University of Arkansas

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.

When Cameron Mercer started helping University of Arkansas students move out of their dorms during his freshman year, he was simply trying to make some extra spending money. Four years later, the business he built from those early move-in and move-out jobs has grown into Boss Hog Moving Co., a student-focused moving company serving Northwest Arkansas. Mercer says the Master of Science in Product Innovation (MSPI) program at the Sam M. Walton College of Business helped him think differently about how to scale it.

Colton Godsey, a rising second-year student at the U of A School of Law, has been selected as a Civil Rights Fellow in the 2026 class of the Center for Equal Opportunity. This fifth annual class is the largest, most competitive class of fellows to date as the organization received a large volume of highly qualified applications from across the nation. In August, Godsey will join the seminar-style fellowship program in Washington, D.C., for in-depth instruction in civil rights case law, enforcement practices and public policy while engaging with notable law and policy experts, litigators, former government officials and other prominent thought leaders. He will also receive media training.