Armorel EAST wins Faye Jones Architecture Challenge

Armorel EAST has been the recipient of many awards since becoming a class offered at Armorel High School, even receiving national attention for providing a duck a prosthetic leg. Recently, at the 2019 East Conference, an Armorel group of ninth-grade students — Grayson Seibert, Jayce Fondren and Brayden Rounsaville— was awarded the top award in the Faye Jones Architecture Challenge by the Faye Jones School of Architecture and Design for their design on the new elementary building.

Seibert stated Armorel Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree approached the three students at the beginning of their eighth- grade year about the project.

“At the beginning of our eighth grade year, we were approached by our new superintendent. She was interested in working with us on the building of a new elementary for Armorel School District because of our past successful EAST renovation projects,” Seibert explained. “In the beginning stages, we had a meeting with the school’s architect and superintendent to view the blueprints and see what was expected on our part. We were assigned the job of creating the new foyer and main entrance area.”

Seibert added that he kept it modern but consistent with other campus buildings.

“When designing, I kept it very modern but at the same time consistent with other buildings on campus. Designing and being creative is second nature for me so it was fairly easy to create the model. We continued to have meetings with the architects, interior designers, engineers, and school faculty to add revisions to our model,” Seibert said. “When the final model was finished, aesthetics from our model were implemented into the main blueprint by the architects. The architects also continue to seek our input on interior design elements and flooring. I think it’s great that we had a part in something that will be in place for generations of Armorel students to come.”

Fondren explained how it felt that night Armorel EAST students Jayce Fondren, Grayson Seibert and Brayden Rounsville accept the Faye Jones Architcture Challenge Competition that night in Hot Springs at East Conference 2019 when their names were called by saying “you feel on top of the world”.

“When you hear your names announced, you feel like you’re on top of the world because all that hard work you put in was noticed and selected over everyone,“ said Fondren.

The experience for Rounsavil le was fun and exciting.

“This week has been a very exciting and fun week for me. This week I have met a lot of new people and learned a lot about other school’s projects, and how they are helping the community around their schools,”Rounsaville explained.“It is great to see how people are all working so hard to help people solve various problems. We have worked very hard to help our community and the future of Armorel. Because

of our hard work we ended up winning a competition involving our elementary school.”

Rounsaville also explained the awards that came with winning the competition.

“As a result we ended up being awarded the chance to go to a design camp this summer. Along with this we also won a plaque, a hat, and a Fay Jones notebook,” Rounsaville added.“Overall this week has been very beneficial to me and my other EAST teammates. We have worked hard and it has al l paid off. EAST is the experience of a lifetime.”

Armorel East facilitator Lindsey Rouse said the group’s award was very well deserved.

Rouse said, “The Faye Jones School of Architecture and Design selected our students, Grayson Seibert, Jayce Fondren, and Brayden Rounsaville, for the top award in the Faye Jones Architecture Challenge Competition at EAST Conference in Hot Springs for their design of our new elementary school. These students have previously worked on architectural projects for our school district because of their ability to deliver professional quality renderings of their creative work. This top honor is very well deserved and we are proud of how wel l they’ve represented Armorel EAST.”

Barbaree added, “I couldn’t be more happy for our students and Armorel EAST program. These students work so hard to be excellent. It feels good to see their hard work pay off. All credit goes to the students, Ms.Rouse, and Ms. Bell. Way to go!”