The following experts are from an Arkansas Times blog written by Rhett Brinkley, Lara Farrar, Daniel Grear, Mary Hennigan, Tricia Larson, Dan Marsh, Stephanie Smittle and Milo Strain.
"Chosen from nearly 150 applicants, all of whom were nominated by their school counselor or principal, the 2025 Arkansas Times Academic All-Star Team showcases some of the state’s most exemplary high school seniors. Of the 20 students selected for this year’s roster — the 31st group the Times has honored — three received a perfect score on the ACT. Four have already committed to an Ivy League university. Just as many have their hearts set on medical school. Most importantly, however, these students are full of conviction, keenly aware of the world’s heavy load of problems and dedicated to playing their part in alleviating division, degradation and suffering."
"Farmington High School senior Miles Batson isn’t fazed by the future. While other kids are fumbling their way toward choosing a roommate and freshman-year classes, he’s already thinking far past his college graduation, envisioning an ambitious path for himself that involves going to law school and perhaps even running for public office.
The thing he’s most passionate about right now, however, is “social entrepreneurship,” or an intentional blending of commerce — particularly tech — and social change. He plans to use that lens to one day start his own business. “I think technology is awesome and improvements to technology can really better people’s lives, but it’s so easy for technology to have really negative aspects as well, which we can see from stuff like AI, which steals people’s art and hurts people’s education if they rely on it too much,” he said. “That’s why I think having an angle and a perspective of sociology and political science and morality is so important to figure out how to design and develop and improve upon technology in a way that helps people.”
Whether through an eventual legal, political or entrepreneurial career (or maybe all three), Miles hopes to make a positive impact on the incarceration system (he’s a big fan of Bryan Stevenson’s “Just Mercy”), the environment (he’s worried about our society’s reliance on fossil fuels) and political polarization (“A polarized society is an unstable society … If no one can agree on how to continue, nothing is going to get done.”) He’ll begin that journey at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he expects to study business and engineering. DG"