On Oct. 1, a distinguished panel of international affairs representatives provided information about their graduate programs and careers in international affairs. Representatives from Columbia University (School of International and Public Affairs), Georgetown University (Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service), Johns Hopkins University (Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies) and Tufts University (The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy) provided the interesting program. Only three schools in Tennessee were selected for the visit. The program was sponsored by Career Services.
Career Services Brings International Affairs Representative to Belmont
China Trip Students Compete in First Dragon Boat Race, Grad Students Take Fifth Place Overall
Two Belmont teams participated in the sixth annual Cumberland River Dragon Boat Race on Sept. 29.
Kun Peng Zhan Chi is comprised of students who went on a China study abroad trip and are studying China and the Chinese language. The team name translates to “the great Peng bird spreads it wings and flies;” the Peng bird is significant in Chinese tradition. The Massey Machine represented the Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business. Last year, The Massey Machine placed second in the race.
Kun Peng Zhan Chi finished the race with a time of 1 minute, 20.329 seconds, ahead of the Confucius Institute at MTSU. The Massey Machine cruised into the final rounds with an extremely fast time of 1 minute, 07.317 seconds. They ultimately finished in fifth place overall, just one second behind the fourth place team.
Participants raced in traditional Chinese dragon boats. Each boat is 46 feet long and holds 20 paddlers, one drummer and one person to control the steering paddle. The Cumberland River Dragon Boat Festival began in 2006 and is put on by the Cumberland River Compact in celebration of their advocacy work. The event lasts throughout the entire day with a number of different events all in celebration of Chinese culture.
For more information regarding the race and the festival, go to nashvilledragonboat.org.
Belmont University Celebrates Grand Opening of McAfee Concert Hall
Inaugural season offers series of six concerts
Welcoming guests and the campus community with a brass ensemble, Belmont University celebrated today the official grand opening of the new McAfee Concert Hall. Originally built in the 1950s, the building located at 2100 Belmont Blvd. served in recent years as a rehearsal, classroom and practice space for many Belmont music groups as well as the main sanctuary for Belmont Heights Baptist Church. The University purchased the property from the church in 2003, but Belmont Heights continues to meet in the complex. In summer 2011, Belmont began a $9 million renovation of the space in order to provide the campus a new, large concert venue suitable for acoustic performances. The building is now named in honor of the McAfee family, who has supported Belmont University for years and provided the lead gift for the project.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “We are incredibly grateful to the McAfee family for their generous gift to make this venue possible. Their commitment to the university has enabled us to build a concert space that matches the high quality of our music programs, and one that will appropriately showcase the amazing talent of our performing arts students. My hope is that the entire Nashville community will be able to enjoy the inspired concerts that will occur in this beautiful new hall.”
Lead donor Carolyn McAfee has served on Belmont’s Board of Trustees since 2006, and her late husband Jim, president and CEO of Hallmark Systems Inc., served on the board from 2002 until his untimely death in 2004. In addition to their time on the board, the McAfees also support Belmont through an endowed scholarship in their name for School of Music students with a major in organ or classical music.
Education Professors Conduct Workshops in Haiti
Education Professors Annette Little and Sally Barton-Arwood have returned from Grand Goâve, Haiti where they worked with teachers at Siloë Baptist Church School in collaboration with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and their Haitian partner and translator Jeanson Chery. Little and Barton-Arwood designed and conducted workshops about Professional Learning Communities with elementary and secondary teachers. Teachers learned about characteristics of effective teamwork, developed shared professional goals, and practiced working together as reflective partners. Feedback from school principal Victor Jean Lestin and teachers was very positive. One teacher noted that now, “We have someone else who is thinking about future of Siloë.”
Belmont Practices Civility Through Community Service
On Sept. 29, the School of Humanities hosted a community service event to practice civility, the topic of this year’s Humanities Symposium. Approximately 75 volunteers, comprised of faculty, staff, students and Parents’ Day visitors, donated time and energy at four different non-profit groups in the Nashville community.
Twenty-five volunteers spent Saturday morning at Second Harvest Food Bank sorting pallets of frozen meat which will be delivered to multiple food pantries across Middle and West Tennessee. Volunteers gladly braved the 34-degree air in the cooler, with a few bursts of 6-degree air when the freezer was opened, in order to help those who have fallen on hard economic times.
Twenty additional volunteers spent the morning organizing donations to Room in the Inn, a downtown facility that provides myriad services to Nashville’s homeless. This group sorted and shelved household goods that will aid Room in the Inn participants in establishing homes; they also prepared scarves, hats, and gloves to be distributed to those who will be living on the streets in the coming winter months.
Eighteen volunteers converged on Hands On Nashville’s Urban Farm in South Nashville for a morning of garden labors. Volunteers cleared a parcel, turned a compost pile, harvested sunflower seeds, cleared beds and planted fall greens. HON’s farm offers more than 100 service opportunities each year and donates its harvests to local nonprofits that represent communities in need. Another volunteer group worked at Richland Urban Farm in West Nashville, spending their morning planting, weeding, bed-building and tilling.
All four groups were able to complete their assigned tasks in less time than expected and were complimented by the site managers on their quick and efficient work. All 75 participants left their work sites with smiles on their faces and increased civility in their hearts.
Murphee Gives Lecture at Cheekwood
Biology Professor Steve Murphree gave a lecture at Cheekwood Botanical Garden on Sept. 29 and Oct. 3. The lecture was titled “Migration of the Monarchs – Mariposa Monarchas” and was part of a professional development workshop for teachers at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art’s Learning Center. Each year, monarch butterflies travel 2,000 miles from the Northeastern United States and Canada to a butterfly sanctuary in Mexico. Cheekwood and Vanderbilt’s Center for Latin American Studies have partnered to offer a workshop that focuses on the art, history, geography, culture and biology that is part of this incredible journey. The workshop was titled The Incredible Journey: Exploring the Art, Migration and Traditions of the Monarch Butterfly.
Education Faculty Present at Tennessee Education Conferences
Education Professors Lauren Lunsford, Kate McGowan and David Williams presented “Using Treatment Integrity Checklists with Math Preservice Teachers” at Tennessee Council of Math Teachers in Cookeville, Tenn. on Sept. 21. K-6 and secondary math education interns as well as intern graduates attended the conference.
Lunsford, Flynn-Hopper and McGowan also presented “Methods for Improving Literacy at the Secondary Level” at the Tennessee Council of Teachers of English on Sept. 27 at the Scarritt Bennett Center. Also at the conference on Sept. 28, Lunsford, Bonnie-Smith Whitehouse (English), and Leslie Green, a teacher at Hillsboro High School presented “Strategies to Improve High School Students’ Writing Skills.” In addition, Flynn-Hopper, Lunsford, and McGowan (Education) presented a session entitled “Improving Literacy in the Secondary Classroom.” This session was designed to assist middle and high school teachers in reaching students through a variety of research based strategies, engaging activities, and technology. Teachers throughout the state as well as Belmont University’s Education Interns attended the conference.
Bennett Serves on Black Women Journalist Panel
Media Studies Associate Professor Sybril Bennett was a panelist addressing Black Women Journalists: A History of Pioneering and Uplifting the Race at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History annual conference held in Pittsburgh, Pa. She focused on the life of Maria Stewart America’s first African-American female journalist. She wrote for the Liberator published by William Lloyd Garrison.
Dan Miller Speaks at Belmont and Beyond Kickoff
Neely Dining Room was filled to capacity for the Belmont and Beyond Kickoff Event. Dan Miller, president of 48 Days and the author of 48 Days to the Work You Love, No More Dreaded Mondays and new book Wisdom Meets Passion, talked to students about writing their own story.
Miller said he believes that meaningful work blends our natural skills and abilities, our unique personality traits and our dreams and passions. Miller and his son, Jared Angaza, co-authored Wisdom Meets Passion: When Generations Collide and Collaborate. Angaza wanted to help Africa’s most oppressed and vulnerable women in Rwanda. Miller told Angaza that he needed to create a sustainable economic model. Now, the women are making high end, fashion jewelry. Miller encouraged students to dream big. He told students they have to have both wisdom and passion.
“Passion without wisdom is dangerous. Wisdom without passion is boring,” Miller said. He told students they are writing their own story, and they can either write a negative story of their life, or they can reframe their story and write a positive story. “What are your ideas for making a difference in the world? What will the movie of your life look like?”
College of Pharamacy Hosts Kurdish Faculty
As part of the Belmont University College of Pharmacy’s global outreach efforts, the college and Director of International Student Services Kathryn Skinner hosted three pharmacy faculty from the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq. In 2008, Professor and Pharmaceutical Science Chairman Andy Webster visited Iraq to consult on curricular redesign for colleges of pharmacy in that country. The current visitors, Hiwa Saaed, Kawa Obeid and Naza Mahmood University of Sulaymaniyah are the fourth Kurdish faculty cohort to visit Belmont. The guests learned about the American pharmacy education process and shared their educational experiences with our faculty and students.
