Dr. James Al-Shamma, Department of Theatre and Dance, presented a paper at the Chicago Theatre Symposium at Columbia College in Chicago on May 19. It was titled “Sarah Ruhl’s Chicago Roots: Improvisation and Literary Adaptation.”
Belmont Professor Named Tennessee Music Teachers’ Association Composer of the Year
Mark Volker, Belmont’s coordinator of composition and a School of Music professor, was named 2011’s Tennessee Music Teachers’ Association Composer of the Year. Volker was chosen by a committee that worked with the theory-composition chairman after professors were nominated by their local associations. Following the nomination the committee receives a submission of scores, a tape and other information on the candidate.
The selection process is made on the basis of excellence by the composer and contributions to musical composition throughout Tennessee. The award includes a commission to compose a piece for the Tennessee Music Teachers’ Association convention held next summer and consideration for the national composer of the year award.
Alumnus Makes Top 2 in ‘CMT’s Next Superstar’ Competition
Curb College alumnus Steven Clawson (’04), a Georgia native, was selected May 27 as one of two finalists for “CMT’s Next Superstar” competition. Out of an original cast of 10, the top three contestants competed by writing, shooting, editing and producing their own original music video, with the aid of one guest director, for a final showing at Nashville’s Belcourt Theater.
All three contestants showed their videos to an audience of film students and a panel of two judges, where the students then voted on their favorite contender’s video. The remaining two contestants had to “sing to survive.” Clawson and a fellow competitor, Danielle Lauderdale, were the bottom two contestants but Clawson’s rendition of “Georgia On My Mind” placed him in the final two.
Now Clawson and competitor Matt Mason will face off in their final performances live June 3 in Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. They will each present three songs: a song of their choice, a judge’s pick and a song from the record label, Warner Music. Then for the first time since the competition began, America will be able to call in to vote on who will become “CMT’s Next Superstar.”
Click here for more information.
Curb College Advisory Board Member Invited to Washington, D.C. for Best-Selling Novel
Ruta Sepetys, author of New York Times best seller Between Shades of Gray and Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business Advisory board member was invited on May 25 to Washington, D.C. for a reception at the Lithuanian Embassy. The reception served as a presentation, discussion and signing of her work and the associated history to the U.S. Administration, Congress, Washington think-tank members and the local Lithuanian community.
Sepetys novel, the first she has written, describes a terrifyingly honest account of the mandated Lithuanian relocation in the aftermath of the 1939 Soviet invasion. Sepetys’s heroine Lina is forced from her home at age 15 and travels north with her family to a work camp in the northernmost part of Siberia. There they are required to dig for beets and endure the cruelest conditions to live.
Lina’s only escape is her art, dangerously documenting what she sees through drawing, with the hope that her pieces will make it to her father’s prison camp to tell of her survival. The journey covers 6,500 miles but through her continued determination and passion, Lina survives.
The Lithuanian Embassy said about Sepetys novel, “Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.”
Belmont Wins Best in Show at TCPRA Conference
This past week Belmont University received six honors at the Tennessee College Public Relations Association (TCPRA) annual awards. There were 27 schools represented this year, and Belmont entered in eight categories, taking home six awards. The 2010 President’s Annual Report not only received gold in the “Report” category, but also was awarded “Best in Show” from all 228 entries in all categories.
Awards Received:
“Report” Gold and Best in Show: 2010 President’s Annual Report
“Media Success Story” Silver: Living a Better Story
“Specality Item” Silver: Christmas at Belmont
“College Magazine” Bronze: Fall Circle
“Newsletter/electronic” Bronze: Belmont FYI
“Special Publication” Bronze: The Miracle of Belmont
Education Faculty Partner with Haitian Teachers
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.
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.
