LITTLE ROCK — High-achieving members of the Little Rock School District’s Class of 2012 are planning careers in fields such as pediatric oncology, aerospace engineering, song writing, foreign-language translating, art conservation, international mission work and creative writing.
Ninety-three students who will graduate from Little Rock’s five high schools on different nights this week related their college and career plans Monday at a Governor’s Mansion ceremony to recognize their academic accomplishments.
The eighth annual event, which featured Gov. Mike Beebe and other community leaders as speakers, was sponsored by the Public Education Foundation of Little Rock, Entergy Arkansas Inc. and the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The governor acknowledged that some of the class members will leave the state to attend universities, including some of the most prestigious in the nation. He urged the students, regardless of where they land after graduation, to remember the place where they got their start.
“Remember that your state needs you,” he told them. “Where possible and when possible, come back. Come back and help lead the next generation.
“Whether you are a leader of business, a captain of industry, or whether you are a teacher, college professor or humanitarian, your state would love to draw on your obvious talents to help create an even better life for our people.”
To participate in Monday’s event, the students had to have either cumulative 4.0 grade-point averages in ninth through 12th grades, be ranked academically among the top four students in their schools, or be National Achievement semifinalists, National Hispanic Scholars or National Merit semifinalists.
Among the honorees was Central High senior Martha Gresham, who told of plans to attend the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville to study criminal justice in preparation for a career fighting human trafficking.
Carl Napolitano, another Central senior, said he will study English and creative writing at Hendrix College in Conway “and see where that takes me.”
Brian Strigel, a senior at Parkview Magnet High, said he will study studio art and physics at Bard College at Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.
And Andrew Culberson, a senior at J.A. Fair High, is headed to Trinity College in San Antonio to study computer science and finance.
Other students and their destinations include Aaron Yin of Central, who is going to Princeton University; Whitney Gao of Central, Harvard University; Liang Zhang to Cornell University; Catie Edwards of Parkview to Johns Hopkins University; Chelsea Gillespie of Fair, Texas Christian University; Daniel Schexnayder of Central to the University of Oklahoma; and Cheyanne Hampton from Hall to Vanderbilt University.
In an interview, Nasreen Moursi, a senior at Central, said she plans to attend Washington University in St. Louis to major in biology so she can eventually become a neurosurgeon.
“I’ve always known I wanted to be a doctor,” she said. “First of all because my dad is a doctor, and I know I want to help people out. Throughout my high school courses, I’ve dabbled in a lot of sciences, and I’ve decided that neuroscience and psychology are definitely where I want to go.”
Anna Kumpuris, another Central student, said she wants to do international mission work after attending Hendrix College. To that end she will focus on religious studies and continue the foreign language she has already started learning.
“I’ve always heard if you have to learn one language it is easier to learn more,” Kumpuris said. “I figure I should master Spanish and keep going. And the religious studies background will help me because I want to do Christian mission work. I want to know about other religions that I’ll be working with.”
For Samuel Jenkins, selecting a major was a process of elimination and selecting a university was based on family tradition.
“I’m not good at English nor art. Math and science is the way to go,” said Jenkins, who attends Central and is planning to pursue an engineering degree at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
“It’s in-state,” he said. “It’s where my parents went. It’s where their parents went. Why not?”
Also participating in the program Monday was Steve Strickland, a vice president for Entergy Arkansas; Little Rock School District Superintendent Morris Holmes; Kathryn Hazelett, co-president of the board for the Public Education Foundation of Little Rock; and Frank Scott, business development officer at First Security Bank and a former member of Beebe’s staff.
At 28 and a fairly recent graduate of the University of Memphis, Scott advised the students: “Don’t just get a degree, get an education. Pursue your calling, not a career. Handle failure appropriately and pay it forward.”
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 05/22/2012