In an e-mail to students, faculty and staff, Belmont University President Dr. Robert Fisher announced yesterday the University’s intention to open for in-person learning and on-campus living as scheduled on August 19.
“Please know that we do not take this decision lightly. Like all of you, we have been struggling to understand the uncontrollable, unpredictable and serious nature of this virus,” Fisher’s e-mail said. “Our leadership has sought the consultation of top medical officials from some of the world’s leading health care companies and research hospitals. We have been agonizingly thoughtful about what it will take for us to return to on-campus living and learning.”
The University has had six teams intensively working on protecting the health and safety of the Belmont community from COVID -19 since the beginning of February. Dr. Fisher explained that, over time, the focus of these teams has shifted and they continue to work diligently to learn, innovate and design solutions to the multitude of factors that are important to the decision to re-open campus activities. Modifications to processes and behaviors, he said, will be critical. “Including faculty, staff and students, Belmont is a 10,000 person community. For us to be successful in our return to campus we will have to do some things very differently to minimize the risk to ourselves and each other.”
Fisher pledged that keeping everyone as safe as possible will be the top priority, stating the decision comes with built in conditions: “If at any point conditions change dramatically for the worse, we will not hesitate to change our course.”
Belmont plans to share more details regarding fall plans and expectations in the coming weeks.
Claire Wiley, research and instruction librarian and associate professor, and Jenny Mills, coordinator of research services and associate professor, received a NACADA Research Grant to facilitate the study of the advising experience of undeclared students.
Library faculty, who serve as advisors for this group, will conduct in-depth interviews with formerly undeclared students in order to increase the understanding of how these students perceive the discernment process, the transition to a new major, as well as their general experience as part of the Belmont community.
May 2020 Belmont University graduate Anas Saba was recently awarded a Fulbright program grant for overseas teaching in Mexico. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is an international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government that provides competitive grants to graduating seniors and graduate students to serve as cultural ambassadors of the United States abroad.
Belmont Provost Dr. Thomas Burns said, “Fulbrights are extremely competitive, prestigious national awards that recognize our country’s best and brightest. I am confident Anas Saba will represent the United States and Belmont University well in his international placement as he possesses remarkable intellect, passion and commitment to service. Though a recent graduate, he is already fulfilling Belmont’s mission to empower students ‘to engage with and transform the world.’”
Saba graduated from Belmont earlier this month as a double major in international business and management with concentrations in entrepreneurship and Spanish. A Nashville native, during his time on campus Saba served as president of Belmont’s Collegiate DECA chapter, vice president of alumni relations for Phi Kappa Tau fraternity and as a Belmont Ambassador. Saba also founded Nashville Hidden Gems, a food tour agency that takes guests on food tours of immigrant owned restaurants along Nolensville Pike, known as Nashville’s international corridor. “The support I have received from the Belmont and greater Nashville community as I have grown this business has been incredible,” he said. “I consider it a privilege to facilitate the cultural exchange between tourists of Nashville and the international community that calls Nashville home.”
Saba is also interning with Millions of Conversations, a media campaign with the purpose of transcending divides and bringing Americans together over common values, and his long-term aspiration is to work for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Development’s global strategy team. “Belmont has taught me so much, both inside and outside the classroom. I have been so incredibly grateful to my professors who invested so much in me through their mentorship. From professors, to organization advisors, to administrators, to counselors, I was given unconditional support and encouragement. This support instilled in me the belief that I could pursue a Fulbright award and foster community anywhere it sent me.”
With his Fulbright Award, Saba will continue his commitment to facilitating cultural exchange as he teaches English in a public school in Mexico and works with local entrepreneurs in his host community. Due to COVID-19’s impact on international travel, Saba’s program won’t begin until January.
“My aim is to learn from them what their challenges are, and apply what I have learned from my professional and educational experiences to work together to find collaborative solutions… this Fulbright award gives me the flexibility to engage in the two areas I am most passionate about: education and economic development. In any community in the world, education and economic development are the two tools that must be used in tandem to support a healthy community where everyone can succeed.”
Belmont alumna Elizabeth Stewart was recently awarded a Fulbright program grant for overseas teaching to Israel. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is an international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government that provides competitive grants to graduating seniors and graduate students to serve as cultural ambassadors of the United States abroad.
Belmont Provost Dr. Thomas Burns said, “Fulbrights are extremely competitive, prestigious national awards that recognize our country’s best and brightest. I am confident Elizabeth Stewart will represent the United States and Belmont University well in her international placements as she possesses remarkable intellect, passion and commitment to service. Though a recent graduate, she is already fulfilling Belmont’s mission to empower students ‘to engage with and transform the world.’”
Stewart, a 2018 graduate, hails from Maryville, Tennessee, and completed a major in public relations with minors in business administration and studio art. During her time at Belmont she co-founded student-run retail shop House Of and participated in the Student Government Association, Public Relations Student Society of America and Gender Equality Movement. She also enjoyed two study abroad programs, a summer session in Beijing, China and a full semester in Paris, France. “My study abroad experiences at Belmont deeply affirmed that I want to live and learn abroad again in my adult life. One class that was deeply influential to me and affected what I would like to do in Israel was a photography course. Many photographers I look up to are not native to the country they documented, and this can provide a really unique perspective.”
While in Nashville, she also gained valuable internship and volunteer experience through work with nonprofit Freedoms Promise, Nashville Lifestyles magazine and the Frist Art Museum’s College Marketing Board. Currently in New York City, Stewart provides communications and marketing services for a wide array of museums, galleries, fairs and independent artists within the visual arts realm at a global firm. Her long-term goal is to be able to help others either through teaching our nation’s future leaders or working to enact public policy that provides a more fair way of life for Americans.
Through her Fulbright Award, she will be teaching English at the university level in Israel while learning about the local cultures and views toward the U.S. through sociological photography and interviews. Due to COVID-19’s impact on international travel, Israel will either alter or suspend this year’s program, but Stewart remains hopeful she can carry out the grant’s intent when it is safe to do so.
“I decided to pursue a Fulbright Scholarship specifically because I am very inspired by its mission of intending to represent the United States with diplomacy, compassion and intellect,” Stewart said. “My personal reasoning for choosing Israel in specific dates back to a special family history. My late grandparents lived in Israel for nearly 40 years, from the 1960s to the 1990s. During this time they opened many schools, which has always been a very inspiring legacy for my family. I feel compelled to walk in their footsteps and gain a better understanding of such a sacred, historical land.”
For the past six years, through the American Chemical Society (ACS) Science Coaches program, Dr. Danielle Garrett, associate professor of chemistry education, has partnered with Ellen Deathridge, 4th grade teacher at Donelson Christian Academy (DCA), to engage DCA 4th graders in hands-on science experiences. For the past two years, that has included a field trip in May to the Belmont campus, where 4th grade students participate in a half-day of hands-on chemistry activities, interactive demos and a visit to the chemistry teaching labs. While COVID-19 put a halt to their plans to hold their annual spring field trip, Garrett and Deathridge were not going to let that put a halt to their science partnership.
As the semester came to a close, Garrett developed and filmed a 45-minute science lesson, where students got to see several science demonstrations and develop connections between their science knowledge and new topics. The three main focus points of this lesson were 1.) the states of matter, 2.) the relationship among temperature, pressure and phase changes, and 3.) conductors, insulators and heat transfer. Through the demonstrations Garrett performed, students got to see how applying a vacuum to a closed system could make water boil. They also got to learn about heat capacity and heat transfer, comparing how quickly ice cubes melted on cubes of various materials (copper, polypropylene, oak and steel). Garrett developed a handout for the students, where they could record their observations, make predictions and answer questions about the science lesson.
“Even though I was sad that we could not meet in person this semester, I had so much fun putting this together for Ellen and her 4th grade students,” Garrett said.
Deathridge added how much her students loved being able to see Garrett again through online learning. “’Awesome,’ ‘cool’ and ‘best science teacher ever’ have been some of their comments,” Deathridge said.
“I love this experience so much! Ellen and I have been so blessed to be a part of the ACS Science Coaches program for the past six years. She is an amazing science teacher and an awesome person to work with,” Garrett said. “I’ve already got plans for more science videos, in case we’re still engaged in remote learning next fall. Like I told the 4th graders at the beginning of my video, ‘Just because we can’t be together in the classroom, doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with science!’”
Alumna Lara Stahl, nursing class of 2004, is battling COVID-19 on two fronts: as a regional clinical operations director and family nurse practitioner for Premise Health in Fort Worth, Texas and as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, serving as a clinical nurse.
Both Stahl’s civilian and military roles have been wrapped around fighting COVID-19 for the past couple of months. In late February, Stahl was asked to join the corporate COVID-19 clinical response team for Premise Health. Her team had the enormous task of virtually providing care through their many wellness centers across the United States. Stahl was hard at work on that project before she was deployed with the Air Force Reserves on April 5 to support the COVID-19 response in New York City, as the pandemic was overwhelming the community and city hospital system.
Stahl’s role has been to act as a clinical nurse at the Jacobi Medical Center, a city hospital in the Bronx. “Since coming here, I have been with the people of my reserve unit 24/7, and I have realized how noble a cause our reserve forces are taking on with this COVID-19 response. We all left our families and jobs to come here to serve our country in a way that has never been done by the Air Force Reserve,” Stahl explained.
Stahl said, “My hair looks pretty crazy, but that’s what it does after being in so much PPE for 12 hours.”
“It isn’t easy, but it’s not as difficult as I thought it was going to be, because of who I’m with. Our team supports each other, we talk about our difficult days with the patients—sometimes feeling helpless because it is such a devastating illness. But my takeaway is that I am more committed to my job as an Air Force Reservist than ever. I really believe in the cause.”
Stahl’s unit has joined thousands of Navy, Air Force and Army doctors and nurses and medics supporting New York City COVID-19 patients. Teams are supplementing staff there that have become ill or called out sick, as well as manning the convention center which has been turned into a large military hospital. Stahl said the charge nurse at her unit almost cried as she was so thankful for the help.
Stahl spent four years in the U.S. Army as a medic and started at Belmont just a few months after she got out, using her G.I. Bill to become a registered nurse. “I tend to get a little bit emotional when I talk about Belmont because I still keep in touch with almost all of my nursing professors there, and I am just so thankful for the experiences, friendships and partnership they gave me from day one,” she said.
Stahl said her Belmont education well-prepared her for her job today, as faculty like Dr. Martha Buckner emphasized a strong focus on quality. As Stahl explained, “that is quality of care, the quality of your presence in the room with your patients, how you’re looking at them, how you’re thinking about your own perspective and how you’re applying that to the way that you provide your care.”
Stahl said, “I approached the chief nurse at the hospital to start a new process to identify patients that are DNR/DNI. This helps the team know what to do when a patient stops breathing. She approved and we started this the same day.”
She said the focus on quality has really stuck with her throughout her careers as both a nurse and as a nurse practitioner, and she is passionate about staying quality-focused, especially now that she is walking into rooms where her patients have COVID-19.
“At Belmont, they really teach you how to look at a patient holistically.” She said, “You know that you are walking into the line of fire. But when you look at your patient in a holistic way, you look in their eyes, you hear their story and you recognize that you can be there to help them with your nursing skills or your faith or sometimes even just your presence. You know you’re in the exact place you’re meant to be, equipped with all the right experiences to provide that help.”
Jenny Mills, coordinator of research services and associate professor, and Claire Wiley, research and instruction librarian and associate professor, were recognized by the American Library Association’s Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) Top 20 Committee.
Every year, the committee reviews library instruction literature from the previous year and identifies the twenty best instruction articles for that year. Their article, “This Is What Learning Looks Like!’ Backward Design and the Framework in First Year Writing,” was selected as one of the Top 20 instruction articles published in 2019 and will be listed in the upcoming June issue of LIRT News.
A Nursing major and May 2020 graduate, Hailey Brooks is this year’s recipient of the John Williams Heart of Belmont Award.
“I am a foster care child. I say that with pride because I am proud of who I am despite the trauma and adversities I had to climb over to be here today,” Brooks said. “I am among the one percent of foster children who graduate college and help break the stereotypes around foster youth. Today, that’s my biggest accomplishment.” Brooks is committed to spreading light on both the good and the bad areas of foster care and making positive changes in the foster care system, particularly by increasing foster youth college attendance.
The Heart of Belmont Award recognizes a third or fourth year student who possesses an intrinsic commitment to voluntary service, initiative and innovation in problem solving, persistence in overcoming obstacles, advocacy for change that enhances the lives of those in the community, mature understanding of community needs and systemic problems, sensitivity in developing a partnering relationship with community and habits of reflection that derive from service and lead to service.
Nursing Instructor Martha Ezell wrote in her nomination for Brooks, “Hailey voluntarily placed herself into foster care as a young teenager to remove herself from an abusive home. She is strong and resilient, yet compassionate and kind. In addition to the rigorous and demanding program of study for nursing, she has completed clinical rotations at eight different hospitals. Hailey is a remarkable student!”
Brooks grew up in East Tennessee and entered foster care at the age of 15. As a Belmont student, she joined the tennis club and the student nurse’s association, as well as worked with an after-school program for low-income families to tutor children. She was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority for three years. Her junior year, Brooks joined Jim Casey Young Fellows, the youngest thus far to be given the role, and traveled the country to speak, research and shine a light on foster care issues.
Brooks was then asked to join the Children’s Advisory Board underneath the commissioner, holding a four-year term. That opportunity led to being sworn onto the Tennessee Commission for Children and Youth under Governor Bill Haslam for a three-year term. She has also been involved in other foster care advocacy positions for many years, serving as a Youth Village Peer Advocate and as part of the Department of Children’s Services Advisory Council. On top of it all, Brooks works as a patient care technician at Centennial Hospital, serving yet another sector of the community.
“All that I do is with the hope that I can make one small dent to help improve the world; whether that be through patient care or through advocacy for children who do not have a voice. All of the actions I have taken thus far are not for me but for the people whom I am helping,” Brooks said.
In 2018, Brooks received the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Light of Hope Award, which honors those who have been “lights of hope” to children and youth in the community through advocacy and making a difference. As part of the Heart of Belmont Award, a donation will be made in Brooks’s name to CASA.
Brooks Delivered a special address during the virtual celebration for May 2020 graduates.
Brooks said she is not a 4.0 student or the student who raises her hand for every question in class. However, she is resilient. She said school has always been her safe place where she received positive attention and where she felt capable. Because of her problematic home life, Brooks knew that she needed to go to college to break the cycle. That is when she ultimately went into Tennessee State Custody.
In high school, Brooks remained a straight-A student while bouncing from foster home to foster home. It was not until she took several honors classes simultaneously that she broke her record. “I never thought that dream of being a college kid was possible, and I cried when I opened acceptance letters to every college I applied to,” she said. Brooks balanced jobs and advocacy positions and still managed to graduate from nursing school. “I would never change a moment of my story, and I am thankful to have gone through college the way I have,” she said. “Honestly, I still cannot believe I have made it this far and accomplished so much.”
In the future, Brooks wants to grow as a bedside nurse and maintain her role as an advocate, as helping foster care children and lower income families is a huge passion for her. Eventually, she hopes to go back to school to be a nurse anesthetist and hopes to play a role with Doctors Without Borders. Brooks said she feels like her education experience is part of her toolbelt to help even more people. She hopes to touch as many lives as she can.
“I was shocked to be nominated because I did not know people were noticing the work I have put in,” Brooks explained. “You see, in the world of giving back and having a servant’s heart, sometimes it weighs us down with negative thoughts such as, ‘am I making a difference, am I helping?’ This award is a driving force to feel like what I am doing in this world is something I need to continue to do. It is a motivation to do even more. It is proof that I am making an impact. I am thankful for the nomination alone, as it is such a great feeling to feel seen by my mentors. I feel honored. I feel inspired.”
Brooks also offered remarks at Belmont’s virtual celebration for May 2020 graduates which can be viewed here or below.
Assistant Professor of Religion and the Arts Dr. David Dark has recently appeared on a couple online platforms discussing impacts of the coronavirus on various issues.
In an article for America Magazine, Dark writes “We are Living in an Apocalypse” on COVID-19 flipping the script and causing us to open our eyes to our own apocalypses. He connects the current situation to the American economy, arguing, “The coronavirus pandemic has caused our world, as we know it, to end. But there might be a better world around the bend, a better arrangement than the one we have grown used to.”
He writes, “An apocalypse gives us a chance to think through once again our social and economic arrangements. Are we ready to rethink our agreements? We live in clarifying times.” Read the full article here.
Dark also recently sat down for a Deep Dive conversation on the Transform Network about former NSA operative Reality Winner and her case. Winner, who was imprisoned for sharing classified information with The Intercept, continues to serve out her prison sentence — the longest ever imposed in federal court for an unauthorized release of government information to the media.
Now, with the coronavirus pandemic ravaging prisons and detention centers, Dark, Winner’s family and other supporters are calling for her and all other nonviolent offenders to be released from custody for their health and safety. Learn more and listen to the deep dive conversation here.
In collaboration with Belmont Physics Professor Dr. Scott Hawley, Art+Logic is unveiling Vibrary, an open-source A.I. tool for audio professionals– the first project to come out of its incubator lab.
Vibrary uses machine learning to analyze short samples and loops. Its design makes it easy for producers, composers and musicians to train their own models and classify sounds by sound, genre, feel or other characteristics, defined by users’ needs and preferences.
Read the full story here. The tool has also received international attention as the open-source AI tool features an interface that makes training algorithms accessible to anyone with a computer, internet connection and a sound library.
