Jonesboro, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) — May 14, 2025 — Several projects were on display at a Jonesboro school Tuesday night, showing off local students’ creativity and critical thinking skills when combating community issues.
Family members and community members visited the International Studies Magnet School on May 13 for EAST Night Out. The event highlights the students’ work and how they collaborate with organizations.
This year’s event was different from past ones because displays were put up across the entire school. EAST facilitator Carman Owens said previously, displays were only put up in a few rooms, like the library and cafeteria.
At each display, students would take turns presenting their projects, explaining how and why they created it, and what they plan to do with them in the future. Owens said the students took weeks creating a poster and writing and rehearsing a script for their presentation, which must be memorized.
Some of the projects on display included websites, podcasts, 3D printing, bike lane proposals, virtual tours, and even a map for Joe Mack Campbell Park. There were 46 projects in total for this year’s event, with 130 students participating. Over 300 people attended.
“It’s extremely rewarding for me because I see the growth in the kids, and it’s a lot of work,” Owens said. “It’s why you live; it’s the things that matter.”
The time spent on the projects varies, with some having only a year of work done and others having up to three years of work. Even if they are not done with the project but are making good progress, Owens said it’s important to show what the students are capable of.
“Every kid has a voice, every kid is going to tell their story, every kid’s going to talk,” Owens said. “For them to memorize something, get up and present it with confidence, showcase something, to set a table, all that stuff is a big deal for them.”
A lot of the work in getting the event organized was thanks to administrator and sixth grader Cora Gill, who has been helping with the event for three years since around the program’s inception in 2021. Owens said Gill helped with most aspects of the event.
In the time that Gill has been administrator, Owens said she could tell Gill was getting more natural at the job.
“Cora was our co-administrator last year, so she worked with our administrator. It’s kind of like passing the baton, so I think that does help, because you learn by doing, and it can grow and get bigger and better every year,” Owens said.
“It’s definitely changed my whole life,” Gill said. “I went from the shyest person you could ever meet to being able to speak on stage.”
Owens said through these projects help empower the students to learn how to work with other people in the community and create solutions for long-running issues.
“A lot of the kids come into the program and they don’t think they can do things like this, and then when you give them the power to do it, it’s like it unleashes something in them, and they realize, ‘Well, I can solve this problem, that I can do this, and now, I feel like I have a voice,’ and it changes them,” Owens said.
“It’s something that’s so life changing that it can impact everything: Your focusing skills, your speaking skills, your problem-solving skills, your creativity. It forces you to be creative,” Gill said.
Owens said with Gill passing the baton to new administrator Jack Little, she hopes that the initiative will continue to grow with more students and projects.
“Every year, I had multiple parents come and tell me, ‘This is the best one I’ve ever had,’ and some of them, they’ve been to a lot of them, so it just seems to get better every year. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know it’s good,” Owens said.