Jackson Free Press

Belhaven University Honored

The Chronicle of Higher Education has ranked Belhaven University as one of the top colleges to work for in the nation. The Great Colleges to Work For program is in its sixth year.

CHE designated Belhaven in its top tier as an Honor Roll institution, a distinction only 42 other colleges and universities around the country share. The organization randomly sampled Belhaven's 370 full-time employees for the study, along with 44,500 faculty and staff at other colleges and universities.

Confidence in senior leadership and job satisfaction are two of 12 sets of criteria CHE uses to judge nominations for the Best Colleges to Work For award. CHE named Belhaven to the Honor Roll for excelling in the following categories: professional and career-development programs; teaching environment; job satisfaction and support; work and life balance; confidence in senior leadership; department-chair relationship; respect and appreciation; and tenure clarity and process.

Other Mississippi universities to receive honors include Mississippi State University, the University of Mississippi and the Mississippi University for Women. Belhaven was the only Christian private university in Mississippi named to the Honor Roll of top-tier institutions.

In December 2012, the Best Christian Workplaces Institute also recognized Belhaven University as its Best Christian Workplace for 2013. The award recognizes only 22 Christian business and nonprofit organizations in the country that excel in job satisfaction, Christian witness, personal development, teamwork and management.

Beacon Magazine Receives Awards

Mississippi College's Beacon magazine recently received regional awards along with Hederman Brothers—the MC alumni magazine's printer in Ridgeland—and Kirkpatrick & Porch Creative, the publication's creative-services firm.

Mississippi College distributes Beacon magazine, published twice a year, to more than 30,000 alumni and friends around the nation.

Leaders of the Printing Industry Association of the South—a non-profit trade association that helps expand the print industry in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia—honored Beacon for the magazine's summer 2012 issue, which spotlighted an orphan-care center in Botswana, Africa. Two Mississippi College 2011 graduates, Allison Hunter and Kasey Ambrose, run the center. The article featured pictures by award-winning photographer and 2007 MC alumnus Robby Followell of Clinton's FollowellFotography.

Other stories PIAS honored include a showcase for a Mississippi College Law School's adoption legal clinic and a story on 2012 Miss MC Taylor Townsend's campaign to fight human trafficking.

PIAS awarded Beacon magazine's summer 2012 issue a Best of Category and an Award of Excellence. The Winter 2012 issue also received an Award of Excellence.

Tara Yoga Expands

Tara Yoga (200 Park Circle, Suite 4, Flowood) hosted the grand opening of its newly expanded studio Aug. 10 with a fundraiser for Stewpot Community Services. The renovated studio is three times larger than its former space.

"The expansion is a blessing for me, because it gives us a place where we can do events like the one for Stewpot," studio owner Tara Blumenthal said. "We also plan to do events for 'Yoga for Nonviolence' for the Center for Violence Prevention. I've put a lot of time and energy into 'Yoga for Nonviolence' in the past and look forward to being able to do more in the future."

Blumenthal has been teaching yoga for the past 10 years in the Jackson area.

"I have a background in yoga therapy and anatomy, and I focus on making people have a great yoga experience," Blumenthal said. "I want to keep our students safe as well as make them feel better through the yoga process in the class. Part of the process of yoga for myself is how we can serve our community through our classes, which is what got me working with Stewpot. Tara Yoga is very community focused, and we like to support local community aid organizations like Stewpot."

For information on Tara Yoga, call 601-720-72337, visit tara-yoga.net, or check out the studio's Facebook page.