Student Alexis Merte co-produced short film Fingers, which will make its local premiere at the Nashville Film Festival Sat., April 18 at the Green Hills Cinemas at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $11 and can be purchased at www.nashvillefilmfestival.org. Fingers is a narrative short film shot entirely on location in Nashville and featuring Belmont University and the never before filmed historic RCA Studio B. The film first premiered at the 2008 Hamptons International Film Festival in the Academy Recognized Golden Starfish Award Category. Fingers received the audience award at the festival and was declared “subtle and mesmerizing… already a winner” by The New York Film Review.
Student Co-Produces Award-Winning Short Film
Beard Featured on Cover of Spinal Column Magazine
Freshman Stephanie Beard is featured on the cover and included in the cover story of the spring 2009 issue of Shepherd Center’s Spinal Column magazine, a quarterly publication geared to current and former patients, healthcare professionals and donors. Beard sustained a spinal cord injury when she was in high school and went to Shepherd Center in Atlanta for rehabilitation. Click here to visit the magazine’s Web page where you can download the Spring 2009 issue.
Frist Advocates for ‘Hope Through Healing Hands’
Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D., made a special appearance on campus Monday to speak on “Hope Through Healing Hands,” his global health initiative that strives to change the world through raising awareness and taking action against global disease, extreme poverty and other health-related issues. His visit was sponsored by Belmont’s Executive Leadership Program (ELP), a year-long program in which 10 freshman students are selected to participate in a series of experiences to learn about teamwork, communication, community service, organization and self-purpose. The Senator’s appearance marked the group’s final project for the year.
Frist’s talk focused on his medical mission work in Africa over the past decade and how that work inspired him to found Hope Through Healing Hands, an organization that seeks to use health “as a currency for peace.” He spoke of Lui, Sudan, a village he’s visited frequently that’s located 500 miles west of the Nile. “What started as American medical volunteers operating on a single patient in an abandoned school house grew to a hospital that now sees 40,000 patients each year from hundreds of miles around with 60 Sudanese workers… People say in Africa there’s no hope, there’s nothing we can do. But we can make a difference.”
Frist advocated that Americans’ work in Africa is not only the morally right thing to do, but it also makes this nation safer. “You don’t go to war with someone who has saved the life of your child.”
Quoting from Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Frist concluded by reminding his audience of the inextricable connections that exist throughout the worldwide community. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
For more information, visit www.hopethroughhealinghands.org.
Students Attend Regional Symposium for Young Neuroscientists
Belmont students recently attended the 2009 Symposium for Young Neuroscientists and Professors of the SouthEast (SYNAPSE), a one-day regional undergraduate neuroscience conference held at the College of Charleston. SYNAPSE provides opportunities for students to present their research results and obtain feedback from neuroscientists at other institutions via poster presentations, discuss important issues in neuroscience training via workshops and panel discussions, and learn about cutting-edge research via a keynote speaker. Students and faculty are also able to form connections with other neuroscientists in the region.
Dr. Lori McGrew, associate professor of biology, took four students (Jackie Hunter, Roshni Patel, Taylor Walter and Julie Malkowski) to the conference. Hunter, Patel and Walter conducted research with McGrew last summer as part of the Scholar Communities program, and they presented a poster of combined findings at the meeting. Malkowski is currently studying zebrafish through a lab and field techniques class and attended the conference to see the scope of student projects and the breadth of the field.
Students, Faculty Present Research at Natural History Conference
Belmont biology major April Tummins presented her senior research project at the 13th Symposium on the Natural History of Lower Tennessee and Cumberland River Valleys at Land Between the Lakes on April 3-4. Tummins’ paper was titled “Water-Use Efficiency in Lonicera maackii and Symphoricarpos orbiculatus in Response to Increasing Light and CO2.” Dr. Steve Murphree, professor in biology, presented research completed by Andy Wicke, an Environmental Studies major, titled “Macroinvertebrate Diversity and Water Quality at a Trout Hatchery Stream Entering the Obey River, Clay County, Tennessee.” Other Belmont participants included biology major Julianna Bejma, environmental studies major Lindsay Walker and Dr. Darlene Panvini, associate professor in biology.
Magruder Published in Journal
Dr. Robert Magruder, professor in the Chemistry & Physics Department, recently had a paper accepted for publication. The paper is titled “Universal optical response of Si-Si bonds and its evolution from nanoparticles to bulk crystals” and was published in the American Physical Society (APS) Physical Review B Journal on March 25. Click here to read the abstract.
Wicke Named to NACDA Scholar-Athlete Team
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.
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.
