Many AGS students will eventually live, work, and raise families in Arkansas. Some will become our state’s future leaders. This course will explicitly present to these future leaders the challenges and opportunities facing the Natural State as it moves forward in the 21st century.
Arkansas is undergoing significant change. The northwest counties are booming, while the Delta continues to lose population. Osceola is becoming a center for the nation’s steel industry, while southern Arkansas appears to be poised for a boom in lithium mining. Arkansas’s lakes, wetlands, and mountains support a huge game and fish industry and bring to the state thousands of tourists, who each year spend millions of dollars on recreational activities, supporting jobs and advancing prosperity.
This course will encourage AGS students to identify current conditions and future trends, and imagine creative ways to grow and improve Arkansas while maintaining its distinctive culture, preserving economic sustainability, and providing livable communities. Participants will identify Arkansas’ natural resources, study the state’s demographics and geography, recognize regions of population and economic growth, and analyze how the state portrays itself and publicizes its best qualities through media campaigns and advertising.
Students will engage in activities such as designing a new state park, creating a city plan to showcase recreational activities, use available GIS (geographic information systems) data to forecast population and demographic trends, and propose economic models to enhance tourism and industry. Guest speakers will be invited to offer their expertise both in person and in online discussion forums.
Required:
Preferred:
Applicants should submit an application cover sheet (see Appendix A), a letter of application describing qualifications, curriculum ideas, and teaching style, a current curriculum vitae, and a list of three references.