For the sixth straight year, Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock was represented in the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame “Girls of Distinction” program. Senior Isabella Nguyen and junior Carson Vogelpohl were among five young women chosen from area high schools to attend the Hall of Fame induction ceremony Aug. 22 at the Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock.
Nguyen is active in MSM’s performing arts programs and activities. She is a member of the International Thespian Society and serves as president of the Thespian Troupe. She is also a member of the National Speech and Debate Association and the Concert Belles and is a leader of the campus ministry music team. She won the National High School Musical Theatre Songwriting Challenge for her original song “Live Before Life’s Gone” from the musical she is writing alongside her friend and classmate, Maya Johnson.
“Getting the honor of being a Girl of Distinction was such an amazing and eye-opening experience,” Nguyen said. “Not only were this year’s Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame inductees outstanding women with incredibly inspiring stories, but the young women I was recognized alongside were all remarkable as well.”
Vogelpohl, who currently ranks first in her class, is a member of Belle Ambassadors, Honor Council, National Honor Society, the school newspaper, Mu Alpha Theta and Latin Club. She is also a member of the Belles basketball and soccer teams, for which she received All-Conference honors and the MSM Passionate Athlete Award. She co-chaired last year’s Power of the Purse event in Little Rock, which raised more than $300,000 for the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas.
“One of the honorees at the event said, ‘If service is beneath you, then leadership is beyond you.’ This affirmed that the foundation of service learning at Mount is truly setting me up for future success,” she said.