A website created by Belmont students, “Nashville Shakespeare Performance Archive,” was selected for inclusion in the “Folgerpedia,” an online encyclopedia of teaching resources sponsored by the Folger Shakespeare Library. The website was funded by a grant from the Folger Shakespeare Library in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The grant and the website were organized and facilitated by two classes of Belmont students under the guidance of Drs. Marcia McDonald, Jayme Ye, and Joel Overall, with graduate student assistant Alyssa Wynans, who recently graduated from Belmont with a Master of Arts in English.
Belmont’s College of Pharmacy, in partnership with Aegis Sciences Corporation, recently celebrated the completion of its first Clinical Scientist Fellow in Drug Information, a two-year program that provides an intensive postgraduate training program focused on drug information, evidence-based practice, teaching and research. Dr. Kate Claussen, of Hendersonville, Tennessee, was the program’s first fellow.
The program is one of approximately 60 postgraduate pharmacy fellowships in the country and offers a unique training experience in areas not widely available in pharmacy training. Two new fellows, Jeneva Garland and Stephanie Manley, began their training on June 1. This program is the first drug information fellowship in Nashville and the only drug information fellowship with a healthcare laboratory component.
This summer, Belmont will send its largest group of students across the world for study abroad experiences. With more than 650 students participating in 34 programs, including Maymester trips, students will spend time in Greece, Brazil, England, France, Switzerland and Haiti, among many other locations.
Belmont’s new Director of Study Abroad Dr. Thandi Dinani said the opportunity to spend time abroad in college is an invaluable experience as participants are able to see the world in a whole new way. “Studying abroad encourages students to expand worldviews and deepen their understanding of themselves and the world,” Dinani said. “Living in a global society, it is important that our students experience and understand the interconnectedness of the world. It also prepares students for their future careers, as they learn to understand diverse perspectives and work to navigate other cultures.”
Junior corporate communication and psychological science double major Christiana Duerksen recently participated in a month-long trip to China. While there, she visited Beijing, Zhengzhou, Hangzhou, Huangshan and Shanghai, among other cities. Focused on “China Rising,” the trip was centered around understanding the Chinese culture and included four courses for credit.
Image provided by Christiana Duerksen.
While there, the group visited many landmarks including Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Shaolin Monastery, the Longmen Grottoes and Huangshan Mountain. They experienced diverse cuisine and traveled throughout the country by bus and train.
Though Duerksen has traveled abroad before, she said this trip was different. “I’ve never been somewhere so incredibly different than the US,” she said. “My favorite memories, aside from the amazing sights, were the moments all the students spent together. Because it’s a month-long trip, we developed great friendships. The best moments were getting to explore an incredible country with the people I was becoming so close with.”
As a season traveler herself, Duerksen said one of the reasons she chose Belmont was for its study abroad offerings. After having the opportunity to travel to Peru and Europe through her high school in Colorado, Duerksen said she was especially interested in an institution that could provide similar experiences. “I knew, coming into Belmont, that I wanted to study abroad,” she said. “Anyone can book a flight and a hotel to visit another country, but you can’t get this same type of experience without being there with your professors and such knowledgeable tour guides. This trip was absolutely incredible.”
A public relations senior, Johnathan Pushkar spent three weeks in Rome, Florence and Paris, among other cities, for the “Belmont in France & Italy: Culture, Cooking & Cardio” trip. While there, Pushkar earned credit for chemistry, psychology and writing courses. “My experience abroad was nothing short of extraordinary,” he said. “We tried tons of Italian and French foods, stayed on a Tuscan farm overnight, traveled by bus to amazing sites like Pompeii, Assisi and Versailles and spent time exploring the city streets of Paris, Florence and Rome!”
Image provided by Johnathan Pushkar
Having the opportunity travel to cities that are older than anywhere else he’s been, Pushkar said he was amazed at the chance to marvel at such impressive landmarks. “Everything we’ve ever seen in the States was not even in existence while these locations were in their hey day,” he said. “Most vividly, I remember making amazing friends on the trip, listening to music while driving through the Italian countryside, and taking in each and every moment knowing that this was the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Reflecting back on his time abroad, Pushkar said its the opportunity to experience personal development that means the most. “The best part of the experience was coming out of my shell and setting forth on an unexpected adventure,” he said. “I learned so much about myself traveling with a group of people who I had not met before, and the introspection that a trip abroad offers a traveler cannot be achieved at home. There is something almost surreal about standing at sites that you have only previously read about, and connecting those past lessons with the opportunity to visit historic sites will remain with me for the rest of my life.”
Dr. Joy Jordan-Lake shared her strategies and passions for narrative writing with students in Professor of English Dr. Beverly Schneller’s Third Year Writing class on July 14. The course theme is “The Power of Narrative,” and Dr. Jordan-Lake discussed the role of research in creativity.
Her new novel, “A Tangled Mercy,” will be published in November.
For the past seven weeks, 16 Belmont nursing students have participated in the Vanderbilt Experience: Student Nurse Internship Program (VESNIP), a summer internship program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), with students from four other regional nursing programs. Three Belmont nursing students were awarded the highest honors at the culminating awards ceremony held on Wednesday, June 29. Of the seven total awards given, three went to Belmont students.
VUMC credo behaviors identify those individuals that aspire to excellence and expert performance by making those they serve their highest priority, conducting themselves professionally, respecting confidentiality, communicating effectively, having a sense of ownership and exhibiting a commitment to colleagues. Carly Rabideau received the Credo Award for the Perioperative/PACU Track, Alexa Yatauro received the Credo Award in the Psychiatric Track and Sarah (Sally) Rogan received the Credo Award for the Critical Care Track.
All VESNIP participants with Dr. Leslie Folds (left).
This is the 12th year of the VESNIP program. The program began as a partnership between Belmont School of Nursing and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It has now expanded to a total of 60+ students from four area nursing schools. VESNIP positions are very competitive and are considered elite opportunities for students from around the region. Associate Professor of Nursing Dr. Leslie Folds said, “Our students are exceptional and represent Belmont’s values throughout this program. I was extremely impressed by not only the students’ professionalism, but their ability to engage in critical thinking, reflection and incorporation of evidence-based research to the clinical setting.”
All Credo Winners are pictured above with Dr. Folds.
Vince Romanelli, 2003 Belmont commercial music graduate, appeared on the July 6 episode of ABC’s “The Gong Show.” Hosted by celebrity judges Dana Carvey, Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson, “The Gong Show” celebrates talented and unique performers. While on the show, Romanelli performed a 90 second video mapped, LED drumming performance where he musically battled his shadow until the duo competed in a video game “death match” with drumsticks.
Throughout his career, Romanelli has gone on to start a few drumming groups including a comedy-street drumming show, rePercussion, that he has toured the world with since 1997 and Bucket Ruckus, a group that performs at minor league baseball games. His newest creation and the performance he gave on The Gong Show is djrummer, a one-man, hi-tech interactive DJ drumming show.
Romanelli said the opportunity to perform on The Gong Show was both stressful and wonderful at the same time. “No one had ever seen anything like what I did because I totally invented the concept,” he said. “I feel really good about that. I’m super glad I did it.”
Now in its 3rd year, Belmont’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURFs) Program is currently hosting 24 students across campus, in a variety of disciplines, who have devoted their summer to scientific research. Started by Chair of the Chemistry and Physics Department Dr. Robert Magruder in 2015, the SURFs program engages students early in their collegiate career and provides participants with housing and a stipend while they work alongside faculty members to complete important research.
When Dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics Dr. Thom Spence came to Belmont three years ago, he noticed that the University’s Summer Scholars program encouraged juniors and seniors to spend their summers on campus engaging in research. Seeing a need to involve younger students in these same experiences, he worked alongside Magruder to create the SURFs programming. “I was immediately interested in developing a program that would engage students earlier in their academic careers,” Spence said. “SURFs does just that. By targeting early career students, we are able to allow all students the opportunity to experience meaningful research–an opportunity that can be transformative for their education.”
Since the majority of students are early in their Belmont careers, Spence said the fellows are encouraged to work on projects outside their disciplines. “We have had biology students working on material science projects, biochemistry students working on chemical kinetics and even an actuarial studies student working in analytical chemistry.”
This year, students are engaging in variety of projects whose ‘real world’ implications are immense. From cell isolation for illness treatment to comparing the sound differences between old and new guitars to ‘working from the inside out’ to treat cancer cells and understand how medication dosages effect performance, SURF participants are conducting research that could have a significant impact on the scientific community.
Junior neuroscience and pre-med major Crystal Lemus chose to study microfluidics and cell isolation, hoping to gain insight into better treatment options and early detection for infectious diseases or cancer. Having no previous experience with this topic, Lemus said she chose the project intentionally. “Being the curious person that I am, I decided to venture out to the unknown and try to find answers to things not previously known,” she said. “The entire point of conducting research and being vulnerable before the scientific process is to allow yourself to acquire knowledge along the way.”
Looking towards a career in medical research, while also serving as a physician, Lemus said the opportunity to working alongside other students and her faculty advisor this summer has been a significant learning opportunity. “This program is one of the things that sparked my interest in the first place,” she said. “The professors here truly care about our future and have a true love for the scientific process–something that I also aspire to continue giving to younger generations of scientists.”
For chemistry major and junior Claire Holden, the opportunity to participate in the SURFs program has been invaluable — especially given who she had the chance to work under. Interested in pursuing her MD-PhD in pharmacology in the future, Holden took the opportunity to work under Dr. Marilyn Odom, Professor & Chair of Pharmaceutical, Social and Administrative Science in the College of Pharmacy. Having worked with many students who have earned the prestigious degree, Holden was eager to learn from Odom.
“My lab skills, my ability to extrapolate and apply what I learn and my ability to read and synthesize scientific articles have all gotten better because of Dr. Odom and the SURFS program,” Holden said. “Dr. Odom has been immensely helpful and generous enough to help me get where I need to be if I want to succeed in such a rigorous graduate program. I know my time with her will be an asset moving forward.”
Spence points to research as one of the most important activities students can participate in during their undergraduate careers. “As important as teaching labs are, they can not teach all of the creative and critical thinking skills needed to be successful in a research setting,” he said. “It is our aim to get these students up and running with a project as independently as possible, as quickly as possible. It is so important that undergraduate students are given the opportunity engage in research early in their academic careers, and we are so happy to provide SURFs as one of the many opportunities students have to experience meaningful research.”
Belmont School of Music faculty members Carolyn Treybig (flute), Joel Treybig (trumpet) and Andrew Risinger (organ) were recently broadcast nationally on APM’s/NPR’s Pipedreams. The trio’s recording of Stanley Friedman’s eclectic “Spin the Painted Pony” was chosen by host Michael Barone for inclusion on the program “American Tapestry,” a program that focuses entirely on American music.
Dr. Bonnie Smith Whitehouse, professor of English, will be publishing Afoot: Groundwork for Creative Walkers with Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Afoot is an interactive journal designed to unleash the power of walking for creativity, well-being and adventure in the digital age.
Smith Whitehouse’s book is inspired by her experience teaching a BELL Core Interdisciplinary Learning Community Course, The Adventures of Writers Who Walk, a course paired with Dr. Holly Huddleston’s Health & Fitness Concepts.
The accreditation review came back with no deferrals, a rare status the School of Music has earned twice in the last 20 years
Belmont’s School of Music recently received notification from the National Association of Schools of Music Commission on Accreditation that its membership was granted renewal with no deferrals. The School’s next self-study will take place in 2026-27.
The NASM accreditation process began in April 2015 with several committees working on a variety of areas including purposes, standards for degrees, recruitment and admissions, graduation requirements, curricular offerings, faculty and staff, administration and facilities. After mailing the report in September 2016, the School of Music hosted a site visit team of reviewers in October. While on campus, the team visited classes, met with students, administration and faculty, reviewed documentation and attended a concert that showcased performers and styles found within the School. The NASM Commission met in June to reaffirm the School’s accreditation.
Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts Dr. Stephen Eaves said, “Accreditation renewal by NASM is one of the many outcomes that confirm our commitment to excellence in the School of Music and the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Belmont. This affirmation is evidence of a strong foundation for our creative community and encourage us to continue to provide the best 21st century experience for student excellence, artistry and creativity possible.”
Belmont’s Art Department was re-affirmed last spring by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and the Theatre and Dance Department will begin creating their self-study for a site visit in 2018 to be re-approved in 2019.
Founded in 1924, the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) is an organization of schools, conservatories, colleges, and universities with approximately 650 accredited institutional members. It establishes national standards for undergraduate and graduate degrees and other credentials for music and music-related disciplines, and provides assistance to institutions and individuals engaged in artistic, scholarly, educational, and other music-related endeavors.
Belmont’s College of Pharmacy, in partnership with Aegis Sciences Corporation, recently celebrated the completion of its first Clinical Scientist Fellow in Drug Information, a two-year program that provides an intensive postgraduate training program focused on drug information, evidence-based practice, teaching and research. Dr. Kate Claussen, of Hendersonville, Tennessee, was the program’s first fellow.
Since the majority of students are early in their Belmont careers, Spence said the fellows are encouraged to work on projects outside their disciplines. “We have had biology students working on material science projects, biochemistry students working on chemical kinetics and even an actuarial studies student working in analytical chemistry.”
Spence points to research as one of the most important activities students can participate in during their undergraduate careers. “As important as teaching labs are, they can not teach all of the creative and critical thinking skills needed to be successful in a research setting,” he said. “It is our aim to get these students up and running with a project as independently as possible, as quickly as possible. It is so important that undergraduate students are given the opportunity engage in research early in their academic careers, and we are so happy to provide SURFs as one of the many opportunities students have to experience meaningful research.”
