Philosophy Department Chair and Associate Professor Dr. Mark Anderson published his fifth book, Zarathustra Stone, in October. The book relates the story of the day Friedrich Nietzsche thought the thought that changed his life, and that would, he believed, alter the course of western intellectual history.
The narrative explains imaginatively the origin of Nietzsche’s idea, not only its philosophical roots, but its biographical, emotional and psychological sources, as well.
Concetta Smith, career development specialist for Belmont College of Law, was recently named as one of Nashville’s Top 30 Under 30.
Nashville’s Top 30 Under 30 recognizes the city’s most active young professionals and philanthropists under the age of 30 while benefiting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s work to develop ways to control and cure cystic fibrosis.
Smith was selected by a panel of judges based on her involvement in the community. A graduate of the Young Leader’s Council and current intern at The Women’s Fund, Smith is on the 2017 Power of the Purse Committee and served on the Tomorrow Fund of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee’s Advisory Board for three years. She is actively involved with the Nashville Junior League, Preston Taylor Ministries and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
For more information, click here.
Over 130 doctoral students and alumni from Belmont’s School of Physical Therapy recently helped coordinate logistics for Nashville’s annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The Belmont group helped with course set-up and take-down and served as course marshals managing a crowd of over 20,000 participants and spectators.
Dr. Michael Voight, professor of physical therapy, was co-chair for this year’s race along with Dr. Ashley Campbell, adjunct professor in the School and an alumnus of the doctoral program. Voight serves on the local Komen organization’s Board of Directors and has facilitated the participation of Belmont students as volunteers for many years. “Komen Greater Nashville has provided more than $4 million in screening, treatment and educational services to women in middle Tennessee,” said Voight, “Much of that is raised each year with the Race for the Cure in which our students contribute greatly.” Additional faculty support comes from Dr. Pat Sells who leads the race volunteer program.
Third-year students Jade Manning and Brittany Ryan served as class leaders to train and coordinate their classmates in preparing for the race weeks in advance. Many worked until dark on race day with course set-up, and 120 volunteers began the day at 6 a.m. to coordinate last-minute logistics. “Each year when we volunteer at these charitable events, I’m reminded why I wanted to be a physical therapist in the first place–to help promote a healthier and more positive world,” Ryan said. Second-year student Sarah Hogan said, “I love volunteering for Komen each year because it provides great class bonding while raising money for an important cause. I have multiple breast cancer survivors in my family, and seeing all these people in pink reminds me of the struggle that so many families endure.”
Patty Harman, executive director of the Nashville Komen affiliate, expressed gratitude to the Belmont students for their contribution. “The race would not have been as successful without our friends from Belmont University School of Physical Therapy,” she said. “We cancer survivors and co-survivors understand and appreciate the gift they provide each year in this unique way.”
“We had another successful event with more people participating this year than ever before,” said Haden McWhorter, Komen board member and chairman of the event. “Belmont jumped in to do whatever was needed to make it a wonderful experience for each person. We can’t thank them enough for all they did.”
On October 25, five students from the Jack C. Massey College of Business competed against each other in the third annual Young Professionals Case Competition at Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation. The purpose of the competition is to allow teams to work together to solve a real-world problem that Caterpillar Financial is currently experiencing while using a strategy that aims to eliminate defects in business processes, known as the Six Sigma methodology.
Each Belmont student was placed into a team consisting of business students from Tennessee State and Clark Atlanta Universities, a Caterpillar Financial employee in both the Young Professionals and African American networks and a Caterpillar Financial Black Belt. The teams were able to spend time getting to know one another during two days of workshops that took place in September before receiving the case on October 24. Teams were then given time to develop strategies and finalize their proposals before presenting to a panel of 13 judges, including the CEO and President of Caterpillar Financial Kent Adams and the Dean of the Jack C. Massey College of Business Dr. Pat Raines.
The panel noted the level of professionalism each group presented and expressed how impressed they were with each of the teams before choosing a first and second place winner. Senior marketing major and Honors student Megan Klumpe was on the winning team and junior marketing and management information systems double major Jordan Dunn was on the second place team. Students Kit Barker, Steven Kim and James Ulrich were members of the three succeeding teams.
The Belmont University College of Law made the 2016 list of preLaw magazine’s Top 12 Best Value private law schools. The best value determination is based on a number of factors, including tuition, employment, bar passage rates, debt and cost of living expenses.
Students from Belmont University’s Greek Life Chapter hosted a Halloween Celebration on Friday, October 28 for children that live in the nearby Edgehill community. The students returned on Halloween to host a second celebration. More than 400 children attended both events where they participated in Halloween-themed activities in a safe and fun environment.
Friday’s festivities included a number of opportunities for kids to enjoy the holiday in a safe environment including corn hole, a pumpkin toss, face painting and other games hosted by Phi Mu and Alpha Gamma Delta, as well as both the fraternity and sorority councils.
Paige Lauri, vice president of programming for Belmont’s Panhellenic Council, said the opportunity to spend time with the families and children who live in the neighborhood is invaluable for students. “The best part was seeing the joy on people’s faces,” Lauri said. “It’s so great to contribute to providing such a fun night for these kids. Sometimes, as students, we don’t recognize what serving our community can do for people, but it truly makes a difference. It’s our honor to show love, patience and kindness to our neighbors.”
Monday’s Halloween festivities included additional opportunities to celebrate the holiday with stations where children bobbed for apples, played bingo, completed crafting projects and more. Festivities were hosted by all nine of Belmont’s Greek Life chapters.
Launched last year to celebrate the University’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, Belmont’s second annual Diversity Week was held Monday, October 24 – Friday, October 28 and included many opportunities for the Belmont community to engage in important dialogue and experience diversity on the university’s campus.
Beginning with a Diversity Forum, the week’s highlights included two “Real Talk” sessions where faculty, staff and students were led through a facilitated discussion regarding diversity and inclusion efforts, an opportunity for faculty and staff to discuss implicit bias and micro-aggressions and an interactive art project centered around individual diversity, among other things.
Throughout the week, service opportunities were offered at local nonprofits where members of the Belmont community engaged in community service with fellow Nashvillians. Serving at Second Harvest Food Bank, The Word Wagon and the Nashville Rescue Mission, among others, more than 60 individuals came together to serve.
On Friday, the week culminated with a special keynote address by Metro Mayor Megan Barry. During her time on campus, Mayor Barry discussed Nashville’s diversity initiatives, her vision for Nashville’s future as it relates to diversity and inclusion and what Belmont can do to further that vision.
Mayor Barry discussed her commitment, since her first day in office, to be sure her team reflects Nashville’s diversity. Seeing the government as the ultimate “convener,” the Mayor said the city will become more and more diverse and inclusive when the government understands its ability to bring people of all backgrounds together for important conversations.
A successful Nashville is a diverse Nashville, Barry said. Because our citizens can “only be what they see,” they must see people of all backgrounds in all positions. As the leader of our city, Mayor Barry said she sees herself as an individual convener, and with only 1,011 days left in her term, based upon the countdown she said she sees on her phone each morning, there’s not much time left to finish the things she’s started, so she feels a sense of urgency. “I only have 1,011 days left to move this needle,” she said. “And we don’t solve these problems on our own–we have to solve them together through the lens of equity, diversity and inclusivity.”
An initiative of Belmont’s Welcome Home Team, Diversity Week was created to provide an opportunity for faculty, staff and students to celebrate the diversity represented on Belmont’s campus and facilitate important conversations surrounding existing and upcoming initiatives. For more information, click here.
For images from the week’s events, click here.
Carrie Nanney, a 2001 Belmont alumna and former member of the soccer team, recently ended her first year of playing professional women’s football with an undefeated team record and a world champion title. Nanney plays as a kicker on the offensive line for the Utah Falconz. In July, the team made it to the world championship game in the Independent Women’s Football League (IWFL), where they rose above competing team the Minnesota Vixen. Nanney plans to continue her time with the team during next year’s season.
Nanney started her football career in high school, when she broke through gender barriers by playing as a placekicker on her high school’s boy’s football team. She played for two years before graduating and moving to Nashville to attend Belmont as a broadcasting major. While at Belmont, Nanney got involved with the very first women’s soccer team and played for two years. She also worked full time at the YMCA in Green Hills and interned in the sports department for Nashville’s News Channel 5. Nanney moved back to her hometown of Salt Lake City in 2002 and currently works in the marketing department for a non-profit higher education organization.
Nanney continued to play soccer for parks and recreation leagues once she was back in Salt Lake City, but she missed the competitive atmosphere and team environment of Belmont’s soccer program. Playing for the Falconz provided her with the exciting sports environment she had been missing.
For more information on Nanney’s journey, check out this feature article written by the Colorado Springs Gazette.
Belmont’s Mathematical Musings & Munchings (MM&M) focused on mathematics and democracy this month as Dr. Mike Pinter, professor of mathematics and director of Belmont’s Teaching Center, presented “Voting Schemes: Is Ranking a Good Alternative to “Vote for One”?” on Wed., Oct. 19. During this interactive session, participants explored several voting methods and considered the advantages and shortcomings of each. Pinter also presented examples from recent years, including a vote about voting in Great Britain and U.S. Presidential elections since 1992.
Grayson Carroll, Belmont computer science alumnus, entrepreneur, and technologist, presented “The Intersection of Data and Politics” on Wed., Oct. 26. The political world is inundated with data. Between open government data sets detailing votes, committee membership and campaign contribution and the vast swathes of data that the government has, the political process is driven by data. Carroll discussed the data open to citizens to help us stay informed, as well as the data politicians use to optimize their campaign process.
Local high school students were invited to celebrate National Chemistry Week as the Chemistry Department at Belmont University hosted Belmont High School Chemistry Day 2016 on October 21. A total of 23 high school students from five metro area high schools participated.
During Chemistry Day, Belmont students performed demonstrations and lead participants in a variety of hands-on activities showing how chemistry is used in the real world. The Belmont students that participated included Bailey Rose, Londyn Eberhardt, Anna Margaret McDonnell, Hannah Burnette, Hope Kramer, Nick Orji, John Longenecker and Hannah Peterson representing chemistry, biochemistry & molecular biology, and neuroscience. Drs. Rachel Rigsby and Dr. Alison Parker, chemistry, gave the students tours of the chemistry labs. Participants also had lunch in Belmont’s Harrington Place Dining and were given a campus tour.
**Above image provided by Belmont student Sarah Cannavino**
