UA Little Rock Alumni Find Success at Apptegy
A group of University of Arkansas at Little Rock alumni are making their mark working at Apptegy, an education-technology company based in Little Rock.
Apptegy boasts 15 UA Little Rock grads as employees spanning from Donna Hall, a 1986 English grad, to Josiah Johnson, a 2021 graduate in finance and economics.
“I’m proud to be the latest UA Little Rock addition to the Apptegy family,” Johnson said. “UA Little Rock afforded me guidance and teaching that enabled me to learn what I liked and didn’t like, gain new experiences, and grow into a role that I hadn’t considered pre-college.”
Additional alumni who work at Appetgy include Christina Boyd ’10, Keenan Gillispie ’12, Jonathan Bobo ’13, Dutch King ’13, Roko Miocic ’16, Ayron Young ’16, Matt Marshall ‘16, Hannah Corker ’16, Adam Crider ’17, James Watts ’18, Tanner Cox ’18, Christina Osorio ’20, and David Aaron ’20.
While Apptegy started off with only a handful of school districts in Arkansas, the successful start-up company now works with more than 2,500 school districts across the country. Apptegy’s Thrillshare product is a communication platform built for school leaders and allows K-12 administrators to share news, stories, and media from a single platform, which then distributes the content to linked tools like social media accounts, SMS, voice calls, mobile apps, and websites. Apptegy also offers a number of free resources to superintendents and other school leaders like SchoolCEO, which boasts a printed magazine, videos, and a podcast.
Mass communication graduate Hannah Corker ‘16, who understands the importance of helping people connect, said it was this lesson that prepared her for her job at Apptegy.
“I am grateful for the personal growth that I gained from attending UA Little Rock and how it ultimately led me to a career with Apptegy,” Corker said. “Studying mass communication at a school where many students are non-traditional pushed me outside of my comfort zone and challenged me on a daily basis. I was able to connect with people of all different backgrounds, which gave me the confidence to talk to anyone, something that comes up daily in my role as a senior recruiter at Apptegy.”
Apptegy has gained a reputation for having a unique workplace culture of high performance and thoughtfulness, resulting in Forbes naming the company one of America’s Best Startup Employers in 2020 and 2021.
Adam Crider, a 2017 grad who studied computer science and information assurance, said his exposure to so many different learning opportunities helped him prepare for a fast-paced work environment at Apptegy.
“As a college student, I was exposed to so many learning opportunities that helped me with multiple aspects of my career,” Crider said. “UA Little Rock gave me a good foundation of knowledge that I was able to apply immediately to a career after graduation. It also exposed me to many networking opportunities that I was able to use to find and build relationships with mentors and future employers.”
Many of the graduates credited UA Little Rock for providing them with a flexible and quality education that prepared them for their future careers.
“Attending UA Little Rock is the sole reason I work at Apptegy today,” said Matt Marshall ‘16, who studied computer science and math. “The computer science program prepared me to be a software engineer and gave me the tools needed to work at a high performing startup. The university gave me the opportunity to meet people in the Little Rock startup community. My earliest exposure to Apptegy was from connections I made at UA Little Rock, and that was a life changing experience for me.”
Apptegy continues to grow rapidly and is looking to hire UA Little Rock graduates. To learn more about working for Apptegy, see their open positions at apptegy.com/careers.
