Holly Andrews, pictured at right, walked across the stage at Belmont University not just as a happy graduate, but also the first of her kind. She is in the first group of students to complete the nursing program in a partnership between Belmont University and Volunteer State Community College. The mother of four made the career choice because of the important role nurses played while she was delivering her children in the hospital.
“I thought: I could do that for the rest of my life. It was just getting up the nerve to do it,” Andrews said.
Andrews is joined by Jordan Banks and Jessica Brazil as the first Vol State group to graduate from the program. They took a set of classes at Vol State that matched up to Belmont nursing requirements. After graduation from Vol State and acceptance into the Belmont program, all of their courses transferred to the bachelor’s of science in nursing degree. Vol State administrators say the program is continuing to grow in popularity.
“Belmont, of course, is a premier institution,” said Dean Nancy Morris. “The students in all of their medical programs get high scores. They have state of the art facilities and a low student to professor ratio.”
Vol State-Belmont Nursing Program Graduates First Students
BelmontVision.com Wins Professional Video Award
BelmontVision.com is the winner of the 2009 Videographer Awards’ Award of Excellence for its semester-long continuous team video coverage of Debate ’08 and the presidential election. This competition is international in scope and has entrants from all arenas of professional, educational and public video production. The winning BelmontVision.com team included journalism and audio visual production students Melody Drushal, Amber Garner, Carly Griffin, Alana Kreegel, Oliver Mauldin, Derek Moore, Abby Selden, Erik Unger and Jessica Walker.
“This team of dedicated students made the most of every opportunity,” said New Century Journalism instructor Stephan Foust. “They worked tirelessly, often under tight deadlines with little or no sleep, to keep their viewers up-to-date on Belmont’s unique role during the 2008 presidential campaign. They earned this award by never losing sight of their goals and always putting forth their best effort.”
The Videographer Awards are judged by award-winning professionals on the basis of resourcefulness, creativity and quality. The organization states that its mission is “to identify professionals who are raising the standards of the industry.”
Belmont Faculty Publish Editorials in Tennessean
Two Belmont faculty members recently published editorial columns in The Tennessean. Dr. Beth Woodard, associate professor of management in the Massey Graduate School of Business, contributed an article on reform plans for Medicare on May 19. Click here to read her editorial. Also, Dr. Stephanie Buchanan Crowder, an assistant professor of religion, co-wrote an editorial with Vanderbilt’s Dr. Herbert Robinson Marbury on the need for more diverse representation among religion faculty. Click here to read the article.
Lynette Rives Earns NCAA Title Berth
On the second day of the NCAA Mideast Regional, senior sprinter Lynette Rives (Clarksville, Tenn.) became the first Belmont women’s track and field athlete to earn back-to-back berths to the NCAA Outdoor Championships after her stellar performance in the 200m on Saturday afternoon.
Rives opened the day vying for a chance to move on to Nationals in the 100m. However, the Clarksville, Tenn., native fell short and took eighth in the finals of the event with a time of 11.66. An hour later, she would have an opportunity to redeem herself with another shot at a trip to Nationals within her reach. Rives, the lone senior in the 200m finals, bolted to a third place finish with a time of 23.28 (1.2) to qualify for Nationals.
Rives was excited about the chance to compete at Nationals again. “Coming into the 200m, I was confident in my placement. We got out of the blocks and it was tough coming around the curve but I pushed it out. My race was all guts,” she said. “I am excited for another chance at Nationals.”
“She was really motivated by what happened earlier in the 100m,” said Assistant Women’s Track and Field coach Cameron Harvey. “She was able to refocus for the 200m and put in a good effort. We are all looking forward to going to Nationals next month.”
“Lynette’s effort today was an example of her tough-as-nails attitude and strong work ethic,” said Women’s Cross Country and Track and Field head coach Seth Sheridan.
Rives will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., to compete at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, which will be held June 10-13. (photo by Dave Milner)
Class Takes Cross-Country Summer Road Trip to Re-Discover America
Students to travel 40 days, 9,300+ miles to define what it means to be an American
Planning to tour “The United States in 40 Days,” 10 Belmont University students and two faculty members will board a chartered sleeper bus June 6 to begin a 9,300+ mile, cross-country journey in an attempt to answer the question, “What Does It Mean to Be an American?” The class will travel through 40 states on this first-of-its-kind, study-at-home journey, chronicling their experiences on a daily blog as they visit sites of national and historical significance and encounter “local culture” everywhere from the Deep South to the West Coast to the Northeast and all points in between.
Sociology Department Chair Dr. Ken Spring first conceived of the class more than two years ago and has been working ever since on brainstorming the class’s structure and planning the logistical details of the trip. “Each place we’re going to visit provides a snapshot into our history, and together, they provide a glimpse into our future,” Spring said. “By understanding our own land, our own ideas and how they came about, we better understand what it means when someone proudly proclaims themselves an American.”
Constructed to include cultural and economic epicenters, iconic landmarks and places of special interest, “The United States in 40 Days” will involve at least one full day of exploration and discovery at each stop as well as an evening discussion of the uniqueness of each place along with the larger themes at play: politics, religion, education, identity, media, the economy, family, race, gender, etc. Upon signing up for the class, each student was assigned three stops on the trip and made responsible for documenting the location’s history and biography along with determining potential site visits for their assigned locations. The students will also facilitate evening discussions in the stops for which they are responsible.
The summer experience will be offered as two classes for a total of six credit hours: three in Cultural Sociology (Sociology 3990 or Junior Cornerstone 3015) and three in Third-Year Writing (English 3010). In the longstanding tradition of Belmont service learning, at least three stops on the trip will also include community service projects with students working at a soup kitchen in New Orleans and a homeless shelter in San Francisco, among other volunteer efforts.
Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Belmont Writing Center Dr. Bonnie Smith will be teaching her Third Year Writing students about Travel Stories online, facilitating blog discussions and encouraging students in their attempts to understand and convey a sense of “place.” Smith said, “Americans as diverse as Walt Whitman, Jack Kerouac, Paul Simon and Sarah Vowell have used writing and research to tell stories about their times on the road. The course I’m teaching is an advanced writing course required of all Belmont students, and this section will focus on the stories we Americans have told and continue to tell ourselves about what a road trip across our vast and varied land means to us.”
Belmont Hosts International Country Music Conference
The 26th annual International Country Music Conference honored some of the top authors and journalists in the field of country music May 21-23 during an annual gathering at Belmont University.
The Belmont Book Award, Lifetime Achievement Award and Charlie Lamb Awards were presented during a special noon luncheon, underwritten by the Mike Curb Family Foundation, on Fri., May 22 in the Frist Lecture Hall. This year’s Belmont Book Award was given to Patrick Huber for Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South. The University of Illinois Press received the Lifetime Achievement Award for their series, Music in American Life.
In addition to the book awards, the Charlie Lamb Awards for Excellence in Journalism were presented to Alanna Nash in the Career category and Barry Mazor in the Contemporary category. The Charlie Lamb Awards are underwritten by Gary and Peggy Walker.
The 26th annual ICMC featured authors of books on a variety of country music subjects, including Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Tubb, Eddy Arnold, Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Events included a Thursday evening panel at the Quonset Hut with Shelby Singleton, Jerry Kennedy and Bob Moore, moderated by Don Cusic, and a panel discussion at RCA Studio B on Friday evening with Harold Bradley, Fred Foster and Ray Edenton with moderator John Rumble. There were also several presentations from prominent country music historians and scholars, including panels “The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers” and “Defining Country Music: What It Is and Does It Matter?”
For more information, visit www.internationalcountrymusic.org.
William Morris Commissions Art Students for ‘Musica’ Works
The William Morris Agency recently commissioned Belmont Art students to create interpretations of Alan Lequire’s “Musica” sculpture, which is located on the Music Row roundabout. Students involved with the project included Hannah Crabtree, Allison Dodson, Ellie Caudill and Sable Royal.
Pictured at right is Dodson preparing her piece. All of the art was delivered to William Morris last week and is currently on display in their Nashville building at 1600 Division Street (on the roundabout).
Belmont Recognized at TCPRA Conference
Belmont University was recognized with several awards at the Tennessee College Public Relations Association conference held at Austin Peay State University last week. Dr. Robert Fisher, Belmont’s president, received the Otis Floyd, Jr. Award for Excellence in Administration. The award is presented annually to a higher education administrator in the state of Tennessee to recognize superior achievement. Criteria considered each year includes innovation, leadership, vision and communication.
Greg Pillon, the director of the Office of Communications, was honored with the Charles Holmes Award. The award is presented annually to a member of TCPRA who demonstrates steadfast service and earnest dedication to the organization. The Office of Communications received several other awards in the following categories:
Gold: Residence Life Move- In Day publication (Brochure/Flyer)
Gold: Circle magazine (University or alumni magazine)
Gold: 2008 President’s Report (Reports)
Gold: Town Hall Presidential Debate (Media Success Story)
Gold: Bug Camp (Photography)
Silver: Presidential Debate commemorative piece (Special Publication)
Silver: Debate ‘08 electronic press kit (Specialty Item)
Silver: Alex Renfroe (Photography)
Bronze: FYI (Electronic Newsletter)
Formed in 1975, TCPRA is an alliance of communicators who represent the colleges and universities, public and private, two-year technical schools, technology centers and community colleges that together define higher education in Tennessee.
Parry Honored as Teacher of the Year by National Association
Pam Parry, associate professor of journalism, will be honored Aug. 7 as Teacher of the Year by the Small Program Interest Group at the national conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in Boston. John Jenks, SPIG head, said “This year Pam Parry demonstrated she merits that honor through her documented classroom skills and all-around dedication to her students and her profession. Parry has also been an educational entrepreneur – building a program and attracting scores of students to it.”
Parry founded the public relations program at Belmont in 2004 and in four years it became largest program in the School of Social Sciences and one of the fastest growing programs in the College of Arts and Sciences. A colleague and fellow department chair described Parry as “a terrific teacher who has the uncanny ability to connect with both advanced and average students. Her evaluation scores are invariably well above Belmont’s averages, no small feat given this university’s commitment to undergraduate education. She combines an intellectually rigorous curriculum with a relaxed, non-threatening classroom style that receives rave reviews from students.”
Golfer Named to ESPN the Magazine All-District Second Team
Belmont senior golfer Danny Amundson was named to the CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District IV Second Team as announced Thursday afternoon. The native of Sioux Falls, South Dakota (O’Gorman HS) was named to the University Division Spring At-Large Second Team after posting a 3.75 grade point average (GPA). He graduated last week from Belmont with a degree in Finance. During the 2008-2009 season, Amundson led the team in scoring with a 73.7 average and posted three top-10 and five top-20 finishes. His best finish was a third place showing at the TSU Big Blue Intercollegiate last month where he helped lead the Bruins to the team championship. Amundson also ranked fifth in the Atlantic Sun Conference in the Golfstat rankings.
