University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Pre-Med/Cancer Researcher
Student Athlete / Donaghey Scholar
Rogers High School

What brought you to UALR and Little Rock?

My name is Ashley Fejleh, and my major is environmental health sciences with a minor in biology. I’m taking courses to guide me to attend medical school, in addition to my major and minor.

Well originally I’m from Rogers, Arkansas and I went to Rogers high school, graduated from there. I got recruited to come play volleyball at UALR. And that’s what brought me here, initially. I came here, practiced with the team, loved the atmosphere, loved the Stephens Center, toured the city, and really thought it was wonderful. And in addition to that, I had an opportunity to be on the track team. The opportunities that brought me to UALR were athletics.

What other factors motivated you to enroll, and stay at UALR even after your sports injury?

Two things really kept me on campus after my knee surgery, instead of transferring. For one, I was accepted into the Donaghey Scholars program directed by dr. Ramsey. And it really helped me shift gears from being an athlete to truly being immersed in an academic environment and as a scholar I’ve been exposed to unique interdisciplinary course framework that I wouldn’t have gotten if I wouldn’t have been in the Donaghey Scholars program.

I’ll actually be given the opportunity to study abroad this summer in Spain or Mexico as part of the program’s package. Another thing that I love about the Donaghey Scholars program that kept me at UALR and made me decide to stay, was that there’s sort of a unity that you see amongst the UALR Donaghey Scholars faculty and the scholars. And I really admire that and it was an honors program that I wanted to be a part of.

The other thing that kept me at UALR was a chance to take part in some cutting-edge cancer and biomedical research in the UALR nanotechnology center. With the help of Dr. Alex Biris and the group of other leading researchers that I have the chance to work with, I’ve been able to use the nanotechnology center to investigate new state-of-the art cancer treatment methods that I wouldn’t be able to do at any other research institute in the state.

Even though I started without any lab experience, any prior knowledge, Dr. Biris once told me that all I needed was the motivation, dedication and a desire to learn, and with a step-dad battling prostate cancer right now, I had all of those. So I was really able to flourish in that environment.

So, nowhere but UALR has the honors program and the research institute, quite like the ones I’m able to be involved with here. So why would I leave is the real question.

Did you feel like your new scholarship and your research were reason enough to stay in Little Rock?

It was that and also, I’m seeking to become a physician, and coming to Little Rock, I had so many more opportunities, because I’m so close to UAMS, the medical school that I hope to attend. As you know, several different hospitals, Arkansas Children’s, UAMS, Baptist, and I’ve you know, had no choice but to take advantage of those opportunities here. I’m a volunteer at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and I do that on the weekends. I thought about that; I contemplated where I wanted to go. I could have gone anywhere in Arkansas and I chose Little Rock.

Did you have any initial concerns about moving to Little Rock?

Well initially, whenever I came here, I was kind of intimidated because it was a larger city, the roads might have been confusing for me, I was afraid of getting lost in the city being here all by myself. So, that was an initial concern for me. And of course the safety- being in a larger city than Rogers, Arkansas. But whenever I got here, I realized that Little Rock is a city, and it’s the capital city with a larger population that what I was used to, but at the same time it’s small enough and connected enough to where I felt comfortable. And I was taking a step up by being in the capital city, getting more opportunities in that way. But at the same time, you’re surrounded by nature. It’s a beautiful city.

How does social life fit in with your studies? And what have you noticed in others?

I think it’s up to the individual. It’s up to your personality, because if you want a more social environment, it’s there. There’s Greek life, there’s sororities, fraternities, there’s the dorms, there’s on-campus apartments. And if you want to reside in those you can, and get more of a social interaction at UALR.

But there’s also another route you can take where you can live off campus. You can live anywhere in Little Rock and commute to UALR. You know, lead your own life and engage in the social interaction that you want to. In the night classes that I have, I take classes with people from all different backgrounds. They work full-time jobs during the day, and they’re completing their degree right now. It’s pretty neat to see those people in class because it gives you an extra boost of motivation to know that you can juggle things and still be a student at UALR because I guess, because of how the courses are set up.

What kind of activities have you enjoyed, on campus and off?

I ride a road bike, and I cycle with friends and family. My brother’s actually here. We research together in the nanotechnology center. So I played sports for the first two years that I was here. I played volleyball. I was the defensive specialist for the Lady Trojans. I had some major knee problems. I had to have two knee surgeries, pretty invasive surgeries. They completely changed the anatomy of my leg. So after I had my knee surgeries, I decided that I would just kinda pursue my academic career, and hang up my volleyball shoes and my track shoes. I threw the javelin for the track team and I high-jumped my first year with the track team. So I’ve done at lot at UALR.

There’s just so many opportunities available to students that if you want to succeed, you will. Because it’s just so accessible, there’s professors, and everybody’s so pleasant around here. I haven’t had a bad experience with a single one.

Dance Major
North Little Rock High School Grad

How did you arrive at UALR? And what kind of opportunities has the capital city afforded you?

One of the other schools that I considered, and I actually went to orientation and got accepted, was in a really small town, and it was really quiet, the inner-city was really tiny. They didn’t have a lot of places to go, and I felt like I was closed off from the world. And here, I feel like it’s so much more open, I have a bunch of opportunities. And they didn’t have the academic major that I was looking into. They had a minor in it, but I know that if I wanted to pursue my career choice, that this would be the place for me. And so, this is what attracted me to UALR.

I started dancing halfway through my sophomore year of high school. I started out in musicals. My favorite thing about being in this city is the shows. Like, I can go down to the Rep Theater and see shows, also traveling shows come to Robinson Center Music Hall and I get to see shows there. Also there’s a bunch of restaurants. Kavanaugh is really close to the school. Kavanaugh has a bunch of really cool places. It’s really culturally diverse, and there’s like little restaurants, they’re just home-town restaurants, not chains.

There are a lot of apartments too. So you can find a place to live, right in the inner-city too. And of course park plaza mall is right here. So you can shop. Everybody loves to shop. New clothes all the time. So that’s really cool about living in the city.

I actually lived on campus my first semester of school, in the apartments on campus. And they are really nice. They’re really comfortable. You get your own room and you have a kitchen and a refrigerator and everything. And you can make your own food. I really liked that. I’m actually considering moving to an apartment really close to the mall, Park Plaza, cause it’s really like a 10-minute, less than 10-minutes to get to school. And that’s really convenient. And then it’s really convenient to the interstate so I can get to North Little Rock or West Little Rock and get to work.

If you live in Little Rock, there’s a ton of job opportunities, because first of all, all the restaurants, anybody can be a waiter when you’re in college, and there’s a ton of restaurants right here in town, out in west Little Rock, over off Breckenridge village, you can work at the movie theater, all those restaurants out there. Even downtown in the metro area there’s businesses that you can work at.

A lot of people seem to think that living in the city is just living in the city, it’s like a concrete jungle. But actually, it’s not always loud. I mean, there’s a bunch of quiet places you can go. Cause I think when people think of this city they think it’s always loud and rush and bunch of people. But it’s pretty quiet. You can find a peaceful place. You can go to the parks downtown, there’s the river bridge, and you can go to Pinnacle mountain which is just around the corner, there’s Burns Park out in north little rock, and there’s parks and bridges, you can go golfing out there. My mom and her friends they like to go out and go fishing, out by the river, there’s also places you can fish out in Burns Park, there’s a dog park out in Burns Park. It’s really cool. There’s a whole bunch of outdoorsy things. You can go down by the river trail. If you like outdoorsy kinds of things, Little Rock area is a great place to live for that.

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Arkansas Supreme Court - IT Security Analyst
Conway High School Grad

Tell us more about why you chose UALR and ultimately, Little Rock as the place for your education.

“I went to Conway High School, in Conway of course. UALR was a very easy choice for me to make. I checked out almost all the other colleges and universities in the state. Little Rock is a very obvious choice for colleges. It’s the center of business; it’s the center of technology for Arkansas. Any other college that you go to, there are certainly other colleges and they vary in size and programs and what they have to offer, but none of them are in a comparable environment. There’s no other city-center like UALR has access to.”

What was your transition from High School like? Any advice for someone just starting at UALR?

Coming to UALR from Conway for me was not too terribly much of a jump. You know, I had casually come to Little Rock every other week or so throughout high school. You know, my parents were still just half an hour away but it was still far enough away that I felt enough independence that I was able to just have a college time, instead of well I’m still in the same town with my parents, and you know, the same high school people, the same place I graduated from.

It was a big jump for diversity and very, very good for independence. It’s a lot like any other college in a smaller town, that if you want to, you know, hey it’s 2 a.m. let’s go to the Denny’s. Well you can do that, it’s right down the street. But you also have the RiverMarket district in Little Rock. They have live music there pretty much every night, the weekends it’s a very big social scene down there. There’s several music venues around the area.

For a high school student coming into Little Rock, maybe to UALR, I would definitely recommend to you know find what you enjoy doing. It’s going to be available in Little Rock. But step outside your bounds, step outside what you’re normally comfortable doing. Meet new people. Little Rock has a lot to offer people, especially people coming from smaller cities around the state. It has a lot of experiences that they would not get at another place. And I definitely encourage them to experience that.”

Did you have initial concerns about Crime in Little Rock?

I really didn’t have any concerns. My parents had normal, healthy concerns with the safety of the environment. Little Rock is a larger city, it’s an urban city. The UALR Police Department, they have, by I believe federal law they have to have several years worth of crime statistics available to anybody who asks for it, and they do. And if you look at that, there’s really a very low amount of crime. From what I saw, a lot of the parents always had safety concerns. You would think it’s in a metropolitan area so it has to have more crime, where it really does not. UALR is very, very low on the crime. It’s very, very low on any sort of violence. It’s a very safe university in terms of universities.

How did attending college in Little Rock effect your career outlook?

My junior and senior year at UALR, I was able to actually have an internship at the Arkansas Supreme Court. Obviously, you’re not going to be able to do that at any other place in the state, since they are based in Little Rock. I found my internship through the UALR co-op department. They are very helpful with looking at different internship opportunities around the area, and helping UALR students set up interviews. They were able to provide me with quite a few options for jobs.