Faculty and students from the Belmont University School of Occupational Therapy recently presented a workshop for community volunteers on providing safe transportation and door-through-door support to elder citizens. Working in collaboration with the Greater Nashville Council on Aging, Debra Gibbs, Teresa Plummer and six second-year students in the Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) program conducted the workshop at the North Nashville Police Precinct. About 25 local volunteers attended. Student presenters included Brittni Thompson, Carrie Beth Henson, LaRae Murray, Danielle Paulsen, Rebecca Lynn and Kelly Dennison.
Occupational Therapy faculty and students present safe transportation workshop
Students Show ‘Unity Through Service’ with Week of Events
Belmont held a “Unity Through Service Week” coordinating with the campus theme, E Pluribus Unum, to offer convocations and volunteer opportunities to students. Tim Stewart, director of service learning, and student Gabrielle Hampton were the driving forces behind the week.
The week began with an opening convocation on Sept. 17 featuring Caroline Blackwell, executive director of the Metro Human Relations Commission. Later in the day, students and faculty had a “mix-it-up” luncheon in the cafeteria. As they entered the cafeteria, they each drew a colored card from the bowl, and sat at tables coordinating with their color. At each event, the first 40 students to arrive received a single ticket, which could be exchanged for a single free meal from one of the food trucks on during the Unity Rally on Sept. 23.
“The crowds started small, and grew as the week went on. Some of the later events were very heavily attended,” he said. One of the most well attended events of the entire week was the one concerning homelessness. “There were about 80 students that came to homelessness program and that was great to see.”
Another one of the most successful events of the week was a field day held for adults with disabilities. Several Belmont athletes came to volunteer for the event.
First Entrepreneurship Village Allows Students, Alumni to Network with Peers
Belmont senior Tom Haarlander is paving his road to success through three entrepreneurship ventures that provide medical supplies, manufacture them in China and import the products into Europe and the United States. Although he expects to gross nearly $6 million between his three companies this year, the University gave him an unprecedented opportunity Wednesday to practice his pitch before venturing to trade shows to promote teeth-whitening cold wave lasers, anti-aging facial probes and medical optical lamps.
“[The Center for Entrepreneurship] brings stability to what you are doing. I can put my foot to the gas and run all over, but if I don’t have a solid foundation, it will fall apart,” Haarlander said.
Forty-two businesses participated in Belmont’s first-ever Entrepreneurship Village held Wednesday morning under white tents surrounding the Bell Tower. Thirteen alumni returned to Belmont for the village, including Erin O. Anderson, owner of artist management company Olivia Management.
“The best thing [about the village] is getting to know students at Belmont and getting to encourage them,” said Anderson (’06). “I tell them, ‘You may not be sure what you want to do, but you can do it on your own.’ It’s been fun to encourage students to start their own businesses.”
The village featured companies of various industries including smart phone applications, graphic design, videography, photography, music publishing, construction, vintage jewelry, custom apparel printing and textbooks. The purpose of the event was to display the innovation, creativity and success of Belmont’s entrepreneurship students and alumni.
Trowbridge Keynote Speaker for the Cleveland Media Association Conference
Kevin Trowbridge, instructor of public relations, delivered the keynote speech for the Cleveland Media Association’s 6th annual Fall Conference on Oct. 5, in Cleveland, Tenn. He was one of two inaugural speakers for the event when it first began five years ago. This year’s presentation, titled “Social Shift: Escalating Expectations for Today’s Media Landscape,” examined the emerging implications of social media for organizations and the mass media industry. The association is comprised of public relations, advertising and communication professionals—including journalists—in Southeast Tennessee.
Murphree Speaks on Insects at Local Elementary School
Biology Professor Steve Murphree was invited by Belmont Masters in Education graduate Gretchen Pitts to speak at Kirkpatrick Full Option Elementary School. Murphree presented an Insect Program to two groups of 125 children, Pre-K through fourth grade, on Oct. 4. Pitts was a former student in Murphree’s Elementary Science Methods class.
McDowell Has Works Published, Finalist for Writing Awards
Assistant Professor of English Gary L. McDowel, has an essay forthcoming—an excerpt from a memoir-in-progress—in The Baltimore Review. He also has poems forthcoming in the following literary journals: Southern Indiana Review, The Chattahoochee Review, South Dakota Review, Grist, Catch Up, Anti- and Ghost Town. Recent poetry and prose has appeared in The Tusculum Review, Sou’wester, RHINO, Burnside Review, and Diode. His new manuscript of poems has recently been a finalist for several awards, including the 42 Miles Press Poetry Award, the Alice James Books’ Beatrice Hawley Award, the Open Competition in the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry and the University of Akron Poetry Series.
Foreign Language Department Celebrates Annual International Potluck Dinner
The Department of Foreign Languages celebrated the annual International Potluck Dinner at the Bruins Clubhouse on Sept. 16. This event organized by the German professor Regine Schwarzmeier brought together Belmont faculty and students from many countries and languages for an evening of conversation and international cuisine.
Department chairman David C. Julseth requested the cooks introduce themselves and give a brief description of the dish they prepared and its country of origin. Some of the many dishes sampled that evening included German Käsespätzle and Rote Grütze, French mini-éclairs and tarte aux pommes, Japanese Sushi, Argentine Puchero stew, Spanish Tortilla, Mexican Guacamole, Hungarian Chicken, Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings), Mung Bean Noodles and Chinese spring rolls and fried rice.
Massey Graduate School of Business Named a 2013 Best Business School by Princeton Review
Seventh consecutive year Massey Graduate School receives honor
Belmont University’s Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business is an outstanding business school, according to education services company The Princeton Review. The company features the school in the new 2013 edition of its annual guidebook, “The Best 296 Business Schools” (Random House / Princeton Review). This is the seventh consecutive year the Massey Graduate School of Business has been listed in the Princeton Review’s ranking of best business schools.
“The Princeton Review is the most widely respected business school guide in the country. Belmont University business students say exactly what a top program would want: our programs are challenging, they prepare students for the dynamic global economy, and our faculty are accessible and knowledgeable. It is an honor to be listed for the seventh consecutive year,” said College of Business Administration Dean Patrick Raines.
“Our students and alumni will be pleased to see that our Princeton Review ranking continues,” said Associate Dean Joe Alexander. “And I feel certain Mr. Massey himself would be very proud to see that the program he first envisioned is now routinely mentioned in the same sentence as our nation’s other top graduate business programs.”
According to Robert Franek, Princeton Review Senior Vice President and Publisher, “We consider Belmont one of the best institutions a student could attend to earn an MBA. We selected the schools we profile in this book – 280 of which are in the U.S.A. and 16 are international — based on our high regard for their academic programs and our reviews of institutional data we collect from the schools. We also solicit and greatly respect the opinions of students attending these schools that rate and report on their experiences at them on our 80-question survey for the book.”
Belmont’s Entrepreneurship Program Named Top in Nation for Teaching, Innovation
Belmont University’s entrepreneurship program was honored as the top program in the country in teaching and innovation Saturday evening by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) during the organization’s annual conference. Designed to showcase and celebrate the very best of university entrepreneurship, the GCEC presented Belmont’s Center for Entrepreneurship with the Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship Teaching and Pedagogical Innovation, an award whose prior recipients include Villanova University (PA), University of Maryland and Wake Forest University (NC). This year Belmont’s program beat out peer finalists from the University of North Carolina, University of Florida, University of Arizona, University of St Thomas and Milliken University to be named the top program.
The GCEC current membership totals 200 university-based entrepreneurship centers ranging in age from well established and nationally ranked to new and emerging centers. Each year a global conference is held on the campus of a GCEC member school with the 2012 conference held this past weekend at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Jeff Cornwall, director of Belmont’s Center for Entrepreneurship and the Jack C. Massey chair of entrepreneurship, said, “We are honored to be singled out from a group of entrepreneurship programs that includes several of the leading programs in the country. The fact that this award recognizes innovation in all aspects of our program, including undergraduate, graduate and co-curricular activities, is particularly rewarding.”
Pharmacy Students Learn HIV Fundamentals
In the first of its kind lecture series, the Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNPhA) at Belmont University College of Pharmacy recently sponsored a seminar entitled “HIV 101” in partnership with nonprofit organization Nashville Cares. The seminar was attended by 80 pharmacy students and faculty.
“Through this ongoing partnership with Nashville Cares our pharmacy students are gaining an edge to better serve and counsel patients with HIV/AIDS in the community,” said SNPhA faculty advise Edgar Diaz-Cru.
Nashville Cares representatives Amy Walter and Lisa Binkley will return to Belmont in the months ahead to present a second part of the lecture series.
