NEA Business Notes: Ritter hosts fundraiser for 18th year

Ritter Communications sponsored the 45th Annual St. Jude Radio/Cablethon, which was broadcast on March 1. The annual event raised $313,530 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, one of the world’s premier centers for the research and treatment of childhood cancer and other catastrophic diseases.

This was Ritter Communications 18th consecutive year sponsoring the event. The St. Jude Radio/Cablethon has raised over $4.8 million in donations over the past 18 years to provide treatment at no cost to families.

The Northeast Arkansas Chapter of ESA International, a community service organization, has taken ownership of the event for decades and fundraises year-round.

 

First Community Bank Adds to Legal Department, Promotes Cerrato

First Community Bank has hired Jeremy Colton to the legal department as vice president, collection officer. In this role, Colton will manage the collection of all impaired assets across the bank’s footprint.

A Batesville native, Colton has more than 14 years of experience in the financial and collections industry. After beginning his career at First Community Bank while in college, he spent over a decade at a regional collection agency, where he most recently was vice president of operations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance with a banking emphasis and a master’s degree in business administration from Arkansas State University. He is certified as an Association of Credit and Collection Professionals International Professional Collection Specialist.

First Community Bank has promoted Candace Cerrato to assistant vice president, consumer lending officer. In this role, she will continue to serve the lending needs of customers while strengthening relationships within the community.

Cerrato began her career with First Community Bank in April 2016, as a loan support assistant. With 23 years of experience in banking and mortgage lending, she spent 12 years in secondary mortgage as a mortgage processor and 11 years as a loan assistant.

 

Barnhouse Appointed to CARA Executive Committee

Dr. Lucy Barnhouse, assistant professor of history, has been appointed to a three-year term to the executive committee of CARA, a standing committee of the Medieval Academy of America with a special focus on teaching. CARA works to help institutions and individual medievalists in meeting the challenges facing medieval studies locally and nationally, across multiple institutional settings. It also supports those developing special projects and instructional programs.

 

Grubbs Hired by AgHeritage Farm Credit Services

Ryann Grubbs of Ward has joined AgHeritage Farm Credit Services as a loan assistant in the Newport branch office. Grubbs holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture education and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Southern Arkansas University.

While at SAU she was a member of Sigma Alpha professional agriculture sorority, Delta Tau Alpha agriculture scholastic honor society and Kappa Delta Pi education honor society. She most recently worked for the Cabot School District, teaching agriculture science and serving as one of the Cabot FFA Chapter Advisors. She has also taught agriculture in Bentonville Public Schools.

AgHeritage Farm Credit Services is a customer-owned rural and agriculture lender with owned and managed assets of approximately $2.8 billion as of Dec. 31. The company provides credit and related services to approximately 6,700 farmers, ranchers, rural residents and the agribusiness industry in 24 Arkansas counties.

 

Rocco Hicks Finalist for The Truman Scholarship

Arkansas State University junior political science major Rocco Hicks of Prattsville has been named as a finalist for The Truman Scholarship. Hicks is one of 201 students from 137 institutions selected from more than 700 applicants nationally. He is one of three Arkansans who are finalists.

Those considered for this award are students seeking a career in public service.

Qualifications for this scholarship include a demonstration of leadership, a commitment to a future in public service, and those who are on the path to graduate school. Truman scholarship recipients receive a $30,000 award they can use toward graduate school.

This scholarship was established in 1975 as a living memorial to President Harry Truman and as a national monument to public service. This year, the award celebrates its 50th year of helping students achieve their dreams of a future in public service.

 

Gunn Retires from Black River Technical College After 11 Years

Black River Technical College (BRTC) recently hosted a retirement reception for Welding Instructor Rickie Gunn for 11 years of service. During the reception Gunn was presented with a plaque to honor his time and commitment to BRTC and his students. Gunn was also presented with a handcrafted hunting knife by a few close colleagues.

 

Area Students Compete in ‘Thrown to the Wolves’ Competition

Area high school students participated in the annual Thrown to the Wolves competition this week. Competitors this year included students from The Academies at Jonesboro High School, Midland High School, East Poinsett County High School, Paragould High School, Cross County High School, and Walnut Ridge High School. In the competition, 13 students from the six schools submitted business plans ahead of the event that they pitched live in front of the judges.

Walnut Ridge High School student Jersie Cunningham won first place, and will receive a mentoring session with a local celebrity innovator and venture capitalist; $1,000 for the student and $1,000 for the teacher sponsor’s classroom; a $500 A-State scholarship; free workspace and membership at A-State Innovate for one year; and free patent help, prototyping development and manufacturing advice. The student also receives a marketing package valued at $7,500 from The Solutions Group.

Second-place winners Mail Wallis, Jenna Organ and Donna McKenzie from Cross County High School will take home $500 for the team and $500 for the school sponsor’s classroom; a $500 A-State scholarship for each team member, and free workspace at A-State Innovate for a year.

Taking home third place was Christopher Pham of Paragould High School. He won $150, with $150 also going to the school sponsor’s classroom, a $500 A-State scholarship, and free workspace and membership at A-State Innovate for one year.

Cross County High School was awarded the Pack Pick Award this year.

 

Dr. Sarah Hooper Hired at A-State Vet School

The College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) at Arkansas State University has hired Dr. Sarah Hooper as associate dean for student programs and admissions.

Hooper earned her doctor of veterinary medicine degree at the University of Georgia. She then received a National Institutes of Health T-32 training grant through the Comparative Medicine Program at the University of Missouri where she completed her residency and a doctoral degree in pathobiology.

Hooper has worked as the director of the Research Center for Veterinary Medical Education at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine where she has been an associate professor in physiology. Her research has explored the intersection of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and veterinary education, which has driven innovation in student success and curriculum development.

 

Kirstin Grubb Receives Ritter Family Foundation Scholarship

Kirsten Grubb, a third-year medical student at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University (NYITCOM at A-State), has been awarded the inaugural Ritter Family Foundation scholarship, the medical school and the foundation announced Thursday.

The Ritter Family Foundation scholarship was established last fall to financially support medical students who are from the Delta region of Arkansas and/or aspire to ultimately practice in the region. The foundation is operated by Ritter family members as well as current and retired employees of E. Ritter & Company, a fifth-generation, family-owned business founded in 1889 and headquartered in Marked Tree.

Scholarship applicants were required to submit a brief essay explaining why they aspire to practice in a medically-underserved Arkansas community. Grubb, a Paragould native who completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Alabama before returning to Northeast Arkansas for medical school, plans to specialize in emergency medicine upon graduation from NYITCOM.

The mission of Ritter Family Foundation is to support and strengthen the communities it serves by providing resources, leadership, and necessary collaboration to meet local needs. The foundation prioritizes grant requests that address hunger relief, education, affordable housing, and health. Ritter Arnold, a Ritter family member who is involved with the foundation, has served as a member of the NYITCOM at A-State Dean’s Advisory Board since its inception in 2016.