Belmont University has a team that has qualified for the final round of the 2012 Network of International Business Schools (NIBS) Worldwide Case competition in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

College of Business Administration students Ayesha Ghaffar, Rami Nofal, Jordan Holt and Shirah Foy will compete at the Kralingse Zoom in Rotterdam from Feb. 26 to March 2. They are among the “10 best teams in the world”  who will face off at NIBS to come up with solutions for a strategic business problem. Each team will have four hours to prepare a case without outside help. Their presentations will be assessed by a jury of professional and academic experts.

This will be the second international business case competition for Belmont’s team, which previously participated in the Eighth Annual Center for International Business Education and Research Case Challenge in October.

Click here to read more on the 2012 NIBS Worldwide Case competition.

Belmont student Kenya Stevens is featured in a Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority advertising campaign as part of an ad series profiling MTA bus riders. Stevens, who is studying accounting and plans to graduate in December 2012, said she has been riding city buses for more than two years.

Free MTA rides are part of a University effort to encourage faculty, staff and students to use alternative transportation — including bicycle sharing and the Music City Star rail system — all of which the University provides free of charge. Any student or employee with a Belmont-issued ID card can ride MTA buses without charge simply by swiping a Belmont ID when boarding.

“It is my main mode of transportation. I started riding when my family had just one car, and when that car died, we all started riding the bus,” Stevens said. The family has since purchased a new car, but she continues to ride the bus to work, school and home and maintaining a blog about her experiences on the bus at carlessinnashville.blogspot.com.

“Not having the expense of another vehicle allows me to continue to have my son at University School and save a considerable amount of money,” she said.

The ads will run Dec. 19 in the City Paper and Dec. 22 in the Nashville Scene.

Belmont senior Chad Hoover is featured in The Tennessean for his Christmas light display and its role in collecting donations for GraceWorks Ministries.

Hoover has decorated his parents’ Franklin house with an animated, musical light display for six years. He and his father began putting up the 65,000 lights just before Halloween so that they could light up their home on Thanksgiving. Outside their home is a donation box for passers-by to leave canned goods for GraceWorks Ministries as they watch the lights flicker to contemporary versions of Christmas carols.

“I grew up knowing about them and what they do in Williamson County and that what they do is local,” Hoover, who is studying accounting, told The Tennessean. He volunteers at the ministry’s Christmas giveaway and food pantry.

Click here to read The Tennessean article in its entirety.