Belmont University soccer player John Paul Rodrigues, who also has played for the Nashville Metros of soccer’s Premiere Development League, was selected first overall in the United Soccer League First Division College Draft last week, by the new USL expansion team in Miami. Details at USLSoccer.com. Rodrigues, a junior from Lutz, Fla., is the only soccer player from the Atlantic Sun conference to be selected in the USL expansion draft.
Belmont Soccer Player Drafted First in USL Expansion Draft
Clark Nominated for Amateur Athletics Award
Belmont freshman Alysha Clark (Mt. Juliet, Tenn.) of the Belmont women’s basketball team is one of five collegiate players nominated for the Amateur Athletics award for the Nashville Sports Council’s 8th Annual O’Charley’s Dinner of Champions. She is the only female nominated for the award and the only athlete from Belmont.
Last year, Clark helped her Mt. Juliet High School team win the state championship and came away with State Tournament MVP honors. She was also named Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year, Class 3A Miss Basketball, Midstate Player of the Year and McDonald’s All-America Honorable Mention.
Now in her first year with the Bruins, Clark is continuing to impress. She is currently ranked 10th in NCAA Division I in scoring and is second in the Atlantic Sun Conference in this category as well. She also leads the Belmont women’s basketball team in both scoring and rebounding and has been named A-Sun Player of the Week twice.
Clark’s former team, Mt. Juliet, has also been nominated for an award – High School Team Athletics honors.
The winners of the 8th Annual O’Charley’s Dinner of Champions will be presented on Monday, February 13 at Gaylord Opryland Resort.
More information about the event can be found by visiting www.NashvilleSports.com.
McKay Appointed to Workforce Development Board
Sally C. McKay, Director Human Resources has been appointed by Governor Phil Bredesen to Tennessee’s State Workforce Development Board. Nominated by the Tennessee Economic Council on Women and representing education, her term expires in 2008. The primary responsibility of the Board is to advise the Governor on all matters of workforce development strategy for the state of Tennessee. The State Workforce Development Board seeks to increase the competitive position of Tennessee businesses and attract new businesses through the development of a highly skilled workforce.
Saunders Obtains CEBS Designation
Susan Saunders, Assistant Director Human Resources recently passed the eighth in a series of examinations and obtained the Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS) designation. In the employee benefits field, the oldest and most respected professional credential is the CEBS. The credentialing program was established in 1977 through a partnership of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans which is responsible for the overall administration of the program and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania which oversees academic content and standards.
Hutchins Sworn in as U.S. Citizen
Congratulations to Dr. Trevor Hutchins, Associate Dean, School of Education, who will be sworn in as a U.S. citizen Fri., January 28 in the federal building in Nashville. This will give Dr. Hutchins dual citizenship with his native Australia.
Please join us in extending our congratulations to Dr. Hutchins.
Sturgis Featured Guest at Conference
Adjunct instructor Dr. Amy Sturgis is a featured guest of honor at The One Ring conference, an annual gathering of fans and experts of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Sturgis teaches science fiction/fantasy studies and Native American studies. Sturgis’ talk at The One Ring conference was based on her paper, Harry Potter is a Hobbit: Rowling, Tolkien, and the Question of Readership.
Dr. Sturgis also has begun writing a regular column for the online magazine PopThought (www.popthought.com). Her first column, Nun of Your Business, considers the implications of the fame and recent theft of Nashville’s Mother Theresa-resembling NunBun.
Belmont Proposes to Rehab, Share Nashville’s Rose Park
Proposal includes more community service offerings in Edgehill community
Today’s Nashville City Paper reports on Belmont University’s proposal to Nashville’s Metro Parks Board to pay for the bulk of rehabbing E.S. Rose Park in the city’s Edgehill neighborhood to use it a venue for its NCAA Division I outdoor sports teams – baseball, softball, soccer and track – while also maintaining it as a community park and recreational facility. In addition, Belmont is proposing to expand its community-service offerings at the park’s community center. (Click map thumbnail at left.)
The Nashville City Paper Belmont Student Interns With Oprah
Rachel Smith, a junior at Belmont University, is interning this spring at Harpo Productions, the home of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Smith, a journalism major, is working in the publicity department at Harpo, the production company that Winfrey launched in 1986. Harpo – that’s Oprah spelled backwards – produces the Oprah Winfrey Show. Winfrey began her Chicago-based talk show in 1985, after previously working in radio and television in Baltimore and Nashville during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Anti-Violence Symposium at Belmont
Boston Rev. Ray Hammond, who lead a successful church-based effort in the early 1990s to reduce Boston’s crime and murder rate, told a gathering of leaders from Nashville churches and law enforcement and others at Belmont University Thursday how they did it.
