Torry Johnson, visiting professor in the College of Law, recently gave a 3-hour CLE presentation to approximately 500 assistant district attorneys at their annual conference in Pigeon Forge, the TN District Attorney’s General Conference.
The talk was entitled “Lessons From Wrongful Convictions,” and students Casey Little and Kara Reese worked as research assistants.
The Belmont University Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) and its members received four national awards at the recent PRSSA National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Belmont PRSSA received its eighth annual Star Chapter Award, recognizing 10 criteria of excellence including ethics advocacy, community service and professional involvement. The chapter’s professional adviser, Keith Miles of MP&F PR, received the national PRSSA Teahan Award for Outstanding Professional Adviser. He is currently serving in his second year as professional adviser to the chapter.
Haley Hall and Haley (Hicks) Charlton received PRSSA National Gold Key Awards, recognizing chapter leadership, academic excellence and professional promise. Hall is a senior and serves as the executive director of Tower Creative Consultants, Belmont’s student-run public relations firm. Charlton is a May 2016 graduate and served as the chapter’s public relations director. She is now the communications assistant for Georgia’s Dalton Public Schools.
While several chapters qualify for the Star Chapter Award each year, Belmont PRSSA is one of only two chapters in the nation to receive the distinction each year since the award was established in 2009.
Eight Belmont PRSSA student leaders and their faculty adviser attended the national conference, which brought together almost 1,000 students from across the country. The Belmont delegation included Alex Murphy, Lindsey Barchent, Cayli Allen, Jordan Willett, Kate Whiteside, Lydia Bailey, Aliyah Sheffield, Hall and Dr. Bonnie Riechert. They were joined at the awards banquet by Victoria Lewis, a May 2016 BU graduate who served as a chapter and national officer in PRSSA.
“The PRSSA National Conference helped me expand my professional network, bond with fellow PRSSA members and learn more about the amazing career path I have chosen,” said Allen, secretary of the Belmont chapter. “I’m so thankful to Belmont for providing me with this great opportunity.”
Willett, Belmont chapter’s historian said, “PRSSA National Conference helped me to further understand the role of a PR practitioner and the diverse avenues of public relations. After going to conference, I realized that there are many other students nationwide that are very passionate about the profession.”
Chartered in 2005, Belmont PRSSA is one of more than 300 society chapters, the foremost pre-professional organization for students interested in public relations and communications. PRSSA includes more than 11,000 student members and is sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America.
Belmont recently hosted a convocation event, “Doing It On Your Own: The Indie Route” in the Johnson Center Theater featuring panelists Gino Genero from Thirty Tigers, Jim Legrando from Kickstarter and Garrison Snell of Gyrosity Projects. The panelists shared their insights on the evolution of the music industry and what an artist can do without signing a deal.
Genero emphasized the importance of team chemistry in the indie route. Legrando followed by advising students to find one person that actually cares about what you are doing, a person that Genero suggested be empowering and motivating.
Legrando shared that when getting your foot in the door, you have to be able to show what you’re bringing to the table–a manager can help. Snell then advised aspiring artists to find a manager with a digital marketing background when productizing your brand.
Moving forward, Genero said students should be realistic with their money when creating goals. For Snell, this means finding something within your brand early on that will sell. In this Indie world, affordable access is his live-by-philosophy.
The panel went on to recommend that students never stop learning and take gigs so their connections grow. Snell shared that when he was choosing the indie route he thought it was about financial independence, bu it’s actually about having the ability to stay engaged and create his own culture.
Legrando concluded by sharing that everyone starts out as an independent artist because labels don’t come on day 1. He shared that if you can build your business, it’s going to give you leverage in the future to do what you want. This event was moderated by Caroline Melby, Career Development Specialist of Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business.
On Sunday, hundreds of Nashville runners and supporters ran a two-mile route around Belmont’s campus, accompanying George Chmiel on his epic 60-day Run Across America.
The event landed more than 2,000 miles into a 3,000+ mile journey that began on September 11 in San
Diego, California, and will end on November 11 at Ground Zero in New York City. Chmiel, known as the
BeastMode Runner, represents BeastMode for the Brave, an organization started by the late U.S.
Navy Seal veteran Chris Kyle, aka the “American Sniper.” Kyle started BeastMode to raise
awareness of and for veterans returning home from the battlefield, and partners with the Guardian
For Heroes Foundation.
One local organization – REBOOT Combat Recovery – is the Nashville recipient of funds raised
as a result of the local awareness event. REBOOT Combat Recovery, which was started by Belmont alumni Evan and Jenny Owens, works with hurting military members and their families to heal from the spiritual and moral injuries of war associated with post-traumatic stress and combat trauma. As part of the run, Reboot encouraged attendees to sign Chmiel’s 260,000+ signature petition for the Stop Soldier Suicide-Reverse Boot Camp petition that will be taken to the White House when he runs through Washington, D.C.
“George’s dedication to raising awareness of the traumas associated with war – from physical to
emotional to spiritual to mental – demonstrates a deep conviction,” said Evan Owens, executive
director of Reboot Combat Recovery. “We are honored to be part of this event, but most importantly to
see healing so up close and personal in the lives of the brave men and women who fight for us.”
Nationwide, 22 soldiers die of suicide every day linked to their experience in combat. Countless others
make a series of poor life choices upon returning that lead to deteriorating marriages and family life,
life-threatening health conditions, and the inability to view oneself as a leader.
Through its 12-week proprietary curriculum, which is rooted in both clinical expertise and foundational
Christian values, Reboot sees a 76 percent graduation rate, with 41 percent of its graduates becoming leaders and 85 percent of graduates staying involved with advanced courses and reunions. With more than 1,000 graduates and more than 25 locations across the country, not a single one has died of suicide as a solution to their struggle with Post Traumatic Stress (PTS). Reboot was recently named a Nashville
Next Awards finalist in the area of Social Enterprise & Sustainability/StartUp.
“It’s our hope that George’s journey will awaken the conscience of those who make decisions on our
veterans’ behalf for their care and support when they return, so that they can heal more wholly from
their experience defending our country,” said Bryan Flanery, Ret. U.S. Army.
Sponsors of the Nashville event included Belmont University, Pinnacle Financial Partners and Mark Green for Senate. In a separate event, Nashville will welcome George Chmiel back to the city on October 28 for a concert with the award-winning Christian pop band Newsboys at Belmont University’s Curb Event Center.
Belmont University College of Pharmacy Student Society of Health-System Pharmacy recently conducted its annual ASHP Clinical Skills Competition. In this competition, participants utilize their knowledge and clinical abilities to create and present a detailed, patient-centered care plan. Six teams competed this year, with participants coming from the P1, P3, and P4 classes.
College of Pharmacy’s Drs. Kristy Wahaib, Montgomery Williams and Ashton Beggs served as judges for the competition. The students chosen to represent Belmont at the national level were P4s Charlotte Wesley and Alex Kreimer. Wesley and Kreimer will compete at the ASHP Midyear Clinical meeting in Las Vegas this December.
As part of its continued effort to connect students with industry professionals, The Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business at Belmont University will once again partner with Sony/ATV Music Publishing for the “All Access” program. This opportunity gives students a pathway to share their talent and work with the world’s leading music publisher, while providing the Sony/ATV team the opportunity to discover potential talent at Belmont. The first year of the program led to the signing of Belmont songwriting major Maddie Larkin and in 2015, songwriting major Jake Rogers signed with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
Sony/ATV Music Publishing SVP of Nashville A&R Josh Van Valkenburg said, “Sony/ATV is incredibly proud to continue this partnership with Belmont. We have signed a student from each of the last two years, and we are always impressed with the level of talent put forth by the student body. Belmont continues to be an innovative educational leader by developing opportunities like All Access, and we feel confident we will receive even more impressive submissions from Belmont students this year.”
Through the program, students will have the opportunity to have two songs reviewed by the Sony/ATV Music Publishing Creative Team who will then select a limited number of students to perform live for the team at a showcase held during the semester. After the live performances, the SONY/ATV team may continue to develop their relationships with certain students beyond the All Access program.
James I. Elliott, chair of songwriting in the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, added, “This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to have their music heard by Troy Tomlinson, Josh Van Valkenburg and the SonyATV Creative Team. We look forward to the process and have high hopes that Sony ATV Music Publishing will discover some future hit makers at Belmont.”
In 1971, Belmont University created a Music Business program designed to prepare young men and women for operational, administrative, creative and technical careers in the music industry. The Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business was established in 2003 to provide educational programs of study for future entertainment industry professionals. Belmont’s Curb College offers three academic degrees and four areas of study in Music Business (B.B.A.), Audio Engineering Technology (B.A. or B.S.), Entertainment Industry Studies (B.A. or B.S.) and Songwriting (B.A. or B.S.). The college boasts an impressive faculty of academic scholars and authors, entrepreneurs, songwriters, producers and sound and recording engineers. A world leader in music business and entertainment industry education, and the only freestanding college of its kind accredited for both business (AACSB) and technology (ABET), the Curb College has been featured in Billboard, Time Magazine, Rolling Stone and Business Week.
ABOUT SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING:
Sony/ATV Music Publishing, established in 1995 as a joint venture between Sony and Michael Jackson, is the world’s leading music publisher. Together with EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV owns or administers around 3 million copyrights including those from such iconic music catalogs like Leiber & Stoller, Mijac Music, Motown and Famous Music. Sony/ATV also controls many of the best known songs ever written like “New York, New York,” “Hallelujah,” “All You Need Is Love,” “You’ve Got a Friend,” “Moon River,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “The Mission Impossible Theme,” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Over the Rainbow,” “Stand By Me,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Singin’ in the Rain.” In addition, Sony/ATV represents the copyrights of such legendary artists as The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Carole King, Kraftwerk, Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Queen, The Rolling Stones, Richie Sambora, Sting, The Supremes, Wyclef Jean, Hank Williams and Stevie Wonder, among others. Its ever-growing list of chart-topping artists, writers and producers includes Akon, Avicii, Calvin Harris, Jessie J, Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, John Mayer, P!nk, RedOne, Shakira, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Stargate, Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams.
The Princeton Review recently profiled The Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business in its annual publication “The Best 294 Business Schools: 2017 Edition,” which is a guide to business schools across the globe aimed to help prospective graduate students make an informed decision. The list evaluates AACSB-accredited MBA programs world-wide and is based on The Princeton Review’s criteria for academic excellence as well as surveys that were taken of over 25,000 MBA students from each of the schools. Students were surveyed about their school’s student body and campus life, their career plans and their overall academic experience within their business school in a series of 80 questions. Administrators at the schools were also surveyed.
Among the feedback obtained from the survey, students praised the Massey program for its “focus on real world topics” and “hands-on learning style.” Students appreciated the education path being “flexible enough for a working student” while also being customizable to meet their areas of interest. The survey also reported high levels of satisfaction with the class sizes and the “community-oriented” student body.
Robert Franek, senior vice president and publisher for The Princeton Review, said, “The schools we selected for this guide all offer academically outstanding degrees: we recommend them highly. Their program offerings vary considerably, and we salute and highlight those distinctions in our profiles.”
To view The Princeton Review’s online profile of The Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business, click here.
The first reviews of the Chicago production of “Hamilton” are popping up online—and they have wonderful remarks to make about Belmont’s senior musical theatre major Christopher Lee. Lee was cast in the production earlier this year in a dual role of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson after submitting a video audition to the show’s production team. The show, which is the first off-Broadway production of the Lin-Manuel Miranda creation, officially opened on Oct. 19, and tickets are now on sale for shows scheduled through September 2017.
One of the first reviews of the production was published on Variety Magazine’s website and praised Lee for his expert-level acting among a cast full of experience. “According to his cast biography, Lee just completed his junior year of college, but the actor playing Lafayette and Jefferson looked perfectly at home on stage with veteran performers, and his bounding energy was infectious,” the article said.
The article continued on to mention Lee’s electric presence and outstanding personality. “Given how much broad, sly and subtle humor the entire cast found in almost every scene, it’s almost unfair to single out the comic timing of Lee and Alexander Gemignani, who plays King George, but it’s hard to believe anyone on stage was having more fun than those two.”
The Chicago production has received a lot of media recognition so far for living up to high expectations, and reviews posted by sites like Variety and Chicago Tribune make the case that the show is likely to stick around in the city for quite some time.
This article is a follow-up to a post published in July, which can be found here.
Image provided by MA2LA.
Rashed Fakhruddin, president of the Islamic Center of Nashville, recently visited campus to speak to first-year students in Belmont’s Honors Program. Fakhruddin spoke in one of the classes that is required for students in their first semester titled “World Traditions of Faith and Reason,” which examines five major world religions and discusses issues of religious origins, sacred rituals and living faith communities. The class analyzes Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism and discusses the tenets and backgrounds of each.
One of the objectives within the class was to apply students’ knowledge of these world religions to this year’s common book in the Honors Program, which is read by all first-year students. The book, titled “The Submission” by Amy Waldman, is a work of fiction that follows an architecture competition for a 9/11 memorial in New York and involves a designer who is an American Muslim at a time when emotions and fear are running high.
Fakhruddin is well-known in Nashville for presenting on Islam to universities, schools and churches that aim to develop a better understanding of Muslims while fostering stronger relationships within Nashville’s faith community. He is a founding member of the American Muslim Advisory Council, which works to help build bridges between Muslims in Tennessee and law enforcement officials as well as other government agencies. As a result of his work in the community, Rashed has received many awards including Pencil Foundation’s Volunteer of the Year Award (2015), the Women’s Political Collaborative of Tennessee’s Good Guys Award (2015) and the Community Nashville Human Relations Award (2016). Fakhruddin also has a daughter who is attending Belmont as a sophomore psychology major.
Dr. Glenn Acree, professor of mathematics, invited local tech industry professionals to host “Industry Office Hours” at Belmont University on Wednesday, October 19. Belmont students were able to interact with senior leaders and developers from some of the top software companies in Middle TN (Eventbrite, Stratasan and Digital Reasoning). The event included with an introduction and general Q&A session for the students and a quick discussion about basic web application security.
The “Industry Office Hours” were also held last year and provide an opportunity for students to speak with industry professionals in a casual setting. The event also allowed students to sign up for a grab bag of free tech items.
