Lacey Lyons, adjunct instructor of English, co-hosted a seminar at Vanderbilt University’s 2012 “MegaConference on Disability: Tools for Empowerment and Change,” at the Airport Marriott on June 1. Her session, “Sharing Your Stories: Advocacy Through Personal Storytelling,” was conducted along with Courtney Evans Taylor of the Vanderbilt University Kennedy Center and local blogger Leisa Hammett. Participants discussed the benefits of writing about disability and the ways in which writing leads to personal empowerment and growth.
Baker and Shin Present at NASSM Conference
Dr. Amy Baker and Dr. Stephen Shin of Sport Administration recently attended and presented at the annual North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) conference in Seattle, Wash. Baker and Shin presented information, handouts and examples of “Using Problem-Based Learning in Sport Management Classes” at the teaching and learning fair portion of the conference. Problem-based learning is a powerful classroom process, using real-world problems to motivate students to identify and apply research concepts and information, work collaboratively and communicate effectively. This strategy promotes life-long habits of learning, and provides advantages to sport management students. Components of understanding this teaching methodology were presented.
Parry Publishes Book Review in Journalism Journal
Pam Parry, chairman of the Communication Studies Department, had a book review published June 13 in Teaching Journalism & Mass Communication, an electronic, peer-reviewed journal of the Small Programs Interest Group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Parry, a former reporter who covered the first Bush and Clinton administrations, reviewed Jon Marshall’s Watergate’s Legacy and the Press: The Investigative Impulse. Click here to read the review.
Neighborhood Church, Belmont Host Academic Summer Camp
For the second year, Belmont University and Kayne Avenue Missionary Baptist Church have partnered for a six-week academic enrichment summer camp sponsored by the University’s Office of Community Relations and Fifth Third Bank to benefit students of all ages living in the Edgehill neighborhood.
Next Generation Now Summer Enrichment Program began June 4 and its counselors work to improve academic achievement, community safety and nutritional health by supporting working families with the day camp. Nearly 30 youth have enrolled this summer.
“This is another way for us [the church] to reach kids in the community and get them out of the house and into church,” said Tim Hayes, Kayne’s youth minister and a student at American Baptist College. The camp has been a beneficial partnership for the community because it takes place in an area where many kids do not have access to summer programs because of costs and transportation, he said.
Last summer, Belmont’s Department of Education designed the curriculum for children ages six to 12 to make the camp academic in nature while emphasizing literacy and self-confidence. This year the camp has expanded to include students up to age 17. Belmont University has contracted Dr. Rene Rochester, with Urban S.E.T., to give free ACT preparation workshops and college counseling to the high school students in exchange for their service as junior counselors. She has coordinated with the University library for use of its language materials.
With each week focusing on a different subject of academia, campers participate in science experiments, health and fitness exercises, art projects, history and culture activities. They also take weekly walks to the Edgehill library and plan to climb the rock wall in the Beaman Fitness Center as well as visit the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Adventure Science Center and The Hermitage.
Belmont senior Gabrielle Hampton previously worked as a counselor and this year is directing the camp. She said, “I have taken what I have learned over the years and turned it into a curriculum that will work for [the students]. It is amazing how much they retain. I have a kid who came up to me at the beginning of camp and told me how his teacher talked about some things he learned in camp last summer.”
Nursing Students on Mission Trip in Cambodia
A team of nursing students is on a mission trip this summer in Cambodia. They have volunteered taking vitals, drawing blood, starting IV’s, checking blood glucose levels and cleaning wounds at Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope; gone on home visited to check on HIV patients; visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum; watched a traditional Cambodian wedding; and shadowed surgeries at the Emergency Hospital in Battambang. Click here to read their live blog.
Pharmacy Student Joins Duke Surgery Team in Guatemala
Belmont pharmacy student Bethany Bedford traveled to Guatemala this spring with a surgery team from Mending Kids International and Duke University Children’s Hospital on another mission trip for The Shalom Foundation. The doctors saw 174 patients and the team performed 48 surgeries on children from across the country at the Moore Pediatric Surgery Center in Guatemala City. Bedford and other team members blogged about their experience.
Brown Attends Venue Management School, Elected to Office
Belmont University Event Manager Sarah Brown attended Year One of Venue Management School through the professional organization International Association of Venue Managers and was elected as one of six class representatives from 130 in attendance. Brown will help plan activities related to next year’s school. She also will transition from a two-year term on the IAVM Young Professionals committee to a three-year term on the Universities Committee.
Maymester Class Teaches the Science of Healthy Foods
Dr. Kim Daus, professor in the Chemistry and Physics Department, taught a Maymester class titled “Better Eating Through Chemistry.” The intent of the class was to use chemistry to help students understand the nature of food and cooking so that they could use it to intentionally improve recipes and develop new recipes that were healthy and full of nutrients.
Daus had 23 students plus an assistant working in one large kitchen with one stove top and two ovens. Each week the class focused on a new cuisine: Week 1 – Southern (fried chicken and sides); Week 2 – Hispanic (tortilla-based entrees and salsas/guacamole); Week 3 – Local Food (student-friendly cuisine).
They started each week by sharing a meal the first day at a local restaurant, including Loveless Cafe, La Hacienda and Sloco’s/Burger Up. They then studied the chemistry of fats, proteins, carbohydrates and vegetables, did lab experiments that dealt with them, trialed recipe modifications in the lab and finished each week with each of the groups preparing their version of the meal.
In the last week the class visited Real Food Farms, Belmont’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), where students learned about their sustainable, organic practices, helped out with a few duties including mulching and setting up tomato cages and then took some of Daus’ CSA share to use in their last meal preparation.
Magruder and Robinson Co-Author Article
Dr. Robert Magruder, professor, and Dr. Steve Robinson, assistant professor, of the Chemistry and Physics Department at Belmont University, along with a Belmont alumna Catlin Smith, now a graduate student at Georgia Tech University, co-authored a paper that was recently published in the Applied Physics A – Materials Science & Processing Journal. The other co-authors were A. Meldrum, University of Alberta, and R.F. Haglund Jr., Vanderbilt University. This paper also made the list of New Papers of Key Interest.
The paper is titled “Fabricating a Dichroic Plasmonic Mirror in Fused Silica by Dual-Ion Implantation.”
Applied Physics A publishes experimental and theoretical investigations in applied physics as regular articles, rapid communications, and invited papers. The distinguished 30-member Board of Editors reflects the interdisciplinary approach of the journal and ensures the highest quality of peer review.
Public Relations Becomes an Academic Department
After eight years as a major in the Department of Media Studies, Public Relations (PR) is now an independent academic department in the College of Arts and Sciences. PR has enjoyed steady growth and success, now boasting almost 100 majors and almost 50 minors.
Dr. Bonnie Riechert served as program director since 2008 and now is the PR department chair. She is supported by a strong faculty that includes Susan Barnes and Kevin Trowbridge.
Belmont PR students are very competitive for internships, employment opportunities, and graduate schools. The Belmont Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) was chartered in 2005 and has received numerous national awards. In March, the Belmont chapter hosted the Region 5 PRSSA Conference, attracting students from 14 chapters and several states. The new department is positioned to grow in the program’s already strong reputation as one of the best places to study PR.
