Kalayna King Named 2026 A-State Wilson Award Winner

JONESBORO – Kalayna King was named the 2026 R.E. Lee Wilson Award winner Thursday evening during the Distinguished Service Award and Wilson Award recognition dinner honoring the university’s top student leaders.

This is the 93rd year Arkansas State University has recognized a student with the Wilson Award.

The award was presented to King by Perry Wilson of Little Rock, great-great-grandson of the award’s namesake.

King, a senior from Conway with a 4.0 grade-point average, is majoring in biological sciences with a pre-professional studies emphasis in the Beck College of Sciences and Mathematics. She will graduate summa cum laude.

“I am honored and grateful because A-State has given me so much. I have grown so much from the first time I came to campus. I’ve learned so much. Getting this award proves to me how much I have invested in this community and how much it has given to me,” she said.

King is one of seven students selected as 2026 Distinguished Service Award winners, all of whom were recognized during the dinner.

Other Distinguished Service Award recipients are Salma Abdel-Karim of Jonesboro; Rocco Hicks of Prattsville, Ark.; Kyle Johnson of Nassau, Bahamas; Mollie McClain of Marianna; Julia Renee Pye of Sheridan; and Ahniya Williamson of Nashville, Ark.

King is a U.S. Fulbright Program semifinalist, has made the Chancellor’s List seven times, and has been recognized as an Arkansas Governor’s Distinguished Scholar, an A-State Scholar and a member of the Honors College. She also tutors and serves as an ambassador in the Beck College of Sciences and Mathematics, in addition to many other academic accomplishments. 

“We’re all here for a purpose and for a goal. We all want to get to that next step. I think it’s really exciting to be able to help students see you can get past this and move on. Like many people have said, they failed and they came back and were able to become a doctor or a lawyer. I really enjoy helping my students get to that next step,” she said.

King has held several leadership roles, including vice president of membership for the Honors College Association, honors ambassador, SMART Center ambassador and president of the Minority Association for Pre-Medical Students (M.A.P.S.). She also helped organize health fairs and worked with the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) at A-State on projects such as CPR labs and a mentoring program for pre-med students.

“We had medical professionals come and speak to our students. We had nurses, doctors and surgeons. I really enjoyed that because I was able to help students see different professionals in the medical field. That was another way to connect with many students on campus that I otherwise would not have met,” she said. 

An alumna of the Chancellor’s Leadership Class, she has served as a student senator and participated in study abroad programs at A-State. Her involvement extends across numerous other campus organizations. She was nominated by Dr. Bruce Johnson, professor of physics, and her adviser is Allison Allen. King encourages others not to be afraid to branch out and take risks.

“I want any freshman or sophomore who doesn’t know what they’re doing, or is confused, to be able to see that it’s okay. I’m still not sure what I want to do, but I feel like in my time here, I was involved in many different things. That is what college is for, to try different things and learn different things,” she said. 

For her honors thesis, King conducted research at the Nutrition Center at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and worked as a research intern at UAMS. She has also volunteered with organizations such as Centro Hispano en Arkansas, Conway Emergency Shelter, Student Support Services and St. Bernards Medical Center. 

After graduation, King will continue to work at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Nutrition Center while awaiting news from the U.S. Fulbright Program. She also plans to attend graduate school. The 2026 Wilson Award winner hopes she is remembered at A-State for one thing: kindness.

“I think I want my legacy to be someone who always had a smile on her face and was kind to everyone who came here, no matter what their backgrounds were or what they were struggling with. I want to be someone who is welcoming to everyone.” 

Wilson Award winners receive a postgraduate scholarship from the chapter to be used for additional education after graduation from A-State. To be eligible for the award, students must graduate during the current academic year in the fall or spring commencement ceremonies.

R.E. Lee Wilson, a Mississippi County planter and businessman, served on the university’s Board of Trustees from 1917 until his death in 1933. The annual Wilson Award presentation began more than nine decades ago.

The names of Wilson Award winners are permanently displayed outside Centennial Hall in the Carl R. Reng Student Union. Previous Wilson Award recipients formed a Wilson Fellows Chapter of the A-State Alumni Association that has funded a scholarship program.