by Kyrsten Turner | Feb 5, 2014 | Uncategorized
Lipscomb’s new IDEAL program is equipping students with intellectual disabilities with the skills needed for successful employment. The two-year certificate program combines general education classes with core classes in technology and employment skills to prepare students for the work place. “Ultimately, my goal is to have students that graduate from this program that are able to find meaningful, paid employment,” said Mallory Whitmore, the program director. The IDEAL (Igniting the Dream of Education and Access at Lipscomb) program, which is partially funded by a grant from the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities, became a part of Lipscomb in June 2013. Dr. Candace McQueen, the dean of Lipscomb’s College of Education, and Dr. Misty Vetter, the faculty advisor for the program, wrote a proposal for the program to present before the Council, and it was approved mid-summer. IDEAL students began their Lipscomb education in January with the start of the spring semester. The program currently has three students enrolled, and Whitmore says she hopes to see a total of 10 enrolled in the fall. The students will be taking two IDEAL classes every semester, as well as auditing two undergraduate courses and participating in an internship. Whitmore, who works with the Best Buddies organization in Nashville, said she is excited about the opportunities this program will provide for students, as well as how the program will grow in the future. “I would like to see our program inspire more and more high school students with disabilities to think of college as an option,” Whitmore said. “I would [also] like to get more professors involved. One of our components is that students audit two classes a...
by Carter Sanderson | Feb 5, 2014 | News Slider, Sports
The Nashville Sounds, AAA affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers, have been at Greer Stadium since 1978 but plans to make stadium renovations at the team’s new home of Sulphur Dell have officially begun. On Wednesday Lipscomb hosted the second installment of the Forehand and Friends luncheon with Brad Tammen (pictured above), the general manager of the Nashville Sounds, and Skip Nipper, a local baseball historian who had insight on the groundbreaking event of the new stadium. Bisons baseball head coach Jeff Forehand made the introductions, talking about his team and coaches for this season, followed by the two guests speakers on the renovations of the stadium. “It’s good to be around baseball people, but it’s really good to be around a Christian environment,” Nipper said before he began the memories of the old Sulphur Dell Park. When describing the tradition and the age of the park, Nipper said that “the right field fence was just 162 feet from home plate,” drawing several laughs from the crowd. Nipper showed picture after picture and clip after clip of some of the most historic and memorable moments before Tammen got up to speak on behalf of the new stadium. Monday was the groundbreaking for the new Sulpher Dell Stadium. This is a $108 million project spread out to 38 million on the actual ball park, 60 million on redevelopment and 10 million on the parking structure. As of now, AAA teams get roughly 350,000 fans a year, but there are high hopes that with the new stadium look, fans will fill the seats. “The Sounds were 11th out of 16 in the...
by Carter Sanderson | Feb 5, 2014 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb baseball team officially started spring practice on Friday, as it is set to swing into the 2014 season on Feb. 14, a Valentine’s Day special. However, Wednesday, Feb. 5, marked an even more special moment for the baseball team with the signing of Brooks Russell. “Russell is a 5-year-old and a five-star recruit,” head coach Jeff Forehand said when asked about his brand new signee. Brooks is battling a pediatric brain tumor, which, in his case, was found in his spinal cord. The tumor was found following an MRI on May 10 and came as a devastating surprise to the Russell family. In May 2012 Brooks had his surgery to partially remove his tumor and was paralyzed for 6 weeks, relying on a walker to get around. Brooks’ mother Kari Russell likes to look on the positive side of her firstborn’s life. “It’s been a roller coaster, but it’s also been a blessing,” Kari Russell said. “We had to learn to watch him walk again, so to be able to watch him finally run and now play sports is just awesome.” Brooks’ favorite sport is baseball, and if you were to ask him what he wants for pre-game meal, he would tell you ice cream. Coach Forehand said in the press conference, “I ask Brooks what his best position was, like I ask all my recruits, and he said ‘Hitter’.” From that moment on, you can bet Forehand didn’t need to ask any more questions. What baseball team doesn’t want a hitter? “Brooks is a special kid going through some tough things,” Forehand continued. “I think the Lipscomb community...
by Logan Butts | Feb 5, 2014 | Sports
It’s the bottom of the ninth inning, the bases are loaded and the game is tied. Or maybe there are five seconds left in the fourth quarter, and the kicker is coming out to give his team the lead. Or perhaps the point guard has the ball in his hands with the final buzzer on the verge of sounding. At the end of a close contest, when an athlete is running on fumes, any edge can make the slightest of difference between winning and losing. If the home team has the privilege of playing in front of a raucous crowd that shakes the stadium, it might be the advantage that provides a victory. The support of fans doesn’t always come to mind before practice, skill and athleticism in the hierarchy of winning attributes for an athletic team, but in a hard fought battle where both teams are evenly matched, a rocking home field advantage could make a huge impact. Lipscomb senior T.J. Ojehomon saw a distinct lack of fan support, especially from students, when he started attending athletic events on campus. Being a former athlete himself, he knew that peers cheering you on while competing can have a crucial impact. Ojehomon also knew that even though his playing days were over, he wanted to make an impact on Lipscomb athletics somehow. Thus, Stampede, Lipscomb’s student fan organization, was born. “My sophomore year I got the opportunity to produce a video in order to promote Running of the Bison,” Ojehomon said. “Then that led to another opportunity to do on-court entertainment, being the guy that gets people involved during media...
by Jesica Parsley | Jan 30, 2014 | News Slider
Dr. Richard Goode is looking ahead to the next Lipscomb Initiative for Education graduation class while celebrating the accomplishment of the first ever graduating class. Goode is an associate history professor at Lipscomb and founder of the LIFE program, which offers credit classes in the Tennessee Prison for Women to a group of selected inmates. Participants in the LIFE program are not rushed through courses. Instead, they work as long as needed in order to achieve goals to build a better future. The program began in January of 2007, so for the past eight years, the first nine women who graduated had been working to get their associate’s degree. The women participating in the second class will graduate in 2015. They are enrolled in one class a semester in the general education field, and with that class comes interaction with traditional Lipscomb students. These students go to the prison to take the same class with the inmates. “You can tell who’s who by the attire, but everybody is just there studying the same thing – same syllabus, same books and same tests,” Goode said. “We work to take advantage of the situation by getting people together and having a mix of interaction with inside and outside.” Forty women take part in the LIFE program, and these women then mentor the hundreds of other inmates at the Tennessee Prison for Women. Most of the women work to build their transcript to further their education or get jobs when they get out of prison. Some will never get out, but the program helps bring peace to their lives. “[Women] who aren’t getting out...
