Five Belmont sophomores are working hard this month to build a movement to address the national debt, a figure that currently stands at over $17 trillion. Belmont “Up to Us” formed last fall when the five students–Paul Shaw (international business), Jawon Taylor (political science), Sordum Ndam (political science), Olivia Nishi (corporate communications) and Lindsay Bond-Harris (music business)–applied to participate in the national Up to Us competition, which is sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) and Net Impact. The Belmont team was selected as one of 25 teams nationwide and is competing against teams from Duke, Cal State-Fullerton, Northwestern, Oklahoma State, Rice, George Washington and New York University, among others, with the contest set to end this Friday, Feb. 21.
The group was first interested in the competition as a means to have hands-on experience in a campaign that would benefit their diverse studies in political science, business and communications. However, this campaign has hit a nerve for all of them. Noting that $17 trillion is a difficult figure to grasp and contextualize, Ndam said, “You start telling people how serious this is, and the more you repeat these facts, the more you begin to realize how truly serious an issue it is… I’m afraid of the uncertainty of it all.”
“We want people to be thinking about the national debt and get discussion going,” said Bond-Harris. “We’re not asking for answers, but we do want people to get involved in finding answers.”
Belmont’s delegation to the Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature won Best New Delegation at the 2013 meeting of the collegiate mock legislature tournament. The delegation drafted a bill altering the landscape orientation of licenses for drivers under the age of 21, making it decreasingly likely that a retailer, for example, would mistake the age of a customer. The bill passed both houses of the mock legislature. Belmont’s six delegates were involved in the House, Senate, Supreme Court, and media program. 
Dr. Linda Jones, chairman and associate professor of psychological science, has received the 2013-2014 Psi Chi (International Honor Society in Psychology) Southeast Region Outstanding Faculty Adviser Award. The award is based on an outstanding record of leadership to the local chapter and on the accomplishments of the local chapter. 
Associate Professor of Biology Lori McGrew’s neurobiology class used kits available through Backyard Brains to create cybernetic cockroaches. The students attached electrodes to the insects’ antennae. Following the surgery, students outfitted their cyborgs with Bluetooth receiver backpacks and used their phones to control input to the antennae. The stimulus mimicked the antennae touching something and caused the roaches to turn left or right, away from the input. This procedure is similar to deep brain stimulation being used to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease and other motor dysfunctions. By using the roboroach model, students deepened their understanding of the electrical nature of neuronal signaling including the importance of signal strength and frequency. Photos can be found on the Beta Beta Beta Biological Honorary Society’s 
Dr. Jeff Phillips, an adjunct trombone instructor in the School of Music, was the guest conductor the North Carolina Western Region Jazz Clinic at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, N.C. The clinic featured a concert with Phillips, Rick Simerly of Tusculum University and Benjy Springs of Greensboro College. Phillips also will be the guest conductor for the Robertson County High School Honor Band in April and will assume the duties of Tennessee Music Education Association president this summer. 
Dr. Cathy Taylor, dean of the College of Health Sciences & Nursing, was recently selected as a member of the 2014 class of the Nashville Health Care Council Fellows. The Fellows initiative engages industry leaders in clearly defining health care’s greatest challenges and exploring new strategies to meet these issues facing the U.S. health care system.