Learn how Northeast Tech - Claremore made history this year as the first Oklahoma-based program to capture the Founder’s Award
Warren High School reaches new heights this year with determination and strong community support
See the impact one Jonesboro school is having on the community
Northeast Tech-Claremore
Sonora Middle School
Warren High School
STUDENT COMPETITION WINNERS
EAST Project Competition
Sonora Elementary School
Luis Herrera-Lemus, Pablo Hernandez
Tech Support Olympiad
Cross County High a New Tech School
Vincent Amick
SketchUp Competition
Harrisburg High School
Laynie Casebier, Dakota Brown, Madison Gonzalez, Ira Garrett, Trey Knight, River McDonald
Perfect Pitch Competition
Har-Ber High School
Hector Ortiz, Alyssa Greer
3D Print It Up Competition
Sulphur Rock Magnet Elementary School
Carter Mae Hill, Carter McKibben
Intentionally Inventive
Marketing Competition
Helen Tyson Middle School
Brylee Cobain, Melanie Gonzales, Angella Ramirez, Alice Collier
Picture This Competition
Murfreesboro High School
Emmy Salter
Hello, My Name is...Interview Competition
Batesville Junior High School Charter
Bella Jackson
Academies at Rivercrest High School
Alpena High School
Arkansas School for the Blind
Beebe Middle School
Cossatot River High School
Dardanelle High School
Don Roberts Elementary School
Fountain Lake Charter High School
George Elementary School
Green Forest Schools
Hamburg High School
COMMUNITY & COLLABORATION - Douglas MacArthur Junior High School
PROJECT SOPHISTICATION & INNOVATION - Westwood Elementary School
STUDENT GROWTH & ENGAGEMENT - International Studies Magnet School
Mapping App Competition
Fountain Lake Charter High School
Ottis Walker, Oliver Walker
Multimedia Competition
Parson Hills Elementary School
Ipolani Robinson, Jaquelin Chico, Rosanna Bunglik
Go Map Twenty-Two-ArcGIS Activity Competition
Robert F. Morehead Middle School Jadaijah Scaife
Everyday Heroes Competition
Hunt Elementary School
Cash Thomas, Sloane Lanning, Harlie Pianalto
ARCHICAD Competition
Morrilton Senior High School
Aymslee Pawlik, Raeden Dunkin, Sasha Erdmann, Michael Arnold
Drone Competition
Hackler Intermediate School
Hunter Mead, Taylen Broadway
Fay Jones Architectural Challenge
Don Tyson School of Innovation
Arlind Dedushaj
Create a New Reality VR Competition
Helen Tyson Middle School
Julia Penaflor, Hunter Orona
Music Competition
Lakeside High School (Hot Springs)
Preston Rideout
EAST Influencer Award
Nettleton STEAM School
Best of Conference - Dressed to a Tee Competition
West Fork High School
Best of Conference - Signature Single Booth
Design Competition
Wynne High School
Best of Conference - Signature Super Booth
Design Competition
Monticello Middle School & Monticello Intermediate School
Best of Conference - EAST In Print Monitor Elementary School
Harrisburg High School
Harrison High School
Harrison Middle School
Horatio High School
Hunt Elementary School
Joe T. Robinson High School
Lakeside Middle School (Hot Springs)
Lamar High School
Lincoln High School
Lincoln Middle School
Linda Childers Knapp Elementary School
Murfreesboro High School
Nettleton STEAM School
North Little Rock Middle School
Oaklawn Stem Magnet School
Pinkston Middle School
Quitman High School
Searcy High School
Washington Junior High School
Wilson Intermediate School
We’re entering the end of our season here at EAST, as students are shifting from finishing up their projects and celebrating their wins at EAST Conference to taking semester tests and preparing for vacation.
Their vacations are well-earned, as EAST’s impact and recognition continues to grow more than ever, thanks to the countless examples of students changing their communities for the better, thanks to the skills they learned in an EAST program.
In this edition of EQ, you’ll read many of these stories as told by our Founder’s and Cornerstone Award-winning programs, as well as additional project stories including a feature of our EAST Project Competition winner. And of course, the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas’ Becky Flynn will turn back the pages to reveal how her time in EAST at Mills High School led her to a full circle moment.
3-8
10-12
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Meet the three Founder’s Award winners from EASTcon23 and how they served their communities while experiencing exponential student growth.
See how the three Cornerstone Award winners perfectly exhibited the three cornerstones of EAST: student growth and engagement, project sophistication and innovation, and community collaboration.
EASTcon23
You
Find out who helped make East Conference 2023 possible.
Bradley BrewerPS: Shout out to our new graphic designer Jocelyn Johnson, who is designing her first-ever EQ with this issue! Woohoo!
Disclaimer
The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited materials lost or damaged in the post. All text and layout is the copyright of the EAST Initiative. Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written permission of the copyright holder. All copyrights are recognized and used specifically for the purpose of criticism and review.
EAST at Northeast Tech - Claremore made history this year as the first Oklahoma-based program to capture the Founder’s Award, just one year after winning the Cornerstone Award for Community and Collaboration.
This year, the 27 EAST students in the program focused on maintaining their momentum and on completing sophisticated projects for their community partners.
Senior Shelby Scott has been working on a 90-second animation to promote a special program by the Volunteers for Youth, a community organization that provides diverse, quality programs for young people.
“When I first joined EAST, I knew I wanted to do something in animation, but the problem was that I had no idea how to animate,” Shelby said. “I spent much of my first year learning techniques and how to use new programs, and at the end of the year, I had only finished 27 seconds of the project.”
After a year of learning how to animate and receiving a certification for her abilities in Adobe Animate, Shelby decided to start from scratch at the beginning of this year — with completely different software.
“At the beginning of the year, I looked over my current animation and made a decision that would shock my past self — I decided to scrap the entire animation and began using Blender,” Shelby said. “This time though, I had knowledge and practice. I knew
I wanted an end product that my client and others could enjoy.”
With her new vision and much stronger skillset, she’s made incredible progress and is confident that her clients will be satisfied with the end result.
Another long-term project the program has been working on is their work with the Rogers State University Nature Reserve, where several students began mapping out the area to observe the depth and makeup of water bodies in the area, as well as plant health.
“By flying a drone and taking pictures in a certain pattern around the area, we were able to collect information,” said Josh Martin, a senior EAST student at Northeast Tech - Claremore. “Our hope is by flying the same area again next year, we can track the growth of invasive species and our community partner can use that information to prevent its spread.”
One of the core foundations of the program is its work with creating vinyl graphics and installing them for community partners around the region. The EAST students work with several schools and local businesses to ensure privacy for those inside while creating an aesthetic appeal from the outside.
“We are known for our work in making vinyl, and we’ve worked with several schools because they want to make their schools look good, but also use it for security purposes,” Cathryn said. Last year, 14 of the 23 EAST students in the program successfully earned certifications from Adobe, Google IT support and Apple Swift development. One student earned his drone pilot certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Getting these certifications really puts us ahead of the curve,” said Cathryn Lewis, a first-year EAST student at Northeast TechClaremore. “Having a professional certification tells everyone that we know what we are doing and that we can get jobs done.”
Cambry Edwards
Faith Thompson
Madison Bennett
Cathryn Lewis
Zackery Standlee
Alexis Keesler
Haylea Benedict
FOLLOW EAST AT NORTHEAST TECH ON FACEBOOK
MEET THE NORTHEAST TECH-CLAREMORE EASTCON23 TEAM:
Noah Spencer *
Naomi Moua
*denotes member of 2023 EAST Leadership Team
While this year’s other Founder’s Award-winning programs accomplished the feat for the first time in their history, EAST at Sonora Middle School - part of the Springdale School District - won the award for the third time in the past six years.
Students entered the year with a focus on returning to the way their program operated prior to the pandemic and creating an EASTverse that was authentic and true to themselves. Consequently, they were not surprised to hear their names called as Founder’s Award winners.
“I actually wasn’t too shocked because we’ve been working really hard for this,” said Addy Seaton, a sixth-grade EAST student. “We have great students who have been creating awesome projects.”
This year, Addy’s project featured 3D-printed map stands for shopping carts at Harps, a regional grocery store in Northwest Arkansas.
“Me and my partner changed course a little bit though because we wanted to make sure this was for everyone,” Addy said. “So our next step is to interview some families that don’t use English as their native language and ask what troubles they have when shopping. We’ll work on making their shopping experience easier.”
Kate Ebby is a seventh-grade student in the program. Her hardwork, fueled by her incredible passion for EAST, propelled Kate to work on two projects with different groups this year.
“One of our projects was to create nameplates for special education students, so they have a visualization of how they can write their names,” Kate said. “For my other project, I work with Soldier
Song and Voices which is a nonprofit that helps turn the stories of veterans into songs to help cope with trauma, and we are working on promoting them through video interviews with soldiers they’ve worked with.”
Project sophistication and innovation is one of EAST’s three cornerstones, and seventh-grade student Madi Goss’ project embodies that trait to a tee with her project, “Keep Jude Walking.” “We are using Arduino and LED panels to create a sort of game for kids to use at the Prosthetics & Orthotics Associates,” Madi said. “It’s been challenging because I have never coded before and Arduino is super complex, but I’ve researched code that other people have used and that has helped me get close to being finished.”
Kate says that EAST students at Sonora Middle School are not only working with community partners in their area but also some that are outside of the state, including Florida and New York.
“We don’t say we are just going to go help one tiny organization,” Kate said. “The Prosthetics & Orthotics Associates works with the U.S. Paralympics Team. It is one of the biggest organizations of its kind in the world. We always push ourselves to go beyond who we are expected to work with.”
This year was Addy’s first year at Sonora Middle School, but she has plenty of EAST experience from her time at Sonora Elementary School. Even still, she says the middle school program has introduced her to more sophisticated technology for use in her projects.
“In elementary school, we used simpler things like TinkerCAD and focused on learning the basics,” Addy said. “Here, I’ve started using Autodesk Fusion360 which has been a challenge since there is so much more you can do in the application. But it’s been cool to have that new experience.”
While Addy will remain at Sonora Middle School, Kate and Madi will graduate to Lakeside Junior High School in Springdale. The older duo are laser-focused on one goal that’s never been achieved at Lakeside.
“My goal is to help Lakeside’s program win Founder’s next year,” Kate said. “That’s always my main goal, to work as hard as I can to help our program toward that cause. So even if we don’t win, I’ll know I did my best in working on projects and finding what’s right for our community.”
Miles Boomer*
Ellison Worthy*
Madison Goss
Hatty Galvan
Katherine Ebey
Addy Seaton
Hadley Whittle
Rebecca Biggs
Jetta Warford
Quinn Spurlock
*denotes member of 2023 EAST Leadership Team
At the conclusion of the 2021-2022 school year, EAST at Warren High School faced one of the largest challenges any program could face by losing almost everything they had to a massive fire.
In true EAST fashion, the program pivoted to make the most out of what they had, and after receiving some new technology at the beginning of this school year, students buckled down to learn new hardware and software and traveled farther than before to reach communities beyond their own.
“We had to start thinking outside of the box due to our school catching on fire,” said Layne Dawkins, a 9th grade EAST student at Warren High School. “It has been hard with what little we have and how small the room is that we are currently in, but we have accomplished a lot more since we have learned new software and we have learned how to be more innovative.”
A group of six students worked together with the Warren Police Department to identify the correlation between stoplights and crime within the city limits, honing in on hotspots that officers can allocate more resources to patrol over.
Raven Harris, a senior who worked on the project, said the group of students began learning how to use ArcGIS and Survey123 at the beginning of the school year in order to process and display data presented to the students by Warren Police Chief Shaun Hildreth.
“We created a survey within Survey123 to input this information, and then created another survey of all street lights,” said senior Natalie Dawkins.
After collecting and inputting over 700 data points, the students created a visual representation of crime locations compared with street light locations around the town and will create a story map to present to Chief Hildreth and the Warren City Council.
While some students shifted their focus outside of their school, a group of four students instead looked inward to overcome accessibility issues students were having with school counselors.
“We felt like many students don’t take advantage of all of the services our counselors offer because of the embarrassment of having to ask for things like food, sanitary supplies and assistance,” said sophomore Taylor Hasley.
Despite losing their school to a fire, EAST at Warren High School soared to new heights this year with determination and strong community support.
In order to help solve this problem, the students are creating a mobile application called “Get Counseled,” which will allow students to have immediate and anonymous access to several resources made available through their school counselors.
For freshman Charlee Wardlaw, who had never coded nor created an app before, using mobile app development platform Thunkable made the task easier.
“Thunkable has drag-and-drop coding which made our job easier,” Charlee said. “Our next step is to ask our school for approval to make this app available on all school iPads.”
EAST student Yamel Covarubias began planning for the future of their EAST program by designing the layout of their future EAST classroom within SketchUp.
“Yamel took the time to ask me what works best for me as a facilitator in the type of furniture we have, location of items, storage and best practices for classroom management purposes,” said Payton Sledge, the EAST facilitator at Warren High School.
“I loved the design she created and I cannot wait to see it brought to life when we finally get back into our building.”
Another team of six students partnered with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Gov. Mike Huckabee Delta Rivers Nature Center in Pine Bluff to create an educational video for one of their most popular classes: snake feedings.
“We spent a whole day at the Nature Center learning about the snakes and other animals, and recorded all of the feedings,” said junior Layton Wolfe.
Using Adobe Premiere Rush, the students compiled all of the clips together into a 30-minute informational video that was uploaded on the Delta Rivers Nature Center’s YouTube channel.
Their work didn’t stop there, however, as the students discovered that the nature center was encountering water filtration issues due to a broken handle on their system.
“This handle would be very costly to replace, so we got a 3D scanner and printer to attempt to scan the broken handle and print a new one,” Layton said.
Senior Peyton Sinclair said the team is now learning how to use Blender, an open-source 3D computer graphics software tool, in order to smooth out the design that the 3D scan generated in order to find the right fit for the filtration system.
REPRESENTING WARREN HIGH SCHOOL AT EASTCON23:
Raven Harris*
Victoria O’Neill*
Lilly Dawkins
Layne Dawkins
Natalie Cooper
Mya Casler
Javier Villeda
Mamie Martin
We are dedicated to helping you make higher education an achievable goal. Earn your degree for under $14,000 by combining your half off tuition scholarship and the lottery challenge scholarship.
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OUR MISSION: Connect people and empower business in a world of infinite possibilities. Congratulations EAST students on another successful conference
EAST at Douglas MacArthur High School won its first-ever Cornerstone Award this year, and the program did it with first-year facilitator Joshua Miller.
Miller’s fresh energy reinvigorated the program and its students, creating connections with new community partners across the region and state.
“Watching our students thrive and dig deep into their projects was a terrific feeling,” Miller said. “We started live-streaming our sporting events and adopted a news broadcast on our campus. We are working with the Little Rock Zoo to print 3-D biofacts of their animals as well as remapped our local park in Jonesboro. Our students are now ‘EASTized’ and ready to continue making a difference.”
One group of students worked with the Northeast Arkansas Humane Society to create an informational video on animal abuse and what community members should do if people encounter an injured animal.
“One of our EAST teams is working on a map to try to find hotspots within our county where animal abuse often occurs,” said eighthgrade student Desmond Taylor.
The program created a new map for Craighead Forest Park, the most visited park in the area, for the Jonesboro Parks and Recreation department.
“We reached out to the Northeast Arkansas Career and Technical Center and they assisted us by mapping out the entire park with one of their drones,” said ninth-grade student Gerardo Munoz. “It took about 10 hours to map the entire park with the drone, and we are now collaborating with one of our social studies teachers on how to use ArcGIS to create the map.”
Students are also working with Jonesboro’s Department of Sanitation to create a new map for the city’s trash route after a quarter-century of the city using the same one.
“Their goal is to find a way to use fewer trucks so they can be used for other tasks if possible,” said seventh-grade student Madeline King. “We are using ArcGIS to create new, more efficient maps for our city.”
REPRESENTING THE
DOUGLAS MACARTHUR HIGH SCHOOL EAST TEAM:
Tyson Orbison
Copper McDowell
Jackson Mooney
Darius De Lucena
Finn Streider
Suyog Aryal
Thomas Johnson
Patrick Dutton
Zachery Herren
FOLLOW EAST AT DOUGLAS MACARTHUR HIGH SCHOOL ON FACEBOOK
Maybe it’s something in the air up there.
EAST at International Studies Magnet School became the second school from the Jonesboro Public School system to win a coveted Cornerstone Award this year. This program extended its reach in both the technology used and the community partners they work with in order to be recognized for the immense Student Growth and Engagement that took place.
Following last year’s collaboration with the A-State Museum where they created a 360-degree virtual tour, the students went one step farther and implemented an augmented reality component to the visitor’s experience.
“Using Halo AR, we are creating an augmented reality feature at every exhibit at the A-State Museum,” said fifth-grade student Kenna Weaver. “This will allow visitors to watch videos that further explain the historical importance of artifacts in the museum.”
Another continuation of a project from last year came with the Crowley’s Ridge Nature Center as students wanted to improve the experience of visitors to the habitat. In order to do this, students used Raspberry Pi software to create a mini camera that creates a live video feed of animals in the habitat, even when they’re hiding or resting.
“The animals often go inside their hideouts and cannot be seen by visitors,” said sixth-grade student Addy Rich. “The camera we built allows for visitors to go to a unique link on the internet to watch the animals both when they are inside and outside of their hideouts.”
The program’s most technologically advanced project is right inside their school, as students are working on building multiple robots that help guide students through hallways at the Pre-K center.
“Our students are building and installing programs on five different robots,” Kenna said. “We are planning to use line-tracking to lead
students at the Pre-K center, and we are designing different shells like a school bus and a frog to feel more inviting to the kids.”
International Studies Magnet School is only a few blocks from Jonesboro’s downtown area, so it made sense to partner with the Downtown Jonesboro Alliance to assist in their efforts of growing business in the area.
“We came up with the idea of creating a digital map that spotlights all of the incredible features of our downtown,” Addy said. “We quickly created a prototype map within ArcGIS and presented it to the Downtown Jonesboro Alliance and they loved it! When the map is finished, it’ll be featured on their website and it will replace the older physical maps that are currently downtown.”
REPRESENTING INTERNATIONAL STUDIES MAGNET STUDIES AT EASTCON23:
Kenna Weaver*
Suleman Alomari
Ridge Emison
Drew Copeland
Jillian Roberts
Cooper Hunt
George Cavenaugh
Addy Beth Martin
Addy Rich
Caden Byrd
*denotes member of 2023 EAST Leadership Team
FOLLOW EAST AT INTERNATIONAL STUDIES MAGNET SCHOOL ON FACEBOOK
EASTatWestwoodElementarySchoolinSpringdalecelebratedits10thanniversarythisyear andcappedoffcelebrationsbywalkingawaywiththeCornerstoneAward forProjectSophisticationandInnovation.
It seems that EAST students at Westwood Elementary have found their passion: working with people who are disabled to make their lives easier. Students continued their work in this field with the “Wee Little Wheels” project, where they created custom wheelchairs for disabled toddlers.
“Children with disabilities cannot qualify for a wheelchair until they are three years old,” said fifth-grader Sifa Alulu. “We created a wheelchair with easy-to-find items to solve this problem.”
Thanks to a custom wheelchair built by EAST students, one toddler can now play with his older sister without his mother’s help.
“I don’t know who likes the chair more,” the child’s mother said in an Instagram post. “[His sister] is so happy that her brother can play her now – without mom’s help! I’m obsessed.”
Kelly Yates, an occupational therapist for the Children’s Therapy Team, has been a Community Partner with EAST at Westwood Elementary School for several projects and has loved her experiences working with the students.
“I’ve never had anything but a great experience with EAST,” Yates said. “I’m always blown away by the creativity that [EAST students] have in order to make things accessible to everyone. I just feel blessed to be a partner.”
While the program features several projects working with children with physical disabilities, other students worked with a student and his brother Juan, who struggles in social situations due to autism.
“We learned that fidget toys help Juan to calm down when he’s around others and his brother asked if we could 3D design toys modeled after his favorite character, Sonic the Hedgehog,” said fifth-grader Erianne Martinez.
“Using TinkerCAD, we found the design we want to use and are now trying out different fidget parts for the toy’s arms and legs. We’re excited to give Juan a toy that will, no doubt, be his favorite,” said fifth-grader Scarleth Mejai.
Students are constantly working on projects that change the lives of their clients, but another trio within the program is utilizing ArcGIS to create a light-hearted, spooky, experience through Arkansas that everyone can enjoy.
“We created a story map that displays different haunted places in Arkansas,” said fifth-grader Kalie Rodriguez. “The GIS feature allows us to map out a guided two-day road trip throughout the most popular haunted places around the state.”
ATTENDING EASTCON23 INCLUDED:
Gabriella Carranza
Emily Murphy
Heather Corona
Coty Jones
Izabella Zangari
Sifa Alulu
Caleb Plante
Kaylie Rodriguez
