For the seventh straight year, Mount St. Mary Academy was represented in the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame “Girls of Distinction” program. Amelia Byers ’26 was one of five young women chosen from area high schools to attend the 2025 Hall of Fame induction ceremony held on Thursday, August 21, at the Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock.
As one of this year’s Girls of Distinction, Amelia was provided with the unique opportunity to meet the 2025 inductees and help escort them to the stage during the ceremony. According to the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame, the five high school students chosen for this honor each year serve in leadership positions, maintain high academic standards, and strive to make their communities a better place.
“Being honored as a Girl of Distinction was a very inspiring experience,” Amelia said of her recent honor. “I was very grateful for the chance to meet so many women who have made a large impact in our state. The work they have done is a great example for all girls of how we can make an impact in our own communities. I am also appreciative of the opportunity to get to know four other influential young women who were also honored as Girls of Distinction.”
Amelia, who currently ranks third in her class, is very involved at Mount. She is a member of Honor Council, Mu Alpha Theta, Beta Club, and the Belles’ cross country and track teams, through which she earned All-Conference honors two years in a row and received the Toughness Award for her commitment and hard work in strength training. She was chosen to represent Mount at the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Conference in 2024 and ALA Arkansas Girls State in 2025. A dedicated violin player, Amelia is a member of the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra. She is also a Eucharistic Minister at Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic Church and is an active volunteer with Helping Hands of Greater Little Rock, Settled Souls and Alzheimer’s Arkansas.
The Girls of Distinction program was implemented in 2017, and Mount St. Mary Academy is the only school to have had at least one student chosen each year young women have been selected: Stephanie Verdaris ’18 (2017), America Alejandri ’20 and Annie Quo ’19 (2018), Brynne Johnson ’21 (2019), Millie Allgood ’22 (2022), Eliza Jane Null ’24 (2023), and Isabella Nguyen ’25 and Carson Vogelpohl ’26 (2024). The program took a two-year hiatus in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid.
The goal of the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame is to honor, in perpetuity, women whose contributions have influenced the direction of Arkansas in their community or the state. It is dedicated to preserving the history of its inductees’ accomplishments and to providing encouragement and inspiration to women across the state by sharing their powerful stories. The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, founders of Mount St. Mary Academy, were honored as members of the second class of inductees in 2016. Former Mount St. Mary president and CEO Karen Flake ’65 was inducted in 2018, children and families advocate Amy Rossi ’71 was inducted in 2022, and banking and community leader Cathy Hastings Owen ’76 was inducted in 2023.
