Associate Professor of Social Work Dr. Sabrina Sullenberger has been working with four former colleagues from Indiana University on a five year, ongoing research project to study attitudes of poverty and construction of social class.
Sullenberger and her team’s research was recently featured in an article in The Atlantic entitled, “Teenagers are Losing Confidence in the American Dream.” For more information, click here.
Teagle-funded project examines holistic departments
Faculty and administrators from Belmont University contributed to created “Redefining the Paradigm: Faculty Models to Support Student Learning” – a monograph that encourages colleges and universities to more effectively structure departments to address changes in higher education and better support student learning. Over the past two years, Dr. Martha Buckner (Nursing), Dr. Jeff Kirk (Music), Dr. Stan York (Business), Dr. Beverly Schneller (Associate Provost) and Dr. Bryce Sullivan (College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Dean) worked with colleagues throughout the New American Colleges and Universities (NAC&U) consortium on this Teagle Foundation-funded project to study and make recommendations on holistic departments and faculty evaluation methods.
Belmont Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Dr. Beverly Schneller said, “The chief value of the ideas and strategies reflected in this volume resides in the ways the chapters will spark conversations about the future of the teaching profession, the ways we can lead conversations about innovation and transformation in student learning, and how we can start to think of what teaching and learning might look like in an academy of the future where emphasis is placed on collaboration, practical application and fresh infusion of the role of the liberal arts in society.”
Area middle and high school science and chemistry teachers learned “it’s easy being green” throughout Belmont’s Department of Chemistry and Physics’s “It’s Easy Being Green: Budget-Friendly, Safety-Conscious Chemistry Labs for the Science Classroom of Today” workshops, held three times this summer. Using neutralization reactions, 41 attendees performed green labs, highlighting preparation, safety and chemical disposal, to take back to their classrooms across the state.
The first of what event organizer and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Education Dr. Danielle Garrett hopes will become an annual event, the workshop allowed science teachers to participate in creative, budget-friendly lab experiences among peers, providing an additional resource once school begins again. “This workshop series provides classroom teachers with connections to the scientific community and a support network of Belmont faculty who are willing to answer questions and help work to develop programs to address the needs of teachers in their science classrooms,” Garrett said.
With traditional scientific lab resources requiring higher budgets and complicated waste disposal processes, green lab experiences utilize chemicals that are more budget-friendly, often found in local stores, and don’t require costly disposal services. Green style labs can be easily adapted to any environment, curriculum level or facility. “Programs like this one help teachers incorporate functional, meaningful, environmentally friendly and low-budget labs into their classrooms,” Garrett said.
Belmont alumna, workshop participant and high school chemistry teacher Katie Parks said her time at the workshop was a fantastic opportunity for professional development that can be taken back to her classroom. “Chemistry is best taught via hands-on experiences,” Parks said. “As a teacher, any time I can expand my lab offerings I jump at the opportunity. I love to learn new ways to incorporate hands-on learning into my classroom, and learning from other educators is invaluable.”
Belmont University and The Tennessean recently presented Nashforward, the city’s premiere mayoral debate series, with broadcast partner, WSMV-TV. The first of two debates was held Thursday, May 21 and featured Nashville’s seven mayoral candidates in a traditional debate-style event.
The second debate, structured around Nashville’s ever-growing millennial demographic and organized in a town-hall style format, was held on June 18 in Belmont’s McAfee Concert Hall. The event featured 14 community members, including seven Belmont students, who sat on stage and asked questions that are top of mind for voters this season, especially millennial voters.
A number of topics were discussed including education, affordable housing and transportation, among others, and candidates had the opportunity to share what their administration would value, if elected. Candidates also participated in a “lightening round” that required creative, quick-witted answers to questions like, “What country music song do you think best represents your experience in Nashville?” and others.
Belmont’s seven student participants worked with debate moderator David Plazas of the Tennessean earlier this semester to review recent candidate interviews and write short profiles that were published both online and in print. Students were then given the opportunity to serve as the event escort for the candidate they profiled and sit on stage for the town hall-style debate. Prior to the event, students created short videos encouraging the Nashville community to tune in.
Student participant and junior political science major Hayden Rutledge said this experience was one that gave him a closer look into Nashville’s local politics, while learning more about his own interests. “Through working with the Tennessean on the Nashfoward debates, I was able to not only have an impact on my community, but I was also give the opportunity to better myself,” Rutledge said.
K
irk Bado, a rising junior politics and public law major and journalism minor, is playing a huge role in shaping the future of Nashville. Bado is one of seven students actively informing fellow millennials by profiling mayoral candidates. After his feature on candidate Linda Eskind Rebrovick was published in The Tennessean, Bado was asked to write a second piece urging Nashville’s younger crowd to vote in the upcoming election. Finally, Bado participated in the NashForward debates as Eskind Rebrovick’s liaison and participant in the town hall-style event.
As the editor of Belmont’s student newspaper, The Belmont Vision, Bado is responsible for selecting the publication’s content and tone and challenges writers in their leadership capabilities and style. Leadership is one of a few bonding topics that Bado and Eskind Rebrovick were able to discuss throughout his Nashforward experience. “I love reading and studying about leadership, so to have the opportunity to pick her brain in such a casual setting was a goldmine of learning that you don’t get in books,” he said. Through this guidance, Bado said his goal for the fall semester “is to change the stereotype of the Vision from those pesky scheming kids above Gabhart to very approachable and easy to work with writers.”
Bado said a major highlight from his debate involvement was meeting many influential people in Nashville, including President and Publisher of the Tennessean Laura Hollingsworth, and now-mentor David Plazas, host of the NashForward debates and Tennessean Opinion Engagement Editor. Through this mentorship, Bado pitched his second Tennessean article and is working with Plazas to plan a convocation program for students in the fall. “David is really helping make me into the leader and writer I aspire to be,” said Bado.
The second of the NashForward debates focused on the needs of the millennial generation, which makes up a large portion of Nashville’s population. With two bylines in a major metro paper under his belt, Bado explained why he is so passionate about getting his peers to pay attention. He was concerned that upon looking into the audience at the first Nashforward debate, he saw only adults and 20-somethings there by requirement. With such big decisions facing our city, Bado said he felt the room should have been packed with his peers. “So basically I emailed David and said ‘Hey I wrote this, what do you think?’ And he replied, ‘This is really good and insightful Kirk, mind if we run it?’ I was floored that he wanted to run it and said, ‘of course!'”
Throughout the Nashforward process, Bado said Plazas and his team gave generous creative control, and the students ran with it. Bado feels lucky to have been involved and made the connections that he has. “I love it here, and Belmont has become a home to me, a community I care passionately about. Belmont let me have this opportunity because I was active in seeking it,” Bado said. “It’s like what Dumbledore said to Harry Potter. ‘Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.’ My spin on that is – opportunities will always be given at Belmont to those who seek them.”
Assistant Professor of Entertainment and Industry Studies Sarita Stewart has had a busy few months.
Stewart recently wrote a chapter in the 3rd edition of Research Methods in Communication entitled, “TV, Radio and Music Research,” with co-authors Dr. Louisa Ha from Bowling Green State University and Jeff Green of Stone Door Media Lab. The book came out in February through Vision Press and is available for the fall 2015 semester.
In March, Stewart presented two papers at the Midwinter Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. On May 14, she was part of the Music Educators Meetup panel at the Music Business Association. Stewart and the other panelists gave presentations on their music business programs, which evolved into a group discussion among a number of music educators of current teaching trends in this type of program.
Most recently, Stewart was quoted in two articles in the San Francisco Chronicle on her perspective about the future of music streaming. In response to Apple’s recent release of Apple Music, a streaming service similar to that of Pandora or Spotify, Stewart is quoted saying, “The future of music is streaming, so in order to remain competitive … they need to enter this space. I think it’s a really exciting development and it really means (streaming music) has gone mainstream. We’re getting to the point where more people are actively using it.”
And of the many features specific to Apple, Stewart added, ““They are taking the best of the different elements. They have been able to see some of the pitfalls in the current models, and they might be able to bring in different elements to circumvent those challenges.”
To read the second article, click here.
Vice President for Administration and University Counsel Dr. Jason Rogers was recently named a 2015 Corporate Best of the Bar by the Nashville Business Journal. The NBJ took nominations from the community for a person that should be recognized in the legal profession. Nominees were divided into categories and voted on, and the featured nominees earned the highest amount of votes. Rogers answered four questions in his NBJ profile, which was featured in the print edition, section two, on June 12.
What is the biggest misconception people have about lawyers from TV? That we are all snappy dressers.
What three qualities are most needed to make it in the legal profession? Compassion, integrity, hard work.
What is the strangest request a client has made of you? Participate in a dessert bake-off to raise money for my non-profit client.
If there was one part of the legal process you could change, what would it be, and why? Our tendency as lawyers to think that we add value to a transaction the more complicated we make it. This undermines public confidence in our profession.
Patty Whitehead, a third-year law student at Belmont’s College of Law, was recently named the 2015 Jon E. Hastings Memorial Award Writing Competition winner. Sponsored by the TBA Environmental Law Section, the Hastings award is a juried competition for the best legal writing on a topic of Tennessee or federal environmental law and is open to law students enrolled in a Tennessee law school.
Whitehead’s paper “Opportunities for Environmental Justice Review in Title V Permits Under the Tennessee Air Quality Act” addresses disproportionate air quality among minority and low-income communities under Title V permit rules.
Shauna Seymore, human resources assistant, won first place for her essay and received a full scholarship for the College and University Professional Association for HR (CUPA-HR) annual conference to include all registration, airfare and hotel costs. The September 2015 conference invites HR professionals from across the country for speakers and workshops to gain critical knowledge and insight on pressing higher education HR issues.
LP Field show will also feature alumnus Brad Paisley as opening act
Who doesn’t dream of being a rock star? For at least one day, 24 Belmont University students will see that dream realized in dramatic fashion, as they perform on stage next week with arguably the greatest rock band of all time. Led by Belmont University’s Chorale director, Dr. Jeffery Ames, the Belmont ensemble will join the Rolling Stones for a song on the band’s upcoming June 17 ZIP CODE Tour stop at Nashville’s LP field.
Ames, who serves as director of choral activities at Belmont and is a well-known conductor/composer in his own right, said the students are excited “Beyond belief, actually! Within the Belmont community, our students annually collaborate with great stars within the music industry like Trisha Yearwood, CeCe Winans, Michael W. Smith, to name a few. But a historic rock band such as the Rolling Stones? Epic….”
The Nashville show is the seventh stop on a 15-city stadium tour that began May 24 in San Diego and wraps up July 15 in Quebec. Belmont alumnus Brad Paisley will also be the opening act for the Stones’ visit to Music City.
