Greta Hacker
Jacob Holland
University of Central Arkansas President Houston Davis recognized two UCA students for their outstanding academic records and civic and community engagement efforts at the May 28 Board of Trustees meeting, held via Zoom.
Greta Hacker and Jacob Holland were named recipients of UCA’s Bear CLAWS award, which is an acronym for Celebrating the Lofty Achievements of Our Wonderful Students. The award is given to one or more exceptional students or registered student organizations during each regularly scheduled UCA board meeting.
Hacker, from Jonesboro, is a rising junior in the honors college who is majoring in public administration.
Early in her undergraduate career, Hacker engaged with UCA’s Center for Community and Economic Development (CCED) as a Community and Economic Development fellow and later as an intern. In this role, she played a critical part in planning and executing CCED’s Community Development Institute, as well as organizing multiple poverty simulations.
She has also led several political advocacy efforts on campus, including promoting voter registration and civic engagement through her leadership role in Bears at the Ballot.
In March, Hacker was named a Newman Civic Fellow by national nonprofit Campus Compact. She is one of the 290 students nationwide who will make up the organization’s 2020-21 cohort. The one-year fellowship provides numerous learning and networking opportunities, including a national conference held in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate.
Currently, Hacker serves on the UCA Honors Council, is a pedagogical associate for the spring Honors Freshman Seminar and is a peer tutor in the UCA Center for Writing and Communication.
Holland is a native of Ward who recently earned bachelor’s degrees in political science and public relations.
During his time in UCA’s Honors College, Holland took an active role on campus and received many accolades for his speech and debate skills. He served as the UCA Debate Team President and the UCA Speech Team Captain. In 2019, he was named the No. 1 Debate Speaker in the Nation by the International Public Debate Association and the No. 1 Debater in the Nation by the same group this year.
He has also been a James Madison Debate Champion; a multi-year Southern Forensics Speech Champion; a finalist for the Harry Truman Scholarship; and he took first place at the 2018 National Collegiate Honors Conference for his research and presentation on women in government.
Like Hacker, Holland’s resume includes an internship at UCA’s CCED, where he served as a public policy intern. He also completed an internship at Intellectual Property Launch Services, where he did paralegal and public relations work, and he was a student worker on a data-gathering project at the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics.
Recently, Holland was named a Point Fellow semi-finalist, and he was awarded the Purple Society Outstanding Male Student Award.
