Category: Alumni Profile

The 2018 AGS Alumni Speaker is Nate Powell

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Congratulations to our 2018 AGS Alumni Speaker, Nate Powell.  Nate will be speaking to the entire 2018 Arkansas Governor’s School class on June 21, 2018.  Nate is a 1995 graduate of Arkansas Governor’s School with an Area 1 emphasis in Visual Arts.  He graduated from North Little Rock High School and the Visual Arts School.  He is a graphic novelist whose work has appeared on the New York Times Best seller’s list.  He won the National Book award for his work on March:  Book 3, the autobiographical graphic novel of Congressman John Lewis.  He is the only graphic novelist to achieve this honor.

From his website:

His work has also received a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, three Eisner Awards, two Ignatz Awards, two Harvey Awards, the Michael L. Printz Award, a Coretta Scott King Author Award, four YALSA Great Graphic Novels For Teens selections, the Walter Dean Myers Award, and has been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Besides being a graphic novelist, Nate has also played in punk bands such as Soophie Nun Squad and Universe and managed an underground record label, Harlan Records.

Nate Powell joins a distinguished list of alumni speakers who have included April Ambrose, Glen Hooks, Amy Johnson, Karama Neal, and Doug Shipman.

An Introduction from Melissa

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Hello.

My name is Melissa Sawyer. I am the founder of AGS Alumni, the alumni association for Arkansas Governor’s School. Arkansas Governor’s School is a six week residential program for gifted and talented rising seniors in Arkansas. Arkansas Governor’s School is funded by the “Arkansas State Legislature as a portion of the biennial appropriation for Gifted and Talented Programs through the State Department of Education”. See Arkansas Governor’s School website The program was founded in 1980 with 276 students, 28 faculty, and 25 staff members on the campus of Hendrix College in Conway. Since then, over 12,000 Arkansas high school students have completed the program.

I founded AGS Alumni in April 2013 for the simple reason that it was time for Arkansas Governor’s School to have an alumni association.

The goals of AGS Alumni are simple:

  1. platform for gifted education
  2. to promote and enhance Arkansas Governor’s School
  3. to provide a place for AGS alumni to network and socialize with each other
  4. to keep archives of Arkansas Governor’s School memorabilia
  5. to keep alumni informed of the current Arkansas Governor’s School class

We took our first step forward in implementing these goals was presenting our Inaugural Speaker Doug Shipman (Class of ’90) CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights to the class of 2013. His speech to the students was entitled “Creating the Beloved Community” and addressed issues of diversity and Martin Luther King Jr’s “beloved community.”

I hope to have this be an annual event with a different speaker coming each year to speak to the current class.

We are also planning social events as well.

Governor’s School was a wonderful experience and changed my life. I know it changed the life of many of my friends as well. I hope you stay tuned because wonderful things are happening here.