Belmont senior Lesya Zhukovska, who is studying mathematics, was awarded the Southeastern Actuaries Conference (SEAC) Scholarship for the 2013-2014 academic year. Each year the Southeastern Actuaries Conference funds actuarial science scholarships for full-time students at universities and colleges in the Southeast who have demonstrated a commitment to pursuing a career in the actuarial field. The SEAC Scholarship Committee receives scholarship applications from students and then meets to select the scholarship winners, typically five each year. The actuarial profession is usually ranked in the top five of career choices. Actuaries analyze the financial costs of risk and uncertainty. They use mathematics, statistics, and financial theory to assess the risk that an event will occur and to help businesses and clients develop policies that minimize the cost of that risk.
Math Major Awarded Southeastern Actuaries Conference Scholarship
Students, Faculty Volunteer at Hands on Nashville Day
A group of students and faculty representing the Belmont University Student Chapter of the Mathematical Association of America and Association for Computing Machinery (MAA/ACM) participated in the Hands on Nashville work day event on Sept. 21. The group of volunteers converged on Gra-Mar Middle School in Nashville for a morning of painting and landscaping. The MAA/ACM Club participants included Angela Gaetano, Alice Curtis, David Strength, Geoff Gross, Zach Winton, Jonathan McAfee, Jackson Streeter and Dr. Maria Neophytou.
This is the fifth consecutive year that MAA/ACM has participated in Hands on NashvilleDay. Hands On Nashville Day 2013, the area’s largest day of service benefiting Metro Nashville Public Schools, will go down as the biggest and best HON Day in the event’s 22-year history. More than 2,300 volunteers participated in painting and landscaping projects at 63 schools in Davidson County, both record highs for this annual event.
Overall Co-writes Book Review
Dr. Joel Overall, assistant professor of English, had a book review published on KBJournal.com. The review explores the book by Bryan Crable entitled “Ralph Ellison and Kenneth Burke: At the Roots of the Racial Divide.” The Kenneth Burke Society sponsors KBJournal.com. Co-writers of the review included Tyler Branson, Sharon A. Harris, Tom Jesse from Texas Christian University. Click here to read the review.
Bennett Appears on Local Morning Shows, to Speak at International Web Summit
Dr. Sybril Bennett was a guest on Fox 17 TN Mornings and News Channel 5’s Talk of the Town promoting her new book “Innovate: Lessons from the Underground Railroad.”
Bennett has also been selected to speak at the People’s Stage at the Web Summit in Dublin, Ireland held Oct. 30-31. Web Summit is a global gathering of the world’s leading innovators, entrepreneurs and visionaries in technology. Bennett is the only African-American female speaker out of hundreds. Major speakers at the event include Tony Hawk and executives from Cisco, WordPress, Evernote, Wired, and Prezi. Bennett’s talk will center on her “Innovate” book.
Muphree Speaks on Insects in the Community
On Sept. 14, Dr. Steve Murphree, professor of biology, was the “Invertebrates Instructor” for the four-hour course, “The World of Invertebrates: Pollinators, Predators, Pests and Parasites” to 30 adults in the Tennessee Naturalist program at Owl’s Hill Nature Center. The Tennessee Naturalist program is a corps of volunteers providing education, outreach and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities. Tennesseans interested in this program become Tennessee Naturalists through training and volunteer service. To become a Tennessee Naturalist, a person must complete a training course of a minimum of 40 hours and complete 40 hours of volunteer service.
On Sept. 17, Murphree gave an Insect/Arachnid program to 75 Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and their parents at Granbery Elementary School.
Searcy Appointed to Library Foundation
Director of Community Relations Joyce Searcy was appointed to the Nashville Public Library Foundation in September as a representative from the Nashville Public Library Board of Directors. The foundation raises funding from private sources to enhance the Nashville Public Library and has garnered more than $20 million to provide free educational programs, visual arts exhibits, building revitalization and collection enhancements for the Metro Library.In 2012, Mayor Karl Dean appointed Searcy to a five-year term on the Nashville Public Library Board. The Public Library Board creates rules governing the use of Nashville libraries by the public.
Nashville’s Hispanic Heritage Celebration Begins at Belmont
Belmont University hosted the Hispanic Heritage Month kick-off event for the Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 19 in the the McWhorter Hall Board Room. Click here to view photos from the event.
Hispanic Heritage Month is a nation-wide celebration that coincides with the anniversary of independence for several Latin American countries. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico and Chile all achieved independence between Sept. 15 and 18.
To learn more about Hispanic Heritage Month, which stakes place Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, visit hispanicheritagemonth.gov. For more information about Hispanic Heritage Month events in Nashville, visit www.nashvillehispanicchamber.com.
Humanities Symposium Panel Discusses ‘Encountering Otherness’
The featured speakers of the 12th annual Humanities Symposium discussed “Encountering Otherness” with students on Wednesday in Beaman A&B.
Amy Shuman, CeCe Big Crow, George Yancy, Robert Barsky and Eduardo Corral shared ideas and participated in a dialogue about their understanding of the theoretical and methodological connection for encountering others. Each speaker touched on what the theme meant to them.
Barsky, a philosopher, saidthat “encountering otherness” is essentially a relationship between sameness and difference.
“You absolutely need the other to exist as a self. We fundamentally need one another,” Barsky said.
He also said that at the core, we are all identical. “The distance between you and the other may be one difference in path.”
The panel discussed the importance of unity and how to exemplify this concept and show respect for others in everyday life. They also encouraged students to attend the other symposium events continuing this week.
The Humanities Symposium seeks to stimulate intellectual conversation through its 31 events, which together will engage in a week-long conversation designed to increase interactions with different cultures, religions, political views and historical understandings to dislodge the default view and open students to broader understanding.
Teaching Center Hosts Annual Faculty Workshop
Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s 2011 U.S. Professor of the Year national winner Stephen Chew taught nearly 160 Belmont faculty how to improve student learning through metacognition, depth of processing, the effective use of examples and cognitive load. Chew, professor of psychology at Samford University led the workshop entitled “Improving Student Performance by Addressing Student and Teacher Misconceptions about Learning” through Belmont’s Teaching Center in August.
Chew reviewed common misconceptions among both students and teachers that undermine learning. Workshop participants explored principles derived from cognitive research on learning that can help both teachers and students improve student learning. A discussion about how a teacher must balance a variety of interacting factors to help students achieve the desired level of learning provided a general take-away message.
“As we proceed through 2013-14, the workshop will serve as a platform for some other Teaching Center activities and will provide a common point of conversation for many faculty,” said Dr. Michael Pinter, director of Belmont Teaching Center. “For example, in October we will invite workshop participants to come together again to describe for each other some ways they have implemented Dr. Chew’s concepts on learning in courses they are currently teaching.”
The August 2014 Teaching Center Workshop will host Ken Bain, author of “What the Best College Teachers Do” and “What the Best College Students Do,” to lead the faculty in a discussion reflecting the idea from the 2013 workshop.
The Teaching Center is available to provide Belmont’s faculty with practical ways to support their efforts to learn more about teaching and learning as an important component of their over all professional development. From events offered through the center to individual teaching consultations, faculty can come to the Teaching Center to find the resources they need to further their exploration.
Blash Presents at Summit, Selected for Pharmacy Education Committee
Dr. Anthony Blash, medication management clinical informaticist at Healthcare Corporation of America’s (HCA) corporate headquarters and assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice presented at the Health Information Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) 2013 Summit of the Southeast, which includes HIMSS chapters from Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.
This annual two-day conference draws more than 900 healthcare information technology professionals from across the Southeast to discuss top issues surrounding the evolution of care delivery, gain greater insight into the ever-evolving field of healthcare and learn from leading experts in healthcare IT. This year’s theme was “Driving Patient outcomes through Care Collaboration.”
Blash’s session explained the Meaningful Use components of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and how Pharmacist Informaticists are able to play a role in promoting and expanding the adoption of health information technology.
In addition, Blash was selected to be an Educational Steering Committee member for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ (ASHP) Section of Pharmacy Informatics & Technology. The main tasks for this committee are the following:
- Developing “hot topics” for ASHP’s Midyear Clinical Meeting (MCM), which is attended by more than 20,000 pharmacists, other health professionals and pharmaceutical industry exhibitors. The MCM is the largest annual international gathering of pharmacists.
- Reviewing requests for proposals for MCM from Section Advisory Groups
- Coordinating the Informatics Bytes: Pearls of Informatics for the MCM
- Assisting Member Section Program Chairs to share topics for session content
- Providing suggestions to Section Advisory Groups on topics for Networking Webinars
ASHP is the national professional organization whose nearly 40,000 members include pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy students who provide patient care services in hospitals, health systems and ambulatory clinics. For 70 years, the society has been on the forefront of efforts to improve medication use and enhance patient safety.
