Two Belmont Pharmacy students were recently published in Mental Health Clinician, a monthly publication of the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP).  CPNP is a professional society of pharmacists practicing in the psychiatry and neurology specialties.

PharmD students Eury Park and Savannah Arnold, under the guidance of Pharmacy Assistant Professor Michael McGuire, provided a review of how mental illness and medications used to treat it were depicted in the movie, Silver Linings Playbook, which has received numerous film awards including Academy Awards.

In the review, Park and Arnold conclude that while elements of the film are accurate and touch “on the stigma associated with mental illness,” they could not recommend it “for educational or therapeutic purposes.”

Belmont students Dianna Antenucci and Kyle Jeffrey have been accepted to the prestigious and highly competitive Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) program for the 2013-2014 academic year.

Antenucci is a music business major graduating this May. She moved to Nashville from Toms River, N.J. to attend Belmont. She has worked her way through four years of college and had the opportunity to intern with an artist management company, a publishing company and a social media marketing company. Going on the Maymester trip to Japan in 2012 was a life altering experience that stirred a desire in her to experience the culture more and develop lasting relationships with the Japanese people.

Kyle Jeffrey spent a few months in Japan last summer to improve his Japanese language skills. He is excited to be returning to Japan on JET program and to become a bridge between the two cultures.

It is exciting news as Belmont University continues to strengthen its collaboration with Consulate General of Japan in Nashville and friendship with Japan led by Dr. Ronnie Littlejohn, as well as several faculty members involved in Asian Studies Program.

The Belmont Chapter of Best Buddies Tennessee participated in the annual Friendship Walk at Centennial Park on April 14. Best Buddies is a student organization where Belmont students form personal, one-on-one friendships with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Best Buddies high school and college chapters from middle Tennessee attended the event. The Belmont Chapter raised over $1,000 for Best Buddies Tennessee. Faculty advisor, Dr. Sally Barton-Arwood, associate professor of education, joined Belmont sophomore and chapter president, Kristin Hinkley, along with approximately 30 student and community members from the Belmont chapter. In addition to fund raising, these walks are an opportunity to be with old friends, make new friends and promote community inclusion. Bruiser also attended the Friendship Walk.

The Society of Physics Students (SPS) sponsored an Egg Drop contest on April 12.  Students from across the University were invited to compete by building an apparatus which could contain an egg, allowing it to be dropped from the maximum possible height without breaking. The first place winner was Anthony Irwin, a double major in physics and audio engineering technology, and the second place winner was Alisha Dowling, a medical physics major.  Both Irwin’s and Dowling’s apparatuses sustained drops from over 6 meters with no egg breakage, but after a brutal tiebreaker, Irwin claimed the prize of a $25 gift certificate provided by Bongo Java, makers of the ‘Egg Bomb’ breakfast sandwich. Dr. Scott Hawley, associate professor of physics, is the faculty advisor for this student organization

Five students of Belmont’s first Japanese language translation class have made their debut as translators. Troy Grooms, Christopher Richey, Erin Turberville, Luke Robertson and Kyle Jeffrey worked closely with Dr. Naoko Ozaki, whom they call Sensee, to translate Japanese poems into English. Each of them translated two poems by Ray Kamijo. The collection of their works titled Journey of Life is now available on amazon.com.

“I am extremely proud of my students for exerting efforts into the challenging translation works,” Sensee said. “Japanese is a highly contextual language, and this made translation work challenging for them, but all of them dissected each line and also looked at it holistically at the same time. They had to make each poem sound natural and relatable to the American audience.”

The students went through several steps before sending their translation works to the author. They first worked on direct translation in which they translated each line word for word. They shared their direct translation with Sensee to confirm that their understanding of the Japanese language was accurate. Afterwards, they worked on meaning translation to be able to convey the meaning of the poem which may not be apparent for English-speaking audience in direct translation alone.

The students then had peer review to share their translation works with each other to give and receive feedback to each other. After repeating these steps, the students and Sensee spoke with the author via Skype to discuss their translation works. Through discussions with the author, they were able to modify and improve their works. This translation process went far beyond the use of dictionaries and thesauruses, and they have proudly reached a point to publish the collection of their 11 translated works.

“It has always been amazing to me and almost euphoric that the spoken word in any language can easily be understood once it is shared,” said Dr. Myron Oglesby-Pitts of Education Department who has been sending moral support to all the students as they came to Ozaki-sensee’s office for appointments. “The value of the work done by the students in the Japanese Translation class imbues and pierces a level of conscientiousness for others to learn, share and enjoy.  Each poem goes far beyond word count to an extraordinary level of understanding coded feelings and interpretation all enveloped in one word.  Arigato, to all of the students for sharing your work with all of us.” (image – Journey_of_Life.jpg)