03 Dec 2023 The sky’s the limit

By Carol Rolf

Ryan Brent, 17, has spent 15 years of his young life at The Baptist Preparatory School in Little Rock, which was founded in 1981. 

“I started here in K-3,” he said. “I am now a senior and will graduate in 2024. I’m very much looking forward to that.” 

He loves flying and is excited to become a pilot soon. Following in his father’s footsteps, he soloed when he was 16. “I’m about three hours away from having my pilot’s license,” he said. “My dad is a pilot, and we have our own plane. It’s great! I also like to hunt deer and ducks when I can.”

Next fall, he hopes to attend the University of Arkansas and major in supply chain management at the Walton College of Business. Undergraduate students graduating from the J.B. Hunt Transport Department of Supply Chain Management receive a bachelor of science in business administration degree.

“We had a family friend who majored in supply chain management at the University of Arkansas,” said Brent, a son of Stuart and Debra Brent of Benton (Saline County). “I knew I wanted to go to the University of Arkansas, but I didn’t know what I wanted to major in. I visited with our friend, watched him work and loved what he did. I knew then that’s what I wanted to study.”

Brent’s older brother, Hayden, 21, is a junior at U of A-Little Rock, where he is majoring in construction management. When asked if he might team up with his brother in business someday, he said that was possible.

The senior just completed his football career at Baptist Prep. “I’ve played football since about the third grade,” he said. “I played running back and outside linebacker. We did not have a winning season this year, but it’s all been good.”

In addition to playing football at his high school, Brent is involved in its missions program. “I participate in our Missions Week, which is right before spring break,” he said. “We go out into the community and help through acts of service. I’m on the Yard Work Team, which we do free of charge for the elderly. We do about five yards a day.”

Billy Goss, director of missions at Baptist Prep, said Brent “works our Missions Week as one of the leaders who provide mowing, cleaning and landscaping for the elderly of First Baptist Church Little Rock. 

“Ryan is a high-energy young man with an impeccable work ethic,” Goss said. “He has a servant’s heart and puts others before himself. He has a winsome personality. He has the innate ability to make people laugh and smile.”

Brent’s work during Missions Week at school complements what he does when he is away from school. He has his own landscape business.

“I’ve been doing this for three years—two years on my own,” he said, adding that he worked for a while with his brother and his brother’s best friend. “They grew out of the business, and I bought it,” Brent said. “I do everything. I mow, mulch, cut shrubs, whatever needs to be done. I work normally in Pulaski County but have a few yards in Benton. It’s profitable for me.”

Brent said that between playing football and mowing lawns, he doesn’t have time to do much else. “During the summer, I would have football practice in the mornings, from 7 to 9:30 or so, and then go mow yards in the afternoon,” he said, laughing. “There’s hardly a dull moment at our house,” he added. “If we’re not chopping firewood, we’re mowing yards. Our parents have instilled a strong work ethic in us.”

Brent and his family attend Geyer Springs Baptist Church in Little Rock, where he is involved in its youth program.