Several Belmont art students have been using their talents to build relationships in the Nashville community. At a recent exhibition at 8th and Roast coffee shop, student collaborative art with Senior Ride Nashville was featured. The art comes from students in the classes Clay 2 and Advanced Photography.
The focus of the project was to show the idea of “Changing Nashville” through conversations with and pictures of community members who have lived through history. Students had the opportunity to work one on one with Senior Ride drivers and their riders to capture portraits of them while also embracing the opportunity to create lasting relationships.
The portraits were then passed on to students in Clay 2 who transformed the art between mediums. Photographs were transferred onto handmade and hand-glazed plates that were then displayed on a wall at 8th and Roast, where the original portraits and conversations with Senior Ride participants happened.
“To us, plates represent community, coming together over a coffee, a conversation, a way to catch up with an old friend and to make a new one, and we hope these photographic plates embody that,” said the artists.
Other photographs, taken from the Charlotte Avenue corridor, were also exhibited in the coffee shop to represent the idea of “ever changing, but still Nashville.”
Belmont Neuroscience students Abigail Beck and Natalie Halloran presented a case study at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society 26th Annual Meeting in San Francisco March 23-26.
The meeting brings together researchers from around the world to share latest discoveries in cognitive neuroscience. The four-day event included invited symposia, symposia, posters, awards, a keynote address and opportunity for attendees to connect with colleagues.
Beck and Halloran presented their poster outlining a case study investigation on memory and visuospatial capabilities in Aphantasia, a unique condition where the subject lacks the ability to internally represent visual images in his or her mind.
Their poster was well-received and Beck and Halloran recruited new case-subjects to test in Fall 2019, while attending the conference.
Their presentation was overseen by Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Carole Scherling.
The Entrepreneurship honor society, Sigma Nu Tau, recently held its 2019 induction ceremony in which 29 new members were inducted. The new inductees include students, both graduate and undergraduate, as well as community members involved in entrepreneurship.
Sigma Nu Tau was brought to Belmont’s campus in 2011 as the third chapter for the national honor society. Since then, more than 300 members have been inducted into this organization that focuses on encouraging academic entrepreneurship and the practice of principled entrepreneurship.
In addition to the 24 students inducted, five community members were also honored at the ceremony. The honorary member inducted this year was Sean Hanson, founder of BUD Ministries, a ministry for college-aged men. Other community members inducted include Belmont Entrepreneur in Residence Victoria Kopyar and Sharon Reynolds, founder of DevMar Products, LLC that distributes environmentally friendly commercial cleaning products.
Two Massey Graduate School of Business alumni were also inducted. Chris Taylor received his MBA from Belmont and is an investor in JumpStart Holdings and a franchisee owner of MassageEnvy. An alumna who also received her MBA from Belmont, Sarah Hadsor Worley, was also inducted. Worley is the founder, co-owner and operator of Nashville fan favorite Biscuit Love restaurant.
“This year’s inductees represent another talented group of aspiring and accomplished individuals engaged in principled entrepreneurial pursuits,” said Sigma Nu Tau faculty adviser, Dr. Mark Schenkel. “With this year’s 29 inductees, Belmont’s Sigma Nu Community is now over 300 strong and will undoubtedly have a transformational impact through their efforts in the years to come.”
James Archer, president/CEO of Nashville-based MV2 Entertainment, and his wife Lois announced today the creation of a $10 million endowment at Belmont University, resulting in a renaming of the University’s prestigious Presidential Scholars program. The Archers’ gift recognizes Belmont’s longstanding institutional commitment to being a values-based organization which includes a pledge to ongoing excellence and values-based leadership development within the University community.
Belmont University
President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “I am so grateful to James
and Lois for investing their time, energy and resources into Belmont University
over the past several years. This new gift is not only extremely generous, but
it also demonstrates the Archers’ commitment to the importance of values-based
leadership at every level of an organization. These funds will serve to empower
students and promote continued efforts across campus to foster the values and
leadership the Archers exemplify.”
The Presidential
Scholarship, now to be known as the Archer Presidential Scholarship, is
Belmont’s most competitive scholarship, providing full tuition, room, board,
books and fees for four academic years (eight semesters) of continuous study.
Selection criteria include a review of academic and leadership accomplishments
along with a minimum composite score of 30 on the ACT or SAT score of 1390.
Recipients are chosen with values and leadership in mind, and they apply those
skills throughout their experience at Belmont. The Archer Scholars meet often
during their time on campus to hear from a variety of speakers, and each
recipient is paired for four years with a mentor from Belmont’s Senior
Leadership team.
James Archer
added, “From Texas oil fields to the Nashville music industry to higher
education, the common thread running through everything I do is values-based
leadership centered on a four core values: ethics, commitment, excellence and
innovation. It’s always about doing the right thing for all of your
stakeholders. My time to date at Belmont has shown me this University shares
those values, and Lois and I are honored to further support their efforts in
promoting values-based leadership to Belmont’s students, faculty and staff.”
As announced with the
university’s We Believe Campaign unveiling,
Belmont is partnering with its supporters to leverage their investments in the
institution’s future. The University will match endowment contributions to
select institutional priorities, doubling the impact of each donor’s
commitment. The Archers $5 million gift is being matched by Belmont to create a
$10 million endowed fund to support the Archer Presidential Scholars program
and ongoing values-based leadership development across the University campus.
The James B. and Lois
R. Archer Charitable Foundation also serves as the presenting sponsor
for The
Gallery of Iconic Guitars (The GIG), providing support to undergird
the museum’s operation, special projects and educational programming.
Beyond his work at MV2 Entertainment, Archer has more than 40 years of experience in the oil and gas business and serves as CEO and president of Texas-based oil and gas operator KJ Energy. Recognized as a leader in technology for gas enhancement, Archer founded Multi-Chem and under his leadership grew his company into the third largest specialty production chemical company globally and successfully sold to Halliburton in 2011. A long time music fan, Archer was convinced he could make a difference in music the same way he had in oil, by incorporating values and ethics into the product and the process of doing business. True to that philosophy, MV2 Entertainment was founded in 2015 with the moniker standing for “Mission Vision Values,” shorthand for doing the right thing.
Belmont Law Dean Alberto Gonzales visited Notre Dame Law School April 8 and spoke about a wide variety of topics — from his upbringing in Humble, Texas, to his work in President George W. Bush’s administration.
“I encourage all of you to pursue public service, but go into it with your eyes open and your armor on,” Gonzales told the law students. “The higher you go, the more influential or powerful you are perceived to be, the more you are going to be criticized… But it’s worth it. I wouldn’t trade it for a second.”
Professor Bill Kelley, who served in the White House as deputy counsel to the president from 2005 to 2007, led the discussion.
The Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business hosted its annual “All the Things You Can Do with a Law Degree” program for Curb College students. This year’s panel included an impressive roster of legal experts including Rick Marshall, Warner Music Group; Judge Richard Dinkins, Court of Appeals; Molly Shehan, Milom Horsnell Crow Kelley Beckett Shehan; and Linda Edell Howard, Adams & Reese. The program was moderated by Curb College Associate Dean Cheryl Slay Carr, who developed the program to inspire students to think creatively about contemplating legal careers. Assistant Professor Amy Smith coordinates the program and provides information about it to students, particularly music business majors who choose the legal studies emphasis, though the convocation is open to all interested Belmont students.
Cheryl Slay Carr, associate dean of the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, presented “The Women of Music Row and The Nashville Music Industry” at Balancing the Mix, an International Conference on Popular Music and Social Justice, at The University of Memphis. Carr, who was featured as a spotlight panelist for the conference, received a research grant to study the topic and presented goals and implications for the study.
Belmont Philosophy students presented papers at the Pacific
University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference held in Forest Grove, Oregon,
April 5-6. Emily Hunt presented her work “To Revolt Against the Nothingness.”
Charlie McDonald read “The They Self: A Phenomenological Description of
Inauthenticity in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.” And Kevin Kozik
presented “On the Importance of Embodiment—or, Why the Experience Machine is
Suicide.”
Drs. Joel Overall and Jason Lovvorn, faculty members in Belmont’s English Department, participated in the Peck Research on Writing Symposium, held at Middle Tennessee State University on April 5. The symposium featured Dr. Laura Micciche, professor of Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Cincinnati, who presented her new research study focused on the mundane realities of writing instruction. Drs. Overall and Lovvorn participated in a subsequent workshop exploring writing partnerships alongside the ordinary conditions of writing and teaching—elements that both help and hinder those who regularly engage these activities.
Alumna Savana Hodge, Miss Tennessee USA, will compete for the title of Miss USA live on FOX on Thurs, May 2 at 7 p.m. Central.
A Tennessee native, Hodge graduated from Belmont in 2016, earning her Bachelor of Arts while triple majoring in international business, marketing and Spanish. She began her career working in civil engineering for a global engineering design firm and now interfaces with engineering departments at various universities. She is an avid beekeeper and grew up fly fishing, working on her family’s farm and putting her grandfather’s antique fire engine back together.
Hodge cares deeply about working to save the lives of childhood cancer patients as her 3-year-old cousin was recently diagnosed with a rare and fatal pediatric brain cancer. Hodge is a volunteer at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and an ambassador for Make-A-Wish Foundation.
