[{"id":94022,"date":"2026-04-28T08:46:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?p=94022"},"modified":"2026-04-28T11:26:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T16:26:58","slug":"whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"\nNistha Neupane was in the middle of presenting her research at the UA Little Rock Research Expo when she got the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHonestly, pure shock,\u201d she said. \u201cWithin a matter of two minutes, I was surrounded by my closest friends hugging me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The moment quickly turned into something else. Her first thought was to call her parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs first-generation immigrants who built our lives from the ground up, they have sacrificed the world for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neupane is the winner of the Whitbeck Memorial Award. Established in memory of Edward Lynn Whitbeck, a senior at Little Rock University who passed away in 1965, the award was created by Frank L. and Beverly Whitbeck to recognize exceptional academic achievement and leadership. Recipients receive a plaque, a monetary award, and deliver a speech at the spring commencement ceremony. She is completing degrees in biology and chemistry while spending more than three years conducting research in Dr. Noureen Siraj\u2019s lab. Neupane’s work focused on developing gold nanoparticles for targeted cancer therapies, and she presented her research at national conferences, including the American Chemical Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her research and entrepreneurial vision have also earned national recognition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Born in Nepal, Neupane moved to the United States as a child and grew up relocating as her father pursued his Ph.D. She said those early experiences shaped her ability to adapt and build community, something that carried into her time at UA Little Rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She chose UA Little Rock because of the Donaghey Scholars Honors Program, which offered the kind of interdisciplinary education she was looking for. Its proximity to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences provided the research and clinical opportunities to match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At UA Little Rock, she did both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her interest in medicine started long before college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a child, she dealt with years of chronic, undiagnosed pain while her family navigated the healthcare system without insurance. She said many doctors dismissed her symptoms until one physician took the time to listen and advocate for her, leading to the diagnosis of a tumor that was later removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat experience changed how I see medicine,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to be someone who listens and advocates for patients who feel overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her perspective is also shaped by her family\u2019s experiences. She recalls stories about her grandfather, who died in a rural village in Nepal where access to medical care was limited. During an internship in Kathmandu, she saw similar challenges firsthand while working in a hospital with limited resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That focus on access and advocacy has guided her work on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neupane served as president of the Pre-Health Club and co-president of the American Chemical Society student organization, helping students prepare for careers in healthcare and STEM. She also worked with the Committee on Racial Equity for Students to support her peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo me, impact is about making the path clearer for the students coming after me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Balancing research, leadership, and service required discipline. Neupane said she relied on the values her family instilled in her, along with a strong sense of purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere were times I questioned myself,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I kept coming back to why I started.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She credits faculty mentors across campus for helping her navigate challenges and grow as a student and leader, along with a close group of peers who supported her throughout her time at UA Little Rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking back, she said those challenges helped her better understand the importance of community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey showed me that I was never doing it alone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Receiving the Whitbeck Award, she said, is a reflection of that journey and the broader impact of her work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt means the world to know that the energy I poured into this campus was seen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After graduation, Neupane will attend the University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine as part of the Class of 2030. She plans to pursue a career that combines clinical care, research, and community advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to be a physician who takes the time to listen,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what made the difference for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nistha Neupane was in the middle of presenting her research at the UA Little Rock Research Expo when she got the news. \u201cHonestly, pure shock,\u201d she said. \u201cWithin a matter … Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1925,1926,1922],"tags":[36044,25799,28727,3520,35323,2218],"class_list":["post-94022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","category-research","tag-commencement-2026","tag-donaghey-college-of-stem","tag-donaghey-scholars-honors-program","tag-edward-l-whitbeck-memorial-award","tag-leaders-in-the-classroom-and-communities","tag-student-success"],"yoast_head":"\nWhitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine - News - UA Little Rock<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nistha Neupane was in the middle of presenting her research at the UA Little Rock Research Expo when she got the news. \u201cHonestly, pure shock,\u201d she said. \u201cWithin a matter ... Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-28T13:46:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-28T16:26:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Nishtha-Neuprene-SURF-grant-portrait-2025_2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"835\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"UA Little Rock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"UA Little Rock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/841beab92c4de6b8988cb3708c29b192\"},\"headline\":\"Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-28T13:46:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-28T16:26:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":694,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Nishtha-Neuprene-SURF-grant-portrait-2025_2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Commencement 2026\",\"Donaghey College of STEM\",\"Donaghey Scholars Honors Program\",\"Edward L. Whitbeck Memorial Award\",\"Leaders in the Classroom and Communities\",\"Student Success\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Community\",\"Featured\",\"Research\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\\\/\",\"name\":\"Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine - News - UA Little Rock\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Nishtha-Neuprene-SURF-grant-portrait-2025_2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-28T13:46:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-28T16:26:58+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Nishtha-Neuprene-SURF-grant-portrait-2025_2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Nishtha-Neuprene-SURF-grant-portrait-2025_2.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":835,\"caption\":\"Biology student Nistha Neuprene and her mentor Dr. Noureen Siraj. Photo by Benjamn Krain\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/UALittleRock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/ualrvideo\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/school\\\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/ualr\\\/\"],\"description\":\"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.\",\"email\":\"ask@ualr.edu\",\"telephone\":\"501-916-3000\",\"legalName\":\"UA Little Rock\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/841beab92c4de6b8988cb3708c29b192\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1c41d6db803ac229bd6efa630cecf87fd2fa2c4e21272b5560ee4672f1e160d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1c41d6db803ac229bd6efa630cecf87fd2fa2c4e21272b5560ee4672f1e160d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1c41d6db803ac229bd6efa630cecf87fd2fa2c4e21272b5560ee4672f1e160d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/ualr\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine - News - UA Little Rock","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine","og_description":"Nistha Neupane was in the middle of presenting her research at the UA Little Rock Research Expo when she got the news. \u201cHonestly, pure shock,\u201d she said. \u201cWithin a matter ... Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine","og_url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/","og_site_name":"News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","article_published_time":"2026-04-28T13:46:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-28T16:26:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":835,"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Nishtha-Neuprene-SURF-grant-portrait-2025_2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"UA Little Rock","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"UA Little Rock","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/"},"author":{"name":"UA Little Rock","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/841beab92c4de6b8988cb3708c29b192"},"headline":"Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine","datePublished":"2026-04-28T13:46:50+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-28T16:26:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/"},"wordCount":694,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Nishtha-Neuprene-SURF-grant-portrait-2025_2.jpg","keywords":["Commencement 2026","Donaghey College of STEM","Donaghey Scholars Honors Program","Edward L. Whitbeck Memorial Award","Leaders in the Classroom and Communities","Student Success"],"articleSection":["Community","Featured","Research"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/","name":"Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine - News - UA Little Rock","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Nishtha-Neuprene-SURF-grant-portrait-2025_2.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-28T13:46:50+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-28T16:26:58+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Nishtha-Neuprene-SURF-grant-portrait-2025_2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Nishtha-Neuprene-SURF-grant-portrait-2025_2.jpg","width":1200,"height":835,"caption":"Biology student Nistha Neuprene and her mentor Dr. Noureen Siraj. Photo by Benjamn Krain"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/whitbeck-award-winner-nistha-neupane-focuses-on-advocacy-in-medicine\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Whitbeck Award Winner: Nistha Neupane Focuses on Advocacy in Medicine"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","name":"News","description":"UA Little Rock","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"UA Little Rock","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"UA Little Rock"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ualrvideo","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ualr\/"],"description":"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.","email":"ask@ualr.edu","telephone":"501-916-3000","legalName":"UA Little Rock"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/841beab92c4de6b8988cb3708c29b192","name":"UA Little Rock","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1c41d6db803ac229bd6efa630cecf87fd2fa2c4e21272b5560ee4672f1e160d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1c41d6db803ac229bd6efa630cecf87fd2fa2c4e21272b5560ee4672f1e160d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1c41d6db803ac229bd6efa630cecf87fd2fa2c4e21272b5560ee4672f1e160d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"UA Little Rock"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ualr.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/author\/ualr\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94022"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94032,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94022\/revisions\/94032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":93991,"date":"2026-04-28T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?p=93991"},"modified":"2026-04-28T09:09:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:09:03","slug":"purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A passion for helping others has shaped Taylor Ward\u2019s path at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, leading her to pursue careers in both health care and law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Little Rock native will graduate in May with a double major in general biology and law enforcement \u2014 bringing together her interests in health care and public service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ward has long been passionate about helping others, developing an early interest in the medical field, especially working with children. She describes herself as compassionate and nurturing, with a strong desire to help heal others. Her interest in law enforcement emerged later, during her sophomore year of college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy parents worked in law enforcement for more than 50 years combined,\u201d Ward said. \u201cI was fascinated by their work and wanted to learn more on my own, so I took the initiative to enroll in criminal justice classes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ward enjoys studying the law and has also explored an interest in forensic science. As she continued her coursework, she pursued an associate degree in law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She chose UA Little Rock because of its proximity to home and strong scholarship opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBeing able to receive 50% off tuition for the first two years of college was a blessing,\u201d Ward said. \u201cFor the past four years, I haven\u2019t had to pay out of pocket for tuition, thanks to my scholarships and, most of all, God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The university also holds personal significance for her, as both of her parents are alumni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On campus, Ward has been actively involved in a variety of organizations, including serving as the Trojan Food Pantry coordinator and as a member of the Chancellor\u2019s Leadership Corps, Student Activities Board, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., and the Black Scholars Collective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTaylor has been a great asset to us in the office, for the Trojan Food Pantry and CLC,\u201d said Teresa Esparza, a student success coach at UA Little Rock. \u201cShe has always embraced what\u2019s asked of her, whether it\u2019s representing the pantry and the university at the Arkansas College Hunger Summit, appearing on THV11, or supporting CLC initiatives. She has remained engaged in the program while managing her academics and other extracurricular activities. I have no doubt her ambitious attitude will lead her to great things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ward offers this advice to future UA Little Rock students:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCollege isn\u2019t easy. If it were, everyone would have degrees. It takes sacrifice, time, consistency, and hard work. This is a time to learn who you are and work toward who you want to become. Make mistakes and learn from them, but be wise in your choices. Stay disciplined and keep working toward your goals. Most importantly, enjoy every part of college. The four years go by quickly, but the experiences are worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After graduating, Ward plans to apply to a physical therapy program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A passion for helping others has shaped Taylor Ward\u2019s path at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, leading her to pursue careers in both health care and law enforcement. <a href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/\" class=\"more-link\">…<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":93996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1925,1926],"tags":[42,28370,36044,178,25799,35323,29226,2218],"class_list":["post-93991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-biology","tag-college-of-business-health-and-human-services","tag-commencement-2026","tag-criminal-justice","tag-donaghey-college-of-stem","tag-leaders-in-the-classroom-and-communities","tag-school-of-criminal-justice-and-criminology","tag-student-success"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others - News - UA Little Rock<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A passion for helping others has shaped Taylor Ward\u2019s path at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, leading her to pursue careers in both health care and law enforcement. ... Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-28T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-28T14:09:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Taylor.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sydney Ambrus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sydney Ambrus\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sydney Ambrus\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d5a5faa4af62b94789436560e8af26dd\"},\"headline\":\"Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-28T13:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-28T14:09:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":483,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Taylor.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Biology Program\",\"College of Business, Health, and Human Services (CBHHS)\",\"Commencement 2026\",\"Criminal Justice\",\"Donaghey College of STEM\",\"Leaders in the Classroom and Communities\",\"School of Criminal Justice and Criminology\",\"Student Success\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Community\",\"Featured\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\\\/\",\"name\":\"Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others - News - UA Little Rock\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Taylor.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-28T13:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-28T14:09:03+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Taylor.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Taylor.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Taylor Ward\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/28\\\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/UALittleRock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/ualrvideo\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/school\\\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/ualr\\\/\"],\"description\":\"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.\",\"email\":\"ask@ualr.edu\",\"telephone\":\"501-916-3000\",\"legalName\":\"UA Little Rock\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d5a5faa4af62b94789436560e8af26dd\",\"name\":\"Sydney Ambrus\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2aad592c3a203220c2ef5238a8bf1108becb25c444906c1286d5540aac28eba0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2aad592c3a203220c2ef5238a8bf1108becb25c444906c1286d5540aac28eba0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2aad592c3a203220c2ef5238a8bf1108becb25c444906c1286d5540aac28eba0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sydney Ambrus\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/t00619047\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others - News - UA Little Rock","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others","og_description":"A passion for helping others has shaped Taylor Ward\u2019s path at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, leading her to pursue careers in both health care and law enforcement. ... Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others","og_url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/","og_site_name":"News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","article_published_time":"2026-04-28T13:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-28T14:09:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Taylor.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sydney Ambrus","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sydney Ambrus","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/"},"author":{"name":"Sydney Ambrus","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d5a5faa4af62b94789436560e8af26dd"},"headline":"Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others","datePublished":"2026-04-28T13:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-28T14:09:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/"},"wordCount":483,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Taylor.jpg","keywords":["Biology Program","College of Business, Health, and Human Services (CBHHS)","Commencement 2026","Criminal Justice","Donaghey College of STEM","Leaders in the Classroom and Communities","School of Criminal Justice and Criminology","Student Success"],"articleSection":["Community","Featured"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/","name":"Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others - News - UA Little Rock","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Taylor.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-28T13:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-28T14:09:03+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Taylor.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Taylor.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Taylor Ward"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/28\/purpose-in-action-taylor-ward-prepares-for-a-career-helping-others\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Purpose in Action: Taylor Ward Prepares for a Career Helping Others"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","name":"News","description":"UA Little Rock","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"UA Little Rock","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"UA Little Rock"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ualrvideo","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ualr\/"],"description":"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.","email":"ask@ualr.edu","telephone":"501-916-3000","legalName":"UA Little Rock"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d5a5faa4af62b94789436560e8af26dd","name":"Sydney Ambrus","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2aad592c3a203220c2ef5238a8bf1108becb25c444906c1286d5540aac28eba0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2aad592c3a203220c2ef5238a8bf1108becb25c444906c1286d5540aac28eba0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2aad592c3a203220c2ef5238a8bf1108becb25c444906c1286d5540aac28eba0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sydney Ambrus"},"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/author\/t00619047\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93992,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93991\/revisions\/93992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":94004,"date":"2026-04-27T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?p=94004"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:02:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:02:36","slug":"ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/","title":{"rendered":"UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There is a photograph Peter Zokoro returns to in his research presentations: two children hunched over their schoolwork late at night, their only light a flickering kerosene lamp. He does not use it for dramatic effect. He uses it because he has lived it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zokoro, a master\u2019s student in mechanical engineering at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, grew up in Nigeria, where electricity is not a given. That experience became the foundation of his research, research that recently earned him first place at one of the largest engineering conventions in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou feel the impact of energy in its absence,\u201d Zokoro said. \u201cNot in its abundance. In its absence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In April, Zokoro won first place in the Technical Research Exhibition at the 2026 National Society of Black Engineers Annual Convention in Baltimore, competing in both poster and oral presentation categories against students from universities across the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His research focuses on biomass gasification, a thermochemical process that converts waste materials into syngas. Syngas can then be utilized to generate energy, produce green hydrogen and support chemical synthesis. The approach addresses two global challenges at once: the approximately 750 million people worldwide who lack access to electricity, and the roughly 2 billion tons of solid waste generated annually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He earned his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Lagos State University in Nigeria, graduating top of his class with First Class Honors. He moved to the United States in 2024 to pursue his master\u2019s degree, hearing from a friend back home how supportive UA Little Rock faculty are, his choice was made. He quickly immersed himself in campus life while exploring his academic path, earning a graduate teaching assistantship early on to cover expenses. He also joined the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the campus chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), where he now serves as treasurer and international chair, helping build mentorship pipelines and organize professional development opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During this time, he found his research focus through Dr. Ashokkumar Sharma, his thesis advisor. Sharma\u2019s work centered on two challenges that were deeply personal to Zokoro, challenges he had lived \u2013 access to energy and the growing problem of global waste \u2013 prompting him to take action. As his learning and research progressed, he began building a research team, recruiting undergraduate students and introducing them to his vision, inviting them to contribute to the project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeter Zokoro is one of the most driven graduate students I have mentored,\u201d said Sharma. \u201cHis innovative bioenergy and machine learning research, along with his leadership and mentorship of undergraduates, reflects both depth and originality. His first-place award at the 2026 NSBE Conference reflects his academic and community impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Baltimore, Zokoro arrived with the research to match his ambitions. Supported by Dr. David Montague, NSBE chapter co-advisor, and other UA Little Rock students in attendance, he earned first place. Their presence made the achievement all the more meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSeeing familiar faces from UA Little Rock in that room while I was presenting meant more than I can put into words,\u201d Zokoro said. \u201cUA Little Rock may not be the biggest school in the room, but we showed up and we won\u2014that matters for every student here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pride he felt was shared by others within the UA Little Rock community, including his mentors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cZokoro exemplifies the hard work and dedication of UA Little Rock students. His innovative research resonated with audiences, and his award for best presentation came as no surprise,\u201d said Montague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zokoro graduates this May, but the vision behind his research continues to expand \u2014 shaped by his lived experiences and the support he found at UA Little Rock. He hopes to help build a future where clean energy is accessible everywhere and give new purpose to materials often thrown away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor developed nations like the U.S., the vision is energy independence,\u201d Zokoro said. \u201cReducing and eventually eliminating dependence on fossil fuels by generating clean energy from the waste we already produce. And beyond that, imagine being able to export the green hydrogen generated from this process to other countries and companies that need it. That is a completely new value chain\u2014new economic opportunities built on something we currently throw away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Zokoro, the photograph of two children studying by kerosene light is not just a presentation slide; it is the reason behind his work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is a photograph Peter Zokoro returns to in his research presentations: two children hunched over their schoolwork late at night, their only light a flickering kerosene lamp. He does <a href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/\" class=\"more-link\">…<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2906,"featured_media":94005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1923,1925,1926,1922],"tags":[25799,35323,4478,35482,2218],"class_list":["post-94004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-community","category-featured","category-research","tag-donaghey-college-of-stem","tag-leaders-in-the-classroom-and-communities","tag-mechanical-engineering","tag-national-society-of-black-engineers","tag-student-success"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research - News - UA Little Rock<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is a photograph Peter Zokoro returns to in his research presentations: two children hunched over their schoolwork late at night, their only light a flickering kerosene lamp. He does ... UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Zokoro.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Samantha Koros\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Samantha Koros\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Samantha Koros\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d2d71db64fc5dad90eaff1ce9387967\"},\"headline\":\"UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":740,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Zokoro.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Donaghey College of STEM\",\"Leaders in the Classroom and Communities\",\"Mechanical Engineering Program\",\"National Society of Black Engineers\",\"Student Success\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Arts & Culture\",\"Community\",\"Featured\",\"Research\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\\\/\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research - News - UA Little Rock\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Zokoro.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Zokoro.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Zokoro.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Peter Zokoro, a master\u2019s student in mechanical engineering at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, on first place in the Technical Research Exhibition at the 2026 National Society of Black Engineers Annual Convention in Baltimore, competing in both poster and oral presentation categories against students from universities across the nation. Submitted photo\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/UALittleRock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/ualrvideo\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/school\\\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/ualr\\\/\"],\"description\":\"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.\",\"email\":\"ask@ualr.edu\",\"telephone\":\"501-916-3000\",\"legalName\":\"UA Little Rock\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d2d71db64fc5dad90eaff1ce9387967\",\"name\":\"Samantha Koros\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/43fc0575707bd2562cfafa14c6272ed1fb5a02915def80a826f51f931c5ed4be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/43fc0575707bd2562cfafa14c6272ed1fb5a02915def80a826f51f931c5ed4be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/43fc0575707bd2562cfafa14c6272ed1fb5a02915def80a826f51f931c5ed4be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Samantha Koros\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/skoros1\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research - News - UA Little Rock","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research","og_description":"There is a photograph Peter Zokoro returns to in his research presentations: two children hunched over their schoolwork late at night, their only light a flickering kerosene lamp. He does ... UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research","og_url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/","og_site_name":"News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","article_published_time":"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Zokoro.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Samantha Koros","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Samantha Koros","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/"},"author":{"name":"Samantha Koros","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d2d71db64fc5dad90eaff1ce9387967"},"headline":"UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research","datePublished":"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/"},"wordCount":740,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Zokoro.jpg","keywords":["Donaghey College of STEM","Leaders in the Classroom and Communities","Mechanical Engineering Program","National Society of Black Engineers","Student Success"],"articleSection":["Arts & Culture","Community","Featured","Research"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/","name":"UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research - News - UA Little Rock","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Zokoro.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Zokoro.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Zokoro.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Peter Zokoro, a master\u2019s student in mechanical engineering at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, on first place in the Technical Research Exhibition at the 2026 National Society of Black Engineers Annual Convention in Baltimore, competing in both poster and oral presentation categories against students from universities across the nation. Submitted photo"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-student-turns-personal-experience-into-award-winning-research\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UA Little Rock Student turns Personal Experience into Award-Winning Research"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","name":"News","description":"UA Little Rock","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"UA Little Rock","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"UA Little Rock"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ualrvideo","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ualr\/"],"description":"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.","email":"ask@ualr.edu","telephone":"501-916-3000","legalName":"UA Little Rock"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d2d71db64fc5dad90eaff1ce9387967","name":"Samantha Koros","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43fc0575707bd2562cfafa14c6272ed1fb5a02915def80a826f51f931c5ed4be?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43fc0575707bd2562cfafa14c6272ed1fb5a02915def80a826f51f931c5ed4be?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43fc0575707bd2562cfafa14c6272ed1fb5a02915def80a826f51f931c5ed4be?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Samantha Koros"},"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/author\/skoros1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2906"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94006,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94004\/revisions\/94006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":93993,"date":"2026-04-27T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?p=93993"},"modified":"2026-04-23T08:23:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:23:19","slug":"ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/","title":{"rendered":"UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The University of Arkansas at Little Rock continues to build support for the future of its Shellam Flake Planetarium, with a new $50,000 gift focused on sustaining the facility for years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The gift from UA Little Rock alumnus and retired attorney James Bruce McMath and his wife, Becky, contributes to the Shellam Flake Planetarium Endowment Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As UA Little Rock prepares to reopen the planetarium this fall, the endowment ensures the facility has the long-term support needed for operations, programming, and staffing, positioning it as a lasting destination for students and the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For McMath, the investment is deeply personal, rooted in a lifelong fascination with the night sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am a space race baby,\u201d McMath said. \u201cI was eight when Sputnik launched, and I followed it with the same enthusiasm as some people follow a sports team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That early curiosity grew into a serious pursuit. What began as a telescope for his son turned into a lifelong passion, including building telescope mirrors and conducting amateur research. Today, McMath operates a robotic telescope and has contributed more than 130,000 observations of variable stars to an international database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He sees the planetarium as a way to share that sense of discovery with others, especially at a time when fewer people have experienced the night sky in its full form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe reality is, without question, the greatest natural spectacle is the Milky Way stretching across the night sky,\u201d he said. \u201cBut these days, few people have ever truly seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A planetarium, he said, can help bridge that gap by giving people a broader understanding of the universe and their place within it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA planetarium can open people\u2019s eyes and minds to the reality of our situation here on our little planet,\u201d McMath said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Supporting the endowment is also a way for McMath to give back to UA Little Rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUA Little Rock was an important element in my personal development, and I have not done much to pay it back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also sees the planetarium as a key connection point between the university and the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe planetarium will be an ambassadorial and educational tool for the university,\u201d McMath said. \u201cIt is an investment in the community that will build pride in the university among city residents and help people better understand our place in the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their support helps position the planetarium as a long-term asset for both the university and Central Arkansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn more about the Shellam Flake Planetarium at <a href=\"http:\/\/ualr.edu\/planetarium\">ualr.edu\/planetarium<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Arkansas at Little Rock continues to build support for the future of its Shellam Flake Planetarium, with a new $50,000 gift focused on sustaining the facility for <a href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/\" class=\"more-link\">…<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1925,1926],"tags":[112,35323,36040],"class_list":["post-93993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-alumni-association","tag-leaders-in-the-classroom-and-communities","tag-planetarium"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium - News - UA Little Rock<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock continues to build support for the future of its Shellam Flake Planetarium, with a new $50,000 gift focused on sustaining the facility for ... UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/McMath.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"UA Little Rock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"UA Little Rock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/841beab92c4de6b8988cb3708c29b192\"},\"headline\":\"UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":428,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/McMath.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Alumni Association\",\"Leaders in the Classroom and Communities\",\"Planetarium\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Community\",\"Featured\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\\\/\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium - News - UA Little Rock\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/McMath.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/McMath.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/McMath.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock alumnus and retired attorney James Bruce McMath and his wife, Becky, contributed a $50,000 gift to the Shellam Flake Planetarium Endowment Fund. Submitted photo\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/UALittleRock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/ualrvideo\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/school\\\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/ualr\\\/\"],\"description\":\"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.\",\"email\":\"ask@ualr.edu\",\"telephone\":\"501-916-3000\",\"legalName\":\"UA Little Rock\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/841beab92c4de6b8988cb3708c29b192\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1c41d6db803ac229bd6efa630cecf87fd2fa2c4e21272b5560ee4672f1e160d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1c41d6db803ac229bd6efa630cecf87fd2fa2c4e21272b5560ee4672f1e160d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1c41d6db803ac229bd6efa630cecf87fd2fa2c4e21272b5560ee4672f1e160d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/ualr\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium - News - UA Little Rock","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium","og_description":"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock continues to build support for the future of its Shellam Flake Planetarium, with a new $50,000 gift focused on sustaining the facility for ... UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium","og_url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/","og_site_name":"News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","article_published_time":"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/McMath.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"UA Little Rock","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"UA Little Rock","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/"},"author":{"name":"UA Little Rock","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/841beab92c4de6b8988cb3708c29b192"},"headline":"UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium","datePublished":"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/"},"wordCount":428,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/McMath.png","keywords":["Alumni Association","Leaders in the Classroom and Communities","Planetarium"],"articleSection":["Community","Featured"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/","name":"UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium - News - UA Little Rock","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/McMath.png","datePublished":"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/McMath.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/McMath.png","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"UA Little Rock alumnus and retired attorney James Bruce McMath and his wife, Becky, contributed a $50,000 gift to the Shellam Flake Planetarium Endowment Fund. Submitted photo"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-receives-gift-to-support-long-term-success-of-planetarium\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UA Little Rock Receives Gift to Support Long-Term Success of Planetarium"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","name":"News","description":"UA Little Rock","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"UA Little Rock","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"UA Little Rock"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ualrvideo","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ualr\/"],"description":"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.","email":"ask@ualr.edu","telephone":"501-916-3000","legalName":"UA Little Rock"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/841beab92c4de6b8988cb3708c29b192","name":"UA Little Rock","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1c41d6db803ac229bd6efa630cecf87fd2fa2c4e21272b5560ee4672f1e160d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1c41d6db803ac229bd6efa630cecf87fd2fa2c4e21272b5560ee4672f1e160d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1c41d6db803ac229bd6efa630cecf87fd2fa2c4e21272b5560ee4672f1e160d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"UA Little Rock"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ualr.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/author\/ualr\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93995,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93993\/revisions\/93995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":93974,"date":"2026-04-27T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?p=93974"},"modified":"2026-04-27T15:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:06:07","slug":"ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/","title":{"rendered":"UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What began as a quest to learn more about her family\u2019s heritage has led one University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate student to help identify more than 60 previously unknown victims and perpetrators in cold cases across the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of those cases hit especially close to home. Stephanie Wyatt, an investigative genetic genealogist and a graduate student in UA Little Rock\u2019s Applied Communication program, recently played a key role in identifying the woman long known as the Conway County Jane Doe \u2014 a victim whose identity remained a mystery for more than three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In February 2026, the 32-year-old woman was identified as Jamie Ann Moore, bringing long-awaited answers to a case that had remained unsolved since 1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wyatt\u2019s interest in communication is rooted in her professional background. She holds an undergraduate degree in public relations and previously worked in human resources before transitioning into genetic genealogy. She currently works for the Arkansas Department of Transportation while pursuing her graduate degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Returning to school was not always something Wyatt saw as attainable. She said her mother is the only person in her family with a college degree, and she will be the first to earn her master\u2019s degree. \u201cThere was a lot of self-doubt at first,\u201d Wyatt said. \u201cBut the support I found at UA Little Rock gave me the confidence to believe I could be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wyatt\u2019s path into genetic genealogy began as a personal project. Her father\u2019s adoption sparked her interest in the field of genealogy as she searched for answers about her family\u2019s medical history. However, this search quickly expanded beyond her own story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wyatt turned her self-taught skills toward helping others who were searching for similar answers about their history. For nearly a decade, she volunteered to assist individuals searching for biological family members, including adoptees and those with unknown parentage. Over time, that work evolved into something more complex: helping identify individuals who could not identify themselves, such as those with amnesia or medical conditions preventing speech, and eventually, victims in cold cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2019, Wyatt joined a team of investigative genetic genealogists at Parabon NanoLabs, where she began applying her skills to criminal investigations and unidentified remains cases across the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wyatt later volunteered with the Arkansas State Police after the case of Conway County Jane Doe stalled despite earlier DNA testing efforts. Drawing on her experience, she said she believed there were still leads worth pursuing and a path toward identification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI reached out because I felt like there was still progress to be made, even if it was slow,\u201d Wyatt said. \u201cWhen you\u2019ve been in this field long enough, the DNA starts to act like a roadmap. The matches and the amount of shared DNA can tell you where to look, and I had a feeling about where to start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wyatt said the work begins with a DNA profile, which is then compared to distant relatives in public databases. By grouping shared matches and tracing common ancestors, she and other investigators are able to reconstruct fragmented family trees and narrow down an unidentified person\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like putting together a puzzle without knowing what the final picture looks like,\u201d she said. \u201cYou group pieces together, find patterns, and eventually, something connects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even a single distant match can be enough to move a case forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn this case, there was one match in the DNA database that helped push us forward toward identification,\u201d Wyatt said. \u201cJust one person made that possible, and they probably don\u2019t even know. They\u2019re not closely related, and it\u2019s possible they never even knew Jamie existed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This, she said, is why it is so important for people who have had their DNA tested to upload their results to the databases that make this kind of work possible. There are three databases used for this sort of research: GEDmatch, FamilyTreeDNA, and DNA Justice. Anyone who wants to participate can help investigators by uploading their results and opting in to law enforcement matching. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEspecially with unidentified human remains, people don\u2019t realize how many have been separated from their family but aren\u2019t on any list as reported missing,\u201d Wyatt said. \u201cThis was the case with Conway County Jane Doe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wyatt said she hopes more people understand both the role the public can play and the realities of the process. Even small contributions, like uploading DNA data to public databases, can make a difference \u2014 often without people even realizing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn most cases, if you choose to assist, you probably won\u2019t even realize you\u2019re helping,\u201d she said. \u201cBut those small pieces can be what allow us to move a case forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She added that investigative genetic genealogy is a careful, step-by-step process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not an instant answer,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes we\u2019re narrowing it down from hundreds of people to a much smaller group, and it takes time and additional information to get to one name.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beyond science, Wyatt\u2019s work also depends heavily on communication \u2014 a skill she continues to develop through her studies at UA Little Rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her role involves translating complex genetic findings into clear, actionable information for investigators, many of whom are not specialists in DNA analysis. She said her studies in applied communication have helped her navigate relationships with law enforcement while working on sensitive, often emotional cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re working with people who may have been on these cases for decades,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of emotion tied to that, so how you communicate matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Wyatt, identifying Moore was both a breakthrough and a reminder of the weight of the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very bittersweet,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is that celebratory moment that you finally found the connection, but it\u2019s very fleeting because you realize there are painful implications as well. Jamie got her name back, and Jamie\u2019s family is now processing that loss.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wyatt said she is grateful for the opportunity to play a role in helping family members find not only answers, but peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As investigators continue working the case, Wyatt hopes her efforts highlight the potential of investigative genetic genealogy and the need for more resources to support it in Arkansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Wyatt, the goal remains simple \u2014 to help give people their names back and bring a measure of peace to the families still searching for answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What began as a quest to learn more about her family\u2019s heritage has led one University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate student to help identify more than 60 previously <a href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/\" class=\"more-link\">…<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2764,"featured_media":93997,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1925,1926,1922],"tags":[2624,28389,25799,35323,2218],"class_list":["post-93974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","category-research","tag-applied-communication","tag-college-of-humanities-arts-social-sciences-and-education-chasse","tag-donaghey-college-of-stem","tag-leaders-in-the-classroom-and-communities","tag-student-success"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years - News - UA Little Rock<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What began as a quest to learn more about her family\u2019s heritage has led one University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate student to help identify more than 60 previously ... UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-27T20:06:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Shelby.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Molly Coleman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Molly Coleman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Molly Coleman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b4c50280636b780e6a82d2a4f4d66223\"},\"headline\":\"UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-27T20:06:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1083,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Shelby.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Applied Communication Program\",\"College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education (CHASSE)\",\"Donaghey College of STEM\",\"Leaders in the Classroom and Communities\",\"Student Success\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Community\",\"Featured\",\"Research\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\\\/\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years - News - UA Little Rock\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Shelby.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-27T20:06:07+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Shelby.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Shelby.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Stephanie Wyatt\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/27\\\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/UALittleRock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/ualrvideo\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/school\\\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/ualr\\\/\"],\"description\":\"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.\",\"email\":\"ask@ualr.edu\",\"telephone\":\"501-916-3000\",\"legalName\":\"UA Little Rock\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b4c50280636b780e6a82d2a4f4d66223\",\"name\":\"Molly Coleman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/957d030cd74975ecef323bee4cc5c61b8ce91b52459d38d169b7115d03dfeaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/957d030cd74975ecef323bee4cc5c61b8ce91b52459d38d169b7115d03dfeaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/957d030cd74975ecef323bee4cc5c61b8ce91b52459d38d169b7115d03dfeaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Molly Coleman\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/mcoleman4\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years - News - UA Little Rock","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years","og_description":"What began as a quest to learn more about her family\u2019s heritage has led one University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate student to help identify more than 60 previously ... UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years","og_url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/","og_site_name":"News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","article_published_time":"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-27T20:06:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Shelby.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Molly Coleman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Molly Coleman","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/"},"author":{"name":"Molly Coleman","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c50280636b780e6a82d2a4f4d66223"},"headline":"UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years","datePublished":"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-27T20:06:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/"},"wordCount":1083,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Shelby.jpg","keywords":["Applied Communication Program","College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education (CHASSE)","Donaghey College of STEM","Leaders in the Classroom and Communities","Student Success"],"articleSection":["Community","Featured","Research"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/","name":"UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years - News - UA Little Rock","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Shelby.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-27T13:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-27T20:06:07+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Shelby.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Shelby.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Stephanie Wyatt"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/ua-little-rock-graduate-student-helps-identify-cold-case-victim-after-more-than-30-years\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UA Little Rock Graduate Student Helps Identify Cold Case Victim After More Than 30 Years"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","name":"News","description":"UA Little Rock","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"UA Little Rock","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"UA Little Rock"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ualrvideo","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ualr\/"],"description":"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.","email":"ask@ualr.edu","telephone":"501-916-3000","legalName":"UA Little Rock"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c50280636b780e6a82d2a4f4d66223","name":"Molly Coleman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/957d030cd74975ecef323bee4cc5c61b8ce91b52459d38d169b7115d03dfeaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/957d030cd74975ecef323bee4cc5c61b8ce91b52459d38d169b7115d03dfeaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/957d030cd74975ecef323bee4cc5c61b8ce91b52459d38d169b7115d03dfeaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Molly Coleman"},"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/author\/mcoleman4\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2764"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93975,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93974\/revisions\/93975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":94001,"date":"2026-04-24T09:18:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?p=94001"},"modified":"2026-04-24T09:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:18:25","slug":"ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Two University of Arkansas at Little Rock faculty members have been inducted into the Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA) Academy, a distinction recognizing leading researchers whose work is driving innovation and economic growth across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Anindya Ghosh, professor of chemistry and associate dean of the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and Dr. Philip Huff, associate professor of computer science and director of the Cyberspace Operations Research and Education Center (CORE), were among six researchers selected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ARA Academy represents leading researchers from universities across the state and has contributed more than $1 billion to Arkansas\u2019s economy. Members are advancing industry-focused research in key areas such as advanced manufacturing, energy, cybersecurity, and sustainable design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ghosh, one of the nation\u2019s leading researchers in green chemistry, said the recognition reflects the university\u2019s strong and growing research environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m honored to be inducted into the Arkansas Research Alliance Academy,\u201d Ghosh said. \u201cARA does an outstanding job of supporting research through funding and by connecting researchers with the right resources and partnerships to move ideas forward. This recognition motivates me to push that work forward in ways that benefit Arkansas while preparing students for meaningful careers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His work in green chemistry, catalysis, and materials science focuses on practical, sustainable solutions that reduce pollution, support clean energy, and create more environmentally responsible materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Huff said he is excited to be part of a community working to expand research opportunities across Arkansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI appreciate ARA\u2019s commitment to advancing research and innovation across Arkansas, and I\u2019m honored to be part of a community working to expand those opportunities,\u201d Huff said. \u201cThrough this connection, the CORE Center can collaborate more closely with industry to keep our cybersecurity and AI research grounded in real-world needs. This supports UA Little Rock\u2019s mission to provide high-impact student research experiences that deliver real benefits to our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Huff leads the CORE Center and focuses on advancing cybersecurity for critical infrastructure while building partnerships between academia and industry. He is also the chief scientist and co-founder of Bastazo, an Arkansas-based cybersecurity startup that uses artificial intelligence to strengthen cybersecurity defenses and help organizations prioritize and address vulnerabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through their work, UA Little Rock researchers continue to create opportunities for students while contributing to innovations that benefit communities and industries across Arkansas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two University of Arkansas at Little Rock faculty members have been inducted into the Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA) Academy, a distinction recognizing leading researchers whose work is driving innovation and <a href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/\" class=\"more-link\">…<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2764,"featured_media":94003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1925,1926,1922],"tags":[2224,35704,25799,35323,2218],"class_list":["post-94001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","category-research","tag-arkansas-research-alliance","tag-cyberspace-operations-research-and-education-center","tag-donaghey-college-of-stem","tag-leaders-in-the-classroom-and-communities","tag-student-success"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy - News - UA Little Rock<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two University of Arkansas at Little Rock faculty members have been inducted into the Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA) Academy, a distinction recognizing leading researchers whose work is driving innovation and ... UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T14:18:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T14:18:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Huff-and-Ghosh.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Molly Coleman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Molly Coleman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Molly Coleman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b4c50280636b780e6a82d2a4f4d66223\"},\"headline\":\"UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-24T14:18:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-24T14:18:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":398,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Huff-and-Ghosh.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Arkansas Research Alliance\",\"Cyberspace Operations Research and Education Center\",\"Donaghey College of STEM\",\"Leaders in the Classroom and Communities\",\"Student Success\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Community\",\"Featured\",\"Research\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\\\/\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy - News - UA Little Rock\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Huff-and-Ghosh.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-24T14:18:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-24T14:18:25+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Huff-and-Ghosh.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Huff-and-Ghosh.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock faculty members Dr. Anindya Ghosh (left) and Dr. Philip Huff (right) have been inducted into the Arkansas Research Alliance Academy, which recognizes leading researchers driving innovation and economic growth in the state. Photo by Benjamin Krain\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/UALittleRock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/ualrvideo\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/school\\\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/ualr\\\/\"],\"description\":\"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.\",\"email\":\"ask@ualr.edu\",\"telephone\":\"501-916-3000\",\"legalName\":\"UA Little Rock\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b4c50280636b780e6a82d2a4f4d66223\",\"name\":\"Molly Coleman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/957d030cd74975ecef323bee4cc5c61b8ce91b52459d38d169b7115d03dfeaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/957d030cd74975ecef323bee4cc5c61b8ce91b52459d38d169b7115d03dfeaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/957d030cd74975ecef323bee4cc5c61b8ce91b52459d38d169b7115d03dfeaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Molly Coleman\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/mcoleman4\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy - News - UA Little Rock","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy","og_description":"Two University of Arkansas at Little Rock faculty members have been inducted into the Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA) Academy, a distinction recognizing leading researchers whose work is driving innovation and ... UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy","og_url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/","og_site_name":"News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","article_published_time":"2026-04-24T14:18:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-24T14:18:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Huff-and-Ghosh.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Molly Coleman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Molly Coleman","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/"},"author":{"name":"Molly Coleman","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c50280636b780e6a82d2a4f4d66223"},"headline":"UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy","datePublished":"2026-04-24T14:18:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-24T14:18:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/"},"wordCount":398,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Huff-and-Ghosh.png","keywords":["Arkansas Research Alliance","Cyberspace Operations Research and Education Center","Donaghey College of STEM","Leaders in the Classroom and Communities","Student Success"],"articleSection":["Community","Featured","Research"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/","name":"UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy - News - UA Little Rock","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Huff-and-Ghosh.png","datePublished":"2026-04-24T14:18:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-24T14:18:25+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Huff-and-Ghosh.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Huff-and-Ghosh.png","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"UA Little Rock faculty members Dr. Anindya Ghosh (left) and Dr. Philip Huff (right) have been inducted into the Arkansas Research Alliance Academy, which recognizes leading researchers driving innovation and economic growth in the state. Photo by Benjamin Krain"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/ua-little-rock-faculty-inducted-into-arkansas-research-alliance-academy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UA Little Rock Faculty Inducted Into Arkansas Research Alliance Academy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","name":"News","description":"UA Little Rock","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"UA Little Rock","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"UA Little Rock"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ualrvideo","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ualr\/"],"description":"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.","email":"ask@ualr.edu","telephone":"501-916-3000","legalName":"UA Little Rock"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c50280636b780e6a82d2a4f4d66223","name":"Molly Coleman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/957d030cd74975ecef323bee4cc5c61b8ce91b52459d38d169b7115d03dfeaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/957d030cd74975ecef323bee4cc5c61b8ce91b52459d38d169b7115d03dfeaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/957d030cd74975ecef323bee4cc5c61b8ce91b52459d38d169b7115d03dfeaed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Molly Coleman"},"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/author\/mcoleman4\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2764"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94002,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94001\/revisions\/94002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":93998,"date":"2026-04-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?p=93998"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:13:07","slug":"balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For Kadeshia Cooper, the road to becoming a nurse has been anything but easy. From raising a child as a single mom to balancing long clinical hours and coursework, the North Little Rock native relied on determination and perseverance to reach this milestone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cooper will earn her Associate of Science in Nursing from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in May. She earned an associate\u2019s degree in liberal arts and sciences from Pulaski Technical College in May 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cooper followed a strategic academic path to achieve her nursing degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI did 2+2. I did two years of prerequisites at Pulaski Tech and the two-year nursing program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock,\u201d she explained. \u201cI plan to complete the Bachelor of Science in Nursing by December 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although nursing ultimately became her passion, Cooper said circumstances initially required her to think practically about her future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBecoming a mother at 18 motivated me to pursue a stable career, which led me to nursing,\u201d she said. \u201cDuring my journey, I developed a true passion for the field, and this experience has shaped both my career and who I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beyond academics, Cooper managed parenting and household finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBalancing school while raising a child and handling bills on my own made it even more challenging,\u201d she said. \u201cI spent long hours studying, and the library truly became a second home for my son and me. I am very thankful for the support I received along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She received an Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship and used resources such as the CARE Team, the Academic Challenge Scholarship, and the campus food pantry at UA Little Rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her coursework and clinical experiences allowed her to develop practical nursing skills that strengthened her confidence in patient care. Throughout her college experience, Cooper said family support \u2013 especially from her big sister, Shacora Cooper \u2013 played a key role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cShe is like a second mother to me without the title, as well as a sister, friend, and my personal therapist,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During her time in college, Cooper has built community and celebrated personal milestones. She was on the Little Rock Dance Team during her first year of college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI enjoyed being at the games, being loud, and cheering on the basketball players,\u201d she said. \u201cMy son also enjoyed coming with me to the games, which made the experience even more special.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cooper also pushed herself physically outside the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI ran my first 10K in February at the Little Rock Marathon,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was a big accomplishment for me, and it showed me that I can push myself to do things I did not think I could do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cooper said graduating with her associate\u2019s degree in nursing and later earning her bachelor\u2019s will mark a historic moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> \u201cI hope I\u2019ve created a cycle of education and financial stability that continues with my son and future generations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After graduation, Cooper wants to spend more time with her son and involve him in activities he enjoys. She also plans to celebrate her accomplishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy first plan is to take a vacation and get some rest, maybe even a week-long nap,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter that, I plan to work as a registered nurse in the operating room while also finishing my remaining bachelor\u2019s coursework.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cooper said her university experience helped her prepare for professional success and personal growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile going through nursing school, I was able to build meaningful connections with people and network,\u201d she said. \u201cI also had the opportunity to volunteer and gain valuable hands-on clinical skills. I learned how to be punctual, organized, and how to manage my time wisely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cooper hopes her story encourages others to pursue their dreams despite obstacles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEveryone has a story or something in life that can hold them back, but I encourage people to find their purpose and stay determined,\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t make excuses for why you cannot do something, make reasons for why you should.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For Kadeshia Cooper, the road to becoming a nurse has been anything but easy. From raising a child as a single mom to balancing long clinical hours and coursework, the <a href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/\" class=\"more-link\">…<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":93999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1925,1926],"tags":[36044,35323,36026,25167,2218],"class_list":["post-93998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-commencement-2026","tag-leaders-in-the-classroom-and-communities","tag-pat-walker-center-for-nursing","tag-school-of-nursing","tag-student-success"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone - News - UA Little Rock<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For Kadeshia Cooper, the road to becoming a nurse has been anything but easy. From raising a child as a single mom to balancing long clinical hours and coursework, the ... Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/kadeisha.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bobbie Handcock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bobbie Handcock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bobbie Handcock\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/831336a34675e2c2adc2b06b0f1ec763\"},\"headline\":\"Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":676,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/kadeisha.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Commencement 2026\",\"Leaders in the Classroom and Communities\",\"Pat Walker Center for Nursing\",\"School of Nursing\",\"Student Success\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Community\",\"Featured\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\\\/\",\"name\":\"Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone - News - UA Little Rock\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/kadeisha.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/kadeisha.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/kadeisha.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Kadeshia Cooper\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/UALittleRock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/ualrvideo\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/school\\\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/ualr\\\/\"],\"description\":\"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.\",\"email\":\"ask@ualr.edu\",\"telephone\":\"501-916-3000\",\"legalName\":\"UA Little Rock\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/831336a34675e2c2adc2b06b0f1ec763\",\"name\":\"Bobbie Handcock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c1071a9e377de7948843c544c84ff787cea4ed380f8ee5cfc13e6f454905605c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c1071a9e377de7948843c544c84ff787cea4ed380f8ee5cfc13e6f454905605c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c1071a9e377de7948843c544c84ff787cea4ed380f8ee5cfc13e6f454905605c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Bobbie Handcock\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/bhandcock\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone - News - UA Little Rock","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone","og_description":"For Kadeshia Cooper, the road to becoming a nurse has been anything but easy. From raising a child as a single mom to balancing long clinical hours and coursework, the ... Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone","og_url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/","og_site_name":"News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","article_published_time":"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/kadeisha.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Bobbie Handcock","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bobbie Handcock","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/"},"author":{"name":"Bobbie Handcock","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/831336a34675e2c2adc2b06b0f1ec763"},"headline":"Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone","datePublished":"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/"},"wordCount":676,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/kadeisha.png","keywords":["Commencement 2026","Leaders in the Classroom and Communities","Pat Walker Center for Nursing","School of Nursing","Student Success"],"articleSection":["Community","Featured"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/","name":"Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone - News - UA Little Rock","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/kadeisha.png","datePublished":"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/kadeisha.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/kadeisha.png","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Kadeshia Cooper"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/balancing-motherhood-and-medicine-kadeshia-cooper-reaches-nursing-milestone\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Balancing Motherhood and Medicine: Kadeshia Cooper Reaches Nursing Milestone"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","name":"News","description":"UA Little Rock","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"UA Little Rock","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"UA Little Rock"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ualrvideo","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ualr\/"],"description":"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.","email":"ask@ualr.edu","telephone":"501-916-3000","legalName":"UA Little Rock"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/831336a34675e2c2adc2b06b0f1ec763","name":"Bobbie Handcock","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c1071a9e377de7948843c544c84ff787cea4ed380f8ee5cfc13e6f454905605c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c1071a9e377de7948843c544c84ff787cea4ed380f8ee5cfc13e6f454905605c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c1071a9e377de7948843c544c84ff787cea4ed380f8ee5cfc13e6f454905605c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Bobbie Handcock"},"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/author\/bhandcock\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94000,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93998\/revisions\/94000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":93976,"date":"2026-04-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?p=93976"},"modified":"2026-04-22T11:53:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:53:06","slug":"little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>From helping build a young program to earning top honors in the classroom, Little Rock wrestler Cael Keck will graduate summa cum laude from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock this May with a degree in business management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keck is a six-time dean\u2019s and chancellor\u2019s list honoree, a 2023-24 NCAA Division I Scholar All-American, and a 2024 Pac-12 Conference placer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Keck said he chose UA Little Rock for both its wrestling program and strong academic opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat really swayed my decision was the coaches,\u201d he said. \u201cI trusted them from the jump, not just in their ability to coach, but in the type of people they are. It was also only the program\u2019s second year, so I was excited about the chance to help build it from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over his time at UA Little Rock, Keck said being a student-athlete shaped his daily life and helped him develop discipline and structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou have to have discipline and time management, especially when things get bumpy,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the most important thing to being a successful student-athlete is finding a routine that prioritizes balancing school and athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keck also grew as a leader off the mat, organizing Little Rock wrestling\u2019s volunteer efforts at the Arkansas School for the Deaf and Blind. The team worked twice a week with the school\u2019s elementary wrestling program, assisting students with gear and leading them through drills to build confidence and skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said wrestling taught him how to handle adversity and adapt in difficult situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s also taught me to appreciate hard work and staying disciplined,\u201d he said. \u201cThose are things I\u2019ll carry into my career and life after college.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keck credits his coaches and teammates with having a lasting impact on his experience at UA Little Rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are like a family, and they\u2019ve helped me grow as a wrestler and as a person,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing in that kind of environment has played a major role in who I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After graduation, Keck plans to return to Kansas City to coach youth wrestling at the same club where he competed growing up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From helping build a young program to earning top honors in the classroom, Little Rock wrestler Cael Keck will graduate summa cum laude from the University of Arkansas at Little <a href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/\" class=\"more-link\">…<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":93978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1925,1926],"tags":[28370,36044,35323,17184,2218],"class_list":["post-93976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-college-of-business-health-and-human-services","tag-commencement-2026","tag-leaders-in-the-classroom-and-communities","tag-little-rock-wrestling","tag-student-success"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching - News - UA Little Rock<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From helping build a young program to earning top honors in the classroom, Little Rock wrestler Cael Keck will graduate summa cum laude from the University of Arkansas at Little ... Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Cael-Keck.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sydney Ambrus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sydney Ambrus\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sydney Ambrus\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d5a5faa4af62b94789436560e8af26dd\"},\"headline\":\"Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":380,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Cael-Keck.png\",\"keywords\":[\"College of Business, Health, and Human Services (CBHHS)\",\"Commencement 2026\",\"Leaders in the Classroom and Communities\",\"Little Rock Wrestling\",\"Student Success\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Community\",\"Featured\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\\\/\",\"name\":\"Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching - News - UA Little Rock\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Cael-Keck.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Cael-Keck.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Cael-Keck.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Cael Keck\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/UALittleRock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/ualrvideo\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/school\\\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/ualr\\\/\"],\"description\":\"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.\",\"email\":\"ask@ualr.edu\",\"telephone\":\"501-916-3000\",\"legalName\":\"UA Little Rock\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d5a5faa4af62b94789436560e8af26dd\",\"name\":\"Sydney Ambrus\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2aad592c3a203220c2ef5238a8bf1108becb25c444906c1286d5540aac28eba0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2aad592c3a203220c2ef5238a8bf1108becb25c444906c1286d5540aac28eba0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2aad592c3a203220c2ef5238a8bf1108becb25c444906c1286d5540aac28eba0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sydney Ambrus\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/t00619047\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching - News - UA Little Rock","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching","og_description":"From helping build a young program to earning top honors in the classroom, Little Rock wrestler Cael Keck will graduate summa cum laude from the University of Arkansas at Little ... Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching","og_url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/","og_site_name":"News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","article_published_time":"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Cael-Keck.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Sydney Ambrus","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sydney Ambrus","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/"},"author":{"name":"Sydney Ambrus","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d5a5faa4af62b94789436560e8af26dd"},"headline":"Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching","datePublished":"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/"},"wordCount":380,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Cael-Keck.png","keywords":["College of Business, Health, and Human Services (CBHHS)","Commencement 2026","Leaders in the Classroom and Communities","Little Rock Wrestling","Student Success"],"articleSection":["Community","Featured"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/","name":"Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching - News - UA Little Rock","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Cael-Keck.png","datePublished":"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Cael-Keck.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Cael-Keck.png","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Cael Keck"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/little-rock-wrestler-cael-keck-graduates-with-honors-plans-to-give-back-through-coaching\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Little Rock Wrestler Cael Keck Graduates With Honors, Plans to Give Back Through Coaching"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","name":"News","description":"UA Little Rock","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"UA Little Rock","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"UA Little Rock"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ualrvideo","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ualr\/"],"description":"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.","email":"ask@ualr.edu","telephone":"501-916-3000","legalName":"UA Little Rock"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d5a5faa4af62b94789436560e8af26dd","name":"Sydney Ambrus","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2aad592c3a203220c2ef5238a8bf1108becb25c444906c1286d5540aac28eba0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2aad592c3a203220c2ef5238a8bf1108becb25c444906c1286d5540aac28eba0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2aad592c3a203220c2ef5238a8bf1108becb25c444906c1286d5540aac28eba0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sydney Ambrus"},"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/author\/t00619047\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93979,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93976\/revisions\/93979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":93968,"date":"2026-04-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?p=93968"},"modified":"2026-04-21T14:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:41:17","slug":"students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is calling on students from across Arkansas and surrounding states to take part in one of the region\u2019s most exciting innovation events\u2014the second annual <a href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/cstem\/summer-programs\/#h-ai-hackathon\">AI Hackathon & HealthTech Startup Week<\/a>, happening June 8\u201312 on campus. With the application deadline set for April 30, now is the time to apply and be part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This isn\u2019t a typical coding camp. The UA Little Rock AI Hackathon & HealthTech Startup Week is a five-day immersive experience where students ages 16\u201326 form interdisciplinary teams to tackle real-world healthcare challenges using cutting-edge AI tools, all with the guidance of expert mentors and the backing of industry giants like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nvidia.com\/en-us\/\">NVIDIA<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/about.google\/company-info\/\">Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Entrepreneurs, marketers, creatives and coders are all encouraged to apply, regardless of experience or background. Participants should be available for all five days, bring a laptop and agree to a media release. No coding experience is required\u2014teams are intentionally formed to bring together a variety of skills and perspectives. Open to students from all disciplines, the program highlights how the most impactful ideas often emerge through collaboration across different backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Participants will compete for a share of $20,000 in prizes by pitching their team\u2019s AI-powered healthcare solution to a panel of judges at the end of the week. Beyond the cash prizes, participants can earn industry-recognized AI certifications in areas like coding and marketing, while also gaining access to mentorship from healthcare professionals, AI engineers, entrepreneurs and innovators\u2014an opportunity often reserved for graduate students and working professionals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is an opportunity to build valuable real-world skills through hands-on experience with professional AI tools, collaborate with peers and industry experts, and strengthen both technical and communication abilities, all while forming lasting connections with fellow students, mentors and industry partners that can open doors long after the event ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLast year, we had 40 participants and 40 volunteers,\u201d Marla Johnson, UA Little Rock’s technology entrepreneur-in-residence, said. \u201cThis year, we raised enough to expand the AI Hackathon & HealthTech Startup Week to 150 students, including providing dorm rooms for those traveling from far and wide. It is a true labor of love of so many UA Little Rock faculty and staff. We\u2019re pumped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With hands-on experience, expert mentorship, industry-backed tools and the chance to compete for $20,000 in prizes, UA Little Rock\u2019s AI Hackathon & HealthTech Startup Week offers far more than a typical summer camp. This opportunity is a launchpad for students ready to turn ideas into real-world impact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coder, creative, entrepreneur or simply curious about innovation in healthcare, this five-day experience is designed to meet attendees where they are and push them further. Join a collaborative, high-energy environment where technology, teamwork and purpose come together by registering <a href=\"https:\/\/forms.gle\/wXyAkYXQ2Rn23LoZ7\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is calling on students from across Arkansas and surrounding states to take part in one of the region\u2019s most exciting innovation events\u2014the second <a href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/\" class=\"more-link\">…<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2906,"featured_media":93969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1923,1925,1926],"tags":[25799,35323,2218],"class_list":["post-93968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-community","category-featured","tag-donaghey-college-of-stem","tag-leaders-in-the-classroom-and-communities","tag-student-success"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon - News - UA Little Rock<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is calling on students from across Arkansas and surrounding states to take part in one of the region\u2019s most exciting innovation events\u2014the second ... Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/hackathon-2025_122-Enhanced-NR.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Samantha Koros\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Samantha Koros\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Samantha Koros\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d2d71db64fc5dad90eaff1ce9387967\"},\"headline\":\"Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":468,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/hackathon-2025_122-Enhanced-NR.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Donaghey College of STEM\",\"Leaders in the Classroom and Communities\",\"Student Success\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Arts & Culture\",\"Community\",\"Featured\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\\\/\",\"name\":\"Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon - News - UA Little Rock\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/hackathon-2025_122-Enhanced-NR.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/hackathon-2025_122-Enhanced-NR.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/hackathon-2025_122-Enhanced-NR.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Participants in the Coding for Wellness AI Hackathon competition present their team pitches to judges and community members during an event on campus. Photo by Benjamin Krain\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/UALittleRock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/ualrvideo\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/school\\\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/ualr\\\/\"],\"description\":\"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.\",\"email\":\"ask@ualr.edu\",\"telephone\":\"501-916-3000\",\"legalName\":\"UA Little Rock\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d2d71db64fc5dad90eaff1ce9387967\",\"name\":\"Samantha Koros\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/43fc0575707bd2562cfafa14c6272ed1fb5a02915def80a826f51f931c5ed4be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/43fc0575707bd2562cfafa14c6272ed1fb5a02915def80a826f51f931c5ed4be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/43fc0575707bd2562cfafa14c6272ed1fb5a02915def80a826f51f931c5ed4be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Samantha Koros\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/skoros1\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon - News - UA Little Rock","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon","og_description":"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is calling on students from across Arkansas and surrounding states to take part in one of the region\u2019s most exciting innovation events\u2014the second ... Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon","og_url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/","og_site_name":"News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","article_published_time":"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/hackathon-2025_122-Enhanced-NR.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Samantha Koros","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Samantha Koros","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/"},"author":{"name":"Samantha Koros","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d2d71db64fc5dad90eaff1ce9387967"},"headline":"Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon","datePublished":"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/"},"wordCount":468,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/hackathon-2025_122-Enhanced-NR.jpg","keywords":["Donaghey College of STEM","Leaders in the Classroom and Communities","Student Success"],"articleSection":["Arts & Culture","Community","Featured"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/","name":"Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon - News - UA Little Rock","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/hackathon-2025_122-Enhanced-NR.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-24T13:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/hackathon-2025_122-Enhanced-NR.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/hackathon-2025_122-Enhanced-NR.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"Participants in the Coding for Wellness AI Hackathon competition present their team pitches to judges and community members during an event on campus. Photo by Benjamin Krain"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/24\/students-invited-to-build-compete-and-innovate-at-ua-little-rock-ai-hackathon\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Students Invited to Build, Compete, and Innovate at UA Little Rock AI Hackathon"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","name":"News","description":"UA Little Rock","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"UA Little Rock","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"UA Little Rock"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ualrvideo","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ualr\/"],"description":"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.","email":"ask@ualr.edu","telephone":"501-916-3000","legalName":"UA Little Rock"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4d2d71db64fc5dad90eaff1ce9387967","name":"Samantha Koros","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43fc0575707bd2562cfafa14c6272ed1fb5a02915def80a826f51f931c5ed4be?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43fc0575707bd2562cfafa14c6272ed1fb5a02915def80a826f51f931c5ed4be?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43fc0575707bd2562cfafa14c6272ed1fb5a02915def80a826f51f931c5ed4be?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Samantha Koros"},"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/author\/skoros1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2906"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93968"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93973,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93968\/revisions\/93973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":93965,"date":"2026-04-23T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?p=93965"},"modified":"2026-04-16T08:24:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:24:51","slug":"sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Leaders aren\u2019t built by what\u2019s written in books, but by the people who show them what leadership looks like. For Sheneice Hughes, that idea has played out over a career centered on investing in others and watching them grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After nearly three decades in public service, Hughes is preparing to retire from her role as chief administrative officer and deputy director of airport finance, people, and culture at Dallas Love Field. She will officially retire on May 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hughes didn\u2019t set out to work in aviation. A native of Pine Bluff and a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she studied <a href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/psychology\/\">psychological science<\/a>, she planned to go into training and development, focusing on workplace environments. That changed after an internship with the city of Little Rock opened the door to municipal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLeadership is not in a book,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cIt\u2019s about showing people you care about what\u2019s important to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That belief carried her to Dallas, where she worked in the mayor and city council office. There, she saw firsthand how decisions were made and how leadership shaped a city’s direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI got to see leadership from behind the curtain,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were making the rules, not just following them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her move to Dallas Love Field started as a six-month assignment from the mayor and city council office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It didn\u2019t take long for her to find her role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Within months, Hughes identified gaps in communication and customer service and began building solutions, including a centralized contact system for travelers and expanded use of social media. She stayed for 13 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Love Field, she focused on a simple idea: if employees feel supported, travelers will too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf employees aren\u2019t happy, they\u2019re not going to make your customers happy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That approach shaped how teams operated across the airport. Hughes regularly brought employees together to talk through what travelers needed and how expectations were changing. She also paid attention to small details that affect the passenger experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeople don\u2019t think anything is clean unless they see you cleaning it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her leadership was tested during the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel slowed, and budgets tightened. Hughes worked to find cost savings while keeping employees in place, knowing they would be needed when passengers returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt all came down to making sure I could keep the employees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over time, she focused on opening doors for others, especially those who may not have considered careers in aviation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m most proud of bringing people into the industry who never knew about it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also saw shifts in leadership, particularly for women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As she steps away, Hughes hopes the culture she helped build continues through the people she mentored and the leaders who have grown within the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy job is to create leaders,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her advice to students and young professionals is simple: stay open, be ready to adjust, and use every tool available to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBe prepared for your opportunity,\u201d she said. \u201cUse every tool you have to your advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you put good people in the world, good people will come back to you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leaders aren\u2019t built by what\u2019s written in books, but by the people who show them what leadership looks like. For Sheneice Hughes, that idea has played out over a career <a href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/\" class=\"more-link\">…<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2036,"featured_media":93966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1925,1926],"tags":[28389,36004,35323,2218],"class_list":["post-93965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-college-of-humanities-arts-social-sciences-and-education-chasse","tag-department-of-psychological-science","tag-leaders-in-the-classroom-and-communities","tag-student-success"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field - News - UA Little Rock<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Leaders aren\u2019t built by what\u2019s written in books, but by the people who show them what leadership looks like. For Sheneice Hughes, that idea has played out over a career ... Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-23T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Hughes.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Bates\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Bates\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/23\\\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/23\\\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Justin Bates\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a8336890d544505fbdbb0f0e689814a7\"},\"headline\":\"Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-23T13:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/23\\\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":546,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/23\\\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Hughes.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education (CHASSE)\",\"Department of Psychological Science\",\"Leaders in the Classroom and Communities\",\"Student Success\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Community\",\"Featured\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/23\\\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/23\\\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\\\/\",\"name\":\"Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field - News - UA Little Rock\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/23\\\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/23\\\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Hughes.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-23T13:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/23\\\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/23\\\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/23\\\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Hughes.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Hughes.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Sheneice Hughes\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/23\\\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"UA Little Rock\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/240\\\/2024\\\/12\\\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"UA Little Rock\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/UALittleRock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/ualrvideo\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/school\\\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/ualr\\\/\"],\"description\":\"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.\",\"email\":\"ask@ualr.edu\",\"telephone\":\"501-916-3000\",\"legalName\":\"UA Little Rock\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a8336890d544505fbdbb0f0e689814a7\",\"name\":\"Justin Bates\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d1ae18e4596879813b7bcda36c3c7c197e4a693e0950660e96dff254ebb9ec1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d1ae18e4596879813b7bcda36c3c7c197e4a693e0950660e96dff254ebb9ec1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d1ae18e4596879813b7bcda36c3c7c197e4a693e0950660e96dff254ebb9ec1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Justin Bates\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ualr.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/jbates\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field - News - UA Little Rock","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field","og_description":"Leaders aren\u2019t built by what\u2019s written in books, but by the people who show them what leadership looks like. For Sheneice Hughes, that idea has played out over a career ... Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field","og_url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/","og_site_name":"News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","article_published_time":"2026-04-23T13:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Hughes.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Justin Bates","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justin Bates","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/"},"author":{"name":"Justin Bates","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/a8336890d544505fbdbb0f0e689814a7"},"headline":"Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field","datePublished":"2026-04-23T13:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/"},"wordCount":546,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Hughes.jpg","keywords":["College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education (CHASSE)","Department of Psychological Science","Leaders in the Classroom and Communities","Student Success"],"articleSection":["Community","Featured"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/","name":"Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field - News - UA Little Rock","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Hughes.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-23T13:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Hughes.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2026\/04\/Hughes.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Sheneice Hughes"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/23\/sheneice-hughes-reflects-on-career-of-leadership-and-impact-at-dallas-love-field\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sheneice Hughes Reflects on Career of Leadership and Impact at Dallas Love Field"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","name":"News","description":"UA Little Rock","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"UA Little Rock","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/240\/2024\/12\/ua-little-rock-logo-yoast.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"UA Little Rock"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UALittleRock\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ualrvideo","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/school\/university-of-arkansas-at-little-rock\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ualr\/"],"description":"The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is a metropolitan research university that provides an accessible, quality education through flexible learning and unparalleled internship opportunities.","email":"ask@ualr.edu","telephone":"501-916-3000","legalName":"UA Little Rock"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/a8336890d544505fbdbb0f0e689814a7","name":"Justin Bates","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d1ae18e4596879813b7bcda36c3c7c197e4a693e0950660e96dff254ebb9ec1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d1ae18e4596879813b7bcda36c3c7c197e4a693e0950660e96dff254ebb9ec1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d1ae18e4596879813b7bcda36c3c7c197e4a693e0950660e96dff254ebb9ec1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Justin Bates"},"url":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/author\/jbates\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93967,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93965\/revisions\/93967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ualr.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]