Belmont University senior Skyler Schmanski, an international politics major with an emphasis in European and middle eastern geopolitics and minors in French and international business, was recently admitted to France’s Kedge Business School, ranked No. 29 among business schools in Europe and No. 4 in France.
Schmanski attended Kedge as an international exchange student last semester and will return to Marseille in the fall to pursue his Masters of Science in marketing and business development.
Dr. Stephen Hankil Shin, assistant professor of sport science, recently published a peer-reviewed article with Dr. Chul-Ho Bum of Kyung Hee University in South Korea titled “The relationships between coaches’ leadership styles, competitive state anxiety, and golf performance in Korean junior golfers,” (Volume 24, Issue 5-6) in the Sport Science Review.
Commuter students and employees should be aware that all surface parking lots will closed today to allow crews to remove snow and ice so cars should be parked in garages. In addition to surface parking lots, closed areas include the top floors of the Curb and Thrailkill garages and Portland Avenue (between MPAC and the library). The 4th floor entrance for the Curb Garage from 15th Avenue will be open today. Because weather and road conditions can vary greatly within our region, students, faculty and staff are urged to use individual discretion when making the decision to travel to campus in snow or icy weather.
More than 200 university students and community volunteers carried on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Saturday when they spent hours volunteering at the sixth annual MLK Day of Service. Students from Belmont, Lipscomb, Trevecca Nazarene, Vanderbilt, Tennessee State, Fisk and Middle Tennessee State Universities gathered at Second Harvest Food Bank to celebrate and honor King through a day of community service. Mayor Megan Barry, Representative Harold Love Jr. and Congressman Jim Cooper attended the event’s kick-off and spoke to students about the importance of service as a way to honor King’s legacy.
Belmont’s Director of Service-Learning Tim Stewart said the Day of Service is one of the more important events his office plans as students from all over the city are able to come together and honor Dr. King’s beliefs by directly impacting their community. “It’s an honor to play a part in commemorating the life and legacy of Dr. King by facilitating an opportunity for the universities in our great city to come together and address issues facing all of us. Belmont could not be more pleased to participate. We’re already looking forward to next year!”
The Corporation for National and Community Service, through North Carolina Campus Compact, awarded Belmont a $1,500 grant to facilitate the service projects. Throughout the day, students volunteered at one of six sites across the city and participated in service projects aimed at hunger relief and veteran care. At Second Harvest Food Bank and Feed the Children, students packed and sorted more than 34,000 lbs of donated food, and 15 pallets of personal care items. Others prepared the Wedgewood Community Garden for spring planting at The Nashville Food Project. At The Sweet Potato Drop students sorted and bagged 9,000 lbs of sweet potatoes, while those assigned to Trevecca’s Urban Farm tended plants in green houses for the coming season. At Room in the Inn, students joined veterans in completing a collaborative art project.
The opportunity to serve alongside other students is directly in line with Belmont’s mission to serve and transform the Nashville community as students are encouraged to pursue service opportunities during their time on campus. Student and event participant Alexis Humbrecht said “Belmont stresses service throughout Nashville because it is our community. Nashville gives so much to Belmont, and Belmont does all that it can to give back to Nashville. Anytime I serve, I am reminded that most of my problems are trivial and that I could be spending my time in better, more efficient ways.”
The MLK Day of Service is a nationally recognized event intended to empower individuals, strengthen communities, bridge barriers, create solutions to social problems and move individuals closer to Dr. King’s vision of a beloved community.
Global General Manager of DreamWorks Animation Rick Rekedal spent time with Belmont students during a convocation on Wednesday, Jan. 13 and asked, “Is your career calling and your Christian calling the same?” Rekedal shared about living out his own calling for the past 20 years and discovering what it means to have a career in the entertainment industry as a believer in Christ.
As part of Belmont’s Career and Calling Week, Rekedal spoke on his impressive resume and the experiences in Hollywood that have impacted his professional and spiritual life. His projects include “Prince of Egypt,” “Shrek,” “Madagascar,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “How to Train Your Dragon” and numerous awards for best animated video game. A special viewing of the “Prince of Egypt” in Belmont’s new theater space the night before his presentation kicked-off Rekedal’s time on campus.
The chapel began with a perfect lead-in to the message as the audience sang “Every Hour I Need Thee.” Rekedal displayed a chart where he kept track of every hour he spent in one week, color coding it by category – DreamWorks, worship, with family, sleeping, etc. Rekedal said it is so easy to compartmentalize life and slide hours around slightly when you feel guilty you haven’t given enough time to God or family. But God isn’t happy with an extra five minutes he said. For Rekedal, God says, “All 168 hours are mine.”
With that in mind, Rekedal views his life as being lived “not for people,” but for the Lord. In a meeting or at breakfast with family, we should serve enthusiastically for the Lord. Rekedal laughed at the question he receives all the time, “How are you a beliver in Hollywood?” suggesting he should get out of that enviornment. “I always reply ‘Aren’t you glad there’s a believer in that space? I need you to pray for me!'”
Rekedal sees millennials as a generation interested in telling its own story. He said DreamWorks finds more success today with user-generated content on Youtube than with any trailer in a movie theater, and with this changing social landscape, there are more avenues than ever to tell stories and be salt for the world and a light in the dark. For Rekedal, it all comes down to keeping God involved in every hour of his life to allow his Christian calling to intertwine with his professional one.
Dr. Barry Kraus, associate professor and director of bands in Belmont’s School of Music, was a featured conductor at the Pacific Lutheran University Honor Band Festival in Tacoma, Washington, January 8-9. The festival involved 240 select high school musicians from the greater Seattle-Tacoma area.
Kraus conducted two days of rehearsals and a performance with the Honor Concert Band. The event also included a conductors clinic, where Kraus provided educational feedback to area band directors following their conducting performance with the PLU Wind Ensemble.
Entrepreneur in Residence Joe Calloway’s book, “Magnetic: The Art of Attracting Business,” was listed on Forbes’ list, “Six Small Business Books To Enlighten Even the Savviest Entrepreneurs.”
The list describes the book as covering word-of-mouth referrals specifically, but emphasizes that it also covers marketing and performance quality more broadly.
Calloway joined Belmont’s Center for Entrepreneurship as the Executive in Residence for academic year 2015-16. He works directly with the Jack C. Massey College of Business’s entrepreneurship students, including offering insights to student entrepreneurs in the University’s Accelerator and Hatchery programs that are designed to get new businesses off the ground. He recently highlighted a student business, EVAmore.co, in his blog.
“Never stop improving. My guess is that almost all of the people who claim that they are always improving really aren’t. They may be thinking about it, and I’ll be they’re talking about it, but they’re probably not really doing it.” – Joe Calloway, from Magnetic: The Art of Attracting Business
Information technology expert to fill newly created position at growing university
Following a four-month nationwide search, Belmont University announced that William Ingram has been named to the newly created position of associate vice president and chief information officer. He began his new role at Belmont on January 4, 2016.
In this new position, Ingram will oversee significant areas that collect, process and deliver information in various forms, including instructional technology, administrative computing, user services, network services, technology services, telecommunications and library services.
With experience encompassing small dot-com startups, large multinational corporations (Yahoo) and seven years within higher education, Ingram is well equipped to provide the visionary, creative and energetic information technology leadership Belmont seeks to fill the newly created chief information officer position, a role that is being added in response to a recommendation from the University’s Vision 2020 Technology Committee. In his current position, Ingram manages all IT resources for the University of Texas-San Antonio’s College of Education and Human Development, which is home to more than 5,200 students, and his career experience includes work as an instructional designer, software engineer and cyber security analyst. He holds a bachelor’s of computer science-software engineering and master’s of instructional technology from Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia.
Associate Provost, Interdisciplinary Studies and Global Education Dr. Mimi Barnard and Dean of the College of Health Sciences Dr. Cathy Taylor attended Regent University’s International Partners Conference, “Bridging the Gap: Creativity in Business, Sciences & the Arts,” in London January 6-8.
Barnard presented “Maymester in London & Paris: Gardens, Food, Film & Math,” the 2015 interdisciplinary study abroad initiative taught by Belmont Art Department Chair Dr. Judy Bullington, Professor of Chemistry Dr. Kim Daus and Curb College Assistant Professor Will Akers, that will continue in 2016 as “London & Paris: Food, Film and Fitness,” taught by Daus, Akers and Assistant Professor of Sport Science Dr. Marnie Vanden Noven.
Belmont will have approximately 70 students and faculty at Regent’s for Maymester, with new initiatives led by Taylor and Chair of the Education Department Dr. Mark Hogan, “Belmont in England, Ireland & Northern Ireland: Education and Public Health Perspectives” and Professor of Music Business Dr. Don Cusic, Instructor of Music Business Dan Keen and Associate Professor of Economics Dr. Marieta Velikova, “Belmont in London: Music Business in London.”
Journalism Professor Dr. Sybril Brown presented on “Engaged Teaching: Using Digital Tools in Digital Times” for a Teaching Center Workshop Wednesday. She covered Canva, Powtoons, iMovie Trailers, Videolicious and more. The workshop was part of a series created by Brown along with Teaching Center Director Mike Pinter last summer designed as a collaborative effort to provide technological resources for faculty.
Closely connected to the series listed above are two sessions that were offered as part of The August 2015 Teaching Center Workshops initiated the series concept with two sessions, one by Brown titled “I See Opportunities: Tech Tools in the Classroom” and another co-presented by Aimee Cabrera (Instructional Technology) and Dr. Lorry Liotta-Kleinfeld (Occupational Therapy) on “Tools and Ideas to Support Online Teaching.”
The Digital Literacy series then kicked off in the fall with a September presentation on “Using Infographic Assignments Across Disciplines” by Dr. Joel Overall, assistant professor of English. Dr. Kevin Trowbridge, assistant professor of public relations, followed up in November with “Beyond the Little Blue Bird: Using Twitter to Extend the Classroom.”
Another session is still to come this semester. On Wed., March 30, Bunch Library’s Courtney Fuson and Claire Wiley will offer a session on “Altmetrics and Managing Your Online Identity as a Researcher.”
