University of Arkansas

The U of A School of Law and the Law Alumni Society Board of Directors are pleased to announce the 2026-27 Student Ambassadors. The five students selected are Hudson Anderson (3L), Julia Beck (2L), Jakara Mills (2L), Jac Shaddoxx (3L) and Colton Williams (2L). These student ambassadors were chosen through an application and interview process with Law Alumni Society board members. They will represent the School of Law at alumni, donor and special events during the year. Ambassadors will also attend Law Alumni Society Board meetings and work with the Office of Development and External Relations to support alumni and donor engagement. The program gives students the opportunity to connect with alumni and the legal community while building important professional and interpersonal skills. As ambassadors, they will welcome guests, help with events and obtain hands-on experience in alumni relations and development.

After leading the Razorback Marching Band through Early Week and three weeks of regular rehearsals, four drum majors are ready to take the field for the season opener this Saturday as Arkansas hosts the University of North Alabama. Jose Rodriguez of Springdale, Mackenzie Schofield of Bentonville, Keri Brewington of Conway and Aiden Bowen of Fort Smith were selected as drum majors following a competitive audition process held during the spring semester. Schofield, Brewington and Bowen are serving in the role for the first time, while Rodriguez returns for a second year and will serve as head drum major.

Hope Caruthers taught kindergarten in Monticello, Arkansas, for nine years. Then, while finishing a master's degree delivered online by the University of Arkansas, she moved into an administrative position. "It has helped my career," Caruthers said. "I moved from a classroom teacher to the preschool director at the end of last year. So, I have finished my first year, but we have made so much progress in a year in our district, and I am super proud of that."

For many U of A students, some of the most valuable lessons happen outside the classroom, where ideas meet real-world constraints, and design decisions have tangible consequences. This summer, Colin Barker, a rising fourth-year landscape architecture student from Lee's Summit, Missouri, put those lessons into practice through a five-week internship at Garvan Woodland Gardens. This outreach center of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the U of A is located on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs.

The English Department and the Program in Rhetoric and Composition are proud to announce the 2026 winners of the annual Jessie O'Kelly Freshman Composition Award. This year's winner is Hunter Thomas, a recreation and sports management major in the Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation. He will receive a $500 scholarship award for his paper, "Why Turf?", about the dangers athletes face when playing on artificial turf. Runner-up is Westin Spencer, supply chain management major in Walton College of Business. He will receive a $300 award for his paper, "Managing the United States Military Budget," for Maria Hare's Composition I class.

From the deep blue waters of the Caribbean to brightly colored schoolrooms, through bustling hospital hallways and at lively sports venues, students in the College of Education and Health Professions immerse in hands-on learning across various settings. In the 2025-2026 academic year, 1,649 students in the college were involved in internships and clinical experiences, with 95% of them in Arkansas, learning in 64% of the state's 75 counties.

Michad Holliday and Yang Tian, two recent doctoral graduates from the U of A, earned this year's Distinguished Dissertation Award from the Graduate School and International Education. GSIE annually recognizes excellence in dissertation research and publication with the Distinguished Dissertation Awards, recognizing individuals who have completed dissertations representing original work that makes an unusually significant contribution to their disciplines. By winning the award, Holliday and Tian are also nominated to represent the U of A in competition for the Council of Graduate Schools/Proquest Distinguished Dissertation Award at the national level.

Family is very important to La Taschya Harris. When she enrolled in a doctoral program after 15 years of working with students who are also parents at National Park College in Hot Springs, it was partly to prove she could achieve her dream while caring for her adult son with disabilities.

For Ally Hodges, a junior studying Apparel Merchandising & Product Development at the U of A, fashion has always been more than clothing-it has been a way to tell stories. Growing up in a small town in Arkansas, Ally dreamed of one day working in the fashion industry. This past year, that dream became reality when she collaborated with rapidly growing online retailer, Cocolillys, to design an exclusive Arkansas gameday-inspired collection.

University of Arkansas graduate Cole McCallum has been selected as a member of the inaugural class of the Lafayette Fellowship, a nationally competitive program that supports outstanding American students pursuing graduate engineering education in France while strengthening scientific and technological collaboration between the United States and France. McCallum, who graduated in May with bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering and physics, was one of 30 fellows selected from more than 3,400 applicants nationwide for the program's inaugural cohort.

U of A doctoral graduate Sonali Lenaduwe is investigating the genes that help baker's yeast survive extreme stress, research that could offer broader insights into human health. Because yeast and humans share thousands of genes, identifying the genetic mechanisms behind yeast stress resilience may help scientists better understand how human cells respond to environmental pressures and conditions such as inflammation and cancer.

Eva Stephani Caroline, a doctoral candidate in the university's Public Policy interdisciplinary program, was recently awarded the James H. White Doctoral Fellowship by the Graduate School and International Education.

Lane Fritch spends her days teaching, guiding and supporting youth at the Arkansas 4-H Center. While helping young Arkansans discover new interests, she was pursuing her own growth with a master's degree delivered online from the U of A.

Six students in the course Japanese Movie Subtitling (JAPN 39803/WLLC 5750V) presented their completed English subtitles during a free screening of April, Come She Will (2024) on Friday, April 24, at the Arkansas Union Theatre. The collaborative, semester-long project showcased their work as scriptwriters and translators.

U of A seniors Conrad Haslauer and Nadine Moustafa earned first place in the KPMG Cybersecurity Challenge in March, a national, industry-sponsored competition that puts students' cybersecurity and business skills to the test.

Springdale native Shae Threlfall graduated in May with a 4.0 in mechanical engineering. This fall, she will start a doctoral program in engineering at the University of Cambridge.

Several U of A students made presentations at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers while students with the Agricultural Robotics Club competed in the national contest.

The Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the U of A earned two first-place undergraduate awards in July at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers International Meeting in Indianapolis. Both winning projects were the work of students who walked across the graduation stage this May, proof that the ideas and effort they poured into their coursework continue to pay off after commencement.

When Matthew Findlay completed his Bachelor of Architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design in 2024, he knew he'd eventually become an architect. What he didn't know yet was what kind of architect he wanted to become.

Jaden Hendrix, a third-year School of Law student, has been selected as the winner of the 2025-26 Arent Fox Schiff - Dale Bumpers Excellence in Writing Award. The award celebrates the life and work of former Arkansas governor and U.S. senator Dale Bumpers. Following his retirement from the Senate in 1999, Bumpers became of counsel to the law firm then known as Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin and Kahn. The firm has given the annual writing award, which includes a cash prize, since the Journal of Food Law & Policy's inception in 2005. Hendrix earned this year's award for her article, "From Culture Shaping Food to Food Shaping Culture: Foreign Investor Protections in the Food Economy as a Threat to Cultural Diversity." She wrote the article, which will appear in an upcoming Journal issue, as a second-year law student serving as a staff editor for the publication.

The University of Arkansas Global Campus has chosen 39 students to receive the W.E. Manning Memorial Scholarship in the 2026-27 academic year. The Manning scholarship helps support U of A students studying in online undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Many of these students remain in their communities, work full time and take care of their families while earning a degree.

Instead of spending the summer rehearsing on campus, members of the U of A Razorback Marching Band performed before an international audience in London celebrating America's 250th anniversary.

Three U of A representatives recently attended the inaugural SEC Food Pantry and Basic Needs Summit hosted by the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. The summit brought together student leaders, community partners and professional staff to share ideas and best practices for addressing food and basic needs insecurity on college campuses.

Bethany Cole, a doctoral candidate with the Graduate Program in English, has received a 2026 James J. Hudson Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities through the office of the Graduate School and International Education. The Hudson award is given annually to exceptional doctoral students in comparative literature and cultural studies, English, history or philosophy.

With careful recipe and process design, non-alcoholic beer can be made more resistant to foodborne pathogens, according to a new study that provides practical guidance on pH, carbonation and hops.

Despite coming from halfway across the state, thanks to the U of A's Engineering Career Awareness Program, Montavius Eason already had "great friends" before arriving for his freshman year at the U of A. The program, also called ECAP, is designed to support students with financial need, particularly first-generation college students, as well as students from areas that are less well-represented at the U of A. ECAP offers financial assistance and a three-week summer bridge program to help students transition into university life. Throughout their time on campus, students receive continuous support and resources, including mentorship, professional development and career guidance.

John Plavcan and Abigail Ross, two doctoral candidates with the Graduate Program in English, have received Dissertation Research Awards for 2026 from the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. The grants, each for $8,000, are annually presented to Ph.D. students who have been nominated by their departments and selected by the college. Plavcan and Ross will use their awards to travel for the purpose of researching their respective dissertation projects.

Competing alongside leading researchers from around the world, honors biomedical engineering student Connor Robinson earned third place for Best Overall Poster at the 2026 International Microphysiological Systems Society World Summit in Washington, D.C., in May.

Four University of Arkansas students have received English Teaching Assistant Awards through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, and one student has been named an alternate for the prestigious international exchange program.

Recent U of A graduate Maddie Gwinner is starting her career in Germany this fall, and she had the fortunate problem of choosing between two prestigious programs: the Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) and the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. The CBYX Program is a year-long cultural immersion fellowship that provides 65 American and 65 German young professionals with the opportunity to spend one year in each other's countries, and the Fulbright program selects Americans to teach English in a variety of countries abroad.