While you lot're planning your next step after loftier schoolhouse, be sure to continue these exciting programs in mind.

Learn the Latest Tech at UAFS

The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith has some exciting new opportunities for students interested in technology. This year marks the outset of their unmanned aerial systems degree, which is a 2-year associate degree that teaches students how to pilot and repair drones, equally well as how to analyze the data gathered from drones.

In 2020, some changes to UAFS' figurer graphic technology programs will be taking place. The mechanical, architectural and full general options of the programme will consolidate and become the manufacture-recognized term "CAD," which will include a focus on avant-garde manufacturing.

The higher is as well offer two-year associate degrees, technical certificates and certificates of proficiency in electronics technology, a degree designed to train students in maintenance of industrial and electrical systems.

New Online Nursing Caste

It's no surprise that nursing is one of the fastest growing professions. The competitive bacon and flexibility that come with the field get in a pop career path nationally, and nursing in Arkansas is no exception.

► The Academy of Arkansas is launching a new online LPN to BSN program in the fall. In 2015, the Found of Medicine recommended that fourscore% of nurses hold a bachelor's degree past 2020, then the academy'south new programme volition help licensed practical nurses run into that industry expectation and make themselves more marketable.

► The University of Arkansas at Monticello recently announced that a $i.v million gift, the second largest in the institution's history, will provide effectually $70,000 in scholarships per twelvemonth in perpetuity for nursing students.

Exciting Classes, Degrees & Programs

From gemology to criminology, new opportunities to explore unique fields are popping upwardly all over the state.

► The University of Arkansas is adding a unique grade to its roster — the geology of gemstones.

The course is offered with no pre-requisites, and information technology volition be taught in tandem with an upcoming Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art exhibit, "Crystals in Art: Ancient to Today."

► Southern Arkansas University is offering a new cyber criminology degree. Educating students on the use of informatics skills to investigate and report crimes, the Bachelor of Science in cyber criminology volition likewise underscore human being behaviors and victimization patterns related to cybercrimes in hopes to ready students for high-paying careers in a high-demand field.

► The University of Arkansas at Pino Bluff volition be offer 2 new degrees this autumn. A hospitality & tourism direction degree program will prepare students to navigate the $six billion hospitality and tourism manufacture in Arkansas.

And the school's showtime engineering caste, agricultural engineering, will offer iii areas of emphasis: power and machinery, agricultural production systems and soil and water systems.

New Transfer Degree Partnerships

State institutions of higher learning have recently formed some exciting partnerships to brand getting a transfer degree a seamless transition for Arkansas students.

► The University of Arkansas —Pulaski Technical College and the University of Arkansas Sam Thou. Walton College of Business organization have partnered and so that, after ii years at PTC, transfer students tin can cull from vii different majors within UA's business administration degree.

► The University of Arkansas at Pine Barefaced and Southeast Arkansas College have launched a collaborative degree plan known every bit Associate to Bachelor'due south, or A2B, which will allow students to earn both an associate degree at SACC and a bachelor's degree at UAPB concurrently.

► Additionally, a new University of Arkansas scholarship program will reduce tuition rates for students who graduate with acquaintance degrees from whatsoever of the seven 2-year colleges in the Academy of Arkansas System and so transfer to the Fayetteville campus.

Awards & Grants

Arkansas colleges and universities have received some impressive awards and fruitful grants in the by several months.

► The Academy of Arkansas at Pino Bluff received a $4 one thousand thousand grant from the National Science Foundation to support the implementation of a Louis Stokes Pathways Research Alliance program, an initiative that aims to increase the diversity of STEM graduates.

► Ouachita Baptist University received the credential of Gilded Status from the American College of Sports Medicine for the university'south Department of Kinesiology and Leisure Studies' participation and excellence in its Exercise is Medicine program.

► National Park College Automotive Engineering science program was awarded a nigh $13,000 grant from the Arkansas Motor Vehicle Commission to purchase new educational activity and training equipment.

Large Things Happening in the Arts World

► The Academy of Central Arkansas has received a $20 one thousand thousand souvenir from the Windgate Foundation that is sure to make the institution a regional leader of the arts. The largest gift in UCA'south 111-year history will be used for a 114,000-square-foot Windgate Center for Fine & Performing Arts.

Plans for the state-of-the-art facility include 44,000 square feet of fine art space, an exterior space for 3-dimensional art, a 450-seat concert hall and a proscenium theater. The additional grade, studio, rehearsal and design space inside the Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts volition increment program capacity and allow more than UCA students to pursue fine or performing arts degrees.

► In early 2020, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Fine art and the Walton Family unit Foundation will open their new multiuse arts space in Bentonville called Momentary.

Momentary volition be a space for innovative art exhibitions, music, theater, film and artist-in-residence programs. The facility will feature studio infinite, galleries, a black box theater, an amphitheater, a studio kitchen, cafe, bar and indoor and outdoor public spaces. The contemporary arts venue is expected to be a grand improver to the northwest Arkansas arts scene.

Wheeler Kearns Architects

The former Kraft Foods plant in Bentonville will become a mixed-use hub for artists called Momentary.