Derek Lewis ’78, ’80 knows first-hand the struggles of earning a degree with few resources of your own. The practicing physician with nearly 40 years of experience grew up in Hughes, Arkansas, a small, impoverished town in St. Francis County.

“Coming from that background, I’ve always wanted to give someone else just a little lift, because someone gave me a chance,” Lewis said. “I had a lot of struggles. Even in medical school I had to do extra things just to eat. I get it.”

Lewis got through BTĚěĚĂand into medical school thanks in large part to Maurice Webb, a long-time BTĚěĚĂhistory professor. Webb took an interest in Lewis and guided him through the courses he would need and offered advice on how to succeed, fighting in his corner over the years when necessary.

“At the time, I was just a country boy from Hughes. I didn’t know what was going on. I just kind of followed his lead,” Lewis said of his introduction to the university. “Later, I realized that disadvantaged students like I was — I don’t mean disadvantaged by being Black, I mean disadvantaged by being poor — often don’t have the resources or the contacts and don’t have anyone pulling or fighting for them.

“If we can help one or two of those people from small towns to succeed, I think that will be a wonderful thing,” Lewis said.

Today, Lewis mentors students individually, as he once was. About 30 years ago, Lewis founded the Derek Lewis Foundation, which supports community health through education and prevention. The foundation has also awarded hundreds of scholarships since its inception. One, granted last year to current BTĚěĚĂstudent Braden West, is specifically for Black BTĚěĚĂscience majors from eastern Arkansas.

West, who is majoring in health promotion, says that while he did not grow up in an economically disadvantaged home, the scholarship has helped him in a variety of ways. For one, it boosted his confidence.

“I feel like Dr. Lewis read my story and saw potential in me that I probably didn’t see in myself at that time. It’s pushed me to become more open to accepting things,” West says. “BTĚěĚĂhas changed my life. I wasn’t an outspoken person; I didn’t care to speak about who I was. But now UCA’s given me the confidence to understand I am somebody.”

Lewis was impressed with West as being “down to earth” and “very, very smart and motivated” and awarded him a scholarship during the 2021-22 school year.

Meanwhile, Tiffani Rana ’12 is a past scholarship recipient who, in 2021, not only earned her master’s in accounting from BTĚěĚĂbut also became a first-time scholarship donor.

Rana was four years out of high school and living in Beebe as a single mother to two children when she decided she wanted a college education. She first earned her associate’s degree at the Arkansas State University-Beebe, then transferred her credits to BTĚěĚĂin 2010. In 2012, she graduated from BTĚěĚĂwith a bachelor’s in psychology. She’d been working as a bookkeeper for six years when she decided to get a graduate degree in accounting.

“By that time, I was married but it was still hard to go back to school without having some sort of financial support,” Rana said. “I quit my job to go back full-time.”

She’d gotten her undergraduate degree with zero debt, everything funded by scholarships and grants. But she found financial aid was much sparser for graduate programs.

“When I went back for my master’s, I had to take out loans, because the scholarships weren’t enough,” she said.

After graduation, she began working at Hogan Taylor, a Little Rock accounting firm. She’d only been working there a short time when she reached a decision.

“I decided to start a graduate scholarship at BTĚěĚĂbecause, in master’s programs, scholarships are very few and far between,” Rana said. “I’m not anywhere close to making lots of money but I think it’s important to give people the opportunity. Whatever I have to give, I give it willingly.”

In 2021, Rana founded the Damian and Kaitlyn Rana Breaking Barriers scholarship, a $5,000 a year, five-year scholarship. Single parents pursuing a graduate degree receive top priority for her scholarship.

“I named the scholarship after my kids, because they are the only reason I went back to school. They’re the reason I still go through every day,” Rana said. “And I called it the Breaking Barriers scholarship because, as a single mom, you’re up against the stereotypes and statistics that say you’re not going to do well financially and will have to rely on the government. I wanted to break that stigma and show that single parents really can do it. And to prove to my kids that they can do anything as well.”

Tara Swindle, herself a mother of two children, is among the first BTĚěĚĂstudents to receive the Rana Breaking Barriers scholarship. A first-year teacher at Nemo Vista elementary school in Center Ridge, Arkansas, she is working on her master’s degree in literacy with a dyslexia endorsement.

“Teaching chose me,” Swindle said. “I have always loved kids. I love teaching, I love learning and I love school. Receiving this scholarship means so much to me,” Swindle said. “It has helped me continue my education to be a better teacher for my students.”

Rana wanted to fund a scholarship specifically for BTĚěĚĂstudents, where she said faculty go above and beyond for their students.

“I love UCA. They really prepare you,” Rana said. “Some of the classes are tough but they’re tough to help you get where you need to be so that, when you graduate, you can slide into your job without any hiccups along the way. The staff and faculty are amazing. I don’t think I would have survived if it weren’t for them supporting me and being encouraging and helping out whenever I had questions.”

West said that supportive atmosphere carries over to the student body.

“This school really changed my outlook on people, especially about people from different backgrounds,” he said.

“Everybody treats everybody like family. It doesn’t matter where you came from, it doesn’t matter what you did. It’s almost like a fresh breath of air, coming to UCA. I love being able to meet people who are here for the same reasons as I am: to get a degree, to make lifelong friends, and to — hopefully — be successful in the future.”

Hank and Patty Phelps know what success means to them.

“Those who are truly successful serve in some way,” Patty Phelps said. “They are giving of their time. Their success is measured in the impact and influence they have on the world. It’s about service.”

With a philosophy of service as motivation, the Phelpses created an endowed scholarship fund in 2012. By 2019, the Hank and Patty Phelps Education Scholarship had awarded its first recipient.

“We were delighted that the endowment had reached the level where scholarships could be given while we’re still healthy and able to interact with the students,” Patty Phelps said. “It is really something special.”

Before both retired from UCA, the Phelpses were dedicated to supporting students – both in and out of the classroom.

Hank Phelps held many roles in student affairs, including director of student activities, director of orientation and director of the Student Center. Notably, he created Summer Orientation and Academic Registration, better known as SOAR – a program designed to help students transition into college life. He was also the longtime director of the Student Orientation Staff (SOS), a group of student volunteers who facilitate orientation, registration and move-in for the 2,000 or so incoming freshmen each summer.

Meanwhile, Patty Phelps was in the classroom: First as a high school teacher, then as a professor of education at UCA, preparing future middle and high school educators. One of her primary roles was supervising students as they completed their student teaching experiences. She was also an administrator, serving many years as director of the Instructional Development Center, which is now the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Academic Leadership. She also served as interim dean of UCA’s College of Education.

The couple is clearly reflected in the criteria for their scholarship, which is for undergraduate students in the teacher education program with a grade point average of at least 3.0. Additionally, applicants must serve as part of the SOS program.

Hank and Patty like to say, half-jokingly but with an element of truth, that their respective roles at BTĚěĚĂhelped them recognize students as whole people, with lives both in and out of the classroom.

With their scholarship, they not only wanted to reward service while encouraging future educators but they also wanted to acknowledge the reality that upperclassmen majoring in education often cannot work and complete their student teaching duties at the same time.

Josey Rowe ’20 of Conway received the first Phelps Scholarship in 2019. She was a part of the SOS program, serving as a team leader in 2019, and then continued to work with Hank in the Student Center. She now teaches 5th grade math and science at Morrilton Intermediate School.

“Hank and Patty both had a positive impact on my college career,” Rowe said. “Hank’s positive attitude and happy demeanor made work fun every day. And Dr. Phelps has always been something of a legend in the College of Education. Everyone loved her and everyone wanted to have her as their professor. When I saw that they were funding a scholarship for education majors in SOS, I knew I had to apply.”

Rowe said she has been pleased to discover that she gained more than financial aid from the Phelpses.

“They have been my cheerleaders — celebrating my graduation and my first job, attending my wedding and helping in any way they can along the way,” Rowe said. “I am so honored to have received their scholarship and blessed to have their friendship and support.”

Just as Rowe is inspired by the Phelpses, the Phelpses were originally inspired to set up the scholarship by two beloved professors at their alma mater. Compelled to donate when the professors passed away, Hank and Patty were heartbroken to discover there was no fund established to honor their memory.

That disappointment turned to action. Now, the pair is delighted each time someone donates to their fund in honor of a favorite professor or to invest in their mission of supporting service and education.

In addition to their experiences in and out of the classroom, Hank at one point served on a review committee for scholarship applications, which deepened his empathy for students.

“It was such a sobering experience because we were reading these heartbreaking stories of hardship — young people trying to better themselves or trying to get an education. You want to help them all,” he said. “Of course, you can’t. And so you try to lead by example, by helping who you can and giving your time, being of service. If we can be remembered for that — that’s a credit.”

From submitting scholarship applications to furnishing a residential hall room, starting college is a whirlwind of activity. And since there’s no handbook to follow, many incoming freshmen turn to college graduates in their immediate family for guidance on how to manage the stress and demands of this exciting time.

“Parents who graduated from college can share important insight with their children, like how many hours to study for a course or that it’s OK to ask questions in class,” said Nadia Eslinger ’05, ’08, associate director of UCA’s Office of Student Success.

As Eslinger knows first-hand, however, some students who don’t have that built-in advantage. Defined as students whose parents did not earn a four-year degree, first-generation college students often enter their freshman year unsure of what lies ahead.

“It can be overwhelming for some students,” said Eslinger, a West Memphis native who arrived at BTĚěĚĂin the early 2000s as a first-generation student herself.

Although she was confident in her decision to attend UCA, Eslinger got off to a rocky start. Thankfully, an upperclassman noticed her unease, took Eslinger under her wing and helped her find a unique niche on campus.

“That’s when I really began to feel like this was a place where I could be successful,” she said.

Now, Eslinger’s mission is to help UCA’s nearly 600 first-generation students succeed academically, emotionally and socially. For many – like Itzel Morales – this starts well before attending their first day of class.

The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Morales was always encouraged to set her goals high.

“My mom was very supportive and I want to make my family proud,” the White Hall, Arkansas, native said. She chose BTĚěĚĂfor its comfortable, home-like environment, but it was the first-generation student support network that truly set the university apart.

During high school, Morales attended Bear Facts Day and was drawn to the booth promoting FirstGen@UCA, sponsored by the Office of Student Success.

Morales connected with the First Generation Scholars Society, also known as UCA’s F1RSTs, and found a support system where students and staff members answered questions about everything from how to complete paperwork to where to find the best deals on dorm room supplies.

“Even before I got to campus, they were really helpful. I immediately knew I wanted to join,” she said. “They all made sure I was OK, even when I was under a lot of stress during my first semester,” she said.

That initial support is vital to future success for first-generation students. According to a study by the Pew Research Center, only about 20% of adults whose parents did not attend college go on to earn a bachelor’s degree. By comparison, of those with two parents who completed college, 82% have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

“When they start to struggle, first-generation students don’t always know where to go for help,” Eslinger said. “Unfortunately for a lot of them, one setback can derail their college career. The overall graduation rate for first generation students is lower than for continuing-generation students.”

To combat that fact, Eslinger and her team offer a variety of solutions that reach students where they are. The First Generation Summer Academy gives a small group of high school students a taste of college life, while First2Go Week features campuswide events highlighting the first-generation student experience.

Workshops and social activities also give UCA’s first-generation students a valuable outlet to engage with others facing similar situations.

“It’s never hard to talk to another first-gen student. It’s comforting and helpful to know we’ve all gone through the same things,” Morales said, adding that she is now in a position to offer her own words of wisdom.

“I will definitely be there to help the incoming freshmen. I want them to know that the first semester is the hardest, but they can do it,” she said.

Looking ahead, Eslinger said her group is now pursuing ways to support first-generation students as they become first-generation graduates and enter the world beyond college.

“If you were the first college student in your family, you may also be the first to work in a professional career or to leave your hometown. We want to stay connected with our students and help prepare them for what they will face after graduation,” Eslinger said. “I was in their shoes once and I made it. I want them to know that they can too.”

Just a couple of days into her work at Camp Halsey, Emilee Burroughs made a stunning discovery, but it wasn’t the kind of eureka moment that you might have expected from an archaeological dig.

While Burroughs, a sophomore from Center Ridge, Arkansas, did not uncover any historical relics her first week, she did discover she wanted to learn more about her chosen field of study.

“I was actually surprised to be out there in the field, in the heat and the bugs, and thinking to myself, ‘I can do this every single day. I wish that it wouldn’t end in two weeks,’” she said. “It’s so fun. I love it a lot.”

Burroughs was one of 10 students to participate at this year’s Camp Halsey, an archaeological field school overseen by Duncan McKinnon, director of the Jamie C. Brandon Center for Archaeological Research at BTĚěĚĂand an associate professor of anthropology. Like her fellow students, Burroughs found the field work greatly enhanced what she learned in McKinnon’s classroom.

“The camp makes the subject matter so much more relevant,” she said. “There’s such a deeper understanding when you see it right in front of you, as you’re doing it. It puts everything together in such a wholesome way.”

Launched in 2018, the field school takes place on the site of a former soil conservation camp, constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s. Part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Depression-era economic recovery program, the CCC created terraces and managed landscapes to mitigate erosion, thereby conserving water and soil. While several similar camps were set up around the state for a variety of purposes, Camp Halsey, known as Soil Conservation Camp 1, was the first of its kind in Arkansas and accommodated up to 200 enrollees.

“It was only occupied for a very short period of time, but during its existence, enrollees in the camp built the earthen dam that today encompasses Lake Bennett at Woolly Hollow State Park,” McKinnon said. “They were doing it as a reservoir to control water erosion and make water available to local farmers. Ultimately, today it’s a place where people go to camp and swim and boat.”

Camp Halsey gets its name from the Halsey family, who leased the land to the federal government on which the camp was established and whose descendants still own it today. McKinnon said sporadic BTĚěĚĂfield work had been allowed on the property in years past before the formal Camp Halsey project was introduced four years ago as an accredited BTĚěĚĂarchaeology field school.

“The ability for us to go out and work at Camp Halsey grew out of a collaborative project that I worked on with the director of the Faulkner County Museum, Lynita Langley Ware,” he said. “We have, for several years, been mapping and documenting archaeological and historical sites within Faulkner County. We have other projects that we do where students get involved and they get exposed to other archaeological locations.”

The three weeks are divided into two weeks onsite and one in the lab on the BTĚěĚĂcampus. Outdoors, students are taught the basics of the techniques, tools and technology used on a dig.

“The goal is to get students exposed to ‘doing archaeology,’” McKinnon said. “They learn how to do systematic excavation. They have an opportunity to learn how to do mapping. We have equipment that we can use to train students on how to map particular sites and locations.

“They also have the opportunity to work with remote sensing equipment. It’s essentially measuring subsurface anomalies, so we’re getting an idea of what’s under our feet before we put a shovel in the ground. We also have a drone that we use to get low-altitude aerial imagery so students can understand the role of that technology.”

Each new group is assigned a specific goal for the summer, excavating locations where the CCC buildings once stood. Artifact discoveries are relatively common and are the property of the Halsey family, who have made a practice of turning everything over to the Faulkner County Museum, but as McKinnon said, it’s the experience and hands-on learning opportunities that are most valuable for the students.

“There’s a variety of different components to the field school that are not just tied to digging,” he said. “That is what most people think of when they think of archaeology, and certainly there’s plenty of it. But there are a variety of other components that we use and in all of these, the goal is for students to take these applied skill sets and utilize them in their graduate work or to go straight into a cultural resource management firm that does contract archeology.”

Ashley Hanson of Bella Vista, Arkansas, a senior at UCA, attended Camp Halsey in the summer of 2021. She said the experience she gained is paying off in a number of practical ways.

“First of all, right after field school finished last summer, I began an internship that had an archaeology lab,” Hanson said. “I had just gained a bunch of experience in the field [at Camp Halsey] that I could apply to that lab. I had a background of experience where I knew where artifacts came from, I knew how they were acquired, I knew the process.

“Now, I’m working on a thesis project, a capstone paper which I’ll finish by May of 2023 about the archaeology of CCC camps in Arkansas,” Hanson added. “It’s less of a hands-on approach and more of a theoretical approach, but last summer’s experience has been useful in understanding all of the different perspectives from which we can look at the CCC camps. Having that foundation has been really helpful for me.”

It’s not unusual for college students to address their male professors as Sir. Some are even addressed as Dr. when appropriate.

Sitting in Gizachew Tiruneh’s office, however, is a card with the double honorifics “Sir Dr.” written in front of his name. The card was a gift, created and signed by his students, to celebrate what is perhaps a unique accomplishment for a college professor.

In the spring of 2022, at a ceremony held at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C., the Ethiopian Crown Council knighted Tiruneh as a Knight Grand Cross of the Star of Ethiopia. At the same time, they bestowed upon him the title of Blaten Geta, which traditionally translates as “Lord of Wisdom,” and in more modern translations means “Minister of Pen.”

The honors were a complete surprise to Tiruneh and came 41 years after he fled to the United States to escape a violent Communist coup in his homeland.

“While I was in high school, the revolution broke,” Tiruneh said of the 1974 uprising that ended 3,000 years of Judeo-Christian monarchy in Ethiopia. “Ninety-five percent of students and professors and the intelligentsia were against the regime. I was part of that group.”

As recounted in his 2014 autobiography, “On the Run in the Blue Nile,” Tiruneh’s opposition led to his name appearing on a kill list. He escaped to the countryside and remained in hiding for three years, constantly moving to escape detection by death squads.

“My brother was caught and killed,” he said. “My friends were caught, a lot of them killed. And I survived at least six near-deaths. Grave danger six times.”

The last time was when, using a friend’s identity, he absconded to the United States.

“They could have killed him if they found out. I had nightmares for five years,” Tiruneh said. Thankfully, his friend eventually escaped, as well.

Since being ousted, the Ethiopian Crown Council has been “a monarchy in exile,” Tiruneh explained. An expert on democratization and international relations in Africa and the Middle East, Tiruneh has collaborated closely with the internationally-based council for several years. He is working towards getting the monarchy formally reintegrated into the Ethiopian government to serve in a ceremonial, largely symbolic capacity and formally restore its cultural importance.

“I’m really excited about that because the Ethiopian monarchy has been the face of the country,” he said. “Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that was not colonized by European powers. It has thousands of years of rich cultural history and was one of the first countries to become Christian, back in the fourth century AD. Ethiopia’s monarchs maintained that until 1974.”

An associate professor of political science and director of the International Studies Program, Tiruneh’s work at BTĚěĚĂfirst caught the Crown Council’s attention several years ago. In 2015, Tiruneh published “The Rise and Fall of the Solomonic Dynasty of Ethiopia: Is the Kebra Nagast a Time-Bound Document?” In the Ethiopian language of Amharic, Kebra Nagast translates as “Glory of Ethiopian Kings.”

“The Kebra Nagast is a Judeo-Christian-based text believed to have been written in the 6th century AD, to legitimize and glorify the Ethiopian monarchs as guardians of the Judeo-Christian religion,” he said.

In 2017, for his exploration of the text’s historical context, Tiruneh was named an Officer of the Order of the Star of Ethiopia. In the Order, officers are second in a hierarchy: Member, Officer, Commander, Grand Commander, then Knight of the Grand Cross.

This year, for his work to restore the monarchy to a role in Ethiopian life, the Council fully knighted him.

“The recognition was a big surprise for me,” he said. “I was expecting, if anything, to become a commander or a grand-commander, but I skipped all the way up to the top. It’s a huge honor.”

He said the ‘Sir’ appellation is technically inaccurate, though his students’ gesture is greatly appreciated.

“Being knighted in Ethiopia is the equivalent of being knighted in the United Kingdom but we don’t use “Sir” for knights like Europeans do,” he added.

For all the prestigious recognition, which he called the climax of his career, the newly knighted BTĚěĚĂprofessor said the most gratifying things are teaching bright minds and hearing from them years later.

“Getting those emails from past students who have become successful, that really is a very big plus for me,” Tiruneh said. “That means a lot.”

Twelve hours.

That’s how long it took to undo almost two semesters worth of work.

When a pair of student teams from the University of Central Arkansas traveled to compete at the National Robotics Challenge in Marion, Ohio, one of the teams unpacked their bags after the 12-hour road trip only to find disaster staring them in the face.

“On the way to Ohio, we traveled in a 15-passenger van and our robot was in the back of it,” said Corbin Humphrey ’22. “When we got there, we saw that one of the capacitors on one of the motors had broken. It was just dangling by a thread.”

Thankfully, the team had brought a soldering kit and the tools needed to make repairs. As the teammate with the best soldering skills, Chris Geske stepped up to re-attach the capacitor to the motor. With that potential crisis averted, the team was ready to jump into the competition.

The National Robotics Challenge began in 1986 with just two events each for high school and college competitors. In the more than 35 years since, the competition has grown to nearly 30 events for students at the university, high school and middle school levels.

2022 marked the first year BTĚěĚĂstudents have participated in the competition, thanks in large part to a grant from the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium. The students also got support from William Slaton, director of the BTĚěĚĂengineering physics program and Carl Frederickson, chair of UCA’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.

At the competition, which was held in April 2022, students from Lin Zhang’s Engineering Physics Senior Design class took part in the Autonomous Vehicle Challenge against teams from Kansas State University, the University of Texas-Arlington, the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. The two BTĚěĚĂteams spent the fall and spring semesters designing and building robots that could navigate an outdoor obstacle course in under five minutes with no human input. Both teams used a Raspberry Pi system as the “brains” of their vehicles but, beyond that, their approaches to navigation went in completely different directions.

The Robot Ninja team was comprised of Humphrey, Timon Dresselhaus ’22 and Ole Kjorholt ’22, all engineering physics majors who graduated in May 2022, and Geske, who plans to graduate in December of 2022. They installed an Arduino system and relied on GPS to guide their vehicle. Using real-time satellite data, the GPS system would determine the position of the robot and then tell it which direction to move.

Gavin Epperson ’22 and Daniel Ashcraft ’22, both computer engineering majors and also May 2022 graduates, made up the Donkey Car team. They used the open-source Donkey Car platform and an on-board camera for their robot. Essentially, the team would drive the vehicle around the course during practice laps using a remote control, modeling what they wanted it to do on its own. The robot would take nearly a thousand pictures per minute and then use that data during the competition to steer itself around the course.

But even with months of work under their belts, both teams had to make adjustments right up until the last minute.

“The day of the competition, we were still modifying our code,” Humphrey said. “Even when we were outside on the course, we were adjusting the robot and how it was performing. Timon was tweaking the design of the vehicle the entire day because it needed to be waterproof.”

“We were already a little nervous going in,” added Dresselhaus. “And then it started raining. Then it started snowing. Later in the day, it was extremely sunny. The weather was just crazy.”

The parking lot at the competition, where the obstacle course was laid out, didn’t help matters either.

“We were expecting at least a flat, straight surface but this thing had holes and bumps in it,” Dresselhaus said. “In one part, it almost looked like the ‘bot was climbing a mountain. That also contributed to us making some of the last-minute changes.”
Thankfully, all those last-minute modifications paid off. The Robot Ninja team took home third place at the competition.

“We didn’t think we would place that high, especially our first year going,” Dresselhaus said. “But it was cool to see the hard work pay off.”

Even better, the Donkey Car robot built by Epperson and Ashcraft (and assisted at the event by fellow BTĚěĚĂstudent Austin Miller) captured top honors. They were also the only team to complete the entire obstacle course.

While taking home first and third place from the nation’s oldest robotics competition was certainly a tremendous success, Zhang had a slightly different perspective.

“I didn’t think we’d get first and third place, so that was a nice surprise,” said Zhang, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy in UCA’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. “But I more valued the process the students went through. They were dedicated to this project and showed off their intelligence and their determination.”

“Nothing worked right out of the box,” Zhang added, recalling the early days of the build process for both teams. “But that’s engineering. You can’t be discouraged. If things aren’t working, you have to spend the time to figure them out. And our students, they never gave up when things weren’t working. They just kept trying hard to solve the problem.”

Humphrey agreed and offered his advice for future BTĚěĚĂrobotics teams.

“It’s going to be hard and you’re going to get frustrated,” Humphrey said. “We hit a lot of walls – there were times we had to ask for help. You can’t let that stop you from learning and giving it your best shot. It’s not going to be easy. But everything we went through, it was all worth doing.”

Few organizations match the worldwide prestige of the National Geographic Society, the group that has inspired generations of people to explore cultures, history and science. Now, one University of Central Arkansas alumna is helping to make sure its vast collection of unpublished photographs are available online for future generations.

Captured during expeditions around the world, the National Geographic Society has some 12 million photographs in its archives. Julie McVey ’11, the archival manager of the National Geographic Society’s Digital Preservation Initiative Project, leads the team digitizing this content for preservation.

“The project’s biggest goal is to get those photos out to the world in a respectful and thoughtful way, so people can more deeply connect with one another, our planet and everything that’s in it,” she said. “I really think that this is great for everybody.”

McVey and her team of archivists are responsible for digitizing an array of archival materials: prints, film negatives, maps and scrapbooks. From photos in the collection dating to the 1860s to millions of Kodachrome slides, these digital copies serve to preserve and create unprecedented access to the archives.

The volume of content means that not everything will be available online, but McVey and her team will digitize as much as they can. They are also soliciting funding to make more images available. For example, the team earned a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to digitize and conserve a collection of early color photographs in the form of 15,000 glass plates.

The Beebe, Arkansas, native traces her interest in the past to an early love of ancient civilizations. One moment, she read all she could about the Egyptians; the next, she moved onto the Greeks. McVey came to BTĚěĚĂin 2007 as a Schedler Honors College scholar to study anthropology. But once on campus, she discovered an unexpected interest in the digital humanities and switched her major to history.

After graduation, she took advantage of UCA’s career networking opportunities and earned an internship at the Clinton Foundation that exposed her to Arkansas’s public history field. She then landed a position at the Mosaic Templar’s’ Cultural Center in Little Rock, which allowed her to push local institutions to think boldly about how to pivot to online collections. After relocating to Washington, D.C., she joined the Library of Congress to create metadata — a set of information that describes and interprets the images to help users find them — for United States Supreme Court documents, increasing access to cases for legal scholars.

“Julie excelled in her internship at the Clinton Library, developing educational programs and projects for college students,” said Kimberly Little, a lecturer in the BTĚěĚĂDepartment of History. “Her work ethic and academic curiosity make her an excellent example for current students and alumni.”

In the decade since graduation, McVey has witnessed huge leaps in technology, especially in the evolution of scanning equipment and in the opportunities to store more content online. The National Geographic Society is exploring ways to use artificial intelligence software to generate metadata which frees archivists for other tasks.

As far apart as antiquities and modern technology may be, McVey appreciates how the field has grown to consider the ethics and stewardship of collections. Historically, explorers and historians often acquired material without respect to the dignity of the communities with whom they were engaging.

“Many early explorers would travel to places and take photographs with an already formed narrative about how they wanted to introduce a community to the world,” she said. “And often they did not ask questions to anyone on the ground to learn about their lives.”

McVey says that her time in the Schedler Honors College influenced her sense of ethics, as it provided a unique, personal environment that focused on sharing ideas and developing citizen scholars.

“The Honors College facilitated relationship building and helped us be able to talk honestly and openly to one another,” she says. “Especially in this day and age, that’s a valuable skill as most of our interactions are online.”

Along with sharing these stories with a broader audience, McVey has valued the opportunity to reframe a lot of the narratives gathered in the past.

“It’s been a great experience, and my career is a lot more technical than I expected it to be,” she said. “I feel like BTĚěĚĂprimed me to share these resources digitally for everyone to experience.”

As the confetti floated through the air and mingled with the cheers ringing from the audience, Ebony Mitchell ’19 walked to the front of the Robinson Center stage in Little Rock. A crown glittered atop her head and a satin sash draped over her shoulder.

Mitchell had just been crowned as the 84th Miss Arkansas and was understandably savoring the moment.

“It was the most indescribable feeling,” Mitchell said. “I’ve watched the Miss Arkansas pageant since I was five years old. I’ve dreamed of having my own crowning moment. And when they called my name, it was just a mix of emotions. I was so thankful and grateful but also proud of the work I had put in to make it to that point. Plus, I was just so excited about the year to come.”

Mitchell’s journey to the Miss Arkansas summit began as a young girl in Harrison, Arkansas. She entered a local pageant and delighted in dressing up and performing on stage. But it was later that year after meeting Eudora Mosby ’04 (now Eudora Evans), then the reigning Miss Arkansas and just the second African American woman to wear the crown, that Mitchell really began to dream big.

“I enjoyed that first pageant. Then Miss Arkansas came to my school,” Mitchell said. “I had never seen someone who looks like me in a position like that. I knew who she was but I didn’t realize how much of an impact she would have on me until I saw her in person. It was like a light switch went on in my head. I knew I wanted to be Miss Arkansas.”

She continued to participate in pageants throughout her childhood, but as a teenager, her journey changed course. She put her pageant pursuits on hold to focus on cheerleading and sports, in hopes of earning a college scholarship. That focus paid off when she earned a cheerleading scholarship to attend UCA.

But seeing a fellow Arkansan, Savvy Shields, capture the Miss America title in 2017 reminded her just how much she missed the pageant stage and reignited her dream to be named Miss Arkansas.

With her ambition rekindled, Mitchell decided to enter the Miss BTĚěĚĂcompetition and captured the crown her senior year. In a college career that included being named captain of the BTĚěĚĂcheerleading team and earning a degree in marketing, serving as Miss BTĚěĚĂwas unquestionably a highlight.

“I love BTĚěĚĂand I loved my time as Miss UCA,” Mitchell said. “They have the best support system for their queen. They almost treat you like you’re Miss Arkansas. Plus, President Davis and his wife Jenny are both so supportive. I would be Miss BTĚěĚĂevery year if I could.”

Success in the 2019 Miss BTĚěĚĂevent earned her a spot on the statewide stage for the third consecutive year. She finished in the Top 15 that year, her first time as a semi-finalist. There was no competition in 2020, but she earned first runner-up honors in 2021 before ascending to the top spot in 2022.

Mitchell’s year as Miss Arkansas will be a busy one. She’ll represent the state during a variety of events and activities. And there will be school visits and meetings with state officials, where she’ll promote her personal platform, A Responsible Digital You, which aims to teach children about online safety.

“I really want to spread awareness about online and digital safety throughout the state,” Mitchell said. “I first got onto Facebook when I was in seventh grade and I was posting things like my phone number and my address. I was young and just didn’t understand how social media worked. My goal is to talk to kids of all ages and let them know how to be safe when they’re online.”

Not long after being crowned, Mitchell ’19 got a congratulatory message from Mosby. The two met for lunch, where Miss Arkansas 2005 gifted Miss Arkansas 2022 a pair of designer shoes to wear during the Miss America competition.

“I had not talked to or seen Eudora since 2005, when I was nine, and spending time with her after so many years was incredible,” Mitchell said. “She was just as amazing as I remembered. She was an inspiration to me and I hope that I’m able to have that same type of impact on kids today.”

While earning the title of Miss Arkansas was the culmination of a long-held dream, it’s also another step towards her ultimate aspiration: being chosen Miss America 2023. Looking ahead to the national competition brings back many of the same emotions she felt on that Little Rock stage this past summer.

“Being Miss Arkansas has been a dream. It’s been a long journey to get here but an incredible one,” Mitchell said. “At times, I really can’t believe I’m going to compete in Miss America. I’m excited about the opportunity, though, and I’m going to try my hardest to bring the Miss America crown back to Arkansas.”

As the BTĚěĚĂphysical therapy program celebrates its 50th year, Nat Grubbs ’87 can clearly see the key to its success.
“When I think of BTĚěĚĂphysical therapy, I think of the faculty,” said Grubbs.

With a relationship to BTĚěĚĂPT that stretches back more than 35 years, he should know. As an alumnus, former instructor and ongoing supporter, Grubbs has been a firsthand witness to the array of first-rate faculty.

“We have had an incredible succession of impactful faculty members,” Grubbs said.

“From Joe Finnell, who established the program when there was no physical therapy school in Arkansas and was still on the faculty when I was a student in ’86, to Dr. Venita Lovelace-Chandler, who chaired the program for 23 years; Nancy Reese, former chair and now dean of the College of Health and Behavioral Sciences; longtime faculty member Bill Bandy; plus many others who have left their mark on the program – this is a group of incredible people,” he added.

Grubbs noted that part of what makes the faculty so special is that they are more invested in student achievement than in pursuing academic accolades for themselves.

“The culture within the BTĚěĚĂphysical therapy program is all about student success,” Grubbs said. “The faculty believe that everything else will take care of itself if you take care of the students and facilitate their success – and I think they’ve done a wonderful job of that.”

Recognizing a Need

Finnell started the BTĚěĚĂphysical therapy program in 1969 at a time when Arkansas had about fewer than 40 licensed physical therapists spread thin among a population of 1.9 million. Finnell came from Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas at the invitation of Arkansas health care leaders who envisioned the impact a physical therapy program could have.

The program matriculated its first graduates in 1972.

Those first graduates earned a bachelor’s degree. Over the years, the program has grown to offer other degrees, including a Master of Science in physical therapy.

Since 2000, students have been able to earn either a Doctor of Physical Therapy or Doctor of Philosophy in physical therapy.

BTĚěĚĂremains the only program in the state to offer both DPT and Ph.D. physical therapy programs. The university also began offering an accredited Pediatric Physical Therapy Residency program in 2009.

Today, BTĚěĚĂis home to the largest physical therapy program in the state. Each cohort consists of 60 students, which is significantly larger than other physical therapy programs in Arkansas.

The program is nationally recognized, with alumni practicing around Arkansas and across the country. It has 300 clinical partners and 15 full-time faculty members, including 10 who hold a Ph.D. and 11 who are board-certified in clinical specialties in a variety of areas including pediatrics, neurologic physical therapy, orthopedics, sports, women’s health and wound care.

Far-Reaching Impact

BTĚěĚĂPT program alumni now number more than 2,500.

“Everywhere you go in Arkansas physical therapy, you will find BTĚěĚĂgraduates,” said Malia Shelton, a student in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program. She first noticed it when she was researching potential places to train.

“My first impressions were that the faculty were really personable,” Shelton said. “They knew a lot of people in the community and had connections everywhere. The faculty were just outstanding.”

That impression has proven true as part of her student experience.

“Even in Fayetteville, where I’m in clinic right now, when I’m among physical therapists, they all graduated from UCA,” Shelton said. “The message is very much, ‘We love BTĚěĚĂstudents. BTĚěĚĂknows what they’re doing.’ It’s the faculty and it’s the legacy of having been around for so long in Arkansas.”

The story is the same for Grubbs. His PT clinic in Monticello, South Arkansas Rehabilitation Inc., has 11 employees. Seven of them are BTĚěĚĂgraduates.

“There are BTĚěĚĂgraduates in academia, there are BTĚěĚĂgraduates in practice ownership, there are BTĚěĚĂgraduates in healthcare administration and then there are so many BTĚěĚĂgraduates just in the trenches, so to speak, working directly in patient care all day, every day,” Grubbs said. “The institution and program have made a huge impact on the state of Arkansas.”

State-of-the-Art Facilities

While the quality of the faculty hasn’t changed over the years, one thing that has is the training facilities.

When the program first started, it used part of a former hospital building in Little Rock thanks to a clinical partnership. It was not really designed for physical therapy training.

“Fast-forward to now and the facilities not only are stellar, but the BTĚěĚĂPhysical Therapy program has dedicated space in a building designed specifically for teaching physical therapy – something that is really rare in PT education,” Grubbs said, adding that physical therapy programs tend to share space with a variety of other allied health professionals, just as BTĚěĚĂstudents did in the beginning.

“Today, BTĚěĚĂhas this dedicated, state-of-the-art Interprofessional Teaching Center and as an adjunct to that, the gross motor lab they have now is absolutely state-of-the-art,” Grubbs said.

The Interprofessional Teaching Center is part of the new Integrated Health Sciences building, which opened in August 2021 and boasts 80,000 square feet for students and faculty in the College of Health and Behavioral Sciences. The ITC offers free health care services to the public, while also serving as a training center where students learn hands-on skills and practice working as an interprofessional team.

It is the first of its kind in the region. Then again, the BTĚěĚĂPhysical Therapy program is accustomed to being one of a kind.

Grubbs is thankful that BTĚěĚĂcontinues to recognize the Physical Therapy program as a crown jewel for the university and the state and that the BTĚěĚĂleadership continues to invest in its future.

“After 50 years, the BTĚěĚĂphysical therapy program is still very much a student-facing culture,” Grubbs said. “The faculty still have not lost that commitment to student success. Thankfully, they now have even more tools at their disposal to continue their outstanding work.”

Images From the 1972 Scroll

BTĚěĚĂathletics student photographer is industry’s rising star

The first time Jaden Powell ’22 picked up a camera, his life came into focus.

In the eight years since that day, Powell has not only honed his craft but has also been recognized as one of the nation’s most talented up-and-coming sports photographers.

All despite never setting foot in a formal photography class.

“I’ve always been in sports, but I had a lot of injuries in high school. Every time I would get sidelined, I would take pictures instead. It was my way to stay involved,” said Powell, a Wichita, Kansas, native who plans to earned a degree n marketing from UCA’s College of Business in December 2022.

When he arrived at BTĚěĚĂas a second semester freshman transfer student, Powell jumped headfirst into campus life by serving as the mascot for football and basketball games. When his true skills came to light, however, athletic department leaders knew they had a golden opportunity on their hands. Powell was quickly moved into a photography position where he began shooting all BTĚěĚĂsports and related events.

Regardless of the sport, Powell – who now serves as UCA’s lead athletics photographer – is there to record the action. His photos are featured on the BTĚěĚĂwebsite, social media, posters, ads and anywhere else the university promotes its athletics programs.

While his favorite sport to photograph is soccer, Powell especially enjoys one-on-one shoots with athletes where he captures their grit, skill and personality in portrait form.

“I enjoy shooting portraits because I can control the lighting and work with shadows,” said Powell. His admiration of famed civil rights photographer Gordon Parks has inspired Powell’s use of contrast to display the depth and determination of athletes both on and off the field.

“When I started shooting portraits, I was really into Gordon Parks’ work and tried to bring his style and use of light and dark into sports photography,” he said.

It didn’t take long for Powell’s friends and coworkers to see that. While his vibrant style and engaging talent were a boon for BTĚěĚĂathletics, his work deserved a far wider audience. But that would take this modest rising star far outside his comfort zone.

“At the time, I didn’t think I was that good,” he said.

In 2021, at the encouragement of his former athletic department supervisor, Powell agreed to apply for the prestigious Doug Pensinger Photography Fund Grant and Mentorship. Established in 2019, the fund supports emerging and early-career sports photographers through $5,000 grants and one-on-one mentoring.

“I had never heard of the fund and didn’t realize how big it is. I sent in my application and about three months later got a call that I was selected for both the grant and mentorship,” said Powell, adding that he was only one of three applicants chosen for both honors.

An online conference followed during which doors began to open. Powell met and learned from nationally recognized sports photographers, as well as Maxx Wolfson, the Getty Images director of sport photography for the Americas. Getty Images is the foremost source of photography from newsworthy events around the world.

He also began a relationship with his new mentor, award-winning Kansas City-based sports photographer Jamie Squire.

In addition to critiquing his portfolio during regularly scheduled online visits, Squire urged Powell to apply for another contest that would potentially give him an opportunity most sports photographers only dream of.

Hosted by NCAA Photos and Clarkson Creative and sponsored by Canon, the Men’s Final Four Sports Photography Workshop is a highly competitive event that brings together 12 students to learn firsthand from professional photographers and gain the exclusive experience of shooting during the Final Four.

“I assumed there would be thousands of applicants. I thought I would just go through the application process and that would be all,” he said.

It was only a matter of days, however, before Powell received notice that he had been selected as a workshop participant and would be traveling to New Orleans for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“Walking into the Superdome was mind blowing,” he said. “It was definitely an experience to see all the background that goes into shooting the Final Four. A lot of people see the final images, but they don’t know how many cameras the photographers are controlling.”

While there, he got the advantage of having his work critiqued by nationally recognized sports photographers, as well as the experience of shooting practices, media events and the Reese’s College All-Star Games.

Powell also met Squire and Wolfson in person for the first time, both of whom made a point to offer him encouragement and support. “I didn’t realize how big this all was until I got to the Final Four,” he said.

Squire also was instrumental in helping to secure $25,000 worth of Canon professional equipment for Powell as he establishes his career.

“It’s been wild,” said Powell, who aspires to work for a company like Getty Images where he can photograph sporting events around the world.

Looking back, Powell believes his time with BTĚěĚĂAthletics has been the perfect place to kickstart his future in the sports photography world.

“I haven’t had some of the glitz and glamor of bigger schools, but I have had more opportunities and access. I have taken advantage of all of that during my time at UCA,” he said.