Category: Events

2017 AGS Alumni Speaker

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AGS Alumni is pleased to announce that our fifth annual Alumni Day Speaker is April Ambrose.  April Ambrose is a 1996 alumna from Alread, Arkansas.  She is the Director of Business Development at Entegrity, a sustainability and energy services company specializing in the implementation of energy conservation and renewable energy projects.

Ms. Ambrose has devoted her life to environmentalism.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Education, a self-designed major, from Hendrix College.  She is the founder of the Arkansas Earth Day Foundation.  the first chair of the Little Rock Sustainability Commission, and the first chair of the non-profit Elevate.  She has given numerous presentations to a large variety of organization on sustainability issues.

Ms. Ambrose is a graduate of the Leadership Greater Little Rock Class XXIX and the University of Arkansas Department of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service LeadAR Class 13.  She received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Hendrix College.

Alumni Day is the last Thursday of the Arkansas Governor’s School Session. This year it is July 20, 2017.   As our Alumni Day speaker, Ms. Ambrose joins a growing list of distinguished alumni that has included Doug Shipman, then founding CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights; Karama Neal, COO of Southern Bancorp Community Partners; Amy Johnson, Executive Director of the Arkansas Access to Justice Commission; and Glen Hooks, Executive Director of the Arkansas Chapter of the Sierra Club.  We hope the class of 2017 enjoys her presentation later this summer.

 

AGS Alumni Party at Playtime Pizza 12/28/2016

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It’s been six months since the class of 2016 has left AGS. It is about six months since the official AGS Reunion. This is too long to wait. Come join us at Playtime Pizza on December 28, 2016, to catch up, relax, eat, and have a little fun. Since Playtime Pizza is so big, All AGS Alumni and their friends are invited.

Tickets are 20 dollars per person and here is what you get:
Unlimited buffet, drinks, ice cream. Unlimited attractions(go-karts, laser tag, bumper cars, mini bowling and mini golf.) Unlimited nonticket video games. There are about 35 of these( racing, hunting, air hockey, pool tables, DDR style games.

AS well as a private area with a stage for special entertainment for the Class of 2016.

Tickets must be purchased prior to the event so that everyone can enjoy the group rate. This is a requirement of Playtime Pizza.

20 dollars can be mailed to P.O. Box 34, Monticello, AR 71657-0034, dropped off or mailed to the Law Office of Melissa Sawyer, 400 W. Capitol Avenue, Suite 1717, Little Rock AR 72201, or paid via PayPal here (https://www.paypal.me/AGSAlumni)

In order to get the group rate, AGS Alumni needs the funds by December 26, 2016

AGS Alumni day

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Go back if even for an afternoon. Come to Governor’s School to dine, see our Second Annual Alumni Speaker Karama Neal give her speech to the current class, participate in a special Area II class with Jim Rush, and watch a panel of alumni talk to the current class on surviving in a post AGS world. You have the option to eat both times but it cost 5.75 per meal. Also, cost is $20

11:45am-1:00pm Lunch in the Dining Hall
1:00pm-2:20pm Karama’s presentation in Staples Auditorium
2:30pm-3:50pm Lecture to alumni by Jim Rush on Singularity (see attached reading material)
4:10pm-5:00pm Panel discussion of alumni for our students on the theme “What Now?”
5:00pm-6:00pm Dinner in the Dining Hall

Please RSVP to Melissa Sawyer at (501) 613-7529. Thanks. There is a maximum of 15 people so don’t delay.

AGS Inaugural Speaker: Doug Shipman

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Doug tells the Class of 2013 of his experiences at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia

Doug tells the Class of 2013 of his experiences at Ebenezer Baptist Church

On July 18, 2013, AGS Alumni was honored to present its Inaugural Speaker, Doug Shipman, to the class of 2013 as part of their weekly speakers. This was a mere three days before the last day of Governor’s School and the current class’s last speaker. Doug Shipman is from Flippin, Arkansas and attended Arkansas Governor’s School in 1990 with the Area I emphasis of Social Science.

Doug Shipman uses Fred Rogers statements on love to illustrate how to form the beloved community

Doug Shipman uses a Fred Rogers to illustrate how to form the beloved community

Doug Shipman is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights (NCCHR). Doug was most recently a Principal in the Atlanta office of the Boston Consulting Group where he worked in the New York, Mumbai and Atlanta offices. He is the founding CEO and has been with the Center since the inception of the project in 2005. He currently serves on the Boards of the Emory Alumni Association and the Harvard Alumni Association. He has previously served on the Boards of The Intown Academy charter school, Easter Seals of North Georgia, and the Butler Street YMCA.

He was named one of Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “40 Under 40” in 2008, one of Georgia Trend’s “40 Under 40” in 2009 and received the New Leaders Council 40 Under 40 award in 2010. He was also named on of the “100 Most Influential” in Atlanta for 2011 and 2012. He has guest lectured at several institutions including Bard, Duke, Emory and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). He has been featured in numerous publications and broadcasts including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, TEDxAtlanta and the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Doug has an extensive educational background in issues of race, ethnicity and gender including the relationship between economics and poverty, the history of American minority groups and religion as applied in social movements including the American Civil Rights movement, the Indian independence movement and the Buddhist environmental movement in Southeast Asia.

Doug has an MPP (Master of Public Policy) from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University with an emphasis on domestic politics; an MTS (Master of Theological Studies) from the Harvard Divinity School with an emphasis on religion and public life and a bachelor’s degree with High Honors from Emory University with majors in Economics and Political Science. Doug attended Arkansas Governor’s School in 1990.

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.