Belmont University Education Department Chair Sally Barton-Arwood and faculty member Annette Little are in the Republic of Haiti this week training local educators to use teacher collaboration to better benefit students. Both Belmont professors Barton-Arwood and Little hold doctorates in education and are working with Haitian school directors and key staff to develop Professional Learning Communities. “Their training was very well received by Haitian school directors and key staff of their schools,” said John Engle, with Haiti Partners, a Florida-based organization that works to change the developing country by educating its youth. “Haiti Partners is thrilled to be in partnership with Belmont University.”
In Haiti, 75 percent of teachers lack adequate training, with no formal teacher training at all, according to Haiti Partners. Half of primary school age children are not enrolled in school. Click here to view a clip of Barton-Arwood and Little interacting with school-aged students and their workshop and with Haitian educators.
Education Faculty Partner with Haitian Teachers
Faculty to Present Interdisciplinary Research at World Congress on Exercise in Medicine
Several faculty members in the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing recently joined with colleagues in the Department of Sport Science for an interdisciplinary research project that assessed associations of predominantly sedentary behaviors and physical activity status with physical fitness among college students.
Three members of the Health Sciences faculty – Dr. Lynn Shores, professor of nursing; Dr. Jeanne Sowers, associate professor of occupational therapy; and Dr. Christine Manville, assistant professor of occupational therapy – were among six research team members from Belmont and Vanderbilt universities who co-authored the study. Other Belmont team members included Dr. Sarah Adams, associate professor of sport science, and Dr. Patrick Schneider, associate professor of sport science. Dr. Mary Dietrich, research associate professor and statistician at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, was also part of the team.
A number of doctoral students in the School of Occupational Therapy assisted in the study of 122 students in a general education wellness class at Belmont. Participants completed a physical fitness battery consisting of cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular endurance, body composition and flexibility measurements. In addition, they completed a survey to assess time spent in predominantly sedentary behaviors including computer and internet use, television watching, texting and playing video games. Self-reported physical activity levels were also assessed to determine if participants were inactive, insufficiently active or active according to the aerobic component of the current physical activity recommendation. Tests of gender differences in each of the study variables were also conducted.
The findings will be presented on June 2 by Dr. Schneider at the American College of Sports Medicine’s World Congress on Exercise in Medicine in Denver, Colorado.
Mage to Lead Belmont’s Center for Executive Education
Gene Mage has been named executive director of Belmont University’s Center for Executive Education.
Before joining Belmont University, Mage served as a senior client partner and principal consultant for Kenexa (KNXA, NASDAQ OMX), a global, human resources consulting firm, where he led Kenexa’s North American leadership development business. Prior to joining Kenexa, Mage ran his own company and served for 12 years with Corning Incorporated in both marketing and leadership development.
The author of two books and more than 200 articles on leadership and management, Mage earned his Master of Business Administration with distinction and Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Cornell University. His particular areas of expertise include leadership assessment and development as well as deploying large scale learning initiatives in global organizations.
For more than 25 years, the Center for Executive Education at Belmont University has been a leading provider of both open enrollment and customized leadership development programs to major organizations. Mage remarked, “This is an exciting time in the history of the Center for Executive Education at Belmont University. Belmont has a long heritage and deep commitment to the leadership development space. Looking ahead, we will be dramatically enhancing both the scope and reach of our services to meet the needs of forward-looking organizations around the world. I have also been greatly encouraged by the commitment our long-term clients are making to Belmont and their eagerness to partner with us as we create the future together.”
College, Middle School Students Team Together for ‘Edgehill’s Best’
Once again this spring Belmont journalism faculty and students worked with hand-selected 7th and 8th grade students from Rose Park Magnet Middle School to produce a newsletter, Edgehill’s Best, for the nearby Edgehill community. Belmont media studies faculty member Linda Quigley and her students partnered for the second year with Rose Park teachers Nicola Vincent and Alison Forte to assist middle school students in developing ideas, writing stories and designing a final printed product to share with the community.
The group’s final class was held on campus May 4 when the middle school students completed layout and design of the piece in the University’s journalism lab. The finished product, Edgehill’s Best, will be distributed to students at Rose Park Middle and Carter Lawrence Elementary Schools and in area businesses, churches and community centers as well as placed in locations around campus (Freeman, Beaman, Wheeler, Hitch, Cafeteria, etc.). Click here to see additional photos from the final class.
Belmont Students Awarded Fulbrights for Overseas Teaching and Research
Belmont University seniors Lindsey Thompson and Gregory Maczko were recent awarded Fulbright Program grants for overseas teaching and research. Sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright Program provides funding for students, scholars, teachers and professionals to undertake graduate study, advanced research, university teaching and teaching in elementary and secondary schools.
Thompson, a music cognition major from Little Rock, Ark., has received the prestigious Fulbright Award to study at Goldsmiths, University of London beginning in September. Lindsey will be pursuing her master’s degree at Goldsmiths, University of London, specifically a Master of Science in Music, Mind and Brain. This program will last a calendar year, and the Fulbright Award consists of £20,000 (approximately $32,000) to put toward tuition and living expenses. She will go to London in mid-September and return to the U.S. the following September. As a student in Belmont’s Honors program, Thompson’s degree was concentrated on Neuroscience and Music Theory. Her honors thesis was on music in short-term memory.
“I’m really excited about the program because it’s the only one of its kind in the whole world… I did quite a bit of dancing and phone calling,” Thompson said.
Gregory Maczko, a Presidential Scholar and German major from Franklin, Tenn., received an English Teaching Assistantship at a secondary school in Austria. The program is administered by the Fulbright Commission for the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture. Maczko will split his time between two schools, located in Horn and Retz, where he will teach students between the ages of 14 and 18.
Collaborative Effort Brings New Additions to Lila Bunch Library
Construction is currently underway to bring a new dining option to the Lila D. Bunch Library, along with other improvements.
Belmont’s Student Government Association (SGA) has been working to enhance the library experience for many years. Thankfully, library staff and leadership of the Lila D. Bunch Library have been helpful each step of the way in working to make the library a better place for students. The idea for a café has been discussed for the past three years, but no concrete decisions were made. Since then, benchmarking, library usage and other research data were collected.
The building of the as-yet-unnamed café has been made possible because of the partnership between SGA, Senior Leadership, the Bunch Library and Student Services. SGA has worked as advocates on behalf of students with regard to the library – both in building the café and establishing a 24-hour study location in the library. Because the need of both was effectively communicated, this collaborative partnership was strengthened to better serve students.
Dr. Ernest Heard, director of library services, said, “The entire library faculty and staff are absolutely thrilled to be able to provide a café, a 24-hour study area, and eating places in the library. Also, the Sophomore Transition Center will be built over the next few weeks. All of these endeavors are part of a larger plan to transform Bunch Library into a learning commons – all in an effort to enhance the college experience of Belmont’s fantastic students.”
The Bunch Library has also recently opened its internal atriums to allow food and drinks for students throughout open hours. With the addition of the café, the Library hopes to change the feel of the building. Instead of being just a location to study or print last minute papers, the library hopes to become more of a place on campus for students to both study and spend time collaborating with peers.
(In the photo, right to left: Eric S. Deems, President; Jim Darter, Policy Review Committee Chairman; Kevin Sanders, Vice President – SGA 2010-2011)
LaShawn Morrow, Michael Coffee Named 2011 Rose Park Scholars
In 2007, Belmont University committed to enhancing the E.S. Rose Park athletic center in Nashville’s Edgehill Community, a renovation that was completed and opened in the last month. In addition to the facilities Belmont planned, they also committed to the creation and funding of the E.S. Rose Park Scholarship program, a program that annually sends two deserving residents from the Edgehill community to Belmont. Since 2007, Belmont has welcomed five Rose Park Scholars to campus, providing educations worth more than $141,000 to date.
This year was no different. In the fall, Belmont will welcome LaShawn Morrow of Big Picture High School and Michael Coffee of Hillsboro High School to join its incoming 2011 freshman class. Both recipients received their awards last week, Morrow at her senior breakfast and Coffee in a private ceremony at Hillsboro’s library. Belmont’s Greek communities participated in a weeklong fundraising event this April, raising money to award both recipients Macbook laptops upon their arrival at Belmont. The recipients were notified of their computers when they received their scholarships.
Morrow is looking forward to her arrival at Belmont and is planning on majoring in nursing in the fall. Morrow is honored to be a part of the Belmont community where she can both serve and learn. She said, “The scholarship will help to inspire others just like me to be all that they can be. My dream was to become a Bruin, and the Rose Park Scholarship helped to make that dream come true.”
Coffee would agree. He currently works at Harris Teeter and said that before the Rose Park scholarship, he wasn’t sure what his future would hold. “Belmont is a truly a blessing for me. I honestly don’t know where I would be… Belmont is my blessing.”
Belmont Students to Represent U.S. In Red Bull Global Drumming Competition
Rising Belmont seniors Andrew Bellisle and Vinay Shroff, both percussionists and students in the university’s School of Music, will represent the United States at the Red Bull Tum Tum Pa World Finals in Rio De Janeiro June 8-12 after winning local and regional competitions.
This unique Red Bull Tum Tum Pa competition, where students use everyday classroom materials to create organic rhythmic sounds, is the first of its kind. Over 386 teams competed on college campuses around the U.S. in March and April. Five were chosen to compete against an elite squad of drummers from 32 countries in Rio de Janeiro on June 11, when a jury will award the Best Beat Performance.
In the first round of the competition, Bellisle and Shroff, competing as team “Coffee and Cream,” performed a cover of Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” and an original composition at Nashville’s Café Coco (click here to view video of their first round performance). Judges graded the competitors based on rhythm, creativity and audience response. After their spot-on cover, complete with Shroff blowing into a half-full can to create the song’s “Snoooooop” noise, the duo earned the highest score and made it to regionals. The duo won the regional competition after they received the most online votes in the Southeastern Conference and were selected to be one of five national finalists by a group of judges.
With permission and support from many at Belmont, as well as the Nashville-area representative for Red Bull marketing, the two students filmed their official competition video in Belmont’s Hitch Science Building chemistry lab. Belmont’s Red Bull Student Representatives Kirk Slawek and Matt Shaw helped film the video, while Belmont student Kenny House recorded audio. Red Bull’s local marketing head, Lisa Gracey, is helping to promote the duo.
The official video is on Red Bull’s website, and click here to view photos from the filming session.
Troutt Theater Named Venue for International Black Film Festival Nashville’s Mooz-Lum
Nashville’s International Black Film Festival will be kicking off its “Summer Film Series” with the showing of Mooz-Lum, a critically acclaimed drama on Sat., May 28 at 5 p.m. at Belmont’s Troutt Theater. The movie stars Love Jones’s Nia Long, Diana Ross’s son Evan Ross and Dream Girls’ Danny Glover. There will be a Q&A session with Director Qasim Basir and Producer Dana Offenbach immediately following the screening. The film will be released on DVD nationally by Codeblack Entertainment on June 14, 2011.
“IBFFN is ecstatic to present the 2011 summer film series as it fulfills our mission to educate and create opportunities that connect stories from around the world to our community,” said IBFFN founder Hazel Joyner Smith.
Belmont Vice President and Chief of Staff Dr. Susan West was originally contacted by the IBFFN asking for Belmont to host the showing, and the organization worked with Dean Dr. Cynthia Curtis and staff in the College of Visual and Performing Arts to pull the event together. West thought the event would be an ideal partnership for the university saying, “This is a great opportunity to partner with the community, and this is a perfect fit! We want the community to use our facilities, embrace our values and mission and assist in telling our great story.”
The International Black Film Festival of Nashville (IBFFN), established in 2006, is a collaboration of dedicated professionals who support the need for a “community” effort to bring African-American and other communities together to showcase their work as emerging and skilled independent filmmakers, actors, composers, screenwriters, directors and other film industry professionals. The festival is made possible in part with the continued support of Belmont University, HCA-Tristar, The Film House, The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, One Village Entertainment, the Africa Channel, The Tennessee Arts Commission, The TN Film, Entertainment and Music Commission and The Screen Actors Guild.
Tickets to the Mooz-Lum showing can be purchased online at www.ibffnashville.com or at the door the evening of the performance. General admission tickets cost $12, and student tickets can be purchased with an ID for $8.
Murphree Sheds Light on Cicada Invasion
Steven Murphree (Biology) has been very busy this cicada season giving various interviews and lectures on the phenomena of the 13-year cicada. On May 19, Murphree will present a talk at Nashville restaurant Fido’s as part of the Adventure Science Center’s “Science Café” series on the emergence of the big, noisy, red-eyed bugs. Murphree will shed light on the life cycle of the cicada to help others understand what to expect over the next six to eight weeks of the buggy invasion.
Below are links to various media outlets where Murphree was a featured expert on cicadas:
The Tennessean
Huffington Post
FOX17 News
News2 WKRN and coverage of “Cicada School”
USAToday.com
