IMPORTANT NOTE: These are the archived stories for Belmont News & Achievements prior to June 26, 2023. To see current stories, click here.

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Brown Honored with By-Line Award from Alma Mater

Sybril Brown at MarquetteDr. Sybril Brown, professor of media studies, was recently awarded the By-Line Award from her alma mater, Marquette University. The By-Line Award honors an alumnus/a who has attained distinction in journalism and related fields.

Brown is an Emmy Award-winning multimedia journalist, educator, author, international speaker and presenter with an interesting take on the internet. She’s written a book that compares today’s most innovative network with another from the early- to mid-19th century: the Underground Railroad.

Brown — “Dr. Syb” to her students — began her career working behind the scenes at major television network affiliates in Milwaukee and Chicago, then moved to a station in Nashville as a reporter, filling in when needed as a news anchor and talk show host. Along the way, she earned a master’s degree in education and a doctorate in higher education administration. She now teaches courses in social media reporting, digital citizenship, mass media and entrepreneurial media, with a research focus on innovation, civility, and digital and social media.

Brown calls her time at Marquette “a consistent positive memory.” She was a resident adviser, president of the Black Student Association, member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and worked at the student newspaper and radio station. She also worked closely with Student Affairs to improve campus and community relations, which she says was “extremely influential” in her decision to earn advanced degrees in education.

Alumna Snyder Wins Regional Murrow Award

Alumna Sarah SnyderGood Morning Alabama co-anchor Sarah Snyder, a journalism and new media alumna from Belmont, was recently awarded a Regional Murrow Award by the Radio Television Digital News Association. The Excellence in Writing award resulted from Snyder’s series on Medical Miracles which explored people who were out of medical options but still overcame their conditions.

Snyder has been with Birmingham’s ABC 33|40 since 2011.

Vision Garners Top Honors from Tennessee Associated Press

The Vision, Belmont’s student media outlet, won five awards this weekend from the Tennessee Associated Press Broadcasters & Media Editors college contest, including first place for both College Media Website and TV Newscast (the monthly VNN: Vision News Network). The awards were presented Saturday evening at the John Seigenthaler Center in Nashville. Students from 17 schools submitted more than 300 entries in the contest to honor the best in Tennessee college journalism in 2017.

Individual honors for the evening included:

Murphree’s ‘Bug Camp’ Featured in TN Conservationist

Professor of Biology Dr. Steven Murphree hosts the BBB–“Beetles, Bugs & Butterflies”–Camp on Belmont’s campus every summer and this year, the experience will be featured in the TN Conservationist’s May/June Issue.

The article highlights the camp and details the many experiences children have the opportunity to enjoy during their time on Belmont’s campus each year.

Curb College Hosts Adjunct Faculty Job Fair

Through a partnership between the College of Entertainment & Music Business and Creatives’ Day, a non-profit organization that serves the creative community, Belmont hosted its first adjunct faculty job and creatives’ resource fair. Through the collective vision of Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business (CEMB) Associate Dean Cheryl Carr and the Director and Founder of Creatives’ Day Brian Sexton, the event’s objective was to serve the creative community while broadening the University’s reach to sectors of the artistic community that offer diverse contributions and expertise.

The event was attended by approximately 150 participants. Attendees received information about the University and CEMB programs from Associate Dean Carr, Chair of Music Business Dr. Rush Hicks, Chair of Entertainment Industry Studies Dr. David Schreiber, Chair of Songwriting James Elliott, Chair of Motion Pictures Will Akers, Chair of Audio Engineering Technology Michael Janas and Professor of Media Studies Rich Tiner.

Mills, Williams Present at Library Instruction Tennessee Conference

Jenny Mills, coordinator of research services and associate professor, and Judy Williams, research and instruction librarian and associate professor, presented at the Library Instruction Tennessee (LIT) conference in Nashville on April 25. With their presentation, “Should We Stay or Should We Go? Piloting an Online Library Research Tutorial,” they described the process of creating an online research tutorial for the BELL Core.

The tutorial was piloted in the fall with First Year Seminar and First Year Writing classes. Based on the results, the tutorial will be revised and incorporated into information literacy instruction for both courses in fall 2018. The tutorial is accessible to anyone from the library’s website, as a research guide, and is titled, “Research Like a Scholar, Scholar: Introducing College Level Research & Bunch Library.”

Williams' headshot
Judy Williams

 

Jenny Mills
Jenny Mills

Mills & Wiley Present at Tennessee Library Association Annual Conference

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Jenny Mills, coordinator of research services and associate professor, and Claire Wiley, reference & instruction librarian and assistant professor, presented the results of their research at the Tennessee Library Association annual conference in Memphis on April 5. Titled, “Take a Step Back! Using Backward Design for Information Literacy Instruction,” Mills and Wiley shared how they used a backward instructional design approach to revise information literacy instruction for First Year Writing.

With a focus on assessment of what students know and are able to do as a result of instruction and on enduring understandings of the research process, librarians developed critical-thinking classroom activities and follow-up assignments that showed initial promise of improved student learning.

Jenny Mills
Jenny Mills
Claire Wiley

Pierce Develops GluKey, Desktop Glucose Display App

James Pierce, assistant professor of art, found himself in need of a way to monitor his glucose levels throughout his busy teaching schedule. As a professional living with Type 1 Diabetes, Pierce is often in and out of classrooms across Belmont’s campus and was looking for a way to unobtrusively monitor his changing levels. Finding no suitable option, Pierce used his design, user experience and development background to create GluKey, an app that displays real-time glucose readings from continuous glucose monitors on a user’s toolbar.

Using a simple trend arrow, levels are always visible in the status bar. A detailed graph with up to 24 hours of data is available and users can set notifications for alerts when levels reach unwanted highs or lows.

Because the product serves a specific need for Pierce, he said he wasn’t sure whether others would be interested in using it–but he added it to the App Store just in case. “Since launching the app, I’ve been amazed to see downloads of Glukey from the around the world,” he said. “The emails and the feedback that I have received has made it worth it by just knowing that I’ve been able to help others—even in a small way.”

Glukey is intentionally designed to be simple, with limited ‘bells and whistles,’ so its monitor function can do exactly what it was created to do. “The purpose of the app is to simply, and unobtrusively, put real-time glucose information directly in the computer toolbar,” Pierce said. “I hope that others continue to find Glukey useful and that I can continue to improve it to meet the needs of others.”

Diagnosed as a young adult, Pierce said he understands the cost associated with effectively managing diabetes—and it was those rising costs that pushed him towards creating a solution that would be free for all users. “It honestly never crossed my mind to make it anything other than free,” he said. “I wanted to be able to help others by sharing something that I would have built for myself. Additionally, I made the app open-source in the hopes that other developers may contribute to Glukey, continually making it better over time. I believe in giving back where I can to both the diabetic and open-source communities.”

Currently, the free and open sourced app is only available for Mac and desktop usage.

Belmont Celebrates Earth Day with Inaugural Sustainability Week

Belmont University recently celebrated Earth Day 2018 with its inaugural Sustainability Week. Hosted by the University’s Sustainability Committee, the week-long celebration featured many events that provided opportunities for the Belmont community to engage in important conversations surrounding conservation.

The week began on Saturday, April 14 with a few events including a local creek clean-up and the screening of “Slow Food Story,” a documentary highlighting the benefits of locally grown food. On Monday, Assistant Professor of Biology Dr. Matthew Heard presented “Humans, Animals & Disease” to students on campus.

Wednesday’s events included a celebration of Arbor Day with an event recognizing some of Belmont’s recently planted trees, Dogwoods near The Belmont Store. Vice President of Finance & Operations Steve Lasley gave a presentation on the Dogwood, highlighting its blooms, history and more. Following this celebration, local birder Dr. Francis Fekel and Belmont Horticulturalist Mary Weber guided participants through campus on an urban tree and bird walk. Attendees learned more about the more than 100 tree species that find their home and Belmont’s campus and the countless birds that can be seen.

Wednesday evening, the week’s Keynote Address, “Fanning the Flame: Focusing Your Passion for Research into Disruptive Technology,” was presented by Dr. Tradd Cotter, microbiologist, professional mycologist and organic gardener.

Jill Phillips speaks in Chapel.
Jill Phillips speaks in Chapel

On Friday, the Belmont community continued their celebration of Sustainability Week by hosting an Earth Day Chapel service featuring Jill Phillips, a singer-songwriter and Belmont alumna who is the founder and leader of A Rocha Arts. On Saturday, the Belmont community concluded their celebration with the University Staff Advisory Council’s Family Field Day where families had the opportunity to watch Belmont baseball and softball games while planting seeds and learning more about conservation.

Environmental Science Students Participate in a Volunteer Service Event at Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary

Students volunteer at Owl's HillOn April 11 and 12, students from Dr. Matthew Heard’s Introduction to Environmental Science classes participated in a volunteer service event at Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary.

During their time working at Owl’s Hill, students helped to plant native trees, remove invasive species and clean up the native plant education gardens. In total, 42 Belmont students volunteered over the two days.