Congratulations to our Arkansas Girls State delegates, MSM rising seniors Lizzie Allgood, Vivian Boe, Maddy Frazior, Kirsten Hawkins and Kathryn Studer!

They represented MSM well last week at Girls State, a program that provides citizenship training for young women and gives them the opportunity to learn about city, county and state government by experiencing it themselves. Through participation in a mock government, these MSM students elected officials, held a variety of leadership positions and heard from their respective counterparts about their roles and responsibilities here in Arkansas.

Three faculty members and one student at Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock have been named recipients of the 2016 Stephens Award by The City Education Trust. Mount St. Mary Academy instructors Kathy Smith, Maureen Stover and Jenny Moses make up three of the five teachers who have been selected to receive an $8,000 cash award recognizing their outstanding and inspirational teaching. Senior Darcey Collins, a Finalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program, is among the eight student recipients who have been selected to receive a $5,000 scholarship for their proven records of academic excellence. Congratulations for such an incredible achievement!

The HoneyBelles, a team of six science and art students from Mount St. Mary Academy, advanced in March to win a $15,000 first place award in the Lexus Eco Challenge, a national contest that encourages middle and high school students to develop and implement environmental programs that positively impact their communities.

After carefully studying the local environment, the HoneyBelles developed an Action Plan. They created a pollinators habitat on the school campus to protect the dwindling bee population so vital to modern agriculture. They also started a composting system to help sustain the garden and began spreading awareness about the importance of bees to the greater community.

Sixteen teams in each challenge, including Mount St. Mary Academy, won $10,000 in grants and scholarships at the end of November. All the winning teams were invited to participate in the Final Challenge for a chance to win one of two $30,000 grand prizes and eight first place prizes of $15,000. In all, $500,000 in scholarships and grants was awarded, with a total of $25,000 awarded to Mount St. Mary Academy.  

The HoneyBelles plan to use the prize money to help fundraise for two organizations – The Bee Cause, a grant program aimed to educate young people about the importance of bees, and Bee Abroad, an organization that seeks to reduce poverty in developing countries throughout the world through beekeeping.