IMPORTANT NOTE: These are the archived stories for Belmont News & Achievements prior to June 26, 2023. To see current stories, click here.

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Author Margaret Feinberg ‘Scouts the Divine’ During EMERGE

Paul Chenoweth
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Author and speaker Margaret Feinberg visited Belmont this week as part of the annual spiritual emphasis week known as EMERGE, an event sponsored by University Ministries to encourage the campus community to reflect, refocus and renew at the start of the new academic year.

Margaret Feinberg
Feinberg speaks during the convocation hour in Neely.

Feinberg, writer of such popular books as The Sacred Echo and The Organic God, spoke to students, faculty and staff primarily from her 2009 work, Scouting the Divine, which considers how ancient livelihoods illuminate meaningful Christian truths. During her first talk on Monday, Feinberg recounted how conversations with a shepherdess opened her eyes to ways to rediscover the Bible, bringing fresh insights to seemingly familiar passages.

“How have I listened to so many sermons and no one has told me these things?” she asked. “My search became a book called Scouting the Divine: My Search for God in Wine, Wool and Wild Honey… I want to share gems I’ve discovered. The Bible is written in an agrarian context, but I’m so disconnected from that in the modern world.”

Her exploration led to Nebraska where she spoke with a farmer about the awareness of seasons and the excitement of harvest. She also learned about the importance of planting in straight rows, as a tractor’s slight swerve during planting can cause seedlings to fight for nutrients and sunlight. The knowledge brought new understanding of Luke 9:62 (“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God”) and the concept of fixing our eyes upon Jesus.

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Belmont Hosts Women in Workplace Breakfast, Forum

Paul Chenoweth
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Kia Jarmon, left, received the Woman to Watch Award.

Belmont University’s Office of Community Relations and Center for Executive Education (CEE) hosted the Middle Tennessee Diversity Forum’s Women in the Workplace Awards and Forum on Sept. 6 in the Maddox Grand Atrium. Some 400 people registered for the events.

Provost Thomas Burns gave the welcome and Director of Community Relations Joyce Searcy issued awards during the breakfast program. Belmont alumna Kia Jarmon, owner and creative director of MEPR Agency, earned the Woman to Watch Award for her reputation on deliverables in the communications arena, including marketing, community engagement and strategic planning. 

The event included a conversation with Nancy Peterson, chairman and chief executive officer of Peterson Tool Co. Inc, who assumed leadership of her family business after her husband died and waited six months to share the news with clients.

Belmont Vice President and Chief of Staff Susan West, CEE Executive Director Gene Mage and CEE Director of Executive Learning Networks Jill Robinson hosted a discussion dialogue on “Achieving Your Breakthrough Career Goals.”

Internet Visibility Expert Shares Secrets with Belmont Entrepreneurs

Paul Chenoweth
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Ross Jones shared with Belmont students how to grow their personal brands and the websites of their companies through search engine optimization during a lecture Wednesday morning in the Massey Boardroom.

Jones, a founder of 2theTop Web Design & Promotion and an Internet marketing professor at the Art Institute of Tennessee, told the story of how he has leveraged his 81 websites on Google and other search engines to earn what he calls “mailbox money,” including $160,000 through Google’s AdSense. His largest website has generated 2.2 million visitors in 2011. The “mailbox money” was instrumental in helping him make the leap from the security of a corporate job into the world of self-employed.

His journey to become an expert in website visibility began when he sold four tickets for University of Tennessee football games but continued receiving emails from interested buyers. In 1997, he began doing affiliate marketing for licensed ticket brokers who paid commissions on sales referred from his websites.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) includes using keywords and phrases correctly to increase the ranking of a website on directories and sites like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Citysearch that use algorithms and software to help users find data. Even Apple’s Siri is a type of Search Engine that savvy marketers can optimize.

As Jones describes it, “Search Engines are tools to find information on the Internet. Optimization means to take full advantage of. SEO is simply the process of maximizing our visibility on the tools where people find information.”

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Belmont Named a ‘Best in Southeast’ College by Princeton Review for Fifth Consecutive Year

Paul Chenoweth
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Belmont University is one of the best colleges in the Southeast according to the nationally known education services company, The Princeton Review.  It is one of 136 institutions The Princeton Review recommends in its “Best in the Southeast” section of its website feature, “2013 Best Colleges: Region by Region,” posted Aug. 20 on PrincetonReview.com.   In the profile on Belmont on its site, The Princeton Review describes the college as “comprehensive university … and among the fastest growing [Christian schools] in the nation.”

Says Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s senior vice president and publisher, “We’re pleased to recommend Belmont to users of our site as one of the best schools to earn their undergrad degree. We chose it and the other terrific institutions we name as ‘regional best’ colleges mainly for their excellent academic programs. From several hundred schools in each region, we winnowed our list based on institutional data we collected directly from the schools, our visits to schools over the years, and the opinions of our staff, plus college counselors and advisors whose recommendations we invite. We also take into account what students at the schools reported to us about their campus experiences at them on our 80-question student survey for this project. Only schools that permit us to independently survey their students are eligible to be considered for our regional ‘best’ lists.”

For this project, The Princeton Review asked students attending the schools to rate their own schools on several issues, including the accessibility of their professors and quality of the campus food, as well as to answer questions about themselves, their fellow students and their campus life.

Click here to view Belmont’s profile and student comments.

School of Music Students, Alumni Find Success in Field

Paul Chenoweth
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Graduate student Ryan Ogrodny was selected to play fiddle, mandolin and vocals with country music singer Alan Jackson. This is not Ryan’s first experience with a notable artist. He has previously played fiddle for Craig Morgan, Billy Ray Cyrus and Laura Bell Bundy.

Alumnus Michael O’Gieblyn (’12), who studied violin performance, won an audition with Memphis Symphony on Aug. 21. Last fall, while still in the graduate program, he earned a position in the Huntsville Symphony first violin section. Prior to that, O’Gieblyn also won the sub audition for the Chattanooga Symphony in the spring of 2011. Most recently, he had the opportunity to play with Ray Price at the Grand Old Opry.

Charity Callahan, an alumna of Belmont’s undergraduate music program, earned certification in all 10 Suzuki books. She has been appointed the new orchestra director and violin professor at Greenville College in Greenville, Ind.

Belmont Celebrates Annual Humanities Symposium Sept. 21 – Oct. 1

Paul Chenoweth
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Belmont University is hosting its 11th annual Humanities Symposium this month, featuring author Stephen L. Carter as the keynote speaker. Carter, a law professor at Yale University, has helped to shape the national debate on issues including religion in politics and culture and is author of 12 books.

Centered on the theme “Civility and its Discontents,” the 2012 Humanities Symposium will occur Sept. 24 through Oct. 1 and parallels the 2011-12 university theme of “E Pluribus Unum: Dialogue in the Digital Age.” The Humanities Symposium seeks to stimulate intellectual conversation through its 33 events, which together will engage in a week-long conversation about civility from many perspectives including technology, democracy, culture and education.

“As we struggle to find a healthy balance between community and individual rights, Americans have experienced new forms of public discourse which thrive on the language of discord and distortion. Through visiting lecturers, interactive projects and a service learning project we hope to act as a model of talking through difference in support of the common good,” said English Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty for the College of Arts & Sciences David Curtis, who is co-chairing the symposium.

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Sophomore Year Experience Gains National Attention

Paul Chenoweth
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An AAC&U News article puts Belmont’s Quality Enhancement Plan project on the Sophomore Year Experience on a national platform by sharing the good work and thoughtful programming created for returning students.  Housed in the library, the Sophomore Transitions Center addresses the needs of second-year students by providing coaching sessions for students questioning their educational choices and partnering with academic, residence life and career services initiatives.

The article quotes many faculty and staff, including the program’s architects associate provost Jimmy Davis and the program’s director David Sneed. Click here to read the article.

 

School of Physical Therapy Joins Vanderbilt University Medical Center to Offer Residency Program

Paul Chenoweth
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The School of Physical Therapy at Belmont University has joined with the Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute (PBPRI) in the Vanderbilt Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences to initiate a Neurological Physical Therapy Clinical Residency.

PBPRI is the outpatient interdisciplinary neurological rehabilitation program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where physical therapists work in teams with colleagues in occupational therapy, speech-language pathology and social work to promote community re-entry and vocational and/or academic transitioning. The one-year residency is offered through the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and is the first of its kindin Tennessee. The program is designed to prepare the resident to treat patients with neurological conditions using contemporary, evidenced-based treatment approaches and provide the skills and experience needed to sit for the Neurological Clinical Specialist (NCS) certification exam with APTA.

“We are very excited about this new partnership,” said Mike de Riesthal, director of PBPRI. “Education of new clinicians is one of our primary missions. Partnering with Belmont’s excellent program allows us to expand that mission into the field of physical therapy.”

Christina Durrough has been selected as the inaugural resident in the joint venture and will begin her work this August. The residency requires direct clinical care each week at PBPRI where Durrough will receive mentoring and instruction to evaluate and treat patients with acquired brain injury and other neurological conditions including stroke, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, brain tumors and balance disorders. The Clinical Residency Director for the program is Lisa Haack, who is a clinical staff member in physical therapy at PBPRI and is a neurologic specialist. Renee Brown, professor of physical therapy at Belmont University, will serve as the academic residency director.

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Professor David Ribar Bikes 100 Miles for Cancer Research

Paul Chenoweth
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Ribar stands at the finish line with his brother, Don, who biked the full 100 miles with him.

On the weekend of Aug. 12, art history Professor David Ribartrekked over 100 miles on his road bike in the 2012 Pelotonia.

Participants raised money for The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute by pledging to bike a certain distance and raise a corresponding dollar amount. Over 6,200 people registered to participate in the 2012 Pelotonia.

Ribar biked with nine family members for “Team Jean,” named in honor of his mother who lost her battle with Leukemia in December  2011. Together, he and his family rose over $41,000 for the cause. This was Ribar’s first year participating in the Pelotonia, and he said he looks forward to participating in the future.

For more information on the event, visit  pelotonia.org.

 

Student, Faculty Researchers Collaborate in Summer Scholars Program

Paul Chenoweth
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Summer Scholar Communities is a program in the College of Arts & Sciences in which a faculty member and four to five students work over the summer on scholarly activities. The program blends the structure of a summer session class with the format of a research team focused on a faculty-designed research project. It differs from traditional undergraduate research in that students and faculty from various disciplines across the College of Arts & Sciences meet regularly over the course of the summer to share results, to learn from each other, to present their research findings and discuss challenges and commonalities. The students will present their findings at Belmont’s Science Undergraduate Research Symposium (SURS) this fall.

Biology Associate Professor Nick Ragsdale worked with five students this summer. Liberty Foye, Anderson Webb, Brad Gill and Scott Kim all continued the investigation of innate immunity utilizing the animal model of Caenorhabditis elegans. Rachel Garland continued work on the role of oxidants in the formation of Parkinson’s like disease.

Chair of the Department of Biology and Associate Professor Darlene Panvini worked with six students. Jessica Braden, Emma Ghulam Jan, and Anna Witherspoon compared rates of photosynthesis and stomatal density in leaves of exotic vines (Lonicera japonica and Euonymus fortunei) to native vines (Parthenocissus quinoquefolia and Smilax rotundifoli). They collected leaves and made impressions in the lab to determine stomatal densities. Sylvia Alsup, Lida Ghulam Jan and Lauren Land compared macroinvertebrate diversity in riffles and pools in areas of the Little Harpeth River covered by tree canopy and areas not covered by tree canopy.

Biology Assistant Professor John Niedzwiecki’s group of six students worked with behavioral and population biology questions in a variety of aquatic organisms. Bellamy Hawkins and Breanna Poore worked on chemical detection of predation cues in an aquatic snail. Building on recent work in animal behavior, Parth Majmudar looked for signs of “intelligence” in Orconectes crayfish – a predator of snails. Rachel Chandler followed up on work from past years and studied the specificity and nature of the chemical cue that streamside salamander’s use to detect fish predators. She was able to present that work as a poster at the International Evolutionary Biology conference in Ottawa, Canada this past summer with Niedzwiecki. Janet Steen and Amy Nesius, working in molecular and population genetics, successfully developed microsatellites for use in spotted salamanders.

Mathematics Professor Danny Biles worked with three students and they studied singular differential equations from three different points of view. Ben Shaw studied examples and looked for patterns, McLean Smith considered applications and Alyssa Scheele studied numerical approximations.

 

 

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