Three Master’s of Occupational Therapy students were recently added to the Tennessee Occupational Therapy Board including Whitney Joy, Megan Colletti and Kaylin Flamm. Joy was named as the West District Chair, Colletti was named as the East District Chair and Flamm was named as the Mental Health Chair.
AirBNB Executive Shares Wisdom Learned from Disruptive Innovation
Just 26 years old when he began his boutique hotel business, AirBNB executive Chip Conley has learned a great deal about how innovations, particularly with modern technology, can disrupt the best-laid plans of entrepreneurs and established businesses. On Thursday morning he shared his wisdom with members of Belmont’s Executive Learning Network and other attendees in an hour-long talk in the Curb Event Center.
He began by discussing how he was recruited by the founders of AirBNB to aid in further developing their young company as they wanted to democratize the hospitality business. While the founders understood technology and business, they needed someone with expertise in hospitality. “The best disruptors,” Conley said, “are adept at both high tech and high touch. Disruption is a combination of algorithm and people business.”
Conley related entrepreneurship to his new hobby, surfing, noting that you don’t need to be a marine biologist to succeed on the water but surfers do need to see and understand the wave. He offered four examples of how the two relate:
- Storms (difficult times) can provide the best conditions
- Free form, not regimented
- A fellowship of unwritten rules
- You need to know what’s going on underneath the surface
He also examined what puts companies at risk, including growing complacent with past successes, losing touch with core customers’ evolving needs and not taking new competitors seriously. He offered Netflix as a positive model of pivoting–from DVDs to streaming–as customers’ needs and desires changed with evolving technology.
“You have to find a tool for understanding your customer’s core need. What’s your shortcut to understanding the psychographics of your customers? What business are you in?”
A New York Times bestselling author and hospitality entrepreneur, Conley served as founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality for 24 years. He then accepted an invitation from the founders of AirBNB to help transform their promising home-sharing start-up into the world’s largest hospitality brand. In four years as Head of Global Hospitality & Strategy, he taught his award-winning methods to hundreds of thousands of AirBNB hosts and created the world-renowned AirBNB Open. He is the author of several books, including “PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow” and his newest release, “Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder.”
Billboard’s Women in Music Honors Several Alumnae
Every year Billboard magazine honors women in music through a special edition of their magazine. The edition, coupled with an event in New York City, celebrates groundbreaking women in several aspects of the music industry. This year’s Women in Music edition includes several Belmont alumnae who made it on the Top Women in Music List.
The Belmont alumnae honored include:
- Julie Boos – Boos has been working in the music industry since 1995 and currently works for Flood, Bumstead, McCready and McCarthy, Inc. She graduated from the Massey Graduate School of Business with her MBA in 2006. Boos has also been nominated by Billboard on their Top Women in Music list, Top Business Manager list and Nashville Power Player list previously.
- Cindy Mabe – Mabe graduated from Belmont in 1995 and has worked in the music business since then. She now serves as the president of Universal Music Group Nashville after previously serving as senior vice president of marketing. Universal Music Group encompasses Capitol Records Nashville, EMI Records Nashville, MCA Nashville and Mercury Nashville.
- Gina Miller – After getting a degree from Belmont in music, Miller has stayed in Nashville working for Light Records before it was acquired by Entertainment One. Currently serving as the vice president and general manager for Entertainment One, Miller has held various vice president positions for the past six years.
- Alison Smith – Smith currently serves as the executive vice president of distribution, publisher relations and administrative services at Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). She has been previously honored as one of Billboard’s Women in Music as well as one of their Top 30 Power Players. Smith has a Bachelors in Business Administration from Belmont.
- Carla Wallace – Co-founder and co-owner of Big Yellow Dog Music, an independent music publishing company based in Nashville, Wallace graduated from Belmont with a B.B.A. in Music Business. In the company’s 20 years, Big Yellow Dog has been responsible for four Grammys, 36 No. 1 songs, four Song of the Year awards, an ASCAP Global Award, and many more. In addition, the film, television and brand division had over 400 placements in both 2016 and 2017.
Women featured in this special issue of Billboard magazine are those who have changed the music industry and broken new ground in publishing, touring and more. Besides the Top Women in Music list, several other categories are honored including Trailblazer, Rising Star, Icon and Woman of the Year, among others.
Billboard’s Women in Music special issue is available now.
Elliott Recognized with ‘A. J. Masters Award for Dedication to the Craft’
Songwriting Department Chair James I. Elliott, was one of the recipients of the 2018 Wild West Songwriters Festival “A. J. Masters Award for Dedication To The Craft.”
In addition to the award, he was presented with an Epiphone Guitar signed by all the songwriters who performed at the festival. Kevin Williamson of Interscope Records presented the award to Elliott on stage the final night of the Wild West Songwriters Festival in Deadwood, South Dakota. Elliott performed in two songwriter rounds at the festival. The other recipient of the award was Dave Berryman, president of Gibson Guitars.
Belmont Student Caroline Kole Opens for Live.Life.Love Concert
Belmont junior and entertainment industry studies student Caroline Kole recently opened for 107.5 The River’s Live.Life.Love event, a suicide prevention concert, that featured Day + Shay, Kim Petras, Lauv and more. Created as a benefit for To Write Love On Her Arms, the concert raised more than $20,000.
Kole was selected as the event’s opener thanks to a local contest hosted by the station that included more than 3,000 submissions. Followers had the chance to submit the name of the artists they were interested in seeing at the show, and Kole won the top spot. In addition to her place in the line-up, Kole participated in an on-air interview prior to the concert and her song, “What If,” was played by the station.
“It was and still is a shock to me,” she said. “It’s an absolute honor to be chosen, especially considering the immense amount of talent in Nashville.”
Photos and videos from the event can be found here.
Belmont University Celebrates Christmas with Free Public Concerts
Belmont is celebrating this year’s Christmas season with a number of free concerts that are open to the Nashville community, as well as the annual holiday spectacular, “Christmas at Belmont.”
A favorite in homes around the country, a presentation of the 2017 “Christmas at Belmont” performance, which featured world-renowned musician Sheryl Crow as guest artist and more than 700 students, faculty and staff musicians from the School of Music, will be re-broadcasted on PBS on December 21 at 8 p.m. and on Christmas Day, December 25, at 11 p.m. Check local listing for additional broadcast times.
The University’s Christmas concert series will conclude with the annual Christmas Eve Carillon Concert on Monday, December 24 at 2 p.m. at the campus Bell Tower, located just off the corner of Belmont Blvd and Portland Ave. Continuing a tradition begun during the Ward-Belmont days, the concert features traditional Christmas music played by longtime campus carilliionneur and recently retired professor of music Richard Shadinger on the tower’s 42-bell carillon, one of five carillons in Tennessee.
This year’s concert line-up began with The Nashville Children’s Choir performance on Saturday, December 8, featuring the premiere youth choir’s renditions of traditional Christmas music.
The Belmont Camerata, Belmont’s faculty chamber music ensemble, offered its annual presentation of “A Camerata Christmas” featuring Corelli’s Christmas Concerto and bluegrass-style carols on Monday, December 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Belmont Mansion.
Student Entrepreneur Sarah Beth Perry Wins Local Competition
Belmont student entrepreneurs recently competed in the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) hosted by the Entrepreneurs’ Organization Nashville. The competition, which took place at Nashville Entrepreneur Center, featured a total of five students who were chosen to compete.
Belmont students Sarah Beth Perry, Ryan Reisdorf and Jordan Washington participated in the competition along with students from Rhodes College and the University of Tennessee.
Perry won first place in the competition, along with a check for $3,000, for her startup With the Band and will move on to compete at the GSEA national competition in 2019. Reisdorf took third place with his business Placemat.
“I’m so proud of the work these three students did,” said Elizabeth Gortmaker, director of Belmont’s Center for Entrepreneurship. “Once again, a Belmont student won Nashville’s GSEA competition!”
GSEA is a premier awards program for students who own or operate a business while attending college or university. Student entrepreneurs compete against peers in a series of local and national qualifying rounds to make their way to the global finals that will be held in Toronto, Canada next year. EO’s GSEA program provides students an opportunity to learn from fellow entrepreneurs and form lasting relationships with both students and prominent entrepreneur judges. Over the years, participating students have gone on to expand and build businesses, create thousands of jobs and generate millions in revenue.
Graduate Student Performs with Nashville Philharmonic
Belmont University graduate student of music James Matthews knows what it takes to work as a professional concert pianist. Practices some 10 hours a day, Matthews recently accomplished one of his dreams and played with the Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra.
After winning the adult division of the organization’s Concerto Competition, he was invited to play with the group. The competition also includes categories for young artist and composition and spans over all instruments and vocals.
Performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the orchestra was a “dream come true” for Matthews. “The concerto is considered to be one of the most difficult piano pieces ever composed, and it challenged me to go further beyond what I thought was possible on the piano,” he said.
“Being a graduate student, with professors that I have here at Belmont University, enables me to pursue a higher element of learning that helps polish my craft even more,” Matthews said. “It provides those trained ears to guide and counsel you as you perform in real world situations from Carnegie Hall to The Nashville Philharmonic.”
Matthews has played prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall and has been featured on the Ellen Show.
Faith and Justice Students Visit Men on Death Row
Students in REL 3520, Faith and Justice, weren’t just challenged this semester to learn the theoretical principles behind the concept of restorative justice; rather, they experienced it being put into practice through a visit with prisoners on death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution last month.
The class is required for Faith and Social Justice majors and is taught by Professor of Religion Dr. Andy Watts, who also serves as co-faculty for the SALT (Strategies for Alternative Learning and Teaching) Conflict Resolution class on death row. Since 2012, Dr. Watts and other faculty from local universities have taught Restorative Justice courses, as well as a Rule 31 mediation course, to men on death row. His students on the inside have asked Watts to bring college students to death row in order to teach their alternative strategies for conflict management at the prison.
“This class has been life-changing for [the men on the inside], and it has been life-changing for me,” Watts said. “It is a course that follows transformative and restorative justice practices and principles. These principles sit at the foundation of all we do. The injuries to individuals and community provide the reason why our work is so important, for victims and their families, and for those caged for their actions. The recent restart of executions following court approval of the drug protocol emphasizes the importance of Tennesseans understanding the consequences of killing people in our names. For this reason, and for Jesus’ vision of the beloved community, I decided to take Belmont students to death row each fall for the Faith and Justice course.”
While the course is required for Faith and Social Justice majors, the visit to death row was optional for all of the students in the class. For senior Elisabeth Bordulis, who is a Faith and Social justice major, the three hours spent inside the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution were a “transformative experience.”
“Having conversations about life with men facing death was unexpectedly grounding,” she said. “They spoke to us so openly about their stories. Reflecting on these conversations, these guys are some of the most honest people I have ever met—after all, they literally have nothing to lose. If I remember correctly, every single man we met on Death Row has been in prison longer than I have been alive, and that fact alone was extremely difficult for me to swallow. I think I could write a book on the three hours I spent on Death Row because it felt as if there was something impactful to glean from almost every moment.”
Senior psychology major Mariah Meads signed up for the class as an elective at the last minute, having no idea what the course would offer. “We were able to see mediation and the effects of it at Death Row. The men, who are part of our professor’s conflict resolution class, lead mediation groups for other inmates who have conflicts. We saw a skit that they prepared for us and had a couple of hours just to sit and talk with the men. My favorite part was at the very end. One of the men sang the chorus of ‘Amazing Grace,’ his favorite song. I can still hear his voice echoing through the walls of that room. I cried hearing it, cried the entire way home and still get emotional thinking about how raw and pure that moment was.”
Both Meads and Bordulis described the class and the death row visit as life-changing, opening their eyes to unexpected communities and injustices, as well as to opportunities for healing and hope.
Meads said, “Talking with some of the men I met on death row inspired me to continue down the road of not only providing opportunities to those who don’t have the access to the education that they deserve but instead bringing justice to those who have been mistreated by the education and prison systems at a young age. We had someone speak to our class about a very similar topic, and I’ve actually shifted my life goals and career path due to the time at the prison and her hour-long talk with us.”
Bordulis added, “I used to think there was a sense of hopelessness in investing time into the lives of prisoners who are on death row awaiting their execution, but after meeting the inmates, my perspective shifted. As I sat face-to-face talking with people who have been behind bars for over 35 years, I was struck with the recognition of their humanity. Our beloved professor, Dr. Andy Watts, invests in these people so greatly, and I credit it to the fact that he is in the business of bringing hope, healing and restoration to broken souls. His focus lies beyond the horizon and his kingdom-minded efforts are sowing seeds that have eternal impact.”
Alumnus McLaughlin Receives Golden Globe Nomination
Brett McLaughlin (known professionally as Leland), a 2009 School of Music alumnus who majored in commercial voice, received a Golden Globe nomination last week for Best Song, “Revelation,” in the film “Boy Erased.”
Earlier this year McLaughlin was presented with the 2018 Curtain Call Award alumni for achievement in the field of commercial music. In just eight years, McLaughlin has compiled a long list of accomplishments including composing songs for pop artists Daya, Troye Sivan, Selena Gomez, Andy Grammer, Hillary Duff and Capital Cities. He has won the ASCAP Pop Songwriting Award, the National Music Publishers Association Award and was included in Billboard’s 100 Best Pop Songs of 2016. He recently released his debut single “Mattress” under the name Leland.
The 76th Golden Globe Awards will take place Jan. 6 and air on NBC.
