Belmont senior Cameron Behar and sophomore teammates Brandon Sharp and Kevin Crowl (team Belmont Brute Force) placed third at the 2010 ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Mid-Central International Collegiate Programming Competition held Nov. 6 at Tennessee Technological University. The five-hour contest, sponsored by IBM and known as the “Battle of the Brains,” featured 22 teams representing Vanderbilt, MTSU, UT Knoxville and other area schools. Belmont’s second team, with senior Will Proffitt and juniors Cory Hughes and Trevor Hinesly, placed tenth.
Ethics Bowl Team Selected for National Competition
Belmont’s Ethics Bowl Team recently competed at a regional event in Indianapolis and placed high enough (top 4 teams) to be selected for Nationals in Cincinnati March 2011. Led by Dr. Jennifer Wilgus and Dr. Barry Padgett, the Belmont teams include students Kathleen Bond, Nick Calderwood, Eric Deems, Stas Ghiletchi, Lindsey Ricker, Melanie Bond, Kaitlin Grigsby and Olaf Wasternack. Belmont is one of only 32 teams across the country that will be competing.
The Seventeeth Intercollegiate Ethics Bowlsm will be March 3, 2011 in Cincinnati, OH, as a part of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics’ 2011 20th Anniversary Annual Meeting. Colleges and universities across the United States and throughout the world who qualified in a regional bowl are invited to enter a team of undergraduate students in the national competition. The Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (IEB) is a team competition that combines the excitement and fun of a competitive tournament with an innovative approach to education in practical and professional ethics for undergraduate students. In the IEB, each team receives a set of cases which raise issues in practical and professional ethics in advance of the competition and prepare an analysis of each case. At the competition, a moderator poses questions, based on a case taken from that set, to teams of three to five students. Questions may concern ethical problems on wide ranging topics, such as the classroom (e.g. cheating or plagiarism), personal relationships (e.g. dating or friendship), professional ethics (e.g. engineering, law, medicine), or social and political ethics (e.g. free speech, gun control, etc.) A panel of judges may probe the teams for further justifications and evaluates answers. Rating criteria are intelligibility, focus on ethically relevant considerations, avoidance of ethical irrelevance, and deliberative thoughtfulness.
Faculty Present at Tennessee Reading Association Conference
Professors Lauren Lunsford, Rachael Flynn-Hopper, Rhonda McKay, Barbara Hessel and Ragan McLeod from the Department of Education attended the Tennessee Reading Association conference in Murfreesboro November 7-9. Lunsford and Flynn-Hopper presented on “Improving Literacy in the Secondary Classroom.” Flynn-Hopper and McKay presented on “Celebrate Literacy: P.A.R.T.Y. Planning 101 (Parents, Activities, Resources, and Training for Young children). ” Flynn-Hopper and Jennifer Bates, a recent Reading Specialist graduate, presented on “Uniting Families, Schools, and Communities in Literacy Learning.” And Hessel and McLeod presented on “Supporting Reading Independences Through Strategy Instruction.”
The secondary interns from the Department of Education also presented during the poster session and several other interns from the program attended, along with several reading specialists, mentors, student teachers and course-based students.
‘Boehm Boys’ Share Message of Mutual Respect
A Nashville-based father and son joined Belmont Monday for an important dialogue on how they have learned to love each other despite their differences in beliefs. Dr. Frank H. Boehm is a physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, an op-ed columnist and a long time leader in Nashville’s Jewish community. His son, Thomas L. Boehm, is the founder and executive director of Faith for ALL, a disability advocacy nonprofit helping faith communities open their doors and hearts to include people with disabilities. Thomas became a follower of Yeshua/Jesus as Israel’s Messiah in 1994 and has a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology and a Masters in Divinity.
The Boehm Boys, as the two refer to themselves, recently began speaking to churches around a three-pronged mission: to deepen dialogue about Israel, to develop partnerships for Faith for All and to demonstrate a path for peace, the primary purpose of their Belmont visit. Thomas said, “We must be able to honor one another in the differences of our convictions. That has really governed our relationship.” Click here to see additional photos from the event.
Alumnus, Faculty Member Take Home CMA Awards
Belmont University alumnus Brad Paisley (’95) was named Entertainer of the Year Wednesday night at the 2010 Country Music Association (CMA) Awards, a show Paisley co-hosted with Carrie Underwood. In an emotional thank you speech, Paisley said, “My hero, Little Jimmy Dickens, has a saying, and that’s if you see a turtle on a fencepost, it had help getting up there. And I feel just like a turtle on a fencepost at this point.”
In addition, songwriting professor Tom Douglas won Song of the Year for his song, “The House That Built Me,” co-written with Allen Shamblin and recorded by Miranda Lambert. The song also won Music Video of the Year. Douglas, who teaches lyric writing, also co-wrote “Hello World,” the song performed on the broadcast by Lady Antebellum.
Also, Male Vocalist of the Year winner Blake Shelton won another trophy for his participation in Musical Event of the Year for his song “Hillbilly Bone,” which was recorded with Trace Adkins at Belmont’s Ocean Way Nashville Recording Studios.
New Phi Mu Pledges Raise $1,300 for Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital
The newest Phi Mu pledge class raised $1,300 for Vanderbilt’s Children Hospital in less than one week, breaking the chapter record.
Every year, the new pledges raise money to buy toys for hospital patients. The toys are used during physical therapy sessions to encourage the children to keep going and to help them feel more at home.
The 38 new pledges delivered the toys to the hospital and were taken on a tour of the hospital to see the impact the toys make. They also visited Ansley, a little girl with a rare form of cancer. This weekend, the entire Phi Mu chapter will participate in a 5K walk/run to raise money for Ansley’s treatment.
Belmont Wins Big at Nashville Technology Council 2010 Awards
Belmont senior Matt Lefavor and alumnus Nick Williams took top awards in their categories at the Nashville Technology Council 2010 Awards Ceremony. The ceremony, held in the Renaissance Hotel ballroom Oct. 28, drew 400 of the city’s leading technology professionals.
Lefavor, the Information Technology Student of the Year, is a double major in Computer Science and Philosophy in the Belmont Honors Program and has presented undergraduate research in both fields. His most recent summer job was data mining at the Goddard Space Flight Center, preparing the next Mars Rover to find life on the Red Planet. Williams, the Software Programmer/Engineer of the year, earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Belmont in 2009. He was a double major in Computer Science and Audio Engineering Technology. He is currently a software developer at PureSafety, provider of risk management software to 35 percent of the Fortune 500 companies.
Lefavor’s award marks the second year in a row that Belmont has claimed the IT Student of the Year. The 2009 award winner was Hank Carter, a Computer Science major who finished his B.S. in May 2010 and is now a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Like each of the 12 award winners, Lefavor and Williams took home beautiful new Epiphone guitars. The guitars are a symbol of the NTC “Feel the Beat” Technology Awards, and each year they are decorated with a unique design. Lefavor also took home a fully-loaded laptop, courtesy of NTC sponsor Hewlett-Packard, and a $500 scholarship also provided by Hewlett-Packard.
Belmont’s McWhorter Hall Wins National Award for ESa’s Design
Belmont University’s McWhorter Hall—which houses the Schools of Pharmacy and Physical Therapy as well as the Department of Psychological Science—has received a Citation of Excellence Award in the national Learning By Design competition. The annual competition is sponsored by the National School Boards Association and Stratton Publishing and Marketing, Inc.
McWhorter Hall is one of 11 Citations of Excellence Award winners that were deemed the best in the nation by a recognized panel of architects and educational facility specialists. This facility and the other 10 winners will be published in the 20th Anniversary Spring 2011 edition of Learning By Design. Winners were chosen on the basis of innovative design and design excellence.
The academic building, designed by Earl Swensson Associates, Inc. (ESa), maintains the historical architectural style prevalent on the Belmont campus, while containing innovation for which the university has become known. Experiential learning spaces include a sophisticated, licensed campus pharmacy and a clinic that provide services to students, faculty and staff. Interdisciplinary simulation labs add futuristic dimensions to the programs taught within the facility.
Biology Students Attend 2010 Southeast Population Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics Meeting
John Niedzwiecki (Biology) and a group of students from the biology department recently attended the 2010 Southeast Population Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics (SEPEEG) Meeting in Madison, Florida. The students attending the conference were Atinuke Osinusi, Caleb Binkley and Mark McFarland. Niedzwiecki gave an oral presentation titled “Introgression of Habitat-Specific Traits in an Ambystomatid Hybrid Zone.” Atinuke Osinusi’s poster presentation was titled “Indirect Effects of Predation Risk on Dragonfly Nymphs.” Caleb Binkley’s poster presentation was titled “The Persistence of Chemical Cues in an Aquatic Predator/Prey System.” Mark McFarland’s poster presentation was titled “Sublethal Effects of pH on the Activity of Physid Snails.” Many schools, mostly large research universities from the Southeast, were represented, including UGA, Emory, Clemson, Univ. of Tenn., Univ. of Florida, Florida State, East Carolina, SE Lousiana State and others.
Riechert Participates in PRSA Southeast Leadership Rally
Bonnie Riechert participated in the Oct. 29 Public Relations Society of America Southeast Leadership Rally in Atlanta. She is a board member of the Nashville Chapter of PRSA and the incoming secretary for the southeast district. Also attending the rally were representatives of the Alabama, Georgia, Charlotte and Lookout PRSA chapters. Topics included chapter programming, fundraising, leadership development and accreditation in public relations.
