Belmont University announces a Christmas gift to the Nashville community with three free concerts that are open to the public, as well as the nationally televised airing of annual holiday music spectacular “Christmas at Belmont.”
The first concert will be on Fri., Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. with the Nashville Children’s Choir’s annual holiday concert at Belmont Heights Baptist Church. The Belmont Camerata Musicale will then offer its annual presentation of “A Camerata Christmas,” including a concert of holiday chamber music and a traditional holiday folk music sing-along on Mon., Dec. 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the historic Belmont Mansion on the university campus.
The Christmas Eve Carillon Concert concludes the series on Wed., Dec. 24 at 2 p.m. at the campus Bell Tower, located just off the corner of Belmont Blvd. and Portland Ave. The concert features traditional Christmas music played on the tower’s 42-bell carillon.
Of course, the holiday wouldn’t be complete without the annual “Christmas at Belmont” special. An encore presentation will be shown of last year’s performance, which featured 400 students and faculty from the School of Music and was hosted by alumna and “American Idol” finalist Melinda Doolittle. The concert was taped live in the Schermerhorn Symphony Center by Nashville Public Television (NPT). The show is scheduled to air nationally on Dec. 23 at 9 p.m. Central. Check local listings for additional air times.
Belmont Offers Christmas Gift to Nashville: Three Free Concerts
Service Corp Featured in Who’s Who
Belmont Service Corp, the university’s largest student organization, will be highlighted in an upcoming issue of Who’s Who magazine. The article focuses on the group’s recent, successful Skyline Party event, which raised $700 for Nashville Gilda’s Club and Mario Lemieux Foundation. Click here to read the full story.
Physics Students Attend Conference, Lead Convo
Students from the newly-formed Society of Physics Students (SPS) went on a trip to Fermilab, the Fermi National Accelerator Facility, outside of Chicago Nov. 7-9. Students Caitlin Smith, Kayla LaFrance, Sarah-Ann Claiborne, Caleb Kinch and Stephen Murphree, along with Physics faculty Christian Thomas, Stephen Robinson and Scott Hawley, attended the Quadrennial Congress of Sigma Pi Sigma, the national honor society for physics students. As this was the first trip for this new SPS group, and the first involvement in the congress, the trip was significant as a way of connecting students with the greater physics community. The group attended talks and workshops on the topic of “scientific citizenship,” including a keynote address by Nobel laureate Leon Lederman.
After returning from their trip, SPS members put the finishing touches on their planned convocation event, “Belmont Mythbusters: The Dark Knight Edition,” in which they described the physics behind stunts in the popular movie. The academic lecture convocation was presented on Nov. 17 to a crowd of more than 80 people.
Debate Team Garners Awards at Campus Tournaments
This past weekend Belmont’s Speech and Debate team hosted its annual tournament, the Tennessee Porch Swing, on campus. This “swing” tournament was comprised of two individual events tournaments (one hosted by Belmont and another by Carson-Newman College) as well as a debate tournament. Twenty universities were in attendance stretching from Texas and Florida to Pennsylvania. Team successes during the weekend were as follows:
Debate Open Division: George Shifflett & Caroline Tenenbaum, Quarter-Finalists; Tim Smith & Tyler Kimbro, Quarter-Finalists
Debate Novice Division: Sara Page & Paxton Williams, Quarter-Finalists; Sara Page, 3rd place overall speaker
Belmont Sponsored Individual Events Tournament
Extemporaneous Speaking: Sara Page, Top Novice
Prose Interpretation: Eric Schoen, 1st place & Top Novice
Informative Speaking: Chris Taylor, 6th place
Duo Interpretation: Meredith Day/Eric Schoen, 3rd place & Top Novice
Carson-Newman Sponsored Individual Events Tournament
Informative Speaking: Sara Page, 6th place
Duo Interpretation: Meredith Day/Eric Schoen, 1st place & Top Novice
Extemporaneous Speaking: Sara Page, 3rd place & Top Novice
Poetry Interpretation: Eric Schoen, 1st place & Top Novice
Prose Interpretation: Meredith Day, 4th place; Eric Schoen, 2nd place & Top Novice
Currans Land Roles in Florence Musical
Two married Belmont students studying abroad this semester are taking part in an Italian musical. The students, Noah and Daira Curran, have received a leading role and a directing job in the musical in Florence, Italy.
Born in Ohio, Noah is a senior international business major, and Daira is a junior commercial voice major originally from Massachusetts.
Health Services, Nursing Give Flu Shots in Edgehill
Belmont University Health Services and the School of Nursing teamed up again this year to offer free flu shots at a clinic in Edgehill. Students, faculty and staff all volunteered their time to give shots at the clinic at Greater Bethel Church and the I.W. Gernert Towers. Those clinics, combined with the number of vaccines given on campus, made for a record year for Health Services with approximately 750 individuals receiving a flu shot from Belmont.
Junior Competes in CMT ‘Music City Madness’ Video Contest
Junior Cassidy Alexander, who goes by Cassidy Lynn, recently entered CMT’s “Music City Madness” contest along with 7,000 other videos. CMT picked 64 to begin the contest and then left the results up to viewer votes. With each weekly round, CMT has cut the number of video contestants. Cassidy Lynn and her video “Down By The Bonfire” are still in the running in the round of Elite 8, which ends Monday at midnight. Log onto www.madness.cmt.com to watch Cassidy’s video and to vote for her to make it to the Final Four. There are no limits to how often an individual can vote. CMT’s “Music City Madness” winner will receive a meeting with the A&R department at Warner Brothers Records, mentoring sessions with Randy Travis and their own “Unplugged” session on CMT.
Gonas Named 2008 Tennessee Professor of the Year
Belmont professors selected four times since 2000 for statewide honor
Belmont University’s Dr. John Gonas, an assistant professor of Finance in the Undergraduate and Massey School of Business, was named today as the 2008 Tennessee Professor of the Year, an award selection determined by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). This represents the second year in a row that a Belmont University professor has received this honor, with Psychology Chair Dr. Pete Giordano selected as the 2007 Tennessee Professor of the Year.
Dr. Gonas, who is currently in Washington, D.C. for special ceremonies to receive his award, was selected from nearly 300 top professors in the United States. Belmont will be holding its own celebration to honor Dr. Gonas on Thurs., Dec. 4 at 3:30 p.m.
“More than me, this award should be credited to the Belmont student,” Gonas said. “Over the past 10 years I have been blessed to teach and mentor some amazing students – many who possess what I find to be the ideal balance of a strong intellect, a disciplined work ethic, a solid character and a selfless commitment to community service.”
Prior to joining Belmont’s faculty in 1998, Gonas worked in the financial planning industry for eight years (most recently with J.C. Bradford, Inc. in Nashville) in retail brokerage, investment consulting and fee-based asset management. During the 2000-2002 academic years, he went on leave from Belmont to pursue a doctorate in Finance at the University of Kentucky, a degree he received in the spring of 2005.
Gonas currently teaches Corporate Finance, Introduction to Investments and Investment Management, and his teaching philosophy revolves around real life application of a subject matter. Gonas also serves as the Sam Walton Fellow responsible for advising Belmont’s SIFE students. SIFE, or Students in Free Enterprise, is an international, non-profit organization active on over 1,500 college and university campuses in 47 countries. Under Gonas’ leadership, Belmont’s SIFE program has won numerous regional and national awards, including the 2006 National Rookie of the Year Award, a 2007 and 2008 placement as a top-20 team at the USA National Exposition, and winning the Motion Picture Association of America 2007 Grand Prize of its Anti-Piracy Public Service Announcement.
Belmont University Provost Dr. Dan McAlexander said, “Belmont is extremely proud that for two years in a row one of its professors has been acknowledged for his outstanding and innovative teaching. John is an exemplary professor embodying in his classroom that which distinguishes the Belmont educational experience—academically rigorous, connected to the real world through experience, encouraging commitment to service to one’s surrounding community.”
Belmont University professors represent four of the past nine Tennessee Professors of the Year: 2000 winner Dr. Mike Awalt (Philosophy), 2001 winner Dr. David Julseth (Spanish), 2007 winner Dr. Pete Giordano (Psychology) and Gonas as the 2008 selection.
Leadership Expert Lencioni Offers Advice to Business Executives
Named by The Wall Street Journal as one of the most in-demand business speakers, leadership guru Patrick Lencioni spoke today to an assembly of business executives in the Curb Event Center. Belmont’s Scarlett Leadership Institute brought Lencioni to campus for this special event.
The founder and president of The Table Group, Inc., a specialized management-consulting firm focused on organizational health, Lencioni has been described by The One-Minute Manager’s Ken Blanchard as “fast defining the next generation of leadership thinkers.” He is the author of eight best-selling books with over 2.5 million copies sold. His talk Wednesday focused primarily on thoughts from his best-selling work, The Five Temptations of a CEO.
Lencioni outlined the five temptations as the desire to protect a career, the desire to be popular, the need to make right decisions, the avoidance of conflict and the desire for invulnerability. In commenting on CEOs desire to appear invincible, Lencioni said, “To be a great leader, you have to build trust with your team… We have to demonstrate that we are in touch with our humanity. People already see us for what we are. We need to come clean about it.”
In concluding his session at Belmont, Lencioni also touched on the topic from another book, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job. He pointed out that the significant factors that determine employees’ work satisfaction are rarely tied to job duties or pay. Rather, feelings of anonymity or being ignored by management, a sense of irrelevance and an inability to assess personal contribution to the greater good contribute most often to creating a miserable job atmosphere.
Patrick Lencioni’s work has been featured in numerous publications such as Fast Company, INC Magazine, USA Today, Fortune and Harvard Business Review. As a consultant and speaker, he has worked with thousands of senior executives in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 corporations and professional sports teams to universities and nonprofits, including Southwest Airlines, Barnes & Noble, General Mills, Newell Rubbermaid, SAP, Washington Mutual and the US Military Academy at West Point.
Five Bruin Volleyball Players Listed in Postseason Awards
Channing Salava received Freshman of the Year honors, and Cat Mundy was a First Team All-Conference selection for the second season in a row in the annual Atlantic Sun Awards and Honors list released this week.
Senior middle hitter Emily Cahill was named to the Second Team All-Conference team for the third season in a row, joining middle hitter Jenny Gray and Salava. Salava rounded out her honors with an appearance on the All-Freshman team with outside hitter Maggie Johnson. Click here for more on this story.
