Emily Doss, a second year student in Belmont’s College of Pharmacy, has been selected for a position in the Johns Hopkins Pharmacy internship program in Baltimore, Md. Of the 22 students selected for this internship, Doss is the only student selected from a pharmacy program within Tennessee. Doss will work as a pharmacy intern at the home care site at Johns Hopkins Hospital for 12 weeks this summer. This internship provides opportunities to shadow both pharmacists and pharmacy residents working in various specialties. Dr. Condit Steil, chairman of Pharmacy Practice at Belmont’s College of Pharmacy, as well as Dr. Naftilan, a physician working with students in the Vanderbilt Program in Interprofessional Learning (VPIL), of which Doss is a part, encouraged her participation in the program.
Doss Selected for Competitive Johns Hopkins Internship
Social Work Students Win Poster Competition
This year Belmont’s BSW program won first place in the poster competition. Belmont University’s Bachelor in Social Work program won first place in the poster competition at Social Work Day on the Hill on March 27. The students presented their policy analysis on Senate Bill 0804 and House Bill 0937 (to amend Tennessee Code Annotated Title 4 and Title 71) in order to ensure Tennessee’s present and future governors preserve the state’s right to deny expansion of Medicaid.
Social Work Day on the Hill is an annual event sponsored by the National Association of Social Workers. Practitioners, educators and students from all over the state come together at Legislative Plaza to discuss the policy responses to the issues that impact our profession and the clients we serve. In addition to presenting knowledgeable speakers and legislators, the event serves as a call to action and is a unifying experience that links the practice community to social welfare policy.
Pharmacy Students Serve at Faith Family Medical Clinic
Six pharmacy students volunteered at Faith Family Medical Clinic on 21st Avenue North on March 21. They reconciled medications with people with diabetes at the clinic, which offers the service without charge. The students worked under the supervision of Belmont College of Pharmacy Director of Experiential Education Mark J. Chirico and served 28 patients. It was the first event of its kind at this clinic, and the students plan to volunteer at the clinic each quarter.
“I had one provider remark how much easier her job was when she saw the patients after they had already met with pharmacy. This was a big day for Faith Family, Journey to Health and many of our patients. We received so much positive feed back that we will definitely be offering this again,” said Faith Family Medical Clinic Director of Operations Joshua Southards.
Speakers Series Teaches Students to Leverage Themselves in Digital World
Socialnomics author Erik Qualman shared his five keys for students to leave a “stamp” in today’s digital world during a Friday morning convocation in the Frist Lecture Hall.
His talk focused on how social media users can utilize tools at their fingertips through the use of his “stamp” acronym, which stands for simple, true, act, map and plan. He urged students to focus on their outputs, such as starting a fashion line, organizing a nonprofit or writing a screenplay instead of exerting energy into throughputs, such as tweets, text messages and emails.
“So many of us fall into a trap that we are working for social media, but we have these social accounts working for us,” he said. He shared the story of how while on vacation he set his out of office automatic reply to appear that his mailbox account was full and directed people to resend correspondence after a certain date.
Instead of logging onto digital accounts first thing in the morning, social media users should get out two outputs to ensure they have productive days and use social media to leverage their work. Qualman also encouraged students to be firm in their destination and flexible in their path as well as network and build relationships today before they are needed in the future.
World Culture Fest Showcases Belmont’s Diversity
Belmont hosted its first World Culture Fest on March 22 in Neely Dining Hall in an effort to showcase the campus’ diversity.
The event was an opportunity for students and employees to demonstrate culture and heritage through dance, music, fashion and other art forms. Several student organizations had booths representing different world cultures for students to learn, ask questions, examine study abroad opportunities that would immerse them in the culture and participate in a cultural activity.
The Black Student Association, Rumi Club and International Business Society co-sponsored the festival in partnership with the Student Government Association and Student Activities Programming Board.
Among the performances were spoken word, the Argentine Tango, a Latin American dance medley, a New Zealand Spinning performance art, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. step performance as well as songs in Spanish, Japanese and Swahili. Booths and tables represented Southeast Asian, Irish, Caribbean, Persian, Japanese, Russian, African, Latin American, Chinese and Middle Eastern cultures, and students served food and provided activities including origami, calligraphy and Henna tattoos.
Bennett Speaks at TEDxNashville
Media Studies Associate Professor Sybril Bennett spoke April 6 at the TEDxNashville “Next” event at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Click here to view the lecture.
Bennett’s lecture was based on research she conducted for her soon-to-be released book, Innovate:Lessons from the Underground Railroad, in which she compares the Internet to the Underground Railroad. Her talk showed how the forming of flash mobs to escort escaped Africans to safety and the discussions of freedom, access, boundaries and privacy show how the past continues to be a part of the future.
An article previewing her lecture was featured on the front page of the April 4 issue of The Tennessee Tribune.
Mayor Recognizes Belmont with Gold Seals, Awards
Belmont University received many accolades during the Nashville Mayor’s Workplace Challenge for its role in engaging the community through volunteer service, fostering a healthy workplace and promoting a healthy and active lifestyle as well as sustaining the environment through green practices.
During an awards breakfast on April 5 in Lipscomb’s Allen Arena, Belmont was awarded the Top Score Award as well as the Innovation Award. The University also received a gold seal, the highest designation, in the Involved, Green and Healthy categories.
The University also is featured in the Nashville Business Journal for its Mayor’s Workplace Challenge Awards.
Learning Community Courses Tour Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant
On Mar. 21, College of Business Administration Adjunct Instructor Paul McCullough and Associate Professor of Chemistry Dr. Rachel Rigsby took their linked Learning Community Courses to the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant in Hollywood, Ala.
McCullough and Rigsby’s courses, economic inquiry and entry-level chemistry respectively, are linked through the concept of energy, which was reinforced by the trip to the power plant. “The reason for doing nuclear energy is that it’s less expensive—once you get the plant,” said McCullough. “Building is expensive.”
The Bellefonte plant had to close down during construction due to a lack of funding. After the stoppage in the late 1980s, construction resumed in 2010, and the plant is scheduled to be fully complete in 2015.
“It was interesting because we got to hear the economics behind building a plant—and they didn’t plan, so they had to start and stop,” said Brendan Wright, a sophomore audio engineering technology major.
The tour was given by a man who had spent more than 30 years working at the plant. “He ended up addressing things without us mentioning them,” said McCullough. In order to take the tour, the group had to gear up as part of safety protocol. They donned hard hats, gloves and goggles.
Fraternity and Sorority Put On Egg Hunt at Rose Park
On March 26, Phi Delta Theta and Kappa Alpha Theta put on an Easter egg hunt at the Easley Community Center at Rose Park for the children in the surrounding community. In preparation for the event, the two organizations raised several hundred dollars through a series of fundraisers. Most of the food, which consisted of snacks and sandwiches, was donated by Sodexo.
Phi Delta Theta previously worked with the Easley Center for a similar Halloween event. “We knew we wanted to do another joint community service event with a sorority,” said Collin Trudan, a junior music business major. He hopes to continue the partnership with the center in the future with additional events. Over 100 kids came and went over the course of the day, which included a number of egg hunts on the baseball field, egg dying, soccer and baseball.
Chinese Cultural Club Holds First Event
O
ne of Belmont’s newest student organizations, the Chinese Cultural Club, held its first event on April 1. “Explore China,” a general overview lecture on Chinese history, government, economics, and pop culture, was designed by the officers of the Chinese Cultural Club as a gateway into Chinese culture for the average college student. The speaker, Jason Wu, is a sophomore at Belmont. He was born and raised in Shanghai, China, until he moved to the United States three years ago. Since then, he has acted as a Chinese language interpreter at Vanderbilt Hospital as well as a tutor for Belmont’s Chinese classes.
His lecture “Explore China” extracted laughter and curiosity from the packed Multimedia Hall in the Lila D. Bunch Library, a room with a capacity of 135 people. His presentation included information about the Communist Party in China, the population and its ethnic groups, the daily life of the student, food and festivals and the One-Child Policy.
His lecture is the first in a series of convocation programs that the Club is launching. The April 8 convocation will feature a panel discussing economics, current affairs, and government in China. The panel will include Dr. Dennis Chen, an international business professor, Dr. Shelly Xia, a visiting English professor from Zhengzhou University, and Jason Wu. The panel will be held at 10 a.m. in the Beaman A&B, where the intent is to raise interesting and vital issues to cultural diffusion.
