Kristin Keiper, internship coordinator in the College of Business Administration, recently participated in the AIDS LifeCycle Ride as the team captain of Music City Queens of Country; her team raised more than $9,000. AIDS LifeCycle 10 raised more than $13 million for HIV/AIDS outreach, the largest amount in the history of HIV/AIDS. ALC is a seven-day, 545 mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles; 2,350 riders and 600 roadies participated in ALC 10, and the riders represented 40 states and 11 countries.
Keiper Participates in AIDS LifeCycle Ride
Athletics Earns Unprecedented Eighth A-Sun All-Academic Trophy
Bruins set new standard for athletic, academic excellence
For the eighth time in its 10-year conference history, Belmont University has claimed the Atlantic Sun All-Academic Trophy, the league office announced Thursday. All told, 174 out of 228 in-season Belmont student-athletes earned academic honors, giving the university the greatest percentage of All-Academic honorees at 76.3 percent. That figure represents a new single-year program standard for Belmont University Athletics.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “I’m always proud of the strong performance of our student-athletes both in the classroom and in their chosen sports. But it’s particularly meaningful to win this award eight out of the past 10 years in a conference as academically competitive as the Atlantic Sun. To be awarded this trophy on the heels of conference championships in men’s basketball and baseball makes it all the more special.”
Belmont posted a 3.318 grade-point average in the 2011 spring semester – the highest department GPA since Belmont became an NCAA Division I member institution in 1997 and marking the 27th consecutive semester in which the departmental GPA has exceeded 3.0.
Last month, four Belmont teams – men’s basketball, men’s soccer, women’s golf, and women’s soccer – made the NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) Public Recognition List, signifying each program ranking in the top 10 percent within their respective sports nationwide for their academic progress rate as determined by the NCAA. In fact, Belmont men’s basketball and men’s soccer have made the list every year since the APR program’s inception in 2006.
Pam Parry to Participate in Teaching Excellence Panel
Chair of the Communication Studies Department, Pam Parry, will participate Aug. 9 on a panel addressing teaching excellence as part of the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in St. Louis.
The panel, titled “A Decade of Excellence: Panel Discussion with Past Teachers of the Year,” will feature four recipients of the annual teaching award given by the Small Programs Interest Group of AEJMC. Parry won the national teaching award in 2009, and she has been serving as the group’s Teaching Co-Chair since then. The Teaching Co-Chair is an elected officer who promotes teaching within the organization.
Dr. Michael Voight Receives APTA’s Most Prestigious Recognition
Dr. Michael Voight, Professor of Physical Therapy at Belmont University, has been selected as a 2011 Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), the most prestigious recognition granted by the organization. Voight was officially bestowed the honor at a ceremony in National Harbor, Maryland on June 9 as part of the association’s annual conference.
Fewer than 150 of the association’s 77,000 members serve as Worthingham fellows. The fellowship recognizes those who have made lasting and significant advances in the science, education and practice of the profession of physical therapy, sustained over a period of at least 15 years. It honors practitioners who have attained the highest level of professional excellence and impact in terms of advancing the profession.
The fellowship is named for Catherine Worthingham, who served on the APTA’s board intermittently from 1932 to 1965, was APTA president from 1940 to ’44, and was the first physical therapist to earn a doctoral degree. Worthingham passed away in 1997.
“Dr. Voight’s election as a Catherine Worthingham Fellow speaks volumes about the recognized contributions that he has made as an expert clinician, and nationally and internationally recognized educator,” said Associate Dean of the School of Physical Therapy, Dr. John Halle. “Belmont University is fortunate to have faculty with the talent and energy demonstrated by Dr. Voight. This is a high honor and it is well deserved.”
Voight has had a distinguished career as both an educator and clinical physical therapist for over 25 years. Throughout his career he has become one of the leading authorities in the rehabilitation of orthopedic and sports injuries and he has worked to advance the knowledge of others as a clinician and educator.
Belmont Covers Tuition for Eligible Veterans Through Yellow Ribbon Program
Agreement with Department of Veterans Affairs significantly reduces tuition for service members
Belmont University and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have signed a voluntary agreement to significantly reduce the out-of-pocket expenses for qualified veterans, their spouses and dependents to earn college degrees.
Through Belmont’s enhanced Yellow Ribbon Program, which takes effect Aug. 1, the University and the federal government each will pay 50 percent of tuition and mandatory fees for eligible recipients as deemed by the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The program allows qualified students to attend school at little-to-no tuition and fee costs.
Per academic year, Belmont University is providing equitable contributions for students according to the costs of their academic programs: law students up to $17,000; pharmacy students up to $14,000; graduate business students up to $9,000; students in traditional undergraduate programs up to $8,000; and students enrolled in University College adult degree programs up to $5,000. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will match Belmont’s giving. The federal department also pays a monthly housing allowance according to the institution’s zip code and annual book stipend up to $1,000.
“Our Yellow Ribbon Program is the most comprehensive tuition assistance program a private university can offer service members who have fought in wars, been stationed overseas and labored in other forms of active duty,” said Associate Registrar La Kiesha Armstrong, who is heading Belmont’s Yellow Ribbon Program. “This new agreement will offer increased resources to members of the military and their family members to make higher education affordable and obtainable.”
Since the program’s inception in 2009, Belmont’s Yellow Ribbon participant enrollment has increased 113 percent. Degree-seeking students previously received a 20 percent waiver of traditional tuition costs. Belmont University and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs entered an agreement May 23 to increase each institution’s contribution to 50 percent of tuition and fees per qualified student.
Professor Publishes Performance Review in Theatre Journal
Dr. James Al-Shamma, Department of Theatre and Dance, has published a performance review in the May 2011 issue of Theatre Journal. He reviewed Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, which was staged by Epic Theatre Ensemble in Brooklyn in May 2010.
Murray Chairs Session at Composing Spaces Conference
Douglas Murray (English) chaired a session titled “Sacred, Emotional and Capitalist Spaces in Jordan, Lahiri and Austen” at the “Composing Spaces” Conference at the University of Cincinnati, May 13.
Alumni The Kopecky Family Band Featured on NPR
National Public Radio (NPR)’s Stephen Thompson and Bob Boilen were at a coffee shop in Manhattan when they heard a band warming up in the back. Though the broadcasters had never heard of The Kopecky Family Band, both Boilen and Thompson decided to stay and listen.
The Belmont University-born band was impressive as Thompson wrote on NPR.com: “We found ourselves sticking around for an entire set – the Kopeckys’ sweet, swollen songs kept blooming into something we couldn’t resist.”
Although some of the youngest band members just graduated from Belmont in May 2011, the band has been very busy recently performing at South by Southwest (SXSW), Bonnaroo and other venues as well as being chosen as a No. 1 pick by College Music Journal (CMJ). This week the group is also featured as a “Tiny Desk Concert” on NPR.com—Tiny Desk Concerts are video performances, recorded live at the desk of “All Songs Considered” host Bob Boilen at the NPR Music office in Washington, D.C.
All seven members met at Belmont and thrive off making the unique music their listeners enjoy. Band member Gabe Simon says it’s important to keep their sound diverse. “As much as we want to make great music, we want to be different,” he said. “We want to make it special.”
To hear music and learn more about The Kopecky Family Band, visit www.kopeckyfamilyband.com.
Alumnus Wins at Startup Weekend EDU
Belmont alumnius Joseph Mosby’s entrepreneurship team was chosen as the best out of 13 teams (about 100 potential entrepreneurs) at Kauffman Foundation’s “San Francisco Startup Weekend EDU.”
Startup Weekends are 54-hour events held around the world where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products and launch startup businesses. Mosby, who graduated from Belmont with a finance degree in 2009 and a Masters of Accountancy in 2011, and the rest of the participants took part in a “Startup Weekend” based solely around educational technology ideas. It was one of the first times in Startup’s history where a specific theme was defined.
Mosby’s team developed demolesson.com, a way to revolutionize the K-12 teacher hiring process based on the belief that the best way to find the best teachers is to watch them teach. Teachers can upload videos of themselves in the classroom in order to not only enhance their resume but also to give schools a better idea of how they function in a typical classroom setting.
“Belmont’s professors, regardless of whether they specialized in entrepreneurship or not, taught me to go out and make things happen; shake things up for myself. They taught me how to push past my comfort zone. That knowledge, combined with the quality technical and leadership skills I learned in the Belmont tenure, helped my team succeed,” said Mosby.
Student Jeff Jenkins Competes Tuesday on NBC Hit Show ‘The Voice’
Belmont senior and Texas native Jeff Jenkins is excited to sing his way into becoming America’s first “Voice.” After a long audition process, Jenkins will appear in the first round of live performances airing nationally on NBC June 14 with the rest of his teammates.
Hosted by Carson Daly, “The Voice” features four celebrity coaches–Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and Blake Shelton–leading their teams in weekly vocal performance contests. Jenkins, a communication studies major and music business minor who has already made it into the show’s Top 16, will compete live on national television Tuesday night with the three other members of Levine’s team and the four members of Cee Lo Green’s team. After the performance America will vote: the contestant with the most number of votes from each team will automatically be safe for the next week; the celebrity coach will then have the opportunity to hand select a second contestant to save from his team.
Although the process has been grueling, Jenkins said he is thankful for his chance to be seen by America, have his talent heard and receive positive response. In fact, the response has been so positive that Entertainment Weekly has already declared Jenkins is the contestant to beat.
“I still don’t realize any of this is real. I’m just Jeff. To have the support in Nashville, where everybody ‘plays and sings’, to have that support – that’s a big deal,” Jenkins said. “This is where I’ve always wanted to be, where I want to be headed and I’m already there.”
The winner of the show will be awarded a $100,000 recording contract with Universal Republic as well as $100,000 cash. If Jenkins wins the “Voice” title, he said he will start a charity to support children with cancer and other illnesses and open a place where “kids can go to just be who they are, normal kids.”
