The Speech and Debate team succeeded their best ever showing at the University of Alabama on Oct. 22 with an ever showing at Berea College in Bera, Ky. Top national teams such as Western Kentucky, Eastern Michigan  and George Mason, were in attendance. The Belmont Speech and Debate team came in 3rd place overall. Awards were as follows:

First half of tournament
Eric Schoen
– Dramatic Interpretation, 1st place
– Informative Speaking, 6th place
– Duo Interpretation (with Katie Callaway), 5th place
Nicole Bright
– Prose Interpretation, Semi-Finalist
– Poetry Interpretation, 2nd place
– Programmed Oral Interpretation, 3rd place
– Duo Interpretation (with Katie Callaway), 3rd place
– Overall Competitor (pentathlon) Award, 2nd place
Katie Callaway
– Duo Interpretation, 5th & 3rd place (partners listed above)
Matthew Roberts
– After Dinner Speaking, 5th place
– Extemporaneous Speaking, 3rd place
– Overall Competitor (pentathlon) Award, 4th place
Team Awards
– “Small School” division – 1st place
– Overall Team – 3rd place

Second half of the tournament
Eric Schoen
– Dramatic Interpretation, 1st place
– Informative Speaking, 3rd place
– Impromptu Speaking, 4th place
– Duo Interpretation (with Katie Callaway), 3rd place
Nicole Bright
– Prose Interpretation, 6th place
– Programmed Oral Interpretation, 1st place
– Duo Interpretation (with Katie Callaway), 4th place
– Poetry Interpretation, 1st place
– Overall Competitor (pentathlon) Award, 2nd place
Katie Callaway
– Duo Interpretation, 4th & 3rd place (partners listed above)
Matthew Roberts
– After Dinner Speaking, 2nd place
– Impromptu Speaking, 6th place
– Rhetorical Criticism, 6th place
– Overall Competitor (pentathlon) Award, 4th place
Team Awards
– “Small School” division, 1st place
– Overall Team, 3rd place

Belmont had four representatives, Ayesha Gaffar, Jordan Holt, Patrick Hurt and Rami Nofal, from the College of Business Administration compete in the Eighth Annual CIBER (Center for International Business Education and Research) Case Challenge in late October. Mixed in with students from universities across America and abroad, the students formed new teams and competed against each other by analyzing and presenting an international business case to judges.

Ayesha Ghaffar’s team won their preliminary round competition of five teams and competed in the final round to place third, out of fifteen, in the competition overall. Two other Belmont students were awarded individual awards in the preliminary round among their five teams. Jordan Holt was named “Best Presenter” and Patrick Hurt was named “Best Q&A.”

Belmont was the only university with two students recognized for individual awards.

On Oct. 19, the History Department held initiation ceremonies at the Belmont Mansion for Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society. Inductees included Mary Lyn Albritton, Cody Cain, Matt Craft, Seth Granda, Kyle Moyer, Stephanie Downing, Abby Henry, David Suell and Chris Goodwin. Amanda Buckner, Steven Gallo, and Sydney Smith also met the requirements for membership this year but could not attend. The faculty advisor for the group, Dr. Cynthia Bisson, presided over the ceremonies.

The initiation ceremony was followed by a guest lecture from Dr. William Caferro, a leading economic historian of the medieval period in Europe, and the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. Professor Caferro offered an engrossing look into his research on the Italian City States at the time of the Black Death, specifically the problem of wages across different social groups during the period. His research suggests a challenge to the prevailing view that wages increased as a result of the Black Death (fewer people means a higher demand for labor), opening up some fascinating questions for understanding how markets worked during the 14th century. His talk was entitled “Petrarch’s War and the Meaning of Wages at the Time of the Black Death” and was included in this year’s larger campus theme of Wealth and Poverty.

Belmont’s Pharmacy School partnered with Nashville’s Shalom Foundation to renovate the organization’s surgical center and pharmacy in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Last fall, fourth-year pharmacy student Chris McKnight worked with the foundation to design plans for the center’s pharmacy after the entire site underwent a renovation. Although Shalom had doctors, surgeons and nurses on the board to contribute, they didn’t have pharmacists to add to the conversation. McKnight became that voice.

After spending over a week working in the center, McKnight said one of his favorite parts was, “the processes of seeing the pharmacy go from my sketches on the backs of napkins, to fruition in Guatemala City.”

Sara Poe, another fourth year student in Belmont’s program, also had the opportunity to work with the foundation’s center. She was focused on the medicine patients were being prescribed and made daily rounds to ensure accuracy and the installation of proper protocol.

Poe also spoke to the experience of working in such a clinic. “I would say that best moments of the trip came from silence, for silence meant no one was in pain and all was well down the hall. That alone has made me a different person.”