Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University will host Scholars Day 2012, the university’s annual undergraduate research symposium on Wednesday, April 25, throughout campus. More than 100 students will present their research, projects, senior theses and arts at the event.

“This is our day to celebrate academics,” said Dr. Barbara Pemberton, director of the Carl Goodson Honors Program, which sponsors the event. “We have a lot of events that celebrate other things, but this is our chance to applaud students in every discipline who have done well and worked hard. What I like about it is that it gives students from different fields an opportunity to go see what other people do.”

Scholars Day was first held in 2001, organized by Dr. Tim Knight, professor of biology, and Dr. Joe Jeffers, professor of chemistry and dean of the Patterson School of Natural Sciences, to share the projects of summer research students with the campus. Over the past 12 years, the event has grown to include more than 120 presentations and now includes senior thesis presentations, poster presentations of experiments and research, music recitals, theatre presentations and a juried art show.

Scholars Day will kick off at 1 p.m. on the main plaza with the induction of new members into Alpha Chi, a national honors society. The poster presentations and honors theses presentations will begin at 1:30 p.m. in McClellan 100 and Walker Conference Center, respectively. Individual presentations in a variety of fields will also begin at 1:30 p.m. in McClellan 205 and 206, Young Auditorium and Hickingbotham 200. Recitals will begin in McBeth Recital Hall at 2 p.m. Theatre presentations will begin in Verser Theatre at 4 p.m., and the juried art show will be on display all day in the Verser theatre gallery.

The juried art exhibit will be on display through Thursday, April 26. Stephanie Chontos, a sophomore graphic design major from Wylie, Texas, earned Best of Show honors for her acrylic painting “Picadillo.” Tanner Huffman, a senior graphic design and mass communications major from Wynne, Ark., earned second place for his monoprint “Twilight,” and Kelly Boggus, a senior Christian studies/Christian missions major from Harrison, Ark., earned third place for her monoprint “Dying in the Sun.” Boggus also earned an honorable mention for her monoprint “Water Sprite.” Other honorable mention recipients included Libby Harrington for her watercolor, oil and pencil work “Smoke” and Dusty Barnette for his oil on watercolor paper piece “Crappy Jigs Still Life on Mirror.” Harrington is a sophomore studio art and business administration/marketing major from Hot Springs, Ark., and Barnette is a senior biology major from Dermott, Ark.

The exhibit, presented by the OBU Department of Art and Design, is in its fourth year and is open to all Ouachita students. This year’s juror was Joshua Pickens, a 2004 Ouachita studio art graduate. He has earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from the University of Arkansas and was a contributing artist to Ouachita’s recent “Ink & Clay” exhibit. He serves as assistant professor of art at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas.

For more information, contact Barbara Pemberton at [email protected] or (870) 245-5541.

By Nicci Fillinger