Lumination’s Top 10 Stories of 2014

Happy New Year, Lumination readers! Now that the new year’s resolutions have been made and the first day of 2015 is here, we want to take a hop back in time to look at some of Lipscomb’s biggest moments of 2014. Before we get to the top 10 stories, we want to take a moment to honor those we lost in 2014. Alumni Andrew Nash, Anastasia Sloan, Meghan Day and Jacob Akers, and associate professor of pharmacy practice Kim Barker and longtime faculty member Earl Dennis all passed away. As we begin a new year, we would like to keep those listed and their families in our thoughts and prayers. Quite a few stories made it close to the top 10. They include a few annual events, special guests and people in new positions of leadership. In December, Amy Grant hosted the tenth annual Lighting of the Green in Allen Arena. This year, a scholarship was created in Grant’s honor. During the spring, the fifth annual Charlie Daniels’ Scholarship for Heroes concert brought country music stars and fundraising to Allen Arena once again. Also in 2014, the Dove Awards returned to Lipscomb for its 46th ceremony. In November, the Lipscomb community came together at one of Nashville’s premier venues: The Ryman. Nashville’s Charles Esten joined the program “Lipscomb: On a New Stage,” and even performed a few tunes, too. Also in 2014, Lipscomb welcomed Darrin Bellows as the new director of security and safety and Josh Roberts as the new dean of student development. In April, Drew Watson was elected as the new SGA president. 10. Dana Carpenter wins national award In October, Dana Carpenter took home...

Lumination’s Janice Ng offers look into day working with ‘NBC Nightly News’

The life of a one-day NBC/Lipscomb student runner does not actually involve a lot of running. In my short time helping out the NBC Nightly News crew, I got tasked with all manner of things to help the on-the-road broadcast happen. The clock read 10:25 a.m. There was no thermometer in the room, but I could gauge the temperature. It was roughly 80 degrees, and beads of perspiration could be seen on people’s foreheads. It was discussed that a fan should be procured, and I should be the one to fetch it, and so I did. I placed the fan in the very office where anchor Brian Williams would soon be stationed. At precisely 11 a.m., I pointed out the nearest restroom to an NBC employee. “Do you know where the closest restroom is,” the employee asked. “It’ll be right over there,” I said while pointing expertly in the general direction of the restroom. The employee was grateful. At 12:30 p.m., an NBC photographer needed to get footage of Lipscomb’s campus, and I was the chosen one to drive him around in a golf cart. “You,” an NBC employee pointed to me and said, “You’re a student, yes? So you would know all the pretty places around campus?” “Yes, I am and I do,” I said. “Great. You can take our photographer around campus to get some shots.” The next hour was spent chit-chatting with the photographer as he got his shots, telling my beginnings and background as a student journalist at Lipscomb, and hearing about his career. At precisely 4:06 p.m., I spotted Williams walk into the Bennett Campus Center accompanied by Lipscomb...
NBC anchor Brian Williams stops by Lipscomb to deliver news, make good on promise to Hillwood students

NBC anchor Brian Williams stops by Lipscomb to deliver news, make good on promise to Hillwood students

Bison Square briefly turned into a national stage as famous newsman Brian Williams hosted NBC Nightly News from Lipscomb University Thursday evening.   Williams, NBC’s lead anchor for its evening news program, came to Nashville to honor the promise he made to the 2014 Hillwood High School seniors who invited the popular journalist to speak at their graduation. Before heading over to Allen Arena to speak to the graduating class, Williams and his crew created a makeshift news studio on Bison Square by the Bennett Campus Center for its Thursday evening broadcast. Various on-lookers gathered at the perimeter of the area to catch a glimpse of the show. Williams brings tale of unique encounter, message of inspiration to Hillwood students Once NBC Nightly News concluded its ‘live-from-Lipscomb’ show, Williams ventured over to Allen Arena to fulfill his duties as the commencement speaker for Hillwood’s graduation. In February, a video was posted on YouTube by Hillwood’s seniors that showed various students saying why they wanted Williams to speak at their graduation. The segment featured parts of Williams’ speech to a graduating class at Elon University – a class that featured one of the journalist’s children. Their plea to Williams went viral and caught the anchor’s attention, and he agreed to take part in the festivities. “There was no way I was going to say no,” Williams said after viewing the invitation. Williams thanked the group for having him to their ceremony. “And, I have to say this for the record, I was enormously flattered by what you did,” Williams said. “I was enormously flattered that you found value in my words...

Anchor Brian Williams to conduct NBC Nightly News from Bison Square

Longtime NBC News reporter and anchor Brian Williams will be conducting the NBC Nightly News in Bison Square Thursday night. After the news is completed Williams will then make his way over to Allen Arena to make a commencement speech at the graduation ceremony for Hillwood High School seniors. The ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday night, directly following the NBC Nightly News’ completion. Many Hillwood students took part in a campaign that challenged Williams to come and speak at the ceremony, with the campaign culminating in a video that caught the attention of Williams. The Hillwood students were inspired to send the invitation after viewing Williams’ commencement speech at Elon University in 2013. Williams began working for NBC in 1993 as the chief White House correspondent and anchor of the Weekend Nightly News. Williams took over the role of NBC Nightly News anchor from the legendary Tom Brokaw in 2004. In the role of NBC Nightly News Anchor, Williams has won numerous journalism awards including most notably a Peabody Award for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina shortly after taking over the...