Loren Mulraine, associate professor of law, was recently elected to a two-year term as a director of the Gospel Music Association Foundation Board.
The GMA Foundation seeks to recognize and preserve the history and legacy of all forms of gospel music and to provide educational resources that encourage participation and appreciation by the general public. The Foundation oversees the rights to the GMA Dove Awards, IMMERSE and the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Dr. Tracey Carter, assistant professor in the College of Law, recently served as a mentor during Preston Taylor Ministries’s “Spring Break in the Marketplace.” The program provides job shadowing experiences for the youth of Preston Taylor Ministries over their spring break each year.
Volunteer mentors spend a few hours showing a student their workplace, discussing their day-to-day schedule, introducing students to new careers and encouraging students to meet their goals. Carter discussed her legal career and position at Belmont with her mentee, encouraged her to continue to excel academically and introduced her to various faculty, staff and administrators within the College of Law during her recent campus visit.
LaQuitta Wilkins, a 2012 Belmont alumna and past member of the Women’s Basketball Team, was recently featured as an “In the Spotlight” of Minority Nurse, a magazine, career resource for nurses and the largest dedicated diversity nursing jobs board, according to the organization’s website.
In the spotlight, Wilkins said her time in nursing school was especially challenging as she was also a member of the basketball team. But she stuck to the task and found time to study between games. Wilkins is quoted as saying, “Even when people told me I couldn’t do nursing school and basketball, I did. You can do it even if you face adversity. If you have a positive mindset you can achieve anything.”
Wilkins is a traveling pediatric RN and was recently named Miss Black Alabama 2016.
Senior Samantha Hubner recently published her interview with Karen AbuZayd of the Middle East Policy Council Board in Belmont’s Kappa Alpha Theta Chapter Blog. In the post, AbuZayd discusses her career and expertise of the Syrian refugee crisis.
After AbuZayd was featured as a Leading Woman spotlight in February by Kappa Alpha Theta Headquarters, Hubner wanted to learn more and contacted her with little hope of getting through. To her surprise, AbuZayd was willing to chat and did so that same afternoon.
“Her career and experience is just so timely with the heightened tensions of the resettlement controversy in America, making her story one I feel is increasingly important to tell. She fully embodies the values that Theta instills within its members, so I thought her story of becoming a strong leader in the international community could inspire my sisters,” said Hubner. “But I also felt that her story was one that was accessible enough to reach beyond my sorority chapter. Diversity is a hot topic both on Belmont’s campus and in universities across the nation, so it was my hope that in introducing the perspective of an established professional of the UN, Belmont students could continue to conceptualize what it means to truly fight for diversity.”
Hubner is looking to pursue the fields of diplomacy and foreign policy after graduation. She said any opportunity to encourage her peers away from being apathetic about what is happening outside the United States is a chance to build a more engaged and informed population.
“Foreign affairs can be intimidating, so I think that when people start to demonstrate an interest, it’s the responsibility of people who study or work in the field to help contribute resources to help it make more sense,” she said. “While this refugee crisis has been an ongoing issue for many years now, it recently seems to have caught the interest and attention of more than just your average foreign policy enthusiast. I’m seeing more and more of my friends wanting to not only understand what’s going on overseas, but find ways to help. That’s why I made sure to talk about how state governments (specifically referencing legislature in Tennessee) are reacting to the federal government’s mandates on resettlement in an attempt to help bring the issue closer to home.”
While Belmont video production major Dalton Ross is currently studying abroad in London, a much thinner, immobile version of him is making numerous appearances at home in the States and attracting a lot of attention in the process. Ross thought it would be funny to send his mother a cardboard cutout of himself during his semester overseas. But much to his surprise, his mom took his new gift to heart–and everywhere else–leading the story to going viral after it was covered in an article in The Huffington Post.
Ross said, “I sent my mom the cutout after I had gotten settled in here in London and realized I hadn’t talked to her in a while. I thought it would give her a big laugh if she got a large mysterious package, and it turned out to be a life-size version of me with a big goofy smile. You know, I am usually rather introverted and quiet in public or class, but with friends, I’m usually pretty ridiculous and am always making absurd jokes. Usually puns.”
The prank has now traveled across the world, with the cutout’s own Facebook page, CNN story and the latest feature on Nashville WSMV’s Bulger’s Beat, showing off Ross’s mother’s hilarious approach to snapping pictures of “Dalton” across Belmont’s campus.
When entrepreneurship major Laura Schuemann made a bowl of quinoa macaroni and cheese for her mom, an idea was born. The versatile nature of mac and cheese allowed Schuemann to take a classic crowd pleaser and turn it into a healthy alternative by using quinoa as the base instead of noodles. Now, Schuemann is in the recipe development stage of her new venture, Quinoa Kitchen, as a food truck serving something different than traditional fast food.
Schuemann and her team set up a booth at the Fourth Annual Entrepreneurship Village on Wednesday, sponsored by Belmont’s Center for Entrepreneurship, to hand out samples of the “Quack and Cheese” and a more recent compilation: the Thai-Riffic quinoa salad. “The mission of Quinoa Kitchen is to give a healthy alternative to fast food by offering the feeling of indulgence by using the same yummy ingredients, but you’re not indulging,” she said. Schuemann hopes to launch the truck within a few years after she graduates this December.
The concept has already become a favorite of Professor of Entrepreneurship Jeff Cornwall. “Quinoa Kitchen is a great example of the diversity of businesses Belmont students and alumni launch,” he said. “I can’t wait to visit Quinoa Kitchen once they launch!”
Quinoa Kitchen was one of 33 student-owned businesses that participated in this year’s event. This will be the first year the event featured current student-only ventures, dedicated to showcasing the innovation, creativity and success of Belmont’s entrepreneurship students. Businesses in the idea, start-up and revenue generating phases were in attendance, and industries included design and photography, music business, restaurant, high-tech, fashion and apparel and various social ventures. Students discussed their business ideas, experiences with their ventures and how they forecast business growth.
Elizabeth Gortmaker, director of Belmont’s Center for Entrepreneurship, said the event is a great avenue to showcase students innovation, creativity and success. “We had more than 600 students walk through the village to shop, learn and discuss each business with the student entrepreneurs. Not only does the village provide an opportunity for students to advertise their business, but it also gives them an outlet to gain valuable feedback and build connections with other students,” she said.
Belmont’s Center for Entrepreneurship has been recognized as a Top 25 nationally ranked program by Princeton Review.
Belmont students in Assistant Professor of Art Christine Roger’s Photography 2 class showcased their “Curatorial Project” art exhibition, centered around transition and movement through space, in a U-Haul on Wednesday. Because art is becoming so experiential, Rogers said she gives her students the opportunity to curate their work into a cohesive exhibition to share with the larger community.
As students were broken up into groups for the assignment, they took the art they created throughout the semester and identified emerging themes. For this group, Rogers said the concept of transition became very apparent and the idea to showcase the art in a location based around movement was born.
“Students had to find a space to have their exhibition and through problem solving, an elegant solution emerged–to utilize a U-Haul as a site specific space for their installation,” Rogers said. “Since the show is about transition: movement through spaces, growing up, colors, the season of springtime, change and ideas of place, the U-Haul began to make even more sense as a space for a show.”
Despite the importance of learning to showcase art in a creative, relevant way, Rogers said the project also allows students to engage with art even further as they work in teams, engage collaboratively and think strategically. “I want students to learn that art is almost always about creating a conversation and that conversation can be held in a traditional institution such as a great cultural center, a museum or an established gallery,” Rogers said. “But it can also exist in a U-Haul, a street corner or a community center. Students can be part of the conversation right now and their images and voices are relevant to the conversation now, not just in an imagined future.”
Sophomore entertainment industry studies major and photography minor Madison Monroe is one of the artists whose work was on display. A New Orleans native, Monroe said she experienced hurricane Katrina on a personal level and wanted to illustrate the transition of her home after disaster struck. “I watched a once vibrant city turn dark, an image one does not forget. After the water had receded, and the cleanup began, the darkness turned into a washed out reminder of what used to be,” Monroe said. “I channeled this in my piece. In post production, I gave the photos a light wash to further show the destructive fading that occurred, to show ‘The muting of a colorful city.'”
Though the project was entirely student led, Monroe said she and her classmates are grateful for the guidance and mentorship Rogers provided each student artist. “She gave us the reins and told us to go, making it clear that this was our project, our exhibition that we were ready for and how proud we would be. Thanks to her, we did it.”
For the eleventh year in a row the Belmont Enactus team–led this year by Zoe Dollman, Maggie Fincher and Simeon Fritz–won its regional league in Atlanta and was invited to the National Exhibition, which will occur in St. Louis in May. This year’s team presented their help in stewarding the development and implementation of social enterprise in four featured community partnerships, including Strings for Hope, the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services, Cultivate and If I Had a Hammer.
Belmont Enactus’ presentation team for the Atlanta regional competition included Shannon Fish, Kit Barker, Steven Kim, Nathan Arnold and Missy Martin with faculty advisers Cate Loes, Jason Stahl, Nathan Adam and John Gonas assisting in project development and in preparing this year’s presentation teams.
Assistant Professor for the College of Law Dr. Tracey Carter recently had an article, titled “From Youth Sports to Collegiate Athletics to Professional Leagues: Is There Really “Informed Consent” by Athletes Regarding Sports-Related Concussions,” published in the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review’s Winter 2015 edition. She also presented her research on during a meeting hosted by the College of Law’s Faculty Development Committee.
Carter’s article highlights the health problem of sports-related brain injuries, especially football-related concussions, in the United States. The article emphasizes the serious problem of sports-related concussions and addresses whether youth, collegiate and professional athletes are really “informed” regarding sports-related concussions. Carter concludes with recommendations to better protect athletes and to decrease the number of sports-related concussions and ensure the best outcomes for athletes, families, youth sports, collegiate teams, professional leagues and society.
The Belmont Alpha Epsilon Delta Pre-Health Honor Society (AED) club recently volunteered at Project C.U.R.E. in Nashville. The group, made up for Belmont students Ambrose Rice, Jacob Curry, Hannah Forgani, Curtis Brown, Prisha Patel, Madeline Durham, Hope Fenton and Julia Quandt, teamed up with Vanderbilt’s MSA (Muslim Student Association) to prepare medical supplies for shipping to a small country in Africa. The group of students packaged over 100 boxes filled with supplies ranging from syringes and sterile gloves to general surgery supplies.
With the help of volunteers, Project C.U.R.E. assists thousands of people in developing countries around the globe by sorting through donated medical supplies. Every country that receives medical supplies from the organization has their packages made especially for them after a Project C.U.R.E. leader has visited their hospital and assessed their needs, making each truck of supplies unique and based off each hospital’s current needs.
