Associate Professor of Economics Dr. Marieta Velikova was recently named to the Tennessee World Affairs Council Board of Directors. Previously a member of the Council’s President’s Advisory Board, Velikova was also named as the Board’s Vice President.
The Board’s growth came as the organization completed a program year of organizing community and education outreach activities to increase awareness of international affairs. The Tennessee World Affairs Council, which celebrated its tenth-anniversary this year, is one of about 90 similar grassroots, educational groups in the country that work to improve global affairs awareness. For more information, click here.
Belmont’s Summer Scholars program, now it its 15th year, provides the opportunity for faculty to mentor groups of students throughout the summer as they conduct important research. Since it began, more than 60 research communities have formed among more than 200 students in English, mathematics, computer science, biology, history, psychology and sociology. This summer, 18 students and 4 faculty are participating in the programming.
This summer, a number of projects are underway. These include:
A group of undergraduate researchers who are modeling Parkinson’s disease and treating the Parkinson’s-like worms (C elegans) with novel reagents to determine their effectiveness for relieving symptoms, led by Professor of Biology Dr. Nick Ragsdale. The group hopes their work may inform new therapies.
Students who are growing cells that have been isolated from cancerous tumors to test potential treatments with the hopes of uncovering new chemotherapeutic agents. This team is led by Assistant Professor of Biology Dr. Chris Barton.
Biology Department Chair and Associate Professor Dr. John Niedzwiecki’s team, a group of students who are characterizing predator-prey responses in local snail populations to explore differences in response of snail size, as well as native vs. non-native predators. This work seeks to understand stream health, an important ecological endeavor.
A final group of students who are working alongside Professor of Biology Dr. Lori McGrew and measuring the effects of treatments on anxiety levels in zebrafish. These studies will add to a growing body of knowledge about zebrafish which will increase their usefulness for modeling human disorders.
The importance of undergraduate research opportunities are immense for student success. “Evidence suggests that undergraduate research facilitates student learning both by increasing student interest/motivation, and fostering critical thinking skills through the application of the scientific method,” McGrew said. “Summer Scholars also develop a sense of community. While their projects differ, the shared experience of conducting research that they planned with all its successes and failures, creates a strong bond among the student participants.”
This fall, participants will present their findings on campus during the Science Undergraduate Research Symposium and off-campus at regional or national meetings.
Belmont Professor of Biology and Summer Scholars research program advisor Dr. Lori McGrew recently hosted Jim Garrett, alumnus and science teacher at Davidson Academy, and two of his students. This summer, Garrett and his students are learning to work with Danio rerio (zebrafish) and have joined McGrew and her student group in Belmont’s zebrafish lab to replicate research conducted by one of last year’s Summer Scholars, Curt Brown.
The team would like to extend Brown’s project and present their results at the Middle Tennessee Science Fair. Additionally, Garrett plans to establish a zebrafish colony at Davidson Academy so he can his students can conduct additional research and McGrew and her team will be heavily involved in establishing tailored data collection methods.
(Image above L to R: Davidson Academy students participate in research with Mr. Garrett).
Belmont University, in partnership with eight other teacher prep programs across the city, recently formed a coalition focused on the broken teacher pipeline, specifically related to a lack of diversity in Nashville’s teacher workforce. The Trailblazer Coalition completed a year of research and self-analysis on the pipeline, shared its findings and recently held a community discussion to brainstorm ways partners across the city can fix the broken pipeline.
The group met monthly during the 2016-17 school year, conducted research on causes of disparity between teacher and student diversity and worked to find ways to improve the diversity of Nashville’s educator preparation programs and teaching ranks.
Citing misperceptions of teaching, the financial burden of college and licensure and a lack of specific mentoring and retention strategies, among others, the Coalition’s research highlights multiple barriers for people of color to become teachers in Nashville. The disparity in teacher and student diversity is a nationwide issue reflected across Tennessee and in Nashville’s schools. A report last year by the Metro Human Relations Commission pointed out that over 68 percent of Nashville’s students identify as African American, Hispanic or Asian, while less than 26 percent of Nashville’s teachers do.
“Working to improve the diversity of the teaching force in Metro Nashville Public School takes all of us,” Assistant Professor and Director of Innovative Projects in Education and Coalition Steering Committee Dr. Alan Coverstone said. “The most exciting thing about the Trailblazer Coalition is that it brings together all the Educator Preparation Programs serving Davidson County schools to learn about and work to address the challenges that our teachers of color face in entering and remaining in the profession. We are all learning from each other and beginning to develop new strategies together to support teacher candidates as they prepare for and begin their careers.”
Based on its research, locally and a comprehensive review of national research on teacher diversity, the Trailblazer Coalition identified five main areas of need in its report:
Promoting teaching as a transformative practice
Promoting an anti-oppressive culture in teacher preparation programs
Support for teacher retention and success
Support for licensure and testing
Financial support for underrepresented students
Over the next year, the Coalition will work to partner with local and state government leaders and area nonprofits to implement systemic changes to impact these areas.
“It is inspiring to see the teacher prep community in Nashville come together to help our school system tackle this issue,” Nashville Mayor Megan Barry said. “Often in Nashville you see government leaders convening and calling on institutions and organizations to collaborate and help solve public sector problems. In this case, it’s the teacher prep programs stepping up to say ‘we all have to own this to make a difference.’ Their findings align with the work my office has been doing to make affordable housing more accessible to Nashville teachers. I look forward to expanding and accelerating this work with more partners at the table.”
The Trailblazer Coalition’s full report, titled “Fixing the Broken Pipeline: Teacher Diversity and the Classroom,” is available here.
Alongside Coverstone, Belmont is represented by Dr. Mark Hogan, professor and chair of the Education Department, and Dr. Mona Ivey-Soto on the Coalition.
Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness Dr. Paula Gill was recently selected as a Maury Cotter Leader of Change by the Network for Change and Continuous Innovation: Higher Education’s Network for Change Leadership (NCCI).
Gill was one of two higher education leaders selected as a recipient of this year’s prestigious honor, and she will be recognized at the 2017 Leaders of Change during the Annual Business Meeting and Awards Luncheon at the 2017 Annual Conference on July 29 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Created in 2013, the recognition program identifies leaders of change throughout higher education, recognizes them for their accomplishments, and helps link them with their peers to leverage further the impact of their good work. Beginning with this 2017 class of Leaders of Change, NCCI is proud to name the Leaders of Change Award for founding member Maury Cotter, in recognition of her significant contributions to the Association and the higher education profession.
“This important award program supports NCCI’s broader strategic effort to identify and support those individuals who are leading change on their campuses and to grow the network of change leaders within higher education,” said NCCI President Teresa Hartnett, who is the assistant dean of finance and administration at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. “I congratulate these two outstanding leaders, as well as all of those who have been nominated for recognition. They truly reflect the values of NCCI: innovation, continuous improvement, collaboration, excellence, and diversity of perspective.”
As Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness, Dr. Gill is responsible for evaluating the university’s progress toward its performance objectives and for seeking ways to improve services and processes that provide value for students. Among Dr. Gill’s recent accomplishments are facilitating an inclusive, campus-wide strategic planning process, Vision 2020, and overseeing its ongoing management and implementation. She also led a complete review and improvement of all enrollment strategies and communications, reducing the time from completed application to decision by 83 percent and resulting in the largest increase in freshman and graduate enrollment in the history of the University.
In addition, her portfolio of responsibilities includes the newly consolidated Library and Information Technology Services (LITS), a department reorganized under her leadership that led to the hiring of Belmont’s first Chief Information Officer and first Director of Instructional Technology. Dr. Gill also led Belmont’s most recent SACS reaffirmation for accreditation initiative and currently leads operational improvement efforts in numerous academic and administrative units, including the reorganization of the Division of Student Affairs
About NCCI
NCCI is a professional association dedicated to improving higher education nationally and internationally by providing a collaborative professional network for change leadership. NCCI has more than 90 institutional members and more than 1,000 individual members worldwide.
For many college students, “experiential education” translates into internships, study abroad trips, research and other practical, hands-on means of learning. Belmont University certainly offers all of those opportunities, but as part of the University’s vision to be a Christian community of learning and service, Belmont goes a step further. Through University Ministries and academic departments alike, students are presented opportunities to explore and strengthen their faith in meaningful ways through mission trips in the U.S. and abroad.
“Belmont’s foundation as a Christian university creates a unique opportunity in higher education to offer life-changing missions as part of our students’ experience,” said University President Dr. Bob Fisher. “We provide a place for students to find their God-given purpose through service to each other, their community and the world beyond.”
Frequently, as is the case with many health care-related missions, the trips are tied to academic pursuits, allowing students to see how their chosen field of study can impact places and cultures they never before imagined. Just last year, 250 Belmont students engaged in mission-oriented experiences with trips ranging from tutoring at an after-school program in downtown Chicago to leading songwriting workshops in Zimbabwe to providing a free health clinic in Jamaica.
University Ministries provides countless opportunities to serve as well, including many programs that are held within the continental U.S. and occur over Fall Break (Plunge trips) or Spring Break (Immersion). The most recent Spring Break trips included students serving in a variety of settings. While one group worked in an orphanage in rural Kentucky, others dove into assisting disenfranchised populations in urban areas in New York, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Memphis.
Junior Sean Grossnickle noted that his group in Memphis sought to serve often forgotten populations within the inner city. “On one of the first days we went and helped refugee children get extra practice reading so they could get up to the English level of their peers in school… We all wanted to get a look at what it was really like to live in modern day poverty, to see the perspectives of the people actually living it and to really change our perspective and our mindset toward the individuals living in those conditions.”
Most importantly, these trips foster students’ spiritual growth alongside the academic, physical, social and cultural challenges they face in different situations at home and abroad. Missions opportunities are central to Belmont’s foundation as a Christian institution and its intent, as spelled out in its Vision 2020 plan, to further “exemplify the Christian faith by responding to the imperative expressed in James 1:22, which states ‘Do not merely listen to the word… Do what it says.’”
Belmont’s Up ’til Dawn team, made up of students from across the university, attended St. Jude’s Collegiate Leadership Seminar last week and brought home three of the nine presented awards. The student group leads, plans and executes Belmont’s Up ’til Dawn fundraiser each year, an opportunity that allows students the chance to stay up all night for childhood cancer. Last year, the group raised more than $113,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and has raised more than $242,000 in the three years since it was first hosted on campus.
Of the 50 schools, nationwide, that attended the seminar, Belmont was the only group to earn three awards. These awards included:
Most Outstanding St. Jude Up ’til Dawn Event in honor of Belmont’s on-campus celebration that features creative challenges and activities while incorporating the mission of St. Jude
The Jude Executive Director of the Year Award for last year’s Executive Director Mare Rote
The Jude Advisor of the Year Award for Meghan Westbury, Admissions Visit Coordinator and Belmont’s Up ’til Dawn Advisor
Current Belmont Up ’til Dawn Executive Director Joe LaMartina attended the seminar, along with three other Up ’til Dawn leaders, and said that while the awards are exciting and important to his team, it’s the opportunity to impact childhood cancer across the nation that means the most. “The mission of St. Jude and the battle against childhood cancer are so much more important than any award we could win,” LaMartina said. “But it is nice to receive recognition for our hard work. I am so proud of everything the last and current boards have done to impact this important cause.”
For LaMartina, involvement in St. Jude has been life-changing, particularly as he looks towards his career. “I am somewhat unsure about what I want to do after graduation now,” LaMartina said. “I previously thought I wanted to do cancer research, but now I am leaning much more toward wanting to work for a non-profit. It would be so amazing to work for ALSAC, the fundraising organization for St. Jude, because of their amazing mission and the amazing people that work there.”
But this year’s awards aren’t the only ones the Belmont team has earned. In 2016, the leadership team won the Exceptional Recruitment Strategy award, they have presented to their peers at the past two seminars, they have recruited the most participants on National Recruitment Days for two consecutive years and they were recognized on Belmont’s campus as the Best New Student Organization in 2016 and the Best Student Organization in 2017. Additionally, with a focus on inclusivity across campus, Belmont’s Up ’til Dawn executive board members represent more than 35 student organizations.
When considering what has made Belmont’s Up ’til Dawn team so successful, LaMartina points to the Belmont student body. “Our event would be nothing without the amazing and passionate people fundraising on the front lines,” he said. “The incredible heart of the Belmont student community continues to inspire me everyday. Belmont students truly believe that no child deserves to die in the dawn of life, and they fight to make that happen through Up ’til Dawn.”
(L to R: Santoru, Murray and Fuqua stand in the Senate House of the University in front of a portrait of the University’s previous Chancellor, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.)
Two Belmont Graduate M.A. in English students and one faculty member presented at an international conference at the University of London, Literary London, 2017. Lauren Santoru presented “The Subaltern Comes to the Capital: Nathanial Hawthorne’s Critique of London in Our Old Home,” Patten Fuqua presented “‘There are two Londons’: Abjection in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere” and Dr. Douglas Murray, professor of English, spoke on the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in “‘And draw her home with music’: Vaughan Williams’ Vision of a Democratic London.”
The three Belmont speakers stand in the Senate House of the University, in front of a portrait of the University’s previous Chancellor, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.
Dr. Bruce Dudley, associate professor of music, recently returned from two weeks of teaching at jazz camps and performing with four Belmont students in Colombia, South America. At the invitation of Colombo Americano Centers of Medellin, Manizales and Pereira, Dudley took a jazz quartet from the School of Music made up of bassist Thomas Altman (’17), guitarist Cole Clarke (’18), drummer Brad Covington (’18) and saxophonist/flutist Max Dvorin (’18).
Over the course of two weeks, the group visited three cities in central Colombia including Medellin, Manizales and Pereira. They conducted group sessions daily for 135 students ranging from 10 – 24 years old. The Belmont Jazz Quartet, under Dudley’s direction, also presented concerts to the general public at central theaters in each city.
“Each of us will carry the memories and experiences with us for a long, long time,” Dudley said. “And perhaps, most importantly, we were able to share our love of democratic freedom of expression and artistic sensibility to students in Colombia who are eager to experience the joy of music and expression their hearts and minds through jazz music. In fact, we heard them begin to do so every day that we were there!”
Nicole Brandt, 2014 religion and the arts Belmont graduate and founder of Poverty and the Arts (POVA), was recently featured on “The Plus Side of Nashville.” As a social enterprise, POVA provides supplies, studio space, training and a marketplace for artists overcoming homelessness to create and sell artwork while gaining entrepreneurial and social skills. On “The Plus Side,” Brandt detailed POVA, how the idea was born and the ways she and her team are impacting the Nashville community.
Growing up in a small town, Brandt said she had the opportunity to spend time with a homeless community weekly during her senior year of high school. Through the relationships she built there, a new passion was formed. When she moved to Nashville to attend Belmont, Brandt said she began attending church and volunteering for a homeless ministry where she passed out donations, but it was the chance to listen to each person’s story and experiences that impacted her most.
An artist completes her work as part of POVA’s programming
“I learned the places they hated and the place most loved, like Room in the Inn,” she said. “While I enjoyed getting to know my new friends and often tried to coordinate groups of students from Belmont to come with me to Church Street Park, I knew there must be a way to make a greater impact by sharing my experience on a deeper level with more people.”
Her sophomore year, Brandt landed what she calls her “dream job,” working with Tim Stewart at Belmont’s Office of Service Learning. As the Diversity and Human Rights Campus Coordinator, Brandt was charged with developing and executing three community service projects each semester for students. “I saw this as my opportunity to recreate the environment I had experienced in Kentucky where students could genuinely get to know people experiencing homelessness,” she said. “I started to wonder what it would look like for art to be the conduit in which community members have an opportunity to sit down as equals with individuals experiencing homelessness–creative and talented human beings in the middle of a struggle, someone they can relate to.”
Soon after, Brandt worked alongside Room in the Inn to host her first POVA event where Belmont students participated in visual art, music or creative writing with members of the un-housed community. Thanks to a positive response from participants, Brandt continued hosting POVA events each semester through her position at Belmont. As graduation approached, Brandt began to realize she might have found just what she was looking to do professionally.
“I started to dream about POVA’s sustainability and about the impact it could have on the Nashville community,” she said. “After meeting with several contacts from the nonprofit field for advice, one phrase that continued to stand out was ‘Don’t repeat services.’ Nashville doesn’t need more nonprofits doing the exact same thing and competing for the same funding. This really resonated with me as I began to evaluate our program and shape its current services.”
Seeing significant talent but a lack of resources in the community, Brandt launched POVA’s Artist Collective in May 2014. Seeking to provide the resources needed to allow homeless individuals the opportunity to create art, the Collective provides an opportunity for artists to create and sell artwork as a way to earn income for themselves. “This supplemental income, made possible by their creative skills, provides greater autonomy in their day-to-day lives and allows the artists the opportunity to take control over basics like where to eat, how to get around or who to spend time with,” Brandt said.
Now, POVA has served 20 artists total, 9 of which have transitioned into housing since joining the programming. The organization has secured a rental property and transformed it into a Studio and Gallery in Wedgewood-Houston, allowing them to participate in the neighborhood’s monthly art crawl and provide ongoing exhibition opportunities to their artists.
POVA’s Studio and Gallery
Long-term, Brandt and her team hope to expand their services and increase the number of artists they serve. In addition to purchasing their own studio and gallery in the next five years, POVA hopes to provide transitional housing to their artists in the next 10 years. “By understanding the ways in which environment drives behavior, we know that our artists have the greatest possibility of succeeding when we can provide them an environment which includes a space to live, breathe, sleep and be,” Brandt said. They also hope to increase their revenue streams, and artists’ income, by expanding to retail, corporate art and teaching artist grants.
Looking back on her time at Belmont, Brandt said she can clearly identify an environment that encouraged the kindling of her dreams, while providing her with the space necessary to grapple with the challenges facing Nashville and beyond. “I devoured and analyzed books by theologians, sociologists and philosophers,” Brand said. “All struggling with the problems of the world and theorizing potential solutions. My religion professors encouraged me to think critically about my religious background and other classes began to reshape how I saw the world and my place in it.”
“My only regret,” Brandt said, “is not taking more business classes that would have provided me with foundation I needed to launch my own nonprofit! But I am extremely grateful that I was provided an environment that allowed me to nurture and grow my dream.”
Associate Professor of Economics Dr. Marieta Velikova was recently named to the Tennessee World Affairs Council Board of Directors. Previously a member of the Council’s President’s Advisory Board, Velikova was also named as the Board’s Vice President.
“Working to improve the diversity of the teaching force in Metro Nashville Public School takes all of us,” Assistant Professor and Director of Innovative Projects in Education and Coalition Steering Committee Dr. Alan Coverstone said. “The most exciting thing about the Trailblazer Coalition is that it brings together all the Educator Preparation Programs serving Davidson County schools to learn about and work to address the challenges that our teachers of color face in entering and remaining in the profession. We are all learning from each other and beginning to develop new strategies together to support teacher candidates as they prepare for and begin their careers.”
For LaMartina, involvement in St. Jude has been life-changing, particularly as he looks towards his career. “I am somewhat unsure about what I want to do after graduation now,” LaMartina said. “I previously thought I wanted to do cancer research, but now I am leaning much more toward wanting to work for a non-profit. It would be so amazing to work for ALSAC, the fundraising organization for St. Jude, because of their amazing mission and the amazing people that work there.”
“I started to dream about POVA’s sustainability and about the impact it could have on the Nashville community,” she said. “After meeting with several contacts from the nonprofit field for advice, one phrase that continued to stand out was ‘Don’t repeat services.’ Nashville doesn’t need more nonprofits doing the exact same thing and competing for the same funding. This really resonated with me as I began to evaluate our program and shape its current services.”
