Belmont University | FYI


April 18, 2008

ACHIEVERS


Creative Services Wins Three Graphic Design Awards
The Creative Services team for the Belmont Office of Communications was recently notified that it received three 2008 American Inhouse Design Awards, which are presented by Graphic Design USA and sponsored by The Creative Group. Belmont won awards for the 2006 President's Report, the invitation for the Troutt Theater Grand Opening and the Student Activities Calendar. The American Inhouse Design Award is the original and premier showcase for first rate work being done by corporate, non-profit and institutional inhouse departments. There were more than 5,000 entries for this year's awards.

ATO Crosses Half-way Mark on Fundraising Goal
The Alpha Tau Omega fraternity is setting out to make university history this year by raising $20,000 in the First Annual ATO Golf & Walk Classic, a benefit for Blood:Water Mission, which is a local charity dedicated to providing clean water and eradicating HIV in Africa. The brothers, along with other members of the campus and local community, are gathering sponsors as they either golf or walk at Nashville’s Harpeth Hills Golf Course on April 30 to support this mission. To date, ATO has already received $11,500 and looks to exceed its original goal. For more information on the Blood:Water Mission, visit www.bloodwatermission.com. For more information on how to participate in the Golf/Walk event, contact ATO's Brian Dunn at dunnb@pop.belmont.edu. To donate to this event, send a check to ATO Golf and Walk Classic, Alpha Tau Omega, P.O. Box 120742, Nashville, TN 37212.

Students Participate in History Conference
HistoryStudentsatUT.jpgOn April 5, Belmont history majors (pictured l-r) Ash Johnson, Leslie McClure and Tara Hamlin presented papers at the regional conference of Phi Alpha Theta, the History Honor Society. The event was held on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Martin. Hamlin’s paper, "Castro’s Cuba: the Search for an Ideology,” was chosen as the best paper in the area of Regional History. The students were accompanied by Belmont faculty members Dr. Brenda Jackson-Abernathy, chair of the History Department, and Dr. Cynthia Bisson, faculty advisor to the Xi-Alpha Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta.

Lind Awarded Grant for Math Research Project
Dr. Joan Lind, assistant professor of mathematics, was recently awarded a mini-grant for the 2008-09 academic year from the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (CURM). The $13,150 CURM mini-grant will provide funds for her to work with two undergraduates as they refine a computer program that simulates the stochastic process called SLE. Lind's specific research goals for the coming year include the following: (1) Improve the current computer program to get accurate simulations of SLE for large values of kappa; (2) Explore what happens when we let kappa be a complex number; (3) Modify the computer program to simulate SLE with a complex value for kappa; (4) Create a computer program that will back-bite and explore the back-biting operation with an eye to answering the back-biting question.

McGrew Selected for Travel Fellowship to Attend Neuroscience Meeting
Dr. Lori McGrew, assistant professor of biology, was recently selected as one of the recipients of an Association of Neuroscience Departments and Programs (ANDP) Travel Fellowship to assist her with attending the Annual Spring Meeting in Bethesda, Md. May 3-4. The award will cover up to $500 in travel expenses as well as provide her with free registration for the meeting.

Business Students Win Prizes at International Competition
059 high res.JPGSeveral students from Belmont University’s College of Business Administration recently won significant prizes in the International meeting of Delta Epsilon Chi in Atlanta. Delta Epsilon Chi, the collegiate division of DECA, seeks to develop future leaders in marketing, management and entrepreneurship.

More than 100 students from 58 teams participated in the Entrepreneurial Challenge, a featured three-day event in which students (in teams of one to three) come up with a business idea for a specific industry or trend. This year’s focus was on "green" businesses. The student teams researched an idea and made a pitch for a business proposal to a series of business executives who served as judges. Belmont teams placed as the top two winners in the competition and held five of the top 10 finalist spots.

Kevin Jennings, an Entrepreneurship and Music Business major from Nashville, and Sally Munns, an Entrepreneurship major from Brentwood, won first place in the Entrepreneurial Challenge. Winning Team members share a $5,000 Don DeBolt Scholarship and up to $3,000 in travel awards to attend the International Franchise Association Annual Meeting to present their winning proposal. They also received $10,000 in seed money from ideablob.com.

Noah Curran, an International Business/Entrepreneurship major, and Julie Zaloba, an Entrepreneurship major, won second place and $3,000 in prize money.

In addition to being on the first place team in the Entrepreneurial Challenge, Kevin Jennings also took first place in the Business Plan Competition for his business soundAFX, which he currently runs in the College of Business Administration Hatchery program.

For more on this story, click here.

Two Seniors Selected for Fulbright Grants in Austria
Two of Belmont's graduating seniors have been awarded grants for 2008-09 for teaching and study in Austria by the Austrian Ministry of Education, sponsored by the Fulbright Program. We are very proud of their success in this national grant competition. The students are Megan Dittmann, Honors Program German major, and Nick Ashburn, double major in German and Political Science.

Chatham Named 2008 Recipient of AT&T Real Yellow Pages Scholarship in Public Relations
ATT Scholarship.jpgBelmont University announced today that junior Anna Chatham has been named the second recipient of the AT&T Real Yellow Pages Scholarship in Public Relations. AT&T Advertising & Publishing is supporting Belmont University’s public relations program with a five-year scholarship commitment, with the inaugural award given last year. The $2,500 prize is presented annually each spring to the public relations major who demonstrates academic excellence, campus service and professionalism. Applicants must also write an essay that effectively responds to the question, “What role should public relations play in corporate social responsibility?”

Chatham, a junior public relations major and native of Burns, Tenn., has a 3.7 grade point average on a 4.0 scale and is a member of Belmont’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) and the Phi Mu fraternity. She also serves as an intern with the Senior University Events Coordinator and has been a Belmont Ambassador and Tower Team Leader.

“I was very surprised and excited to win this scholarship,” said Chatham, who is pictured above with AT&T Real Yellow Pages District Sales Manager Brandon Stotts at Wednesday's scholarship presentation. “I’m extremely grateful to AT&T for investing in my education. Receiving this scholarship really affirms what I’ve learned in my classes at Belmont and in my internship experiences.”

For more on this story, click here.

Students Earn Honorable Mention in International Math Contest
A team of Belmont mathematics students earned an Honorable Mention in this year's Mathematical Contest in Modeling. This year’s contest ran from Feb. 14-18. During that time, teams of up to three undergraduate or high school students researched, modeled and submitted a solution to one of two modeling problems. In this international competition, mathematics majors Nikki Finuf, Matt Perry and Amy Valentine had three days to model the effects on the Florida coastline of the melting of the polar ice cap and to evaluate various prevention and remediation measures. Their Honorable Mention designation places them in the top 55 percent of the 1,162 competing teams representing institutions from 14 countries. The students will be presenting their model and results at BURS this year.


    For more stories from the Achievers Archive, click here.