Belmont will hold its Summer Commencement 2007 ceremony on Fri., Aug. 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Curb Event Center. More than 170 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees will be conferred.
Dr. Robert C. Fisher, president of the University, will preside over the event and present the graduates with their degrees. Provost Dan McAlexander will provide commencement remarks, and Doctor of Physical Therapy candidate Megan Swann Dance Stinson will offer the Student Reflection for the ceremony. President and Mrs. Fisher will host a reception for the graduates and their guests at the conclusion of commencement in Belmont’s Beaman Student Life Center.
Belmont to Hold Summer 2007 Commencement Friday
Barton-Arwood Published in Education Journal
Dr. Sally Barton-Arwood, assistant professor in the Education Department, has recently been published in Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, a scholarly journal promoting student success. Preventing School Failure focuses on programs and practices that help children with learning and behavioral problems in schools, clinics and correctional facilities, as well as other settings. Dr. Barton-Arwood’s article, “Teaching Elementary School Educators to Design, Implement, Evaluate Functional Assessment-Based Interventions: Successes and Challenges,” was co-written with a professor and two graduates of Vanderbilt University’s Department of Special Education. A faculty member at Belmont since 2006, Barton-Arwood teaches classes in Diverse Learners, Action Research and Classroom Management.
Bulla Selected for 2008 Leadership Music Class
Dr. Wesley Bulla, associate professor and dean of the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, was recently selected to join the Leadership Music class of 2008. Leadership Music is a nonprofit organization providing programs designed to further communication among facets of the entertainment business and to assist established leaders in their roles as industry decision makers. Each person selected to participate in Leadership Music makes an extensive time commitment. Attendance is mandatory for the nine-month program, which begins in the fall, and participants make on-site visits around the community, focusing on such subjects as Songwriting/Publishing, Broadcast, Artist, Studio/Audio, Record Company and Touring. Leadership Music has been in existence for 16 years, resulting in 640 alumni to date.
Alumnus Hired as Assistant Commissioner for Ohio Valley Conference
Brian Pulley, a 2006 Master of Science graduate in Sports Administration, has been named Assistant Commissioner for External Affairs for the Ohio Valley Conference and will start his new position Sept. 4. According to The Tennessean, Pulley interned with the OVC while attending Belmont, helping the conference with group sales and marketing plans. His most recent position has been as an account executive with ISP Sports in Atlanta, where he developed corporate partners for Georgia Tech Athletics.
Belmont Takes Music Business Education to Hawaii
Belmont’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business announced this week that it is expanding its program to Hawaii in a new partnership with University of Hawaii’s Honolulu Community College. The new program, MELE—Music & Entertainment Learning Experience, is designed to foster and promote the business and profession of music in Hawaii and will begin accepting students immediately.
In Hawaii, individuals interested in a career in the music business will have an opportunity to grow creatively, technically and commercially through this innovative partnership. Students who enroll in the Hawaii program will receive training in three focus areas—artist creativity, entertainment business expertise and technical production skills—and will be able to earn an associate’s degree in two years. Classes for HCC begin Aug. 20, and introductory courses offered in the MELE program include Survey of Music Business and History of the Recording Business.
Massey MBA Graduates and Senior Business Students Achieve Top Ranking on National Exams
The Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business announced today that its graduating MBA students for Summer 2007 have performed in the top 20 percent on a nationally-administered exit exam. Produced by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) of Princeton, N.J., at last measurement the exam was given to more than 5,000 students at 131 graduate business programs across the U.S.
Journalism Alumnus to Trek Across Greenland Ice Cap
Brice Minnigh, a 1993 Belmont Journalism grad, is embarking Aug. 3 with two friends on a 700-km unsupported crossing of the Greenland ice cap, the world’s second-largest after Antarctica. The trio will need to travel approximately 20 km a day in average temperatures of -20 to -30 degrees Celsius in order to reach their destination in 35 days, a time frame determined by the amount of food they will be able to carry with them on sleds.
Minnigh and fellow travelers David Jessop and Stephen Wright are no strangers to extreme adventure having previously taken on epic mountain bike journeys across rugged and remote regions, high altitude mountaineering expeditions and treks across vast areas of unexplored wilderness. In 2004, the team skied across the polar icecap to reach the North Pole.
Minnigh, a Belmont Fulbright scholar and a long-time reporter for various publications in China and Hong Kong, writes, “We’ll start at sea level on the east coast, ascend the glaciers to reach the plateau, then haul our way up and over the ice cap before descending to the fjords along the west coast. This promises to be every bit as challenging as our North Pole journey, with even lower average temperatures and the worst winds outside of Antarctica – only this time we’re trading the danger of open-water leads for crevasses.”
The three men will use their trip to raise funds for longtime charity partner ORBIS, a nonprofit humanitarian organization dedicated to blindness prevention and treatment in developing countries. This time the group hopes to equip eight village eye-care centers in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China with the tools and surgical equipment needed to help restore sight to thousands of needlessly blind children. To learn more about Minnigh’s Trans-Greenland expedition or to contribute to the team’s fundraising project, click here.
Political Science Students Attend Pre-Law Scholars Program
Two Belmont political science majors, Ameshia Cross and Fatima Karwandyar, recently attended the William H. Bowen School’s fifth annual Pre-Law Undergraduate Scholars (PLUS) program. The Bowen school is located at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and is designed to encourage diversity in the legal profession. Cross and Karwandyar embraced a rigorous course of study, which included briefing cases and taking law school exams. Cross described the program as extremely valuable, noting that she “developed a stronger sense of what to expect when applying and getting into law school.”
Parry to Present ‘Media Convergence’ Paper
Pam Parry, associate professor of journalism, will present research at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 9. She will present a paper titled: “Media Convergence in the Classroom: A National Survey of How Mass Communication Academics Are Confronting a New Paradigm.”
Riechert Named to PRSA Committee
Bonnie Riechert, assistant professor of public relations, was named to the Strategic Development Committee of the Nashville Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). PRSA president Marcia Colburn of Caterpillar Financial Services Corp. appointed the committee, which is responsible for developing the chapter’s strategic plan for 2007-2010. Other committee members are Tom Adkinson, BOHAN Advertising/Marketing; Stacy Brewer, Gray Public Relations ; Vicki Bagwell, Western Kentucky University; Julie Davis, CBRL Group Inc.; Heather Macdonald, Dye, Van Mol & Lawrence PR; Sherry Kast, Comptroller of the Treasury, State of Tennessee; Debbie McGraw, KraftCPAs; and Trey Campbell, Southwestern Co.
