Greenwood Students to Study Business and Engineering Under Black and Reeder Scholarship

U of A alumni Sherman Black and Lynnette Reeder Black have announced this year's recipients of the Black and Reeder Scholarship, which is awarded to Greenwood High School students and U of A students from Greenwood seeking degrees in engineering or business. 

Caden Slate will graduate from Greenwood High School in May and plans to study marketing at the Sam M. Walton College of Business. She will be a first-generation college student. 

Slate said she discovered a passion for marketing during her sophomore year when she enrolled in a digital marketing class that introduced her to graphic design and the fundamentals of the field. 

"This funding truly means the world to me since I am completely responsible for my own college funding," she said. "I could not be more thankful for the help that you have given me to fund my dreams of being a first-generation college student." 

As a student at Greenwood High School, Slate participated in FCCLA, Beta Club and DECA. She advanced through the school's business curriculum and earned a place in Organizational Leadership, a senior-level course where students create social media content and design materials for school and community events. She was named to the Principal's Roll this year. 

Slate said the Sam M. Walton College of Business drew her to the U of A. "When I toured, I knew it was the right fit," she said. "The University of Arkansas truly felt like home." 

Ben Pschier, a senior in electrical engineering from Greenwood, will also receive the Black and Reeder Scholarship for the 2026-2027 academic year. Pschier said high school experiences with soldering, robotics competitions and coding classes led him to the field.  

At the U of A, he worked on a nanopore fabrication research project and helped develop a wheelchair safety system with a group of classmates. He is involved in CRU Campus Ministry and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. After graduating, Pschier plans to pursue a master's degree in electrical engineering. 

The Blacks created the scholarship to give back to the community and honor their parents, Galen and Wilma Black and Van and Carolyn Reeder, longtime residents of Greenwood. Recipients' $7,000 annual awards are renewable if they meet scholarship requirements. 

Black and Reeder Scholarship recipients Gavin Holland, a senior in electrical engineering, and Maggie Leonard, a senior in business, will graduate in May. Recipients whose awards will continue next fall are Cameron Green, a junior in mechanical engineering, and Drew Holland, a sophomore in biomedical engineering. 

About the College of Engineering:  The University of Arkansas College of Engineering is the state's largest engineering school, offering graduate and undergraduate degrees, online studies and interdisciplinary programs. It enrolls more than 4,700 students and employs more than 150 faculty and researchers along with nearly 200 staff members. Its research enterprise generated $47 million in new research awards in Fiscal Year 2025. The college's strategic plan, Vision 2035, seeks to build the premier STEM workforce in accordance with three key objectives: Initiating lifelong student success, generating transformational and relevant knowledge, and becoming the destination of choice among educators, students, staff, industry, alumni and the community. As part of this, the college is increasing graduates and research productivity to expand its footprint as an entrepreneurial engineering platform serving Arkansas and the world. The college embraces its pivotal role in driving economic growth, fueling innovation and educating the next generation of engineers, computer scientists and data scientists to address current and future societal challenges.