Pulaski Tech gains state agency deputy
A second Arkansas Department of Higher Education leader is moving to the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College.
Tara Smith, 39, of North Little Rock, will start as Pulaski Tech's chief financial officer/vice chancellor for finance on Dec. 31. She will earn $125,000 annually in the new position, a slight decrease from the $127,920.62 she earns as deputy director of the state agency.
Smith has worked at the state agency in different capacities, including senior associate director of institutional finance.
She will replace Stacy Hogue, who left the community college in September.
Gift to UCA to aid its Mexico program
A grant from the MetLife Foundation will help University of Central Arkansas students who want to study in Mexico.
The $25,000 donation is a part of the foundation's "100,000 Strong in the Americas" Innovation Fund, according to a news release. As a part of it, UCA will partner with Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente in Guadalajara, Mexico, and exchange 10 to 15 undergraduate students from each institution for a summer term in 2018.
UCA will market the program to those studying in science, technology, engineering or mathematics fields and who are considered to come from an underrepresented population, according to the news release. The Conway university's students will work on service-learning projects "that will engage them in the assessment of water quality of local streams and rivers" in Guadalajara.
The Mexican institute also will seek out students from indigenous or economically disadvantaged backgrounds, it said. Its students will prepare for making cross-cultural presentations to local civics clubs and nonprofit groups in Conway, UCA said.
UCA board Chairman Elizabeth Farris provided another $5,000 -- from funds available to her as leader of the board -- on top of the MetLife donation.
The money will go toward stipends for students in the program, which starts June 3.
Museum seeking writer-in-residence
The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center is looking for a writer-in-residence for June.
The writer-in-residence will be a mentor for a weeklong retreat June 4-8 for writers in the region, will hold one or two readings from his own work and will have the freedom to work on a personal project for the remainder of the month, according to a news release.
The educational center prefers those with a master's in the arts or fine arts in a relevant field. Anyone interested can send a cover letter, resume and writing sample to director Adam Long at adamlong@astate.edu by Feb. 28.
The resident will be housed in a loft apartment in the downtown square in Piggott and will have the opportunity to work in the studio where Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway worked on A Farewell to Arms during an extended stay with his wife's family in 1928, the release states. The resident will earn a $1,000 stipend to help cover food and transportation.
The museum and educational center is an Arkansas State University Heritage Site and seeks to expand understanding and knowledge of the regional, national and global history of the 1920s and 1930s by homing in on the internationally connected Pfeiffer family of Piggott and their son-in-law, Hemingway.
Metro on 11/19/2017