A UALR School of Mass Communication instructor has won an award for his work on a promotional video for Saline Memorial Hospital.
David Weekley received a 2015 Bronze Telly Award for directing, shooting, and editing the video with some of his UALR students helping as crew.
With nearly 12,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries, this year’s Telly Awards was one of the most successful and competitive in its long history.
A prestigious judging panel of more than 650 accomplished industry professionals judged the competition, upholding the historical standard of excellence that Telly represents.
Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest video and film productions, and web commercials, videos and films. Winners represent the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, and corporate video departments in the world.
This year’s winners include companies, agencies, and organizations of all sizes, from large multinational media companies to small ad agencies and local production houses.
UALR Visiting Assistant Professor of English Frank Thurmond, was recently interviewed in Sync Weekly about his new book and the subsequent film to come out of a story within it.
The book, “Ring of Five: A Novella and Four Stories,” is a story of a British master spy that blends “espionage, politics, love and betrayal,” according to Amazon.com.
Thurmond was among several faculty to participate in the 2015 Arkansas Literary Festival, where he launched his new book at the Arkansas Literary Festival, The movie “The Dealer’s Tale” will premier at the Little Rock Film Festival.
Jennife
r Godwin, associate director of digital strategy, recently completed her third Walk MS: Central Arkansas as the volunteer chair. The annual event held in 300 U.S. cities each year is the flagship event of the National MS Society, which aims to raise awareness about multiple sclerosis. The disease of the central nervous system affects more than 2.3 million people worldwide.
The central Arkansas walks have raised more than $100,000 each year. Around 78 cents of every dollar goes to support programs, services, and research to help those living with the disease.
Chief People Officer Pamela Culpepper of the global communications giant, Golin, is the recipient of the 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
The award is the highest honor given by the UALR Alumni Association.
Culpepper will receive her award at a luncheon honoring her and other award recipients beginning at 11:30 a.m., Friday, May 15, at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.
Joining her will be the UALR 2015 Presidents Award winner, Martha Stephenson, an award bestowed on individuals with career success and a profound dedication to the university. Also being honored is the winner of this year’s Edward L. Whitbeck Memorial Award, Saad Azam. The award is given to an outstanding graduating senior who has demonstrated excellence in scholarship, leadership, citizenship, and character.
The event is hosted by the UALR Foundation Fund Board and the UALR Alumni Association.
More about the honorees
Pamela Culpepper
Most recently, she was named Chief People Officer of Golin, a global communications firm with about 700 employees and 34 offices around the world. In her role, Culpepper seeks to cultivate the company’s most important asset, happy and engaged employees.
Culpepper was working full time at a local investment firm when she realized advancing her education would afford her more opportunities. Never one to shy away from hard work, Culpepper enrolled in school full time even as she continued to work.
Upon graduation with a B.A. degree in psychology in 1988, she decided to take a leap and move to California, where she began a career in human resources working for Wells Fargo. While in California, Culpepper pursued graduate school at California State University-Hayward and received her masters degree in public administration with an emphasis in organizational leadership. Most of Culpepper’s family still resides in Little Rock, including her mother whom she says was a tremendous influence.
Martha Stephenson
Stephenson is no stranger to accolades. She graduated from UALR with a bachelor’s degree in history and English in 1972, the same year she was named winner of the Whitbeck Memorial Award. She earned her juris doctorate from the UALR Bowen School of Law in 1978.
Stephenson recently spearheaded the efforts to create a courtyard with benches and extra green space near the UALR Ottenheimer Library in celebration of the Chi Omega Sorority’s 50th anniversary as a chapter. Named the Chi Omega Plaza, Stephenson oversaw fundraising of more than $28,000 for a student sitting area and courtyard. The area will be complete in May, a full year after the 50th anniversary. The landscaping is entering its second phase, and a dedication will be held on May 31.
Stephenson also served on the UALR Foundation Fund board for six years and is an active member of the UALR Alumni Association, recently sponsoring a table at the annual Taste of Little Rock event.The Martha Sawrie Stephenson Endowed Scholarship is held in her honor at UALR. It is awarded to a full-time or part-time student who is a declared major in English, history, or political science.
Saad Azam
Azam is only the second Arkansan ever invited back to NASA for multiple internships. Born and raised in Pakistan until he was 14, Azam graduates as a UALR Donaghey Scholar and Science Scholar. Azam interned at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology and has been offered a permanent position after graduation.
He is a double major in chemistry and biology, and he received a NASA Workforce Development Fellowship to intern at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he worked on solid-state electrochemistry and chemical physics. The following year Azam was hired for a second internship where he helped develop rechargeable, high energy, aqueous metal hydride-air batteries for electric vehicles. He will return a third time to continue his work at NASA this summer.
He received a $6,500 statewide undergraduate research fellowship grant from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education. His research was published in the Journal of Applied Polymer Science. Winner of the National American Chemical Society chapter award, College of Science leadership award, and Chemistry Department award, Azam and his work have contributed to the future of STEM in Arkansas.
For more than 18 months, Philip and Deborah Palludan have endured the kind of echoing pain no parent should ever have to shoulder. Continue reading “‘Butterfly Swamp 5K’ to raise scholarship funds and awareness”
All six members of the senior class in UALR’s civil and construction engineering program have passed the American Institute of Constructor’s (AIC) Associate Constructor (AC) exam on the first try.
This marks the first time every senior in the civil and construction engineering program passed the exam on the first attempt.
The eight-hour exam is administered nationwide only twice per year.
With 378 students out of 788 passing nationwide, the national pass rate on the March 2015 administration was 48 percent, according to Associate Professor Nickolas Jovanovic of the Department of Construction Management and Civil and Construction Engineering.
“This achievement suggests that the construction courses at UALR are preparing students to meet and exceed national standards,” said Jovanovic.
“It demonstrates that the entire senior class of civil and construction engineering students is very well prepared to make the transition from college to the workplace or graduate school,” he said.
The names of the six members of the senior class, along with their internship employers, are:
• Sarah Brown, McCarthy Building Companies
• Joshua Hendricks, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Angela Matika, Prospect Steel
• Whitney Montague, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Esteban Rodriguez, Crossland Construction, and CDI Contractors
• Essie Whitmore, Entergy Arkansas Nuclear One, and CDI Contractors
In addition, these six seniors have been working with structural engineers at Cromwell Architects Engineers and CDI Contractors every other week since last August on their senior design project, “Seismic Retrofit Feasibility Study for the American Red Cross Facility in Little Rock, Arkansas.”
Upon graduation, the students will be eligible to apply for AIC’s Associate Constructor certification, which will identify them as professionally competent because of verifiable skills and knowledge levels, according to the AIC website.
The civil and construction engineering program, housed in the Department of Construction Management & Civil and Construction Engineering within UALR’s Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology, is the only program of its kind in the U.S.
It prepares students to be both civil engineers and construction engineers in a single degree program, said Jovanovic.
In addition to completing a rigorous 128-hour curriculum, students in the civil and construction engineering program must also complete three professional requirements in order to graduate:
- Pass the Associate Constructor (AC) nationwide exam
- Pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) nationwide exam
- Obtain at least 800 hours of engineering or construction-related work experience
The UALR Forum staff took home 11 awards, including five first-place awards and a prestigious General Excellence Award at the annual Arkansas College Media Association conference Friday, April 17, at John Brown University in Siloam Springs.
The ACMA annually convenes to recognize the best of the state’s media output and is made up of colleges and universities throughout Arkansas.
The Forum’s head graphic designer/art director, Byron Buslig of El Dorado, won Designer of the Year in the competition’s General Excellence category while also winning first-place in newspaper advertising.
Other first-place award winners were Maggie Rogers of Stuttgart, Grant Fox of Little Rock, and Brian Gregory of Jacksonville.
Rogers, sports editor, won two top awards in the online category: one for breaking news story and the other for sports photo.
Fox, entertainment editor, received first-place for newspaper headline writing. Gregory, staff writer, won the category for election/political articles, also in the online category.
Winning second-place awards were KenDrell Collins of Osceola and Gregory. Collins, the publication’s executive editor, placed in the newspaper general column writing category while Gregory placed for online sports photo.
Third-place awards went to Paige Mason of Fresno, Calif., and Victoria Temple of Maumelle. Mason, an illustrator, won in categories for newspaper editorial cartoon and newspaper cartoon strip or single panel entertainment cartoon. Temple, a graphic designer, placed in the classified newspaper advertising category.
“I am very pleased with The Forum’s showing,” said Faculty Advisor Sonny Rhodes.
“The competition this year was extremely strong, and our students represented UALR admirably. I am very proud of them.”
Students in the visual and performing arts at UALR will present their work at South on Main from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 7.
The event is free and open to the public. Seating at the bar is open, but reservations must be made for table service. Reservations may be made at 501.244.9660 or at opentable.com. Continue reading “Oxford American and South on Main to host annual artists’ event”
USAble Life Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mark Langston and his wife, Ann, recently established an endowed scholarship at the UALR’s College of Business.
The Mark and Ann Langston Endowed Scholarship will benefit students enrolled in the UALR Department of Accounting.
The Langston’s $25,000 gift will support undergraduate and graduate-level students pursuing or advancing an education in accounting. To qualify, the student must declare as an accounting major and have a minimum 3.0 grade point average.
Langston said he and his wife benefited from scholarships during their time as students.
“We have been blessed and now have the opportunity to give back to the next generation of students that will become the future business leaders in Arkansas and beyond,” he said.
“I am grateful to Mark and Ann for this generous gift in support of our students” said Dr. Jane Wayland, Stephen Harrow Smith Dean of Business. “This scholarship will ease the financial burden of attending college for so many of our accounting students.”
The College of Business will host its annual Private Scholarship Awards Ceremony at 6 p.m. Friday, May 1, in the atrium of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business and Economic Development.
For more information on this event or private philanthropy to the College of Business, contact Andrea Angel at alangel@ualr.edu or 501.569.3208.
The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has named a University of Arkansas at Little Rock Ottenheimer librarian a member of its Depository Library Council.
Associate
Professor Karen Russ, research and community engagement librarian at UALR, was appointed as one of five new members to the council serving a three-year term that begins June 1.
Council members advise GPO Director and Chief Executive Officer Davita Vance-Cooks on policy matters relating to the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The FDLP was established by Congress to ensure the public has access to government information.
In addition to experience working in various types of libraries, Russ and her fellow council members are knowledgeable of current developments in library science and government information, Vance-Cooks said in a recent news release.
“Their advisory role on issues facing our nation’s federal depository libraries will be invaluable to me,” said Vance-Cooks.
Russ is known throughout the state and region for her leadership in marketing Federal Depository Library Program services and for her scholarship and presentations on government information.
She has also worked closely with GPO as an advisor for “Ben’s Guide to Government Information.” Russ is the recipient of multiple awards from the Arkansas Library Association.
“I am very proud to be the first representative from Arkansas in the 50-plus years of the council and its predecessor’s existence,” Russ said. “I look forward to enlarging and preserving the public’s access to information from agencies of the federal government,” she said.
UALR’s Ottenheimer Library was also one of the two Federal Depository Libraries of the Year in 2014.
The academic year is winding down, but the time for supporting your university lasts all calendar-year long. Continue reading “UALR Campus Campaign kicks off”