Mary Vaughn, professor of communication studies and associate dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, was quoted in an April 26 story by NPR, which is titled, “What We Have Here: A Failure to Communicate.” Vaughn, whose expertise includes interpersonal communication, researches and teaches how social media have altered interpersonal communication in an increasingly digital age. The full story is available at this link: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/26/151351550/what-we-have-here-a-failure-to-communicate?sc=emaf
Residence Life staff and the staff members they shadowed gathered recently to reflect on the experience.
For the second year, Belmont’s Office of Residence Life conducted a Residence Director Shadowing Program for all RDs on campus. The program, which occurs once per semester, gives participants the opportunity to spend a day working alongside other professionals among the Belmont community, allowing the RDs to explore areas as diverse as Athletics, Human Resources, Event Planning, Communications, Career Services and more.
Residence Life Director Anthony Donovan is proud of the program and the relationships it fosters among his RDs and campus partners. He said, “Great professionals paired with great aspiring young professionals makes for a great idea.”
The 13 residence directors have the chance to rank what areas on campus most interest them and after a matching process, are assigned a Belmont staff member to shadow. Once the shadow days are completed, participants write a follow-up reflection that is compiled into a book, and all directors, along with their campus partners, come together for a celebratory lunch to share what knowledge or perspective they gained from the experience.
Director of Organizational Development Deborah Baruzzini (Human Resources) has been grateful to participate in the mentorship program, noting that she has forged helpful bonds with the professionals she has been paired with. “When I was growing professionally, I had two fabulous mentors to whom I could go with any kind of question comfortably. I hope to provide that kind of support through this program and haven’t been disappointed yet with my two colleagues.”
The RD Baruzzini was paired with this semester, Sarah Norton, agrees. Norton is grateful for the professional development the program offers on campus and said she has learned many things that she will transfer with her to her job in Residence Life. “It gives us a way to see the work of professionals in anything from organization development like Deborah, to dining services, to athletics — how we can learn from each other and how are departments are interrelated, since we’re serving the same students,” Norton said.
Belmont alumna Morgan Caldwell (’11) will leave New Jersey on May 1 to begin a 30-day tour with One Simple Wish, a nonprofit committed to serving children in foster care.
The tour, known as 30-30-30 seeks to raise awareness of the positive strides being made in the foster care system and to highlight what the public can do to get involved by completing 30 wishes in 30 cities in 30 days. In each city the team will visit at least one agency or organization, create a short film and grant one wish for a foster child associated with that organization.
On May 7, the tour will be in Nashville celebrating AGAPE’s Jamal, a high school senior and his upcoming graduation. The crew will also be granting Jamal’s wish–books for his first semester of college.
Caldwell said she is excited to use the tour as a way to continue the organization’s work to change the way Americans view the system and teach people of ways to get involved and touch children’s lives in special ways.
“One Simple Wish doesn’t exist to change or fix the foster care system, but I believe that it does give hope to the kids we reach – that someone, somewhere cared,” she said.
Chemistry and Physics Assistant Professor Stephen Robinson has been accepted into TN-SCORE ROA’s summer program. Selected to work with Thrust 3 (Nanostructures for Enhancing Energy Efficiency) under the guidance of Sandra Rosenthal and Kirill Bolotin, Robinson will receive a stipend and start-up grant to be used at Belmont.
Working collaboratively with follow chemists, biologists, physicists and engineers, Robinson will have the opportunity to solve problems and advance scientific understanding using specialized equipment and resources.
Robinson said he is excited about the continued collaboration possibilities this opportunity will bring for Belmont and its students.
“I’m proud to have the chance to help out with the ‘big picture’ goals of the program: energy efficiency and independence. I think these are just two of the many problems the world faces that will be solved with science, math, and engineering,” he said.
Dr. Daniel Schafer will serve as moderator for a panel discussion on “Environmental Stewardship – An Ethical Approach to the Environment at 5:30 p.m. May 1 at the Gordon Jewish Community Center. Panelists include Rabbi Shana Mackler (Associate Rabbi, The Temple – Congregation Ohabai Shalom), Stewart Clifton (an attorney and lobbyist), and Dr. Saleh Sbenaty (Deptartment of Engineering Technology at Middle Tennessee State University). The event is sponsored by the Society of Universal Dialogue.
Kevin Trowbridge, professor in the Department of Public Relations, wrote a chapter in the recently published book Faith and learning: A handbook for Christian higher education. This multi-authored volume, with dynamic contributions from entry-level faculty members to seasoned scholars, explores the question of the Christian faith’s place on the university campus, whether in administrative matters, the broader academic world or in student life.
Pam Parry, chair of the Communication Studies Department, was awarded the Arthur J. Kaul Fellowship by the School of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern Mississippi at an April 25 banquet in Hattiesburg, Miss. The fellowship is named for a beloved media history professor at Southern Mississippi who died in 2008, and it is designed to help a doctoral candidate who is near the end of his or her program.
Parry is finishing her dissertation titled, “The PR President: How Eisenhower Transformed Political Communication,” and plans to graduate in May 2013. In 2009, the school named Parry its top mass communication/journalism graduate student and gave her the Gene Wiggins Fellowship for research.
Dr. Peter Kuryla from the Department of History presented a paper at the British Association for American Studies (BAAS) Annual Meeting, held at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom from April 12-15. Kuryla’s paper was in a session on post-World War II ideas of race in the United States and was entitled “Well Cut of My Legs and Call Me Shorty! Revisiting the Ralph Ellison–Irving Howe Debate.”
In addition, Kuryla published an essay in the most recent edition of Historically Speaking . That article was entitled “Esthetic Sensitivity: The Sublime Architectures of Paul Conkin’s Puritans and Pragmatists: Eight Eminent American Thinkers. Click here to read the article.
Shaka Mitchell, J.D., adjunct instructor of Political Science, recently had a column published in US News & World Report. The column is entitled “Compensating Bone Marrow Donors Will Save Lives.” Mitchell is a 2001 alumnus of Belmont, an attorney and president of MoreMarrowDonors.org, a non-profit that provides scholarships, housing allowances and compensation to bone marrow donors who are matches for patients with various blood diseases. Click here to read the editorial.
Dr. Shelby Longard of the Department of Sociology, Dr. Lauren Lunsford of the Department of Education and Dr. Bonnie Smith-Whitehouse of the Department of English co-presented at the 23rd International Conference on College Teaching and Learning in Ponte Verdra Beach, Fla. Their first presentation was “Developing an Idea of Lifelong Learning in College Students” and was about their work in linking students in senior seminars, junior cornerstones, learning communities and first-year seminars. Their second presentation was “Parenting and Academia” which was a discussion on how becoming a parent and a working parent has affected them as lifelong learners and researchers in their respective fields.
