On Oct. 21, eight students from Belmont’s Environment and Conservation Organization (ECO) volunteered at the Nashville Zoo’s Ghouls at Grassmere event. The students worked the game booths including basketball, skee ball, slingshots and a high striker. It was a cold but very fun time for the ECO members. This annual Nashville Zoo fundraiser is a community favorite with exciting Halloween activities for children and families.
Environment Club Members Volunteer at Ghouls at Grassmere
Students Take Part in Many Activities for National Chemistry Week
National Chemistry Week, Oct. 20-26, was celebrated on the Belmont campus with events sponsored by students and faculty associated with the Student Members of the American Chemical Society (SMACS) club. Dr. Alison Moore and Dr. Rachel Rigsby are the club faculty advisors. The activities included: Hey, Look at this Awesome Science! convocation that focused on science in everyday life; Pin the Element on the Periodic Table activity and celebration of Mole Day, with a cupcake giveaway; Words with Elements activity, using atomic symbols to spell words; and a club Fall Cookout and Pumpkin Carving at Moore’s house.
National Chemistry Week is an annual event that encourages chemists and chemistry enthusiasts to build awareness of chemistry at the local level and promote the value of chemistry in everyday life. Mole Dole is celebrated every Oct. 23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. in commemoration of Avogadro’s Number, according to the National Mole Day Foundation Inc. website. What’s Avogadro’s Number? It is 6.02 x 1023, a basic measuring unit in chemistry discovered by the 18th century chemist Amadeo Avogadro. This explains the time and day it is celebrated: 6:02 10/23. For the nongeeky, nonsciencey types out there, a mole is a number used in chemistry quite a bit. It is used to measure the number of atoms or molecules in a sample, and it equals 6.02 x 1023—a pretty hefty number. It was a fun, geeky week for all.
Julseth Honored with Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association Award
The Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association has awarded the Jacqueline Elliot Award for Service in Foreign Language Higher Education to Dr. David Julseth, professor of foreign languages. Julseth has taught Spanish at Belmont since 1992. A member of the Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association (TFLTA) since 1992, Julseth has also served as a board member (2001-2004) and as president (2011). Throughout his career, Julseth has earned the respect and admiration of students and colleagues, and inspired more than a few students who later became colleagues. The many letters written in support of his nomination consistently acknowledge his enthusiasm and encouragement.
“Stop worrying about making mistakes,” one nominator recalls him saying. “Enjoy the language, don’t be afraid of it.”
For a remarkable career that shows no signs of stopping, for his pioneering work in service-learning and his inimitable enthusiasm in the classroom, and for the countless students he continues to inspire, Julseth is a most deserving and distinguished 3oth recipient of the Jacqueline Elliott Award for Service in Foreign Language Higher Education. The TFLTA is an organization for all foreign language educators in the state of Tennessee with the goal to promote and to advocate for foreign language education in the state, and to provide assistance and resources to those teaching foreign languages at all levels.
Trowbridge Presents on Social Media, Earns Top Public Relations Research Paper Award
Dr. Kevin S. Trowbridge, assistant professor of public relations, was a featured speaker at the second annual Social Media for Teaching & Learning conference hosted by Pearson Learning Solutions. The event was held Oct. 18 at the Museum of Science in Boston, Mass.
Trowbridge was invited to speak at this professional development event after he was interviewed last spring and profiled by Pearson in a case study of best practices for innovative teaching. His presentation was titled “Embrace the Shift for SoMe Teaching & Learning: Using Social Networks to Engage Students in the Classroom and Beyond.”
Trowbridge was also recognized by the Public Relations Society of America’s Educators Academy with the Betsy Plank Research Award during the society’s recent annual meeting. Trowbridge conducted the research and wrote the paper, titled “Organization-Public Relationships in the Digital Age: Measuring the Effects of Social Media Engagement,” during his final term as a doctoral student. The project contributed to his dissertation research, which examined the effects of social media on public relations, which was successfully defended in April 2013.
Trowbridge presented his paper and received the award during the 2013 PRSA International Conference held Oct. 26-29, 2013, in Philadelphia, Penn. The paper will be published along with nine other research papers in the proceedings from the conference.
Also during the conference, Trowbridge co-presented in the pedagogical poster session with Dr. Christie Kleinmann, associate professor of communication arts at Lee University. Their work, titled “Teaching the Value and Practical Applications of Research to Undergraduate Public Relations Students,” was featured in the session that showcased best practices in education and provided examples of successful educational approaches in public relations. A précis of their work will also be published in the conference’s proceedings.
Donna Gwaltney Completes Doctorate
Senior Human Resources Generalist Donna Gwaltney successfully defended her doctoral dissertation Oct. 25. She will be awarded her Doctor of Philosophy degree from Eastern University during the institution’s Dec. 14 commencement exercises in St. Davids, Penn. Her dissertation explored high performance human resource practices, organizational culture and staff turnover within higher education.
Shin, Peetz Present at Sports Marketing Conference
Dr. Stephen Shin and Dr. Ted Peetz, assistant professors of sport science, recently attended and presented at the annual Sport Marketing Association (SMA) conference in Albuquerque, N.M.
Shin presented instructional information and materials for Pricing Strategies Assignment at the pedagogy symposium in the conference. The assignment is designed to help students understand strategic pricing strategies and tactics by putting theoretical perspectives into hands-on practices with pricing formulas and computational approaches used in sport industry.
Peetz had his case study, “Marketing the ‘Big Game’: Developing a Student Rewards Program in College Basketball,” selected for the 2013 Student Case Study Competition. The article originally appeared last year in Sport Marketing Quarterly. Both undergraduate and graduate students from across the country competed for the opportunity to present their solutions to a panel of judges at the conference. Peetz evaluated initial solution papers and served as a panel judge for the five national finalists.
Risk Management Adds Eight AED Units Across Campus
Belmont’s Office of Risk Management and Compliance recently added eight new automated external defibrillators (AED) throughout campus bringing the University to a total of 17 AEDs.
An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a lightweight, portable device that delivers an electric shock through the chest to the heart. The shock can stop an irregular rhythm and allow a normal rhythm to resume in a heart in sudden cardiac arrest. AEDs make it possible for more people to respond to a medical emergency where defibrillation is required.
“We are making great strides in improving the safety for our faculty, staff, students and all those who visit our campus,” Risk Management and Compliance Administrator April Khoury said. “We hope to continue purchasing additional AEDs for other areas on campus in the future.”
In addition, Khoury noted that her office is working to schedule training on the AEDs for interested individuals soon, and several departments–including Campus Security and Event Services–receive AED training with their required First Aid and CPR courses.
The map of current AED locations can be found here. The Office of Risk Management and Compliance strives to create and maintain an environment conducive to the safety of all students, faculty, staff and visitors while on the university premises or participating in university-sponsored activities.
Belmont ‘Tops Out’ New Residence Hall
Facility to provide additional 400+ living spaces for upperclassmen
With the last beam in place and interior work beginning, Belmont University celebrated today the official “topping out” of its current residence hall construction project. The 139,000 square foot building will house 422 upperclassmen students and staff in a mix of apartment-style and suite-style rooms, making it the first residential facility on Belmont’s campus to offer both options. In addition to residential space, the project also includes the expansion and extension of the Thrailkill Garage to accommodate an additional 352 vehicles.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “Providing an exceptional student experience is a vital part of our University’s vision, and that means offering residential spaces that allow students to live close to their classrooms and engage fully in campus life. This new structure gives hundreds of our students an opportunity to be more involved in all that Belmont has to offer.”
Fall Break Plunge Immerses Freshmen in Missions Opportunity
For the second year in a row, University Ministries led a team of freshmen on a “Fall Break Plunge,” a three-day mission project Oct. 12-14. The Plunge is an allusion to the University’s annual “immersion” spring break trip program, which is designed to give a broad spectrum of students at Belmont the chance to be immersed in God’s world in various destinations, experiencing God’s work in a number of contexts. The Plunge enables freshmen to get a taste of what a week-long mission trip could be.
This year the Plunge found 20 freshmen, along with University Ministries Director of Outreach Micah Weedman, going to downtown Atlanta for Fall Break. The team stayed in Grant Park and worked with the Medici Project, an organization that designs and hosts alternative break trips for college students.
“For all of the trips we sponsor, we take a broad spectrum approach that is shaped by the locations we go,” Weedman said. “While in Atlanta, we wanted to do Atlanta-centric work. That included spending time with a homeless ministry in one of the city’s abandoned urban neighborhoods and volunteering with one of Atlanta’s most successful urban gardens that distributes the food it grows to low income families in the community.”
Freshman Noreen Prunier, a music business major from Long Island, NY, added, “I chose to go to Atlanta for my Fall Break because I wanted to do something meaningful, and something where I felt my time would be put to good use. This experience has changed my perspective on service because on this trip I was able to see the joy and gratitude in the people we served from such small actions. Even though it seemed like passing out lunches on the street was such a small action, the people receiving them were so grateful and were looking forward to it. So, no matter what small deed we do, it will affect someone in some way.”
Fortune Magazine Editor: Practice Key to Great Performance
During a Wednesday convocation, Fortune Magazine Senior Editor Geoffrey Colvin shared how through practice, students can be just as successful as people perceived to have inherent talent. During his lecture titled “Talent is Overrated: Truths for Success,” Colvin illustrated how passion, values, ethics and learning are more important to corporations than hours worked or IQ, and demonstrated how world-class performance comes from specific ethical behaviors.
“Where does great performance come from? All of us carry around deep-seeded answers about this question. We want to talk about this because standards are rising everywhere,” Colvin said. “Everything is getting better all the time generally in business technology all of these devices are better, faster, smaller and cheaper every month.”
Colvin, author of Talent is Overrated, said while many people believe greater performance comes from hard work, memory or innate talent, the research shows that most geniuses, world-classes performers and athletes acquired their skills and notoriety through many years of practice. Conversely, child protégés grew up to become underachievers.
