Area Seniors Detail Career Plans

Editor’s note: With so much ink spilled of late about the lack of well-trained students and workers coming out of Arkansas’ schools, the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal selected a few of the area’s best students to profile for area companies.

This group is representative of literally hundreds of top students we could have included, and indicative of the quality of education in our community. We hope this gives the schools and students good exposure and maybe even helps a firm or two identify a potential recruit:

Rogers High School

Tyler Brooks

Age: 17

Years at current school: 12

Grade point, ACT: 4.163, 30

Key courses taken: Junior Executive Training, AP U.S. History, AP Biology, AP Statistics

Universities considering: Arkansas, Rhodes College in Memphis or Chapman University in Orange, Calif.

Majors considering: (undergraduate) Management or marketing. (graduate) M.B.A.

Careers of interest: Sales or marketing for business.

Intern/apprentice work: Intensive study on Donrey Media Group’s business model in the Northwest Arkansas newspaper war.

Business skills: Good negotiator, have a knack for constructive arguing.

Nikhil Nadkar

Age: 16

Years at current school: 4

Grade point, ACT: 4.13, 33

Key courses taken: Business applications, Visual Basic, C++, AP Statistics, AP Government, AP Calculus, AP Chemistry

Universities considering: (undergraduate) Arkansas, Missouri-Rolla, Texas.

Majors considering: Management information systems, minor in computer science.

Careers of interest: Software programmer or information systems manager.

Intern/apprentice work: Seeking summer internship.

Business skills: Good computer and communications skills, honesty, punctuality, initiative, the ability to be a group leader and to look for more efficient ways to do things.

Springdale High School

Alyson Wiggins

Age: 17

Years at current school: 4

Grade point, ACT: 4.03, 29

Key courses taken: Advanced Architecture Block, AutoCAD, AP Physics, AP Calculus, AP Chemistry, AP Art

Universities considering: Arkansas, Washington University in St. Louis, Iowa State, Washington.

Majors considering: (double) Architecture and structural engineering, minor in photography.

Careers of interest: Residential architecture.

Intern/apprentice work: Pursuing shadowing session with local architecture firm.

Business skills: Good communication and people skills, computer literacy.

Dwayne Bensing

Age: 17

Years at current school: 12

Grade point, ACT: 4.0, 29

Key courses taken: Debate, AP American Government, AP Comparative Politics, AP Literature & Composition.

Universities considering: (undergraduate) University of Virginia. (graduate) Georgetown.

Majors considering: (undergraduate) Political & Social Thought. (graduate) Political Science or Economics, Constitutional Law Degree.

Careers of interest: Serving the Third Congressional District in politics at the national level.

Intern/apprentice work: Founded SHS’ chapter of the Young Democrats of America, volunteer work for Democratic candidates in this fall’s special election for the Third Congressional District’s vacated seat in the U.S. House. Worked part-time at McDonald’s restaurant for last three years.

Business skills: Good computer and communication skills, aptitude in math thanks to SHS courses that focus on business and money.

Fayetteville High School

J.J. Couvillion

Age: 17

Years at current school: 12

Grade point, ACT: 4.17, 31

Key courses taken: AP Calculus, AP Language & Composition, Accelerated Chemistry

Universities considering: Arkansas, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M or Purdue.

Majors considering: Electrical or mechanical engineering.

Careers of interest: HVAC or mechanical engineering.

Intern/apprentice work: On-site technician, Northwest Controls of Springdale

Business skills: Computer literate, fluent with AutoCAD software.

Mathanki Kalapathy

Age: 17

Years at current school: 8

Grade point, ACT: 4.16, 29

Key courses taken: AP Language & Composition, AP European History, AP Government & Politics.

Universities considering: (undergraduate) Cornell, Arkansas, Vanderbilt.

Majors considering: (undergraduate) Political Science. (graduate) Law.

Careers of interest: Practicing law, national politics.

Intern/apprentice work: Arkansas Governor’s School.

Business skills: Good computer skills.

Meredith McKee

Age: 17

Years at current school: 12

Grade point, ACT: 4.16, 28

Key courses taken: AP American History, AP European History, AP Government.

Universities considering: (undergraduate) Duke, Washington University in St. Louis, Vanderbilt, Vasser. (graduate) Georgetown.

Majors considering: (undergraduate) Political Science. (graduate) Political Science, Law.

Careers of interest: Air Force ROTC, diplomacy, foreign relations.

Intern/apprentice work: Page at U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson’s office

Business skills: Hard worker, good computer and social skills, enjoys interacting with people.

Bentonville High School

Christopher Baran

Age: 18

Years in system: 7

Grade point, ACT: 4.1333, 32

Key courses taken: AP Physics, multiple computer classes.

Universities considering: John Brown University, Missouri-Rolla or Virginia Tech.

Majors considering: (undergraduate) Computer science and electrical engineering. (graduate) Business management/ administration.

Careers of interest: Corporate systems analyst or technology manager.

Intern/apprentice work: Manages a Web page that teaches other how to build Web sites. Design for yearbook.

Business skills: Good people person, good listener, goal oriented.

Katie Blaylock

Age: 17

Years in system: 3

Grade point, ACT: 4.0976, 31

Key courses taken: English AP, Drafting & Design, ARCAD, Government

Universities considering: (undergraduate) Brigham Young, Pennsylvania or Princeton (graduate) Columbia, The Royal College of the Arts or University of Westminister in London, England.

Majors considering: (undergraduate) Construction Management. (graduate) Architecture.

Careers of interest: Architecture

Business skills: Computer literate, ability to visualize projects.

Alissa McKinney

Age: 17

Years in system: 3

Grade point, ACT: 4.0976, 30

Key courses taken: AP English, AP History, AP Government, Spanish, Journalism.

Universities considering: (undergraduate) Northwestern, Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, Rhodes College in Memphis or Emory in Atlanta, Ga.

Majors considering: Journalism or international relations, minor in Spanish.

Careers of interest: International diplomacy.

Intern/apprentice work: NA.

Business skills: Good computer and communication skills.