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

Home Blog Page 414

Belmont Students Share College Experiences with Maplewood Distinguished Scholars

Paul Chenoweth
-
0
Belmont Students Share College Experiences with Maplewood Distinguished Scholars

Belmont students Justin Lang, Sierra Jones, Christianna Ellison, La’Tiara Jarvis and Keayana Robinson spoke to a group in the Belmont Distinguished Scholars Program at Maplewood High School about what life is like in college, including personal testimonies of encouragement.

Every Wednesday morning during Maplewood’s advisory period, Belmont’s Assistant Professor of Education Dr. Myron Oglesby travels to the school for an academic collaboration with 25 students in preparation for a successful college transition.

“The Belmont students were well received, and the excitement of their message filled the air; students at Maplewood all heard a similar theme from the Belmont students who spoke ‘If I can do it, so can you,’” said Dr. Oglesby.

This year’s collaboration theme is “A College State of Mind.” Several Belmont professors, including Chair of the Psychology Department Dr. Linda Jones, Chair of the School of Education Dr. Mark Hogan and Director of the Bridges to Belmont Program Mary Clark, have also visited to share personal stories on a successful collegiate experience.

Cornwall Quoted in The Wall Street Journal

Paul Chenoweth
-
0

Jeffrey_Cornwall_2In a recent article from The Wall Street Journal, Professor of Entrepreneurship Jeff Cornwall was quoted on his expertise in the field. The article, entitled “A Startup Sours After A Falling Out,” walks through a messy investor-entrepreneur partnership and a company’s fizzling out.

Cornwall is quoted saying, “a significant cause of failure is the pressure that investors put on entrepreneurs to lock into a business model too soon.”

To read the full article, click here.

Alumna Revelette Publishes Novel, ‘Falling Stars’

Paul Chenoweth
-
0
Alumna Revelette Publishes Novel, ‘Falling Stars’

Belmont music business alumna Ashlyne Huff Revelette, 2007, recently published her first young adult novel, “Falling Stars,” about a 17-year-old former country superstar who is trying to get back into the Nashville spotlight. The book will be released on May 1.

“Falling Stars” has earned commentary from a number of country superstars including Reba McEntire and Martina McBride. “Growing up with an insider’s look into the music business, Ashlyne writes honestly and in a relateable way about the highs and lows of being a star. Girls will relate to it because of her believable voice, as well as the lessons that are to be learned along the way,” wrote McBride.

Belmont was a strong influence in the setting of the book, the characters’ stories and the book’s production. One character attends Belmont in “Falling Stars,” and Revelette is currently writing a sequel that takes place on the University’s campus. “Another December 2007 graduate is a character in the book. In a nutshell, I wanted to do some original music for the book and have songs that were written for it, so I called Brandon Hood, alumnus of 2007 and another non-Belmont grad to write the songs with me. Once we wrote them, I figured there was no point to make up new songwriter names for the characters, so they stayed,” said Revelette.

Revelette grew up in a musical family and is a singer-songwriter herself. She was the opening act for 2011 New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys tour, giving her insight to the ins and outs of the music industry and the inspiration to write the novel. To learn more about Revelette, “Falling Stars” and the book’s two original songs, click here.

Alumnus Rayvon Owen Tops American Idol His ‘Own Way’

Paul Chenoweth
-
0
Alumnus Rayvon Owen Tops American Idol His ‘Own Way’

Belmont School of Music alumnus Rayvon Owen has made a name for himself on this season of “American Idol” as one of the top 4 performers in the competition. Since the beginning of the show, Owen has been wowing Idol judges and fans with his technical skills and stage presence.

Before his performance on April 22, Owen met with Idol mentor and Big Machine Records founder Scott Borchetta. Owen discussed his strategy since being in the bottom two in recent weeks of the contest and the ways he has worked to improve his performances. “It wasn’t until being in the bottom for the third time that I finally realized that you can give a good performance, but what else is there to you? It’s okay to express what you’ve gone through, your story,” Owen said. “People want to connect to that. People want to see your heart.”

With that in mind, Owen began last week with Sam Smith’s “I’m Not the Only One” and closed with Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way,” ending the performance with his signature falsetto note impressing judge Jennifer Lopez. “[That high note] was a great way to finish the show – to fight. You are such a fighter, which I love about you,” Lopez said. “You are not going down. You want to be here, and you show us that with your vocal performances.”

Belmont Assistant Professor of Music Sandra Dudley was Owen’s voice teacher while he was in college. Since going on “American Idol,” Dudley said she has continued to coach Owen from afar each week. Describing him as an incredibly talented singer that has a unique ability to compassionately connect with his audience, Dudley believes that by performing his ‘own way,’ Owen can become the next American Idol.

“Rayvon Owen is the kind of artist that can inspire generations. His character and motivation is rooted in honesty, he has the voice to penetrate any heart, and he represents excellence in music and artistic integrity,” Dudley said. “I think the world of him. I have since he walked through my door at Belmont.”

Owen said his time at Belmont has significantly contributed to his success and has prepared him for the opportunity to work with the caliber of musicians that come with “Idol.” Owen described his time at Belmont as the “playground – training ground” that empowered him to hone his craft and become an artist ready to perform on a national stage.

Moving forward, Owen said he is grateful for the fans who have followed him through this experience because without them, his time on “Idol” wouldn’t be possible. “I hope people will continue this journey with me, even after ‘American Idol’ is over, as I continue to share my heart through music.”

As a member of the competition’s Top 5 artists, Owen will go on to participate in the show’s live summer tour line up. For more information on tour tickets, click here.

Cagle Speaks to Students on Political Commentary

Paul Chenoweth
-
0

Cagle-2Speaking to a packed room on Wednesday, April 22, nationally syndicated columnist and editorial cartoonist Daryl Cagle shared his thoughts on political commentary with Belmont students as a guest of the University’s Department of Political Science.

Cagle spoke about his artistic craft, highlighting the tension between the expressive elements of his creative process and the soft and hard censorship considerations that come with editors’ attitudes and relative levels of cultural hostility to provocative sociopolitical images around the globe.

Riechert Honored at PRSA Nashville Awards Banquet

Paul Chenoweth
-
0

riechert-olympus-award-2Belmont Chair and Associate Professor of the Public Relations Department Dr. Bonnie Riechert was recently honored at the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Nashville Chapter’s annual Parthenon Awards Banquet. Dr. Riechert received the 2015 Olympus Award to recognize her effective leadership in the 180-member chapter. She served as president of PRSA Nashville in 2014. and previously served as chapter president-elect, secretary, national assembly delegate and accreditation co-chair and chair.

Five Belmont student leaders served as volunteers at the event including Makenzie Albracht, Mary Anna Davis, Victoria Lewis, Arielle Schrader and Annah Smith. PRSA Nashville sponsors chapters of the Public Relations Student Society of America at Belmont University, Austin Peay State University, Lipscomb University, Middle Tennessee State University and Western Kentucky University.

Students Present Papers at Southern Appalachian Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

Paul Chenoweth
-
0

Philosophy majors Colin Bodayle, Tucker Dowell and Drew Swisher recently presented papers at the 16th Annual Southern Appalachian Undergraduate Philosophy Conference, hosted by the University of North Carolina, Asheville.

Conference keynote speakers were Leonard Lawlor from Pennsylvania State University and Susanna Siegel from Harvard University, who also served as submission and presentation judges.  Bodayle presented his paper, entitled “Subjective Universality in Kant’s Third Critique: Bad Faith, or Authentic Relation to the Other?” Dowell and Swisher presented their co-written work, entitled “Love.”

Colin Duriez Presents on The Oxford Inklings

Paul Chenoweth
-
0
Colin Duriez Presents on The Oxford Inklings

Colin Duriez, British scholar and author specializing in the historic accounts and secondary worlds of the Oxford Inklings, J.K. Rowling, Charles Williams and the like, visited Belmont to speak to students at multiple events on campus. Duriez presented his lecture, “The Secondary Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling: Imagination and Reality,” on Tuesday evening and followed it with other events including a chapel service and several classes.

One of Director of the Honors Program and Professor Dr. Jonathan Thorndike’s classes was able to interact with Duriez and deepen their understanding of the class textbook, his book, “The Oxford Inklings.” Duriez walked through some of the letters and diary entries from the book to present a chronological picture to the class, tying the writings to important dates in history during World War II.

“What I am trying to do is give you a picture of particularity of the meetings [of the Inklings] and the individuality of the members,” said Duriez, in order to present less of a theoretical knowledge of who the group was and more of an experience with the words on the page, which are quite substantial.

The Belmont community was honored to hear the deep passion Duriez has for some of the most influential writers of the 20th century, gaining an insight into their lives, the impactful relationships they had and the experiences which made them who they were. Duriez recently published “The Oxford Inklings” and will soon publish “Bedeviled: Lewis, Tolkien and the Shadow of Evil.”

“The students appreciated his gentle wit, humor and deep intellect that brought together the work of the Inklings and the truth of Christian faith,” said Thorndike. “By integrating narrative, myth, faith and meaning, Duriez showed how the Inklings were counter-cultural, but at the same time, profoundly in touch with the needs of a fallen world.”

To read more about Duriez and his works, click here.

Mathematician Banchoff Discusses the Fourth Dimension During Campus Presentation

Paul Chenoweth
-
0
Mathematician Banchoff Discusses the Fourth Dimension During Campus Presentation

Geometer and Professor at Brown University Dr. Tom Banchoff, a mathematician known world-wide for his specialization in the fourth and higher dimensions, recently gave two presentations at Belmont. Dr. Banchoff is a pioneer in applying computer graphics to the fourth dimension, thereby permitting illustration of this illusive and abstract concept.

The first talk, “Math Spans All Dimensions: Guides to the Fourth Dimension” was based on the interactive poster developed for Math Awareness Month in 2000 while Dr. Banchoff was president of the Mathematical Association of America. In our familiar three-dimensional space, visualization is an important tool. In our age of computer visualization, we can now explore phenomena in our “nearest neighbor,” the fourth dimension.  Guides in this effort include Edwin Abbott Abbott (“Flatland”), Madeleine L’Engel (“A Wrinkle in Time”) and Salvador Dalí (“Corpus Hypercubus”).

The second talk was titled “The Two-Piece Property–the Geometry of Slicing Fruit” and addressed questions including ‘What can we say about objects that fall into at most two pieces when we slice them with a long knife?’ and  ’How can a topic that we can describe in simple language lead to a Berkeley PhD thesis?’ The “two-piece property” turns out to be equivalent to minimal total absolute curvature, a classical topic in differential geometry that yields surprising results when we ask the same questions for polyhedral surfaces, in three-dimensional space and higher.

To see more images from Dr. Banchoff’s presentation, click here.

Webb Presents and Chairs Panel at Communication Conferences

Paul Chenoweth
-
0

nathan-webb-199x300Assistant Professor in Belmont’s Communications Studies Department Dr. Nathan Webb recently attended two academic conferences where he presented a research paper and chaired two research panels.

Dr. Webb attended the Central States Communication Association Annual Conference in Madison, Wisconsin and presented a paper on his research on instructor self-disclosure in the classroom and chaired a panel in the Kenneth Burke division of the organization. He also attended the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Southeast Colloquium in Knoxville and chaired a panel on internship programs for communication students.

1...413414415...888Page 414 of 888
Belmont University Logo | News & Media

CONTACT US

University Marketing and Communications
615-460-6650
communication@belmont.edu

FOLLOW US