November 2020 graduate Mary Spaar illustrated the cover of the most recent copy of the Nashville Scene for the week of Thanksgiving, featuring the words “hey thanks” in Nashville’s five most-spoken languages: English, Spanish, Burmese, Kurdish and Arabic. Spaar just recently graduated with her Bachelor’s in Religious Studies and a minor in social work.
In Spaar’s Illustration 1 class, taught by Art Professor Dan Brawner, the final project was aimed at working with a client, specifically the Nashville Scene. All of the students created amazing work, but the Scene chose Spaar’s submission to use as the cover.
Spaar said seeing her work used in the real world felt amazing. “I’ve been drawing since i could pick up a pen, and seeing my work in print was definitely a goal of mine! The day the issue dropped, my roommates drove me around Nashville, and we picked up copies from different places around the city,” she said. “Even now, friends will send me pictures if they spot an issue!”
Spaar explained that she had no idea the scope of nations that Nashville hosted until she took a service-learning Old Testament class her freshman year with Associate Professor of Religion and the Arts Dr. Donovan McAbee. The students worked with refugee organization Legacy Mission Village for the service portion of the class, and getting to know Nashville’s diverse refugee community is what inspired her design.
While the ability to bring all graduates together for one graduation ceremony was not possible, Belmont did receive permission from local authorities to be able to host Winter Commencement ceremonies for each college while following social distancing guidelines. Individual ceremonies were held in several locations on campus Friday, November 20 and Saturday, November 21.
The University celebrated the accomplishments of approximately 466 degree candidates, by recognizing 410 bachelor’s degrees, 55 master’s degrees and one doctoral degree.
A live stream of each ceremony is still available here.
2018 Fashion Design alumna Emily James has wanted to be a fashion designer with her own storefront business for as long as she can remember. After graduating with her degree from O’More College of Architecture and Design, she began chasing this dream through working, interning and designing until her career flourished into a partnership with her sister, a marketing and business expert, to launch a new business venture: Lady James Atelier.
Lady James is a 100 percent female owned and operated company that is dedicated to empowering all women through fashion. A French term used to define a studio or space in which a designer works, James explained that each article of clothing is hand-sewn in house at their Atelier in Nolensville, Tennessee. “We marry non-conventional looks with timeless elegance to create the most unique designs,” she said. “Our driving force, and the reason we do what we do, is to create beautiful clothes for beautiful women. We also offer the perfect tailored fit for all clothing. We give the option of not only custom women’s wear but also a luxury tailoring experience for both men’s and women’s alterations.”
James describes her personal style as taking a classic, elegant look and making it edgy or sexy, and the same aesthetic is carried through her Lady James brand. She said, “My designs merge daring silhouettes with ultra-feminine details and fabrics.”
Her style and aesthetic have caught on. Besides accomplishing her goal of opening a storefront, she has also reached another major milestone when her custom design found its way to the CMT Red Carpet in Nashville. Stylecaster even included her design as number seven in their article “Every Can’t Miss Look from the 2019 CMT Awards Red Carpet.” “This was a huge achievement for me as a designer,” James shared. “Seeing my design ranked among the top looks on stars like Carrie Underwood, Maren Morris and Carly Pearce was such a huge compliment.”
Her designs have come a long way since receiving her first sewing machine for her tenth birthday and creating clothes for her Barbie dolls. Although she fell in love with the intricacy and beautiful details of evening, bridal and red carpet wear at a young age and carried a sketchbook in hand everywhere she went, she didn’t receive an official sewing lesson until she enrolled at O’More College of Design. She explained, “I was blessed with talented instructors like Kevin Crouch who taught me all about the beautiful art of sewing and design. It was at O’More that I got to really explore what direction I wanted to go in the design world.”
She fell more and more in love with celebrity and evening wear and sought out an internship with highly renowned NYC designer Cristina Ottaviano, whose designs grace most of New York’s biggest red carpets. After a successful summer internship in NYC with Ottaviano and graduation, James worked for a year with an expert tailor in Nashville as she grew into the city’s country music industry. While working full-time as a personal assistant to Aaron McGill at Only One Tailoring, meeting many celebrity artists and dozens of country music stars, James was still working on designs of her own. She juggled two jobs for a year and a half before going full-time with her custom women’s wear design work and luxury tailoring and eventually starting the partnership with her sister.
“It was the perfect match and the beginning of a new business venture,” James said. “We were blessed with many opportunities leading to our Lady James atelier opening in October of this year. We are still learning how to navigate not only a new business, but a pandemic nonetheless. It takes lots of hard work and dedication, but we couldn’t be happier with the ability to finally make our entrepreneurial dreams a reality!”
James hopes to grow more into the country music industry and one day be the “go-to designer” for women’s custom red carpet and luxury wear in Nashville. She and her sister plan to eventually open another storefront in downtown Nashville. While the duo gain their bearings as two new entrepreneurs, James said she is thankful for her family’s support, the experiences she gained with Ottaviano and McGill, and for the instructors at O’More, namely Crouch.
James said perseverance, passion and networking are key to starting and running a business. “Many people will tell you, ‘No,’ ‘You’re too young,’ or even, ‘You’re not good enough,’ but you have to believe in yourself and your business,” she said. “No one will believe in you like you do. Ultimately, don’t quit dreaming!”
The Belmont Center for Executive Education Executive Director Melanie Adams participated in a panel discussion on the topic of “Utilizing Coaching in Leadership Development” at the 43rd annual Conference on Management and Executive Development on November 18.
Adams along with Ray Luther, executive director of the Partnership for Coaching Excellence and Personal Leadership at Indiana University, and Deb Kennedy, a leadership coach for Strategic Directions Coaching, discussed the different aspects of utilizing executive coaching for individuals within high potential employee programs and the value of individual coaching engagements for leaders.
Adams spoke to conference attendees about the Center for Executive Education’s executive coaching approach, including information about client needs assessments, developing coaching partners, engagement structures and the coordinated communication plans for clients, CEE Executive Coaches and Program Managers. Adams provided the group with best practices and examples of recent CEE programming that included leadership development cohort experiences for client companies that incorporated either team or individual coaching to support the development of targeted skills and competencies.
The Conference on Management and Executive Development is an annual conference that brings together Executive Education leaders from colleges and universities to learn from each other and discuss relevant topics within the industry.
To learn more information about the Belmont University Center for Executive Education or executive coaching engagements for individuals and teams, please go to belmontleadership.com or e-mail cee@belmont.edu.
For the seventh year in a row, Mike Curb College of Music Business and School of Music students had the opportunity to submit their music to Sony/ATV Music Publishing Nashville. Of the more than 100 submissions, the music publishing giant chose five students for an online mentoring session with their Creative Team.
Belmont students Brooks Knapton, Kristina Sarro, Ryan Kohn, Sarah Killian and Julia Paymer received the opportunity to attend this mentoring session with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
“It was a surreal experience being ‘in the room’ with such top-notch people in the industry. They had a lot to say about the journey that I am on and offered a lot of feedback, advice and wisdom that I will certainly carry forward with me,” Sarro shared. “I definitely felt reaffirmed that I was on the right path, doing the right things and that I need to stick with this passion that I love so much. Forever and ever grateful that they believe in me!”
Kohn shared, “The people from Sony were so laid back and supportive yet totally honest when I needed them to be.” Another student, Paymer, shared that “being able to talk to people who are amongst the highest-ranking people here in Nashville and getting advice and feedback is something I’ll forever be grateful for.”
Josh Van Valkenburg, Senior Vice President, Nashville A&R said, “Thank you again for allowing us an early glimpse into the impressive talent pool at Belmont. We’re already looking forward to next year!”
In the wake of the successful Presidential Debate held on Belmont’s campus and the recent announcement of plans for a new College of Medicine in partnership with HCA Healthcare, Belmont University continues to push forward, investing in growth and in student success. The latest evidence of this is the announcement of a new residence hall to be built on Caldwell Avenue, set to open in the fall of 2022. The 268,000 square foot structure will join the residential village created with the completion of Tall Hall in 2018 on the south end of campus. Like Tall Hall, this building will provide incredible views of downtown Nashville and will house more than 600 upperclassmen upon completion.
Approximately 60 percent of Belmont’s undergraduate population lived on campus in 2019, and the new hall will increase residential spaces enough to raise that to almost 70 percent of undergraduate students as Belmont remains committed to providing students with a traditional residential, liberal arts-based education.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “We believe our students get the best out of their college experience when they call this place their home. We want them right here in the heart of all that is going on, and I’m proud that we will be able to offer that opportunity to hundreds more of our upperclassmen in this state-of-the-art facility. I believe in our students and I believe it is so important to continue investing in and providing additional resources to support our students and help our campus grow.”
The building will feature all private bedrooms in apartment-style living with a multitude of amenities such as a fitness center, flexible basement space and vending area, a unique two-story lobby featuring study and gathering areas, mail and laundry rooms and two exterior courtyards. The structure will be built with the same high-performance environmental standards as other Belmont projects and will feature exterior limestone and brick accents. Nashville-based R.C. Mathews is the contractor and ESa the architect for the project, which is anticipated to have a total cost of $98 million.
The building will feature a unique two-story lobby with study and gathering areas.
“This project is just the latest example of Dr. Fisher’s and the Board of Trustees’ constant commitment to provide the transformational experience of on-campus living,” said Dr. Anthony Donovan, associate dean of students and director of Residence Life. “The University continues to provide students a great place to live that rivals the best housing in Nashville, but with the support and structure that leads to increased success while at Belmont.”
This residence hall will add to the 3,500 residential spaces that Belmont has built on campus in the past several years through the construction of 11 residence halls, just part of the extraordinary campus development that represents more than $1 billion invested in new construction, renovations and property acquisitions.
Other campus projects currently under construction include the new Belmont University Performing Arts Center and an indoor athletics practice facility, both slated to open in fall of 2021. The Belmont University Performing Arts Center, which will be located between Bernard and Compton Avenue on Belmont Boulevard, will house a 1,700-seat multi-purpose theatre, a grand lobby and two contiguous event spaces that can hold more than 900 guests when combined with the lobby. The two-story, 45,000 square-foot indoor athletics practice facility located on Compton Avenue will house two full courts for basketball and volleyball. The project will also feature athletic training and strength and conditioning space, a video room with theatre-style seating, locker rooms, coaches’ offices, conference rooms, equipment rooms and team lounge areas.
Belmont undergraduate (2005) and School of Occupational Therapy (2007) alumna Jenny Owens was recently published in Disability and Neurorehabilitation. As a clinical occupational therapist, Owens worked for the Department of Defense treating active-duty soldiers with mild traumatic brain injuries. With cognitive rehabilitation as a focal point of her work, she observed that some soldiers were not able to translate traditional compensatory strategies to real-world situations.
Owens and a team of experts sought and received a federal grant to study the feasibility of teaching active-duty soldiers to use implementation intentions (a novel approach to treating executive dysfunction) to advance self-identified goals. Her role on the team was to administer the experimental and control interventions to Ft. Campbell soldiers over the course of six sessions.
Building off her clinical and research experience working with soldiers, Owens and her husband also founded REBOOT Recovery, a non-profit that helps veterans, first responders and their families heal from trauma through faith-based, peer-led courses.
Out of all her experiences, Owen shared that “working with the military has involved adapting to an entirely new culture, but I’ve met some of the most remarkable and inspiring people and I have seen the unique benefits of occupational therapy play out in helping soldiers reclaim purpose and meaning after injury.”
The research studied the effects of a high-fat diet and stress on long-term memory formation in rats that were either developmentally adolescents or adults. They found that a high-fat diet produces stronger behavior impairments during adolescence and these impairments only partially recover in adulthood, suggesting that diet during the adolescent period potentially has profound and long-term effects on the developing brain.
Public health senior Kirsten Fox began interning with Alignment Nashville in mid-August in addition to starting her final semester at Belmont. Fox has been completing the internship virtually with the organization and working on a project to “impact the growth and development of Metro Nashville Public School students.”
Alignment Nashville’s goal is to collaborate with resources and community organizations to ensure that public schools are set up for success. With 20 alignment teams, 150 community organizations and 275 alignment team members, their vision is that “all Metro Nashville Public Schools students meet their unique potential.”
Although sitting on a room in her computer is far from what she had imagined for her internship, Fox shared how beneficial this unique opportunity has been. “I am able to sit in on more meetings and gain knowledge about all aspects of the organization since the meetings are on Zoom,” she said.
Fox has been learning many areas of the education realm, as well as the public health aspects. Her responsibilities include evaluating the organization’s Mental Health 101 training and reviewing its strategic plan to provide suggestions for the next steps in Nashville Metro’s sex education program.
Through this internship, Fox has been working with the Behavioral Health A-Team and the YES, Youth Equity and Sexuality, A-Team. “It has been very evident how important a public health perspective is in education, especially right now, and how the quality of schools and ones’ education can be a major factor of their health,” Fox explained.
She first found out about this internship through a board member of Alignment Nashville and was then connected to President and CEO Melissa Jaggers.
During the interview process, both Kirsten and Alignment were able to see how her goals and interests aligned with multiple projects that the organization was working on. For the past five years, Fox has worked in Haiti with the Nashville Cathedral Haiti Mission (NCHM) which heavily impacted her decision to study public health. While living in Nashville, she works with the education department of NCHM as their program coordinator. “During the school year, I have the tasks of hiring and training recent high school graduates to teach for our summer English Immersion Program. Then, during the summer I live in Haiti to run the program,” she explained.
Currently, Fox is a board member of the organization, manages their social media accounts and is in the process of creating a new website for NCHM. Long-term, she hopes to continue working while expanding upon the health side of the organization with her experience from Alignment Nashville.
For Kirsten Fox’s featured introduction to Alignment Nashville, click here.
Belmont alumna Megan Swanson took her passion for women and education to the Miss USA stage competing against 51 women representing each state including the District of Colombia. The Miss USA 2020 competition took place on November 9 at the former estate of Elvis Presley in Memphis, TN with Swanson representing the state of Nebraska. As a launch to the competition, Swanson was featured on Inside Magazine as a part of their “Meet the 51 Women Competing to be Miss USA 2020.”
“I was so grateful that we got to have a national pageant during COVID-19,” shared Swanson. “It definitely wasn’t the ‘regular Miss USA’ experience of times past, but I am so incredibly proud of the production from start to finish and honored that I got to share several parts of my story and passion on the national telecast.”
The Miss Nebraska representative graduated Magna Cum Laude from Belmont’s School of Music as a commercial voice major with a minor in music business. Post-graduation, she began to develop her career in the pageantry industry all while making a difference through various platforms such as her “Powerhouse Project.”
Powerhouse Project is a female empowerment organization that is currently operating in 30 states where Swanson acts as the full-time CEO. The Powerhouse Project coaches women in their self-confidence, leadership and communication skills largely by helping them compete in pageants.
Swanson shared that she has the “most fun and rewarding job in the world: being a mentor and leading women into the lives of their dreams.” The Powerhouse Project helps them gain full-ride scholarships to universities all over the world, start companies birthed from their passions, and take control of their lives as leaders and active members of their communities.
“This pageant system gave me a better platform to raise awareness for very important causes and show the world that pageant women are as intelligent and well-involved in their communities as they are externally beautiful,” shared Swanson. “ Any woman should be proud to call herself a pageant woman, and that’s why I’ve dedicated my life to advancing those opportunities for women.”
The full-time CEO is also an ambassador for Gallup which helps students to find their unique set of strengths. In addition, she champions women alongside the organization RISE by speaking in local prisons to help women develop skills needed for a thriving life after incarceration.
“I am walking home with nothing but pride of how I competed, how I represented myself, and my home state of Nebraska,” shard Swanson. To see an article published earlier this year on Swanson’s success story of being crowned Miss Nebraska, click here.
