The SAU Hallman Scholarship continues to attract top science female recruits as the 2014 recipients include a 16-year-old engineering student from Phoenix, Ariz., and a pre-nursing major from Little Rock.
The Hallman Scholarship is awarded through the SAU Foundation and provides $10,000 annually for a female student in the SAU College of Science and Engineering.
Calla Bassett
Calla Bassett heard the buzz about SAU’s new engineering program and decided to become a Mulerider after visiting SAU’s campus during one of her family trips to Magnolia. Bassett’s grandmother, Doris Fletcher of Magnolia, is an SAU alum from 1982.
Bassett said she was sold on SAU because she really liked the area, because it’s affordable, and because she heard good things about the engineering program. A standout in science and math, she said engineering is just a good fit for her. She hopes to land a good internship during or after her studies at SAU and see where her engineering career takes her.
She finished the Girl’s Leadership Academy in downtown Phoenix. While there, she was on the Mock Trial Team and the Engineering Club. She is the daughter of Clark and Denene Bassett. Her siblings include Andrew, Brandon, and Amanda.
Bailey Romero
Bailey Romero recently graduated from Little Rock Central High. She will start this fall as an SAU pre-nursing student toward her bachelor of science in nursing degree. She plans to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist.
She said that she decided to dedicate her career to nursing after participating for two years with the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Junior Volunteers program. During the program, her role was to be with the children just before they went back to have surgery.
Romero said she is looking forward to attending SAU’s Leadership Academy this summer, and moving into SAU’s Fincher Hall in the fall.
She is the daughter of Jessica and Cory Johnson. She has two sisters, Lauren and Audrey.
Bassett and Romero join previous Hallman Scholarship recipients Emily Bowling, pre-dentistry major from Redwater High School; Taylor McNeel, Arkansas FFA president and SAU Agriculture Science and Honors College student from Vilonia, Ark.; and Emily Snyder, a pre-pharmacy student from Cabot High School.
Dedicated to providing opportunities for women, 1966 graduate of SAU Cinda Hallman provided funds for the scholarship through her estate. Hallman was one of four women heading Fortune 500 companies at the time of her appointment as CEO of Spherion Corporation. Before joining Spherion, Hallman had a distinguished 20-year career with DuPont. As senior vice president of DuPont global systems and processes, she had full responsibility for global information technology, processes and strategy, and corporate core managing processes. She was named Chief Information Officer of the Year by Information Week Magazine for “reshaping DuPont’s information systems organization to meet the changing competitive needs of its business units.”
