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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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.

 

 

PharmD Students Host Patient Care Event

Paul Chenoweth
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The Belmont University College of Pharmacy American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists (BUCOP APhA-ASP) held its first patient care event of the 2012-2013 school year in conjunction with Barren Plains Hispanic Ministry on Aug. 26.

The Mmnistry is a mission of the First Baptist Church of Joelton, Tenn. that provides regular meals and church services to migrant workers that come to Middle Tennessee for the fall harvest season.

Thirteen student pharmacists and two faculty members traveled to Springfield, Tenn. to offer free blood glucose and blood pressure screenings as well as provide patient education regarding diabetes and hypertension to promote healthy living practices to 33 participants. Individuals were given basic first aid kits donated by BUCOP’s faculty, students and staff. BUCOP APhA-ASP will return to Barren Plains Hispanic Ministry to continue its outreach with the group next month to offer flu vaccinations.

Business Is Booming at Belmont Graduate’s ‘Free Store’

Paul Chenoweth
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While in his junior year in Belmont’s Social Entrepreneurship program, Austin Sauerbrei discovered a “Free Store” in Columbus, Ohio, and a dream was born.

After graduating in December 2010, Sauerbrei set out to make his project a reality. The process began with a trip to Columbus, Ohio to visit  his initial inspiration. The trip was followed by almost nine months of planning before the store finally opened its doors in December 2011, a year after Austin graduated from Belmont.

Austin (top left) poses with volunteers outside of the Free Store.

Almost immediately after opening, the store was a success. “The first weekend there were only about 20 to 25 people, then we had 30 the next week and then 50 the week after that.”

Recently, on Saturday Aug 18—a little over six months since its opening—the store set a new record; over 90 people came through, and there are now over 400 registered members.

Every Saturday, from 9 a.m. to noon the store is open to anyone and everyone. Because the space is so small, only four people are able to enter the store itself at one time. In a waiting area members of the community help themselves to coffee, snacks and conversation.

A large part of the store’s success comes from the high level of engagement of its shoppers. Of the over 400 registered members, Sauerbrei approximates that 70 to 80 percent have donated products and almost 20 percent have volunteered at the store.

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Singer Amy Grant Leads Opening Chapel

Paul Chenoweth
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Grammy Award-winning Christian and pop music artist Amy Grant began her Wednesday morning intent on being a blessing to someone else.

“I pray, ‘Lord, lead me today to those I need and to the ones who need me. And let something I do have eternal significance,’” she said while brushing her teeth. She then reached for four bills and stuffed them into her pocket.

A few hours later before an audience of more than 1,100 Belmont students, staff, faculty and administrators, she shared $200 with two students, one whose birthday is Aug. 29 and another whose mother shares the birthdate.

At the University’s first chapel convocation of the new academic year, the lesson Grant sought to share was one of selflessness.

“Sinful behavior keeps us from talking to God. The root of who we are is self-serving, and you learn in the course of life that life is more exciting if you beat that thing down to a nub in the corner,” Grant said.

During her 30 minutes on stage in the Massey Performing Arts Center, Grant recited original poetry, told stories from her childhood, admitted how Dr. Phil made her feel “pompous and arrogant” for not being punctual and crooned acoustic renditions of Psalm 46:10 and John 6. She told students she puts Scripture to music to memorize Bible verses.

“When I think about all of the talents and lives represented in the room and how we are all different, if we all believe in Jesus, that will be enough to let our lives shine,” she said, giving words of encouragement for Belmont’s aspiring artists. “I hope my music selections [today] have helped someone here in music understand that someone who makes average music can make a decent living.”

Preceeding convocation, Grant signed autographs and took pictures with Belmont students, including members of her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta.

Grant has sold more than 30 million albums, won six Grammy Awards and 25 Dove Awards and had 17 Top-40 songs as well as a string of Contemporary Christian hits. She has been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and received Belmont’s Applause Award. Grant and her husband Vince Gill are long-time friends of Belmont University. The University recognized Gill with an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree in 2011.

Belmont University Tops 6,600 Students

Paul Chenoweth
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New students get settled in their residence hall.

With classes beginning this week for the Fall 2012 semester, Belmont University reached another record-breaking enrollment number, this time with a total of 6,647 students. This is the twelfth consecutive year the University has topped its previous enrollment.

Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “In the year 2000, the University enrolled 2,970 students. To see this level of growth in a dozen years—while we have attracted more qualified students and improved our retention and graduation rates—is very rewarding. I’m honored that so many accomplished young adults are embracing this university’s mission to empower students to use their talents and passions to transform the world.”

The new students heard that message loud and clear this week as one of their first activities as a member of the Belmont campus was to engage in community service. Together, 1,800 new Belmont students—consisting of freshmen, transfers and some graduate students—spent Monday morning volunteering their time to more than 30 community partners during an annual event called SERVE.

Upperclassmen assisted freshmen and their parents with Move In last weekend.

The impact from that event continues to grow as more and more students are attracted to attend Belmont and stay in the Nashville community after graduation, often continuing to serve the programs and organizations they’re introduced to while in college. This year’s enrollment marks an increase of four percent from last year and a doubling of the size of the student body in the past decade. The Belmont student body currently consists of 5,298 undergraduates and 1,349 graduate and professional students, representing a record for total enrollment.

This year’s incoming freshman class represents 48 states and 14 foreign countries, with 73 percent of the class originating from outside of Tennessee. The University received more than 7,700 applications for graduate and undergraduate programs. The average ACT score for the 2012-13 freshman class is 26.43. In addition, 35 percent of new freshmen at Belmont were in the top 10 percent of their graduating class, and 62 percent were in the top quarter. This year’s record freshman class of 1,273 students—up 100 students from 2011—held an average un-weighted cumulative high school GPA of 3.54 including 33 valedictorians and 19 salutatorians from schools reporting rankings.

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