Andy Tabar, an Entrepreneurship student, presented a business plan for his web development company—Bizooki—to a panel of some of the best and most experienced new venture investors in the U.S.A. on Fri., March 14. Tabar’s plan was selected as one of 10 top collegiate entrepreneurial ventures invited to the Fifth Annual Spirit of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (SEED) National Collegiate Venture Forum held in Santa Barbara, California.
Over a two day period, these experts in the SEED forum provide feedback on various venture aspects, including the assessment of feasibility, long-term sustainability, and identification of potential funding opportunities. In addition, participants garner a rare opportunity for budding ventures to network as they seek early stage funding. Upon completing the intensive two-day experience, Tabar noted, “The timing was right for the development of my venture. The feedback from Silicon Valley investors and fellow venture presenters and the relationships established have already had a positive impact on my thinking and venturing efforts. I plan to stay connected to SEED and its outstanding network of investors.”
Dr. Mark Schenkel, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at Belmont University added, “Andy earned an amazing opportunity to present his venture at this year’s SEED forum. It is a reflection of Andy’s talent, personal drive and prospects for his venture. He was presenting among an elite group whose founding venture teams included individuals with advanced degrees (Ph.D. and MBA) from some of the most prestigious academic institutions in the country. We are extremely proud of Andy’s accomplishments in the two and one half short years since he joined our Entrepreneurship Program.”
CNN has will be hosting Dr. David Newton, founder of the SEED forum, on April 14 to discuss the ventures presented at this year’s SEED competition.
Entrepreneurship Student Presents Venture to Investor Panel
Bruins Compete in NCAA First Round with Near Upset Against Duke
On the heels of its historic third consecutive A-Sun Conference Tournament Championship, Belmont Basketball faced tradition-rich Duke in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Washington, D.C. with a near upset against the Blue Devils with a final score of 71-70.
Click here to read the rest of the story from Athletics.
Click here to view student coverage of the event.
Student Audio Mixers Win Competition
Congratulations to Belmont students Chris Diener, Garrett Miller and Nick Spezia, who were winners of the 2008 Audio Engineering Society (AES) Nashville Spring Mixer competition. The Belmont mix trio beat participating teams from Middle Tennessee State University, Nashville State Technical Institute, the School of Audio Engineering and the International Academy of Design and Technology. Their mix of Faith Hill’s “Sunday Night Football” was chosen as the best mix in the competition by a panel of five industry judges: Dan Rudin, Mike Poston, Todd Robbins, Steve Bishir and Bob Olhsson.
The AES Spring Mix Competition is an annual event sponsored by Nashville’s local AES Chapter. Schools with student chapters enter one team representing their school. Each team is given eight hours to mix the same song in an identically equipped studio at CMT’s 330 Post Studios located in downtown Nashville. Mixes are judged and scored by leading industry professional engineers and producers. Winners receive a variety of prizes donated by manufacturers and local music stores.
Belmont has won the trophy three out of the last five years since the competition’s inception. This year’s win brings the trophy back home after a two-year residence at MTSU. Second time senior participant Garrett Miller notes, “The competition was a lot of fun, and it was great opportunity to hear what industry professionals have to say about mixes, especially our own mixes.”
University College Wins Marketing Awards
University College recently won several awards from the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) for its 2008 Marketing & Publications and Strategic Marketing efforts. The “Unfinished Business” postcard took home a gold medal while the billboard for the same campaign won a bronze. The “Unfinished Business” Garage TV ad also won a bronze award.
Belmont Preserves Lead in All-Sports Race
As the winter sports seasons have come to a close, the Belmont Bruins have held onto their lead in the 2007-2008 Atlantic Sun Conference Bill Bibb Trophy Standings. The Bruins have 235.5 points following the winter seasons, and are trailed by ETSU with 199.5. Belmont also leads the men’s and women’s all-sports races. In the Jesse C. Fletcher Trophy Standings for the men’s all-sports race, Belmont sits in first with 97.5 points; the Belmont women have 138 points to lead the Sherman Day Trophy Standings for the women’s all-sports race.
Belmont has the most combined team titles of any other institution, a big reason why it leads the pack in the combined all-sports race. The Bruins most recently added a men’s basketball title to a championship list that already included men’s and women’s cross country. Belmont scored 93 points during the winter seasons, the second most in the conference. They own a 36-point lead over second-place ETSU (199.5).
Alexander Serves as Keynote Speaker at Business Ethics Conference
Joe Alexander, associate dean of the Massey Graduate Business School, served as a keynote speaker for the Greater Greenville (SC) Chamber of Commerce Ethics in Business and Education conference on March 14. His presentation focused on the use of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria for creating an organizational framework for ethical behavior. Don McCabe, a Rutgers University professor of management, served as the other keynote speaker and presented the results of his national research on the ethical/unethical behaviors of K-12 and college students over the last decade. Other speakers included Debra Clements, general counsel for Milliken & Company, and Michele Brinn, vice president for workforce development and education at the Greenville Chamber. The program was sponsored by the Greenville Chamber Foundation, in partnership with Clemson University’s Robert J. Rutland Institute for Ethics, USC Upstate’s George Dean Johnson Jr. College of Business and Economics and the Capital Corporation.
Belmont University Profiled in New York Times, Other Media
In an inventive article in Thursday’s New York Times, reporter George Vecsey offers a lengthy profile of Belmont University that features the men’s basketball team’s third visit to the NCAA Tournament while also highlighting legendary alumna Sarah Cannon (Minnie Pearl).
Vecsey tells a story about Ms. Cannon that he first learned earlier this week in an interview with Belmont Music Business Professor Don Cusic, who is quoted in the article. Vecsey also writes, “I’m rooting for Belmont against the Dookies because I used hang out in Nashville, and I got to meet Belmont’s most popular alum — the Grand Ole Opry character with the moniker Minnie Pearl. The school might prefer to be known for its consistent grade-point average of over 3.0 for athletes — including the basketball team, which only a handful of teams in the final 64 could claim.”
Click here to read the New York Times article.
Belmont has appeared in a number of other major media outlets this week as well in response to the NCAA tournament. Click the links below to see additional coverage.
MSNBC
Baltimore Sun
ESPN.com
WSMV
The Tennessean: ‘Bruins Stare at History’
The Tennessean: ‘Belmont coach shows off press conference comedy’
The Tennessean: ‘Belmont Star Picks Hospitals Over Hoops’
Sporting News
InsideHigherEd.com Puts Belmont in Top 2 of Its NCAA Bracket
Teams standings determined by athletes’ academic performance
InsideHigherEd.com—an online source for news, opinion and jobs for all of higher education—released today its own picks for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Bracket and selected Belmont University to make it all the way to the Championship Game. InsideHigherEd.com based its selections in each round by awarding wins to the team with the strongest academic performance using the athletes’ academic standing, enrollment continuity and graduation rates as key factors. Belmont finished this tournament bracket second, behind only Davidson, outscoring such academic power players as Duke, Xavier and Cornell along the way.
Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher said, “This is what I really love about Belmont’s athletic program: No matter what the scoreboard shows at the end of a competitive contest, we know that we’ve ‘won’ by playing with class, giving our very best, exhibiting good sportsmanship and doing all of this with scholar-athletes who will leave Belmont and make significant contributions to meeting the needs of the world.”
On the heels of its historic third consecutive Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament Championship, Belmont Basketball will face tradition-rich Duke in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The Bruins and Blue Devils are scheduled to play this Thurs., March 20 from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. as part of the West Regional bracket. Tip-off time is 6:10 p.m. Central.
The Bruins are led on the court by Senior Justin Hare who is an ESPN The Magazine First Team Academic All-American. For the Fall 2007 semester, every Belmont team, including men’s basketball, held a team GPA average of 3.0 or higher.
Click here to read the full story of how the NCAA Tournament teams match up academically according to InsideHigherEd.com. Click here to read The Tennessean’s coverage of the news.
Psychology Alumnus Wins Research Award
Jessica Niesner, a recent Belmont Psychology major graduate (Dec. 2007), was awarded a Psi Chi Regional Research Award at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association held in Boston on March 13-16. Supervised by Dr. Michael Sullivan, the research was titled “The Effect of Relevant Information on Mindlessness.” In recognition for her work, Niesner received a certificate and check for $300. Out of 180 research posters with Psi Chi members as first authors, Niesner’s research was one of the few recognized with this award.
In addition, eight other Belmont students and recent graduates attended and presented their work at the Eastern Psychological Association meeting. Students presenting research were: Afton Cole, Luke Lancaster, Sarah Lashley, Layne Murphy, Kurt Niesner, Renease Perkins, Shandus Valentine and Ashley Wilkins. Psi Chi is the National Honor Society in Psychology, founded for the purpose of encouraging, stimulating, and maintaining excellence in scholarship, and advancing the science of psychology. The Eastern Region of the organization includes chapters at such schools as Trinity College, Mount St. Mary’s, Colby College, NYU and Yale.
Eric Volz Advises Belmont Students on ‘Media Ethics’
Recently freed from a Nicaraguan prison, former magazine publisher Eric Volz visited Belmont University Thursday to speak to journalism students on the subject of “Media Ethics.” Volz, the stepson of former Belmont Associate Dean of Students Dane Anthony, offered a brief lecture on his experiences and took questions from the students for more than an hour.
Volz was accused of the 2006 murder of ex-girlfriend Doris Jiménez and served more than a year in a maximum security prison in Nicaragua before an appeals court overturned his conviction in December. Due to repeated threats on his life, Volz has remained in hiding since his return to the United States, but in a meeting with local journalists yesterday afternoon, he said, “If you stay in hiding forever, then they’ve won.”
He added that he chose Belmont for his first academic appearance on the subject due to the strong support he and his family received from the university during his imprisonment, especially noting a fundraising concert held last January. Volz’ future plans include the re-launch of his Web site to “generate dialogue around topics that matter and… address cross-cultural misunderstandings.”
For more on this story, visit the media coverage of Volz’ press conference below:
The Tennessean
NewsChannel 5
WSMV Channel 4
