Belmont University and The Tennessean, with broadcast partner WSMV-TV, presented the first of two Nashforward debates, the city’s premiere Mayoral Debate Series, on Thursday, May 21 in Belmont’s Massey Performing Arts Center.

Held in front of a packed crowd of close to 1,000 attendees, the debate featured all seven candidates currently vying for Nashville’s open mayoral seat: Megan Barry, Charles Robert Bone, David Fox, Bill Freeman, Howard Gentry, Jeremy Kane and Linda Eskind Rebrovick. Candidates addressed a variety of topics including leadership experience and style, crisis management and platform stances to ensure voters are well-informed on the issues facing Nashville as they head to the polls in August.

The Nashforward Series also included an opportunity for seven Belmont students to work alongside Tennessean Engagement Editor and event moderator David Plazas to write profiles on each candidate after reviewing a recent interview. Viewing the candidate’s platform with a millennial’s perspective in mind, the student profilers asked questions representing Nashville’s growing millennial population.

Every spring, Belmont hosts its annual Baccalaureate Service to celebrate graduates and their families. While this year’s event started and ended just as it always does, the experience during Friday’s ceremony for Associate Professor of Finance Dr. John Gonas was very different.

Brennon Mobley, a senior student set to graduate at the next day’s commencement ceremony and a student-leader on Gonas’s Enactus team, was the 4^th speaker at the event and told the story of how he came to Belmont, largely due to a meeting with Gonas during his junior year of high school. Following the Nashville flood of 2010, the pair met while clearing carpet out of a neighbor’s home and began talking about Belmont.

Gonas described an idea that eventually led to Spring Back Recycling, a nonprofit organization that recycles the inners of mattresses through the employment of previously incarcerated men. Mobley was interested. “[Dr. Gonas] told me that if I came to Belmont, I could be a part of a group of students that would help him launch it. I knew nothing about mattresses…What value could I possibly add? Those facts didn’t seem to matter to [Gonas]. He recognized my value within,” Mobley said.

Five years later, Spring Back Recycling has locations in five states and has recycled over 3 million pounds of used mattresses. The organization empowers disenfranchised men and provides the opportunity to “spring back” into society recognizing their value, the same value Mobley said Gonas saw in him.