get on a problem the better off I the benefit of printing parts for his robot with a 3D printer. am. The U of A has been extremely helpful for access to “A lot of schools are getting 3D printers but are running mentors and people who support what we’re doing. And so into issues of not knowing what to make,” he said. “We can has Startup Junkie,” he said.

3D print internally and manufacture the pieces. But it Hearn said everyone he has spoken with has been supwould be more affordable if we could let schools with fab portive of the team. They ask him how to build a robot, and labs and maker spaces fabricate it themselves. It’s a way some have never thought of doing something with robots. for us to save money and increase the impact.”

“This is making it approachable for them, whether they Reeves said he is so passionate about robotics because are an art major or working in a hardware store, they think he sees them as tools to solve problems. He loves prob- maybe I could build a robot,” he said. lem-solving, he said, and robotics is his favorite medium Reeves also learned a lot from his job at the McMillon to do so. He said it’s exciting to build a physical thing and Innovation Studio. He began working there his freshman see it interact in the real world. year, and it became a pivotal moment in his career.

He and his team initially thought “We get to interact with real comabout making the company nonprof- ‘It’s been really beneficial panies,” he said. “It’s almost like an it, but after the startup competition, internship. I got to work with a comthey decided to make it a for-profit not just for the tech I’ve pany developing a robotic shopping company. When they started looking been able to create here, cart last summer and am going to at the numbers, they decided they work with them again this year. but also it taught me the could do more good work and make “It’s been really beneficial not just the robots less expensive by being a why part of the tech. So for the tech I’ve been able to create for-profit company. here, but also it taught me the why I can create all the fun The important thing is to get the part of tech. So I can create all the robots into the hands of school chil- technology that I want, fun technology that I want, but what dren, parents and others who would but what really matters really matters is the underlying reabenefit from them. son of why. How does the end user “Most kids in Arkansas don’t have is the underlying reason feel when they use it? It taught me a equitable access to robotics and ro- of why. It taught me a more holistic approach and set me up botics education. The benefits of our to dive into entrepreneurship.” more holistic approach platform is so affordable and moduAnother mentor Reeves continues lar that lets the kids explore,” Reeves and set me up to dive into to interact with is Seward, his ASMSA said. computer science instructor. The 3D entrepreneurship.’

As the chief technology officer for printing and open-source model are the company, Hearn spends much of earmarks of Seward’s influence. He Canon Reeves (‘16), on continues to seek advice from him, time in the company on design seshis work at the University recently speaking to him for a couple sions that will improve the robot and of Arkansas McMillon of hours about his new company. developing a curriculum for it. He meets with the company’s head of “Even now after graduation, he’s a Innovation Studio marketing to bounce ideas off her. great mentor,” Reeves said.

“We try to figure out how we can reach the most amount As for the further development of the MORE robot, he of education styles and think of ways we can prototype plans to do a Kickstarter campaign for it this July. It will our ideas for curriculum,” he said. be their initial big push into the consumer market. They He is in charge of the actual product design, working are currently doing beta tests and hope to sell 3,000 kits with the managing engineers to come up ways to keep the by the end of the year. They already have 75 presales afrobot from being too expensive and make it more acces- ter the startup weekend. One local Radio Shack wanted to sible, he said. start carrying it immediately.

Both Reeves and Hearn said that the Walton BusiHe is also going to continue his work on ArkanCode ness College and McMillon Innovation Studio have been as well as another company called Lovelace Technoloincredibly supportive of the company. They have office gies which is working on producing a robot that can scan space within the studio to allow them to continue devel- warehouse inventory, replacing handheld scanners that oping prototypes. are often lost.

Reeves originally began developing ideas for MORE Regardless whether any of the companies eventually and ArkanCode while taking an entrepreneurship class in work out and become profitable, Reeves knows he’s found the business college in the fall semester. Students had an his niche. opportunity to interact with real companies and startup “This is what I love. I love robotics and entrepreneurgroups, including Startup Junkie, an entrepreneurship in- ship. It’s a great intersection,” he said.

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Gregory serving term as NCSSS president

Class of 2018 earns $15.3M in scholarship offers ASMSA celebrated commencement for 106 members of the Class of 2018 on May 26 at Horner Hall in the Hot Springs Convention Center.

The Class of 2018 earned $15.3 million in scholarship offers as a group and posted an average ACT composite score of 30. Thirty-four members of the class were eligible for the Governor’s Distinguished Scholarship, while six students were named National Merit Finalists with two receiving National Merit Scholarships.

The event also featured remarks from seniors Zane Colvin of Wynne and Louis Lammers III of Blytheville as well as Arkansas first lady Susan Hutchinson.

Lammers shared an ancient proverb which states that a person alone may be overpowered, yet two can defend themselves. However, a cord of three strands is not easily broken. The Class of 2018 had a three-stranded cord that held it together, Lammers said.

“As we consider the end of our days at ASMSA, we can certainly attest that it has taken that three-stranded cord to hold us together and see us through. And because of the strength of our three-stranded cord, we have not been broken,” he said.

The first cord — friendship — was the strongest of the strands, Lammers said. When the students first arrived two years ago, they didn’t know each other. “Today, I would guess most of us would walk through fire for each

other,” Lammers said.

The second strand was the faculty and staff members who “have carried us through every day, guided our decision-making and prepared us for the next chapter of our lives,” he said.

The third strand of the cord was the support of people at home, including friends, neighbors and especially family, Lammers said.

First lady Hutchinson encouraged the graduates to use the education they received at ASMSA and their future education to do good in the world.

People can use knowledge for selfish reasons, she said, but choosing good will get a person through life.

She shared how her parents’ good influence helped guide her in the right direction. That included introducing Hutchinson to music lessons.

As a child in a large, blue-collar family in Atlanta, her mother ensured that Hutchinson learned to play the piano. Lessons cost a $1.

“They sacrificed for that. Blue collar. Bunch of kids. They worked hard.

Mom made sure my dad doled out a dollar. You understand when I was growing up you didn’t even make $1 an hour,” she said.

She has maintained her interest in music. One of her more popular causes she supports as first lady is music education. Hutchinson said she hoped each of the students had the opportunity to find their voice in the arts — whether it was through music or painting or some other form.

Bob Gregory, ASMSA’s dean of academic affairs, became president of the National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools Board of Directors last fall.

Gregory assumed the role of president for the 2017-18 academic year at the organization’s professional conference held in November in Chicago.

The organization was established in 1988 to provide a forum for specialized secondary schools focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics to exchange information and program ideas.

It now includes approximately 100 member schools, many “ranked” among the best in the country, along with 55 affiliate members comprised of colleges, universities, summer programs, foundations and corporations.

He said he is excited to have the opportunity to lead the board.

The organization provides important opportunities for educators from across the country to engage with each other, he said.

“It’s really a great asset as far as having an understanding of what’s going on in schools across the United States,” Gregory said.

“We get to discuss issues that we all have and learn the different approaches that we each take to solve those issues. It’s been a great opportunity for me to interact with peers from across the country, many of them members of public residential schools similar to ours.”

Gregory has served as ASMSA’s dean of academic affairs since the Spring 2013 semester, when he was named interim dean. He was later appointed permanently to the role after a national search. He joined ASMSA’s faculty as a math instructor in 2011.

Gregory joined the NCSSS board in June 2013.

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Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts A Campus of the University of Arkansas System 200 Whittington Ave. • Hot Springs, AR 71901

Final Frame

The Creativity and Innovation Complex is progressing on target. Construction is expected to be completed by November, allowing the building to be ready for use in spring 2019 semester. The $4.7 million facility will include classroom and work space for computer science and digital arts courses as well as an assembly space for the school. It is the first new academic building constructed on campus since the school opened in 1993. The CIC is being completed without any debt using existing funds and more than $700,000 in gifts, which includes a $300,000 grant from the Oaklawn Foundation — the single-largest gift in school history. The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees will hold a meeting in the building in March 2019. A 25-year anniversary gala celebrating the opening of the school in 1993 will be held on March 27, 2019.