The Center for Entrepreneurship, within the College of Business Administration at Belmont University, hosted its first Entrepreneurship Challenge on June 5, an event planned to become an annual tradition. Nineteen high-school students from around middle Tennessee came to Belmont to learn more about what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
Dr. Robert Lambert, professor of marketing and faculty coordinator for marketing and entrepreneurship, gave the opening lecture which focused on opportunity assessment, researching markets and discovering yourself as an entrepreneur. Students were put into groups and prompted with the Entrepreneurship Challenge – to create a company that takes advantage of social media. Teams were given one hour to research, after which they presented their ideas in front of the entire group.
A panel of judges rated students’ presentations on the following criteria: description of the business concept, innovation and creativity, fiscal responsibility, presentation ability, and quality of research. First went to an online shopping center, offering a feature that enabled users to view friends’ closets, called Youtopia.
Belmont’s entrepreneurship program has been named as one of the Top 25 Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Programs in the country by Entrepreneur magazine and the Princeton Review, and as a National Model Undergraduate Program by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE).
Center for Entrepreneurship Holds First Entrepreneurship Challenge
Marty Stuart Records at Studio B
Country legend Marty Stuart recently spent time at RCA Studio B recording his upcoming Aug. 24 album, Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions. Through a partnership between the Mike Curb Family Foundation, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and Belmont University, the home of the famed “Nashville Sound” has launched an educational mission by serving Belmont students along with visitors to the Country Music Hall of Fame. This unique recording studio is the only one of its kind in the world that allows students to step back in time into a classic 1970s-era recording studio and gain hands-on experience by working with refurbished vintage equipment and original Studio B instruments on class work, weekly labs, and recording individual projects. Curb College students assisted in the recordings of Ghost Train along with RCA Studio B Manager Luke Gilfeather.
Bacon Presents Poster at Sports Medicine Meeting
Nick Bacon and Patrick Schneider of the Sport Science Department attended the annual American College of Sports Medicine meeting in Baltimore. Bacon presented a poster titled, “A cross-sectional survey of why shod runners do not run barefoot.” Dr. Bacon will begin his first semester in the Sport Science Department in August teaching in the Exercise Science discipline with Dr. Schneider.
Senior Lands NASA Summer Internship
Belmont Senior Matt Lefavor has landed a summer internship with NASA on the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) team. The SAM Team is located at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. SAM is a suite of instruments that will be on board the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover. The SAM team consists of scientists and engineers both in and out of NASA, in the US and Europe. SAM’s five science goals will address three of the most fundamental questions about the ability of Mars to support life – past, present and future. If all goes well, the SAM module will Launch aboard the Mars Science Laboratory in late 2011, and ride in the “shotgun” seat as the rover explores the Martian surface.
Matt is a double major in Computer Science and Philosophy in the Belmont Honors Program and has presented undergraduate research in both fields. His current assignment, data analysis for the SAM team, is not difficult for the A student, but according to Matt “there’s a ton of interesting and smart people around, and a ton of interesting things to do.”
Thune Earns Three of Atlantic Sun’s Biggest Honors
On the heels of advancing to the national ballot for the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America award, Belmont women’s cross country and track runner Brittany Thune (Sioux Falls, S.D.) earned three of the Atlantic Sun’s most prestigious honors in an awards ceremony Wednesday night — Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the Postgraduate Scholarship and the league’s nod for the NCAA Woman of the Year award.
Thune becomes the first Bruin female student-athlete to garner the Scholar Athlete of the Year award since Candice Mitchell at the conclusion of the 2001-02 academic year. Her selection also marks the fourth-consecutive year a Belmont student-athlete has been named the Atlantic Sun Male or Female Scholar Athlete of the Year. Since Belmont joined the A-Sun in 2001, Thune brings the university’s tally to eight student-athletes who have earned the distinction. Click here for more on this story.
Jackson Day Celebration to Be Held at Belmont University
Tennessee Democrats can hear Vice President Joe Biden give the keynote speech at this year’s Jackson Day Celebration at Belmont University’s Curb Event Center on Fri., July 16. Doors for Jackson Day will open at 4:30 p.m., and the program will begin at 5:30 p.m. CDT.
“Tennessee Democrats are excited Vice President Biden will help us kick off this year’s critical mid-term elections with his appearance at Jackson Day,” Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester said.
Biden served in the U.S. Senate for 36 years before becoming the nation’s 47th Vice President. As the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations and the Judiciary committees during much of his tenure, the Vice President has helped shape this nation’s foreign policy and its criminal justice system.
Jackson Day is an annual event held by the Tennessee Democratic Party honoring President Andrew Jackson, the founder of the modern Democratic Party. For attendance information, go to the Tennessee Democratic Party’s website at www.tndp.org or call 615-327-9779.
Kiningham to Study Current Issues in Substance Abuse Education
School of Pharmacy Associate Professor Kelley Kiningham will be attending the University of Utah School of Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependencies. The School, which is recognized internationally, provides specialized information and techniques for working effectively with substance abuse problems in various disciplines. Kelley’s plan is to focus on current issues and trends in the field of substance abuse education, prevention and treatment.
Marvanova Selected for Parkinson’s Traineeship
School of Pharmacy Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Marketa Marvanova was recently selected for a Parkinson’s Disease Pharmacotherapy Traineeship through the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists Foundation. Marketa was chosen in this very competitive program as one of only 10 pharmacists selected nationally. The traineeship will be conducted at the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
New Belmont Alumnus Joins ‘World Race’
To say that May 2010 Belmont marketing graduate Joshua Maisner will hit the ground running in his post-college life is a bit of an understatement. In July, Maisner is scheduled to embark on the World Race 2010, a Christian mission trip that travels to 12 countries in 11 months.
Participants live out of a backpack, survive on a limited budget, and find themselves in situations where faith is the only reality to choose from. In partnering with existing missionaries and ministries, World Racers develop relationships with the “least of these” and through acts of service see communities and nations transformed all over the world. Currently, at a training camp in Georgia, Maisner was just named a team leader for the World Race which puts him in charge of six people and their finances. Only 11 out of the 76 participants are chosen as leaders.
Maisner is no stranger to relief work. After starting the United:For Change nonprofit organization on campus last year, he spent the final Spring Break of his Belmont career serving people in Haiti following the devastating earthquake there in January. “I fell in love with the culture and the people.”
Maisner is anxious to return to Haiti, which will be one of his first stops on the World Race before travelling to the Dominican Republic, Ireland, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Philippines, Mozambique, Malawi, Pioneer Africa, Turkey and Romania.
“This trip will provide me a better understanding of the very problems and causes I want to dedicate my life to,” Maisner said. “I’m excited to see the diversity in cultures and the different ways countries and communities overcome problems.”
Maisner is still raising funds for his World Race, which typically costs about $15,000 and covers all of his food, lodging and air, land and sea travel. It also covers administrative costs, setup costs, coaching costs, debrief costs, and training prior to and at the start of the Race. To donate, learn more about his trip or follow his blog, visit joshuamaisner.theworldrace.org. The World Race was started by Adventures In Missions (AIM), an interdenominational missions organization that was established in 1989, and has taken more than 80,000 people into the mission field.
Susan Jellissen Named an Academic Fellow in Terrorism Studies
Professor Susan Jellissen of the Political Science Department has been accepted as a 2010-2011 Academic Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C. As an FDD Fellow, Jellissen will travel to Israel and participate in an educational program that focuses on terrorism’s threat to democracy.
FDD is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., that seeks to educate Americans about the terrorist threat to democracies worldwide. The FDD Academic Fellowship Program takes place at Israel’s Tel Aviv University from May 29 –June 9. The program consists of an intensive series of lectures by academics, diplomats and military officials from India, Israel, Jordan, Turkey and the United States as well as field trips to military, police and immigration facilities throughout Israel.
