Professor of Music Business Don Cusic recently spoke at the Southern Literary Festival about his book, Elvis and Nashville.
Author Cusic Speaks at Festival
Boto Advises Storybook App
Curb College Coordinator of Sound Reinforcement and Live Events Lucas Boto is credited as the music adviser for the interactive Christian storybook app one of his family member’s created. Click here to hear Boto’s voice and those of his family members when you download the app for free.
School of Nursing Hosts Nursing Workforce Meeting
Belmont University School of Nursing hosted a statewide meeting this week on the future of the nursing profession’s workforce data collection in Tennessee.
“This is important work. Since budget cuts eliminated the Tennessee Center for Nursing in 2010, comprehensive workforce data have been scant,” said Dr. Cathy Taylor, dean of the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences and Nursing.
Noting the importance of robust data to be used to improve health and provide better care for all Tennesseans, the Nursing Workforce Analysis Conference was sponsored by East Tennessee State University and brought together nurse educators, practitioners and researchers from the public and private sectors and agencies from throughout the state.
Dr. Linda Flynn, professor and associate dean for academic programs at the University of Colorado, was the featured speaker for the event. Cathy Taylor, dean of the College of Health Sciences, and Dr. Martha Buckner, associate dean in the School of Nursing, represented Belmont at the meeting.
School of Physical Therapy Helps Coordinate Benefit Races
Students and faculty from Belmont University School of Physical Therapy were again instrumental in coordinating two charitable events that occur annually in Nashville, Tenn. each fall. Over 100 student volunteers provided the main logistical support for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Nashville on Oct. 26, and again for Dierks Bentley’s Miles and Music for Kids motorcycle ride and concert in Middle Tennessee on Nov. 3.
The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure race attracted 26,000 people to the Maryland Farms YMCA to support the fight against breast cancer. Physical therapy students assisted with course setup and clean up, served as course marshals at the start and finish lines, and were available throughout the race to hand out water and help with crowd control. The student participation in race is facilitated annually by Belmont professor Michael Voight who co-chairs the event. Voight said he support Komen because 75 percent of every dollar raised in the region remains in Middle Tennessee and is granted to other local non‐profits.
“These non‐profits are working on the front lines to battle breast cancer, educating both women and men on the value of early detection and promoting awareness to low‐income and non‐insured individuals,” Voight said.
Dr. Pat Sells, associate professor of physical therapy, who leads the race volunteer program for the school said, “The manner in which our students conducted themselves overwhelms me. They were kind, energetic, dedicated and willing to do whatever was asked of them. I received so many positive comments on them, I was truly proud to be considered as part of their team. Managing a race course with 26,000 people and doing so flawlessly was an impressive feat.”
Health Sciences Lends Expertise at Fall Awareness, Prevention Event
Faculty and students from the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing lent their expertise to the public last week at a Fall Awareness and Prevention event hosted by Williamson County Parks and Recreation. Health professionals from each discipline in the college were on hand to assist seniors with strategies to keep active and falls free: ideas about effective home modifications and the use of assistive devices from the School of Occupational Therapy, counsel on the proper use of medications from the School of Nursing, information on community resources from the Social Work Department and suggestions on shoe wear and exercises to increase flexibility, mobility and strength from the School of Physical Therapy.
“This was a great opportunity for our college’s faculty and students to work together in serving the seniors in our local community with ideas for preventing falls”, said Dr. Debra Gibbs, assistant professor of occupational therapy, who coordinated Belmont’s participation in the event.
Every 15 seconds, an older adult is seen in an emergency department for a fall-related injury. Nationally, falls are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries for those aged 65 and over, and the chances of falling and being seriously injured in a fall increase with age, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Law Student Named Volunteer of the Year
The Tennessee Bar Association recently announced third-year law student Katie Blankenship will receive its 2014 Law Student Volunteer Award. The Law Student Volunteer Award recognizes a student who has provided dedicated and outstanding pro bono services to an organization that is primarily engaged in providing legal representation to the indigent. Award winners will be honored at the Tennessee Bar Association’s 2014 Public Service Luncheon on Jan. 18 in Nashville, Tenn.
Espy: ‘God at Work’ During Troubled Times
Prominent attorney Mike Espy shared with students his rise to notoriety as well as the infamous fall that brought him closer to God during chapel on Wednesday.
“What happens when you run into trouble and you do everything you can to get out of it? There is no answer on your own timetable, and you fall deeper into the muck and mud. Faith is tested, really tested,” Espy said. “At your show down, God shows up, and together you show out.”
The Mississippi native ran for Congress in 1985 to represent a poor district where the people who would vote for him could not afford to donate to his campaign. At 29, he became the youngest House Representative and the first African-American Congressman elected in Mississippi since Reconstruction. A decade later, President Bill Clinton appointed him to serve as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. The first African-American to hold that cabinet position, Espy said he was expected to “do nothing slowly,” but within days responded to deaths caused by under-cooked hamburgers at a national fast-food chain as well as a 500-year flood and negotiated tariff and trade quotas with other countries.
Then trouble came, and Espy was accused of receiving improper gifts, including football tickets, and was investigated by the FBI.
“I went from calling presidents and prime ministers to not being able to call a cab,” he said.
Ribar’s Art Students Donate Masks for Animal Rescue Fundraiser
Belmont University art students shared their time and talent Nov. 9 to help a local animal rescue with its largest fundraising event. More than 250 animal lovers attended the only animal-themed masquerade ball to help raise money for Agape Animal Rescue, a non-profit organization that has been fostering and finding homes for displaced dogs since 2004.
With admission, ball guests received custom animal masks made by local artists. Approximately 100 of the masks designed by art students from Belmont. The masquerade event was the biggest fundraising event in organization’s history and raised more than $30,000.
Each semester, art professor David Ribar chooses a large-scale art project for his senior capstone students to complete as part of their midterm grade.
“I was looking for a project that would stimulate and utilize their design and fine art skills, and I also wanted to reiterate Belmont’s mission of paying it forward,” said Ribar.
Agape Animal Ball committee member asked Ribar to have students help contribute to their fundraiser.
“Agape Animal Ball was built on the concept of having beautiful, one-of-a-kind animal masks. When reaching out to the community for support, Belmont, a school known for its excellence in the arts, was an obvious choice,” said Tanya Willis, executive director and founder of Agape Animal Rescue. “Fundraising events are vital to the work we do. With the support of the Nashville community, we have rescued, fostered and found incredible homes for more than 800 dogs. “
Hawley Presents at International Audio Engineering Conference
Dr. Scott Hawley, associate professor of physics, joined faculty and staff of the Audio Engineering Technology (AET) department in attending the 135th International Convention of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) recently held in New York City. Hawley, who teaches physics classes for AET students, presented a talk entitled “Fourier Transforms, Audio Engineering and the Quantum Nature of Reality.”
“As my first AES conference, it was tremendously eye-opening. The level of mathematics and applied physics was higher than I expected, and will influence some of my research choices,” Hawley said. “I also formed new relationships which are already benefitting my classes, such as laboratory exercise suggestions by the Italian loudspeaker manufacturers who were interested in the connections between my quantum physics talk and similar equations arising in loudspeaker design.”
Fujieda International Friendship Society Delegation Visits Belmont
Belmont University received eight visitors from Japan in late October. The group consisted of six members of the Fujieda International Friendship Society (FIFS) and the parents of Belmont University’s Japanese language instructor Dr. Naoko Ozaki. On the Maymester Japan Trip last year, Belmont University students and faculty visited Ozaki’s hometown, Fujieda City, Shizuoka Prefecture, and the FIFS group arranged generous hospitality for them in the city and the homes of their members. With their help, Belmont students visited Fujieda Elementary School and were welcomed by fifth graders with songs and a calligraphy demonstration. FIFS group also arranged for the Belmont group to receive a warm welcome from the vice mayor of Fujieda City. Upon her return from Japan this summer, Ozaki stayed in touch with the FIFS members and extended an invitation for them to visit Belmont. It wasn’t long before the FIFS members decided to accept this invitation and came all the way to the United States just to visit Belmont and Nashville, Tenn.
Belmont Japanese language students and the Maymester Trip students held an “FIFS Appreciation” event and sang eleven songs in Japanese, Swahili and English. The visitors sang along and also danced with the students. The event concluded with a potluck party with the help of custodial staff who brought food unique to their home countries. The group stayed with Nashville host families in the area, visited the Nashville mayor’s office and went to the Office of the Consul General of Japan and met Consul-General Kato. The students also took the visitors to restaurants such as Cheesecake Factory and Hard Rock Café where the visitors took pictures of all-American hamburgers and large portions of cheesecake slices. The delegation was hosted at a luncheon given by Belmont’s Asian Studies department and members of the Japan Studies faculty.
Dr. Tohru Ozaki and Mrs. Atsuko Ozaki, parents of Ozaki, brought a Ryūkyū Doll to Dr. Bob Fisher and the University. This doll is from the southern part of Japan known as Okinawa today. The style and the fabric of the outfit represent those of the time Okinawa was called Ryūkyū Kingdom from the 15th century, and the outfit is different from Japan’s traditional kimono.
The Ozakis live in Fujieda City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Tohru Ozaki is one of a few elite scholars of Sumerian and cuneiform in the world. Much of his publication is studied and referenced by other Sumerian scholars. After retiring from teaching at the University of Shizuoka, he taught Sumerian, German, and French at Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China for four years. Atsuko Ozaki has spent her career working with people with autism, helping them to be participating citizens of the community. Being back in Japan now, they are looking forward to helping the students on Belmont’s Maymester 2014 Japan Trip experience the unique culture of Japan.
