Belmont University men’s basketball senior Andy Wicke (Hendersonville, Tenn.) has been named to the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Scholar-Athlete Team. This marks the latest in a long list of national honors for Wicke this year. Earlier this season, the 6-2 guard was named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District and All-America teams. Most recently, Wicke was named to the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award All-Senior All-America Team at the Final Four.
Team captain for the 2008-09 Bruins, Wicke is scheduled to graduate next month with honors in his chosen major of environmental studies and minor of business administration. He will attend dental school at the University of Louisville, beginning this summer. Click here for more on this story.
Wicke Named to NACDA Scholar-Athlete Team
CAS Celebrates Arts and Sciences Week, Awards Wiseman
Belmont University celebrated the Arts and Sciences this week with a series of events sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), including a keynote address Wednesday from Todd Turner, who has more than 30 years experience as a college athletic administrator. In addition, CAS awarded Assistant Athletic Director/Senior Women’s Administrator Betty Wiseman, who is also an associate professor emerita of sport science, the first Liberal Arts and Sciences Advocacy Award, which will be given annually in recognition of those who have a deep commitment to and value the intrinsic worth of the liberal arts and sciences.
Dr. Bryce Sullivan, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said, “Betty’s work as a teacher and leader in Belmont’s Sport Science Department and the Physical Education program across 40 years of service is amazing. The way she has integrated her love of athletics, her dedication to student-athletes, her mentoring of students and her transparent desire to serve God through her vocation are among the reasons she was chosen for this award.”
Sociology Students Present Paper at Regional Meeting
Drs. Shelby Longard and Ken Spring along with nine Belmont Sociology Students attended the Southern Sociological Society Meetings in New Orleans recently. Six students (Heather Cairl, Cash Forshee, Ryan Hurd, Sean Landis, Heather Snodgrass and Cayla Wilson) presented their paper “Realizing Emancipation through Community Based Research.” The Paper is the result of two years of research developed from a Summer Scholar Community and is part of an on-going collaborative project between the Belmont University Sociology Department and the Margaret Maddox Family YMCA in East Nashville. In addition, Dr. Ken Spring presented his paper “Engaging the Learner” on the pedagogy of integrating community based research and service learning into the classroom. Both sessions garnered positive feedback, and Dr. Spring and the students intend on publishing their research in the near future.
Students Compete at Computer Science Conference
A computer programming team from Belmont University competed in a contest in conjunction with the Seventh Annual Consortium for Computer Sciences in Colleges Mid-South Conference held at the University of Tennessee at Martin on April 3-4. The team solved just one fewer problem than the team which earned the fourth place prize. There were 22 teams entered into the contest. Team members are Ross Buffington, Heather Ellis and Will Proffitt. Will won a Dell Bluetooth keyboard and mouse in a drawing. Dr. Bill Hooper is the faculty sponsor for the team. Dr. Joyce Crowell attended the conference as well.
Tech Council Speaker Series Educates Students on Future of Technology
Students in Computer Science, Information Systems Management and Entrepreneurship were invited to attend a luncheon Wednesday with distinguished speakers from different areas of technology. The event was part of the Nashville Technology Council’s Turning the Tide of Technology Initiative T3 Guest Speaker Series. The program featured Janice Malaszenko, general manager/director of Global Enterprise Architecture for Nissan; Jay Clarke, president/CEO of Magazines.com; and Tod Fetherling, president of the Nashville Technology Council. These guest speakers discussed the present and future landscape of technology in Middle Tennessee and beyond.
Radio Disney Contest Finalist Featured in Chicago Tribune
Freshman Cody Fry was featured this week on the front page of the Arts & Entertainment section of the Chicago Tribune related to his participation in the Radio Disney “Next Big Thing” contest. Fry is one of 11 artists named as finalists in the contest. Online voting continues through April 23 with the winner being announced on April 27.
The article includes a quote from Radio Disney Music Director Kelly Edwards who recalls her first impression of Fry when he came in for an interview. “We were literally blown away by him just sitting on the couch with his guitar,” Edwards says. “Everyone in the room was literally silent when he was done. We just weren’t prepared for how talented he was.”
Click here to read the Chicago Tribune feature on Fry. Click here to listen to Fry’s music and vote for him in the Radio Disney contest.
Stansell Selected for Taylor Swift Tour
Student Brandon Stansell, dance captain for Company, was recently selected as lead dancer for the upcoming Taylor Swift tour. The tour includes many cities in Eastern Asia and Europe as well as throughout the United States.
Alpha Chi Members Present Research at National Convention
Six Belmont students recently presented their research at the Alpha Chi Honor Society National Convention in Indianapolis. Two faculty advisors, Dr. Jonathan Thorndike (Honors) and Dr. Sarah Ann Stewart (Math/Computer Science), also attended the convention. The annual Alpha Chi convention is organized around student presentations by junior and seniors from their respective chapters. Membership in Alpha Chi is the highest academic honor awarded by Belmont University.
In the Business session, Janelle Hawkes discussed her essay “The Distribution of Music and the Adaptation of Digital Downloading to the Industry’s Business Structure” and was awarded the “Gayle Webb White Prize in Business Management” for this presentation. Also during the Business session, Lauren Cooper discussed her essay “Accounting in the Music Industry.” In the Computer Science and Engineering conference session, Henry “Hank” Carter presented his research on “Developing a Model Certificate Authority for Collegiate Institutions,” and Joel Boyter discussed his essay “Gramophone to MP3: The Rise and Fall of Audio Recording Quality.” In the Mathematics Session, Amy Valentine presented her research on “The Transcendence of Pi.” In the Ecology and Biology section, Elizabeth Schriner discussed her research about “Size Structure and Intraspecific Interference in Streamside Salamander Larvae.”
The faculty members accompanying the students were also active in the convention. Stewart, who serves as the Belmont chapter’s advisor, moderated the panel on Political Science and Economics. Thorndike, who is the Alpha Chi Region III Secretary-Treasurer, moderated the panel on Literature, Language and Philosophy and also presented the Distinguished Service Awards.
Bruin Den Day Volunteers Reach Out to Local Community
On April 4, the Student Government Association hosted its annual Bruin Den Day Community Service event. More than 150 registered students dispersed throughout a three-mile radius of campus. Students served such organizations as Eakin Elementary, Carter Lawrence Elementary, Ronald McDonald House, Hospitality House and Wedgewood Community Garden. Each year Bruin Den Day provides a unique opportunity to give back to the surrounding Belmont area. Students perform outreach in a variety of ways and thus are involved in engaging and transforming their local Nashville community.
Nursing Professor Selected as Fulbright Scholar to Uganda
Dr. Ruby Dunlap, associate professor in the School of Nursing, was recently selected as a 2009-10 U.S. Fulbright Scholar for Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically Uganda. Dunlap will be a guest lecturer in nursing at Uganda Christian University which is located 23 kilometers outside of Kampala, Uganda. She will also be conducting research on how standards of nursing are adapted to austere conditions.
“It is deeply humbling to be given this kind of trust,” Dunlap said. “I’m looking forward to collaborating in discovery and service with colleagues in Uganda and hope to represent Belmont and the Nashville community well in this assignment.”
Dr. Dunlap currently teaches Community Health Nursing and Gerontological Nursing at Belmont. She has been a full time nursing educator at Belmont since 1996. Over the past 12 years, she has supervised hundreds of Belmont students as they cared for refugees from Sudan and Somalia in the Nashville area.
She will be serving in a two-semester appointment, August 2009 through May 2010, at Uganda Christian University as a visiting professor in nursing and community health. Dr. Dunlap will also be conducting research on the application of standards of care when shortages of human and material resources exist. She will be attending an orientation program in Washington, D.C. in June. Dr. Dunlap will be accompanied by her husband, Robert Dunlap, and her father, Carl Wesselhoeft, a former missionary in Somalia.
Dr. Dunlap chose Uganda Christian University because of its nursing program and because it is a faith-based institution similar to Belmont. She spent 10 years of her childhood (1955-1966) in Somalia. Her childhood in East Africa combined with working with African refugees in Nashville has produced a passion for the African people. In 2007, she supervised 52 nursing students in community health as they designed a curriculum for a proposed new school of nursing in Mozambique.
