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Student Honors and Awards -- Fall 2010

Janel Shoun | 

3,200 reasons to cheer
First-time entrepreneurs donate $3,000+ in profits to Daystar Ministries
 
First place teams hands the profits over to Pace Verner of Daystar.
Second place team celebrates with the Daystar representative.
When Pace Verner, development director of Daystar Counseling, headed over to Lipscomb in December to collect a donation from the university's Foundations of Business class, she expected to pick up around $300 dollars. Instead, she got around $3,000, thanks to the business acumen of the 50 future entrepreneurs enrolled in the College of Business class.
 
Verner was totally shocked, she said upon receiving the check, which represented the profits from student-run businesses operated over the course of the fall semester.
 
Students in the Foundations of Business class, an introductory class for business majors, divided up into teams and each came up with a business plan to sell Micah & Me stationery. The course is taught by Laura Williams, assistant professor of business.
 
The students identified an audience, selected the best stationery style for their audience, came up with their own pricing strategy, decided how much inventory to buy and sold the high-end stationery in various locations. Some sold to family members during the Thanksgiving holiday. Some sold to nursing home staff and patients. Others targeted students, fellow church members, and retail stores.
 
The first place team, which made $850 in profit, included students Abigail Bobo, McCall Graves, Brittany Mallard and Michelle Rivard. The second place team, which made $665 in profit, included students Angela Han, Andrew Park, Zac Riedford and Reed Sircy.
 
In all, the teams grossed $9,274 in sales during the semester, providing $3,202 in profits for Daystar, a local ministry providing affordable counseling to kids and families in the Middle Tennessee area. The students achieved far more than their goal to raise $1,500 in profit.
 
In addition, the students’ stationery purchases helped Micah & Me’s owner pay off her business loans.
 
Even the students profited as they got free pizza on the last day of class to celebrate their success, and the winning team members did not have to take their final exams.
 
 
 
John Deason
Brittany Latimer
A global shot in the arm
College of Pharmacy students serve internationally as Frist Global Health Leaders
 
Student pharmacists John Deason and Brittany Latimer worked in Lusaka, Zambia during the summer of 2010 in Hope Through Healing Hands’ Frist Global Health Leaders Program.
 
Hope Through Healing Hands is a nonprofit, chaired by retired Sen. Bill Frist Sr., which promotes improved quality of life for citizens and communities around the world through enhanced health care.
 
The Frist Global Health Leaders Program allows young health professional students, residents and fellows the opportunity to serve and train abroad in underserved communities for up to one semester.
 
Latimer, from Charlotte, N.C., completed her undergraduate degree in pre-pharmacy in 2009 at Lipscomb and has three years' experience working at CVS Pharmacy.
 
Deason, from Nashville, completed his undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry at Middle Tennessee State University in 2008. He hopes to make his life’s work in medical missions.
 
To view Latimer's blog of her experiences click here.
 
To view Deacon's blog of his experiences click here.
 
 
 
 
A historic award
History major wins state, national honor for transcription of historic Bible
 
Rebecca Robinson (’10), a history major from Franklin, Tenn., has long been a history buff. So it was natural for her to take a job as a tour guide at the Carnton Plantation in Franklin, the historic home of the McGavock family that played a major role in the Battle of Franklin during the Civil War.
 
With a special interest in historic preservation, it was also natural for Robinson to take an interest in the Daughters of the American Revolution Cumberland Chapter’s project to archive family Bibles, which usually include detailed birth, marriage and death records of Middle Tennessee families. Her mother, grandmother and great great aunt have all been active members of the DAR.
 
It didn’t take her long to put two and two together and realize that -- despite the fact that Carnton and its former residents gained national attention when Carrie McGavock was profiled in Robert Hick’s best-selling book the “Widow of the South” -- the McGavock Bibles did not make it into the DAR archive of family Bibles.
 
Robinson decided to transcribe and document the Bibles herself, spending a couple of months photographing the pages and transcribing the hand-written birth, marriage and death records. She produced a book, printed at her father’s printing company, and a data CD for the DAR archives of the John McGavock Bible and the Sallie. E. McGavock Bible.
 
“These (records in the Bible) start with John and Carrie (McGavock), and they go all the way to 1970. So it’s over 100 years worth of birth and death records for one family,” Robinson notes.
 
The John McGavock Bible is dated 1846 and is displayed for tour groups in the parlor of Carnton. The Sallie E. McGavock Bible is stored in the secretary in the parlor.
 
“She took all the information in those Bibles, compiled it and digitized it, making that information much  more available to other members of the staff without having to handle the object,” said Joanna Stephens, curator for Carnton Plantation. “Now our staff can have more access, more frequent access and we can provide that information to others who need it more than we could before. It has definitely been a valuable resource.”
 
For example, the Bible is the only source of many obituaries that the family pasted into the book. Now historians can refer to the obituaries and see them without having to go to the book and open the fragile pages.
 
The documentation was deemed so valuable for historians that Robinson’s work won the DAR Historic Preservation Committee Award for the Cumberland Chapter, and Robinson won the national Historical Preservation Recognition Award in September.
 
Historic Carnton Plantation
“You never really know what you want to do – if you’ll really enjoy it, until you actually work in that field,” said Robinson, who hopes to attend graduate school at Middle Tennessee State University in public history and historical preservation.
 
“This project was important for me because I found I really do love working in preservation. I had so much fun transcribing and working out each little picky detail. It’s encouraging to know I am doing what I love. Hopefully I’ll have more projects to work on in the future.”
 
 
 
 
Healthy dose of South America
PMBA student selected for South American health care trade mission
 
 (l to r) PMBA student Sarah Cook, Chilean Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, Lipscomb Assistant Dean John Lowry
Lipscomb University PMBA student Sarah Cook was selected by the Nashville Health Care Council (NHCC) to receive its only Leadership Health Care scholarship, to attend its ninth international health care trade mission in November to Santiago, Chile, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
 
Led by Jack O. Bovender Jr., HCA retired chairman and CEO, the executive-level mission is the first of its kind to South America for NHCC and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. One of only a few such initiatives nationwide, this program brought together a diverse group of key health care leaders to promote economic development for Nashville’s health care industry and open the city to global markets.
 
Cook, director of account management at Healthways in Franklin, Tenn., was selected for the only Leadership Health Care scholarship to attend the mission. Leadership Health Care is an initiative of the Nashville Health Care Council to cultivate emerging health care leaders.

At Healthways, a leading provider of health and well-being solutions, Cook supports client relationships by helping to design and implement disease management and chiropractic strategies for health plans and their customers. She is building on her bachelor’s degree from MTSU and dietetics professional internship at Vanderbilt University with a Professional Master of Business (PMBA) Degree from Lipscomb.
 
The chance to interact with some of Nashville’s top health care leaders and to hear them discuss issues with similar executive-level leaders in South America was the opportunity of a lifetime, Cook said.
 
“I think there is something very valuable in seeing the world in a bigger perspective,” Cook said. “In September I went with the (Lipscomb) PMBA group on their study abroad trip in England, and I was struck with how little we know in America about other cultures and nations versus how much they know about us.”
 
As Chile and Argentina are just starting to experience some of the health problems of a fully-developed nation -- such as obesity, smoking and low levels of exercise -- it was exciting to think about how she and her colleagues could make a real impact. “We have a real opportunity to help the South American health care community avoid some of the consequences of these unhealthy behaviors and consequences that America has been dealing with for some time,” Cook said.
 
 
 
 
Cross-cultural solutions
Institute for Conflict Management students study cross-cultural solutions in Ireland
 
Two students at the Institute for Conflict Management (ICM) spent a week in summer 2010 in Dublin, Ireland, at Trinity College, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world, to study communication methods that cross cultural boundaries.
 
The trip was sponsored by Southern Methodist University’s (SMU) Center for Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management, which shares many of the same faculty with Lipscomb’s ICM. Students Stacey Rucker and Alexis Jones (’10), both pursuing master’s degrees, went on the trip with 14 SMU students.
 
By day, they analyzed case studies of organizations all over the world that had successfully overcome conflict. Guest speakers of various nationalities also spoke on their successful methods to build and sustain functional international relationships.
 
Students also toured the historical sites of Dublin and the surrounding region (including the Trinity campus, which was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I). Learning about the Irish culture and the centuries-old history of conflict in the nation really “put things in perspective,” said Jones, who plans to attend law school next.
 
 
 
 
Commercial success
Nashville Chamber of Commerce honors marketing and sustainability students
 
Why I Love Nashville Contest
 
A team of students from John Crawford’s promotional strategy class in the marketing department were selected as the winner of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce’s “Why I Love Nashville” video contest.
 
Students Morgan Philley, Kaci Curtis, Larissa Sylvester and Hae Lee submitted a video describing why Nashville is a great place to live or own a business.
 
The winning video was played in front of 300-400 people during the Chamber's 2010 annual meeting and was posted on their YouTube channel.
 
“This video contest gave these students the opportunity to take information and principles from their classroom experiences and put them to use in an appropriate manner after engaging in critical thinking.  If the work is judged to be winning work, that makes the process even better in that it validates the effort the students displayed,” said Crawford, academic chair of the marketing department.
 
 
Future 50 Award
 
William Paddock
William Paddock, a recent MBA graduate in sustainability, received one of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Future 50 Awards for a company he established while a student at Lipscomb.
 
WAP Sustainability, a company that provides sustainability solutions for businesses and local governments, was recognized as one of the 50 fastest growing, privately owned companies in the Middle Tennessee. It was founded by Paddock, who graduated in 2009 with one of Lipscomb’s first green MBAs.
 
The chamber award highlights the entrepreneurial spirit of the Nashville region and is based on past and projected revenue and employment growth. Winners also possess leadership, innovation, vision, creativity and the determination to build a successful enterprise.
 
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in environmental science from the University of Alabama and working at Mars Company as their first sustainability consultant, Paddock decided to start a business where he could help multiple companies take better care of the environment.
 
As a sustainability consultant, he helps make companies more environmentally friendly by measuring their environmental impacts. He uses the Greenhouse Gas Inventory to measure carbon and fossil fuels emissions and to identify the source of waste. He also analyzes all variables of a product’s manufacturing, packaging process and transportation to see if any pollution can be eradicated in the process.
 
“My favorite part of the job is problem-solving. I love strategizing a new system for a company to help eliminate waste and pollution,” Paddock said.
 
Paddock credits Lipscomb for providing core content integrated with sustainability. “It gave me the necessary experiences that are not as easy to come by in everyday work,” he said.