In a special convocation yesterday on Faith-Informed Academics, three Belmont Deans—Dr. Phil Johnston, Pharmacy; Dr. Kathy Baugher, Enrollment Services; and Dr. Jack Williams, Health Sciences and Nursing—shared a bit of their personal background and the lessons they learned as they approached their careers.
Speaking in a panel format to a full house at the Bunch Library Multimedia Hall, Dr. Johnston opened the session with his early memories of wanting to be a garbage man. Though he loved the sounds of the huge garbage trucks rumbling down his street, his career desires ultimately changed as a teenager when the longing for a car set him on an unexpected path. “At age 15, I decided to get a job, and at that time my choices were either working at a grocery store or the local drug store. That set my fate. I found out at the pharmacy what I needed to be—someone who would help people.”
Baugher, on the other hand, admits that her career only makes sense in hindsight. Growing up, she felt drawn to teaching and majored in elementary education before attending seminary, assuming her life would be spent in mission education. What she discovered, however, was that her personality was a better fit elsewhere. “What I didn’t know then was that I am a bossy girl, and we bossy girls like to take charge and get things done. I really didn’t need to be an elementary school teacher because I would kill somebody… Administration became interesting to me, though. I’ve learned a lot about pairing ministry and vocation. In admissions, I get to interact with young people and talk about God’s purpose in their life.”
Though Williams grew up in church, he discussed reaching a point in his 20s in which he struggled with what to think about Jesus. He acknowledged that he went into science to get something he could wrap his arms around, something that would offer answers he wasn’t finding in religion. But a significant turning point occurred for Williams following an accident in which he barely escaped death from a falling tree. “For the next three or four months after that, I had a connection with God that I still can’t explain. It opened up my eyes to the idea that not everything is rational. I started opening up my heart to other ways of listening besides just my head.”

As part of the ongoing Belmont Goes Green program, members of a peer-auditing committee will be on campus Sept. 25-27 to help assess and improve the university’s environmental efforts.
The Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association (TICUA) launched an initiative with 30 of its member campuses to provide training and other resources to aid affiliated schools in their efforts to be good environmental stewards. An initial piece of the TICUA project was to create a formal relationship with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which led to the agreement for “peer-audits.” The peer-audit environmental component allows participating universities to voluntarily collaborate and help one another in assessing and improving their campuses. The two main objectives of this program are to identify non-compliant practices and to develop a culture to keep potential violations from re-occurring.
Belmont Goes Green was implemented at Belmont earlier this spring to encourage our community to create a more environmentally sustainable campus

Belmont University played host to Sparrow Records recording artist, Steven Curtis Chapman on Tuesday evening. Chapman was the guest writer at the Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business ASCAP Writers’ Night Series, a year-long series that gives singer/songwriters at Belmont an opportunity to perform original material in front of a live audience and professionals from the industry.
Steven Curtis Chapman attended Belmont and was part of the Belmont Reasons during his collegiate experience. From the stage, Chapman shared how fellow alumnus Phil Naish heard him perform during his tenure at Belmont, recognized his talent and subsequently produced his first four projects. Chapman was signed to Sparrow Records in the 1980s, after the success of his song “Built to Last.” He has since sold more than nine million records worldwide and has won more Gospel Music Association Dove awards than any artist in history, as well as five Grammy awards.