For Good

"It was a rough year," acknowledges Carey Harris, head of A+ Schools, about their eighth annual assessment of Pittsburgh Public Schools' status. "After six years of progress, we took a step back on almost every indicator we look at."
 
The report, on the 2011-12 school year, shows that:

• District enrollment fell by 1,052 to 24,918 students
• The graduation rate fell from 70 percent to 68.5 percent
• The percentage of seniors who earned the 2.5 or higher GPA necessary to qualify for the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship fell 1 percent to 58 percent, with 39 percent of black students qualifying (a drop of 4 percent) and 77 percent of white students qualifying (the same rate as the previous year)

Linda Lane, PPS superintendent, announced at the report's release that, for 2012-13, enrollment has stabilized -- even seeing an uptick in kindergartens -- and the district is retaining more students for graduation. And, as Harris points out, "this challenge is shared by public schools across the state," which in general experienced some of the same declines.
 
But most concerning for Harris is a drop in the district's ability to close the achievement gap between black and white students after three years of improvement. The gap increased 1.3 percent to 31.9 percent in reading and 3.6 percent to 30.9 percent in math --the largest the gap seen in four years.
 
"There's a lot of anxiety about what's happening that contributes to this," she says, with school closings and massive teacher layoffs among them. A+ Schools is offering parents and school officials the chance to request a workshop about particular schools -- and a chance for community members to volunteer to be a part of A+'s new effort for 2012-13: interviewing every district school principal. (Sign up to volunteer here.)
 
"We're still better off than we were six years ago," Harris says, with the district's 6-8th grade and 11th-grade reading at higher levels than the state, a 1-percent increase in the number of students enrolled in one or more AP courses and a greater percentage of district schools with little or no achievement gap in reading.
 
"We know it can be done and that schools right here in the district are doing it," she adds. "We need to provide kids with all the supports they need to reach the standards."
 
FOR GOOD:
Become a volunteer for the future of Pittsburgh schools with Communities in Schools.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Carey Harris, A+ Schools

The great thing about the annual Public Allies RISE ChangeMaker Awards is that the winners are chosen by the community, says Misti McKeehen, site director of Public Allies Pittsburgh. During two weeks of voting last month, she says, "the community was able to go in and select who they felt was really making change."
 
Winners announced at the annual ceremony on Nov. 13 were:

• Organizational RISE ChangeMaker: North Hills Community Outreach, whose programs include a pair of food pantries that annually distribute 4,500 pounds of vegetables from their organic garden, utility and emergency financial assistance, employment services, legal consultations, college scholarships for older students, services for seniors and others. In 2011, 1,314 volunteers (including 365 young people) contributed 44,507 hours of service to NHCO.

• Individual RISE ChangeMaker: Matt Arch, who is program manager for regional community initiatives at the UPMC Center for Inclusion. He is also very active in the community as a member of the board of directors of the Delta Foundation, Addison Behavioral Care and the Advisory Committee for Equality Pennsylvania.

• Alumni RISE ChangeMaker: LaTrenda Leonard, a member of the 2009-2010 class of Public Allies Pittsburgh who has been a student coordinator for the University of Pittsburgh's Investing Now program, community youth organizer for Focus on Renewal, and on the board of directors for the McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation.

The awards ceremony included a keynote address by John Fetterman, mayor of Braddock, outlining how Public Allies' core values inspired work in Braddock and beyond.
 
McKeehen sees the awards as a way for the winners to draw more attention to their good community works -- and a push for others to aspire to similar notice.
 
"We're working on getting young people engaged in community leadership," she notes, adding that Public Allies plans to continue to work with the awardees on creating and furthering service projects in the area. Public Allies' main program in Pittsburgh places young people, mostly 18-30, in a 10-month apprenticeship with local nonprofits through AmeriCorps, partnering with Coro Pittsburgh.
 
FOR GOOD: 
"Change, not charity" is the motto, and working with young people is one of the hallmarks, of the Three Rivers Community Foundation. Get involved here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Misti McKeehen, Public Allies Pittsburgh

 "The Invisible War," a Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentary is a powerful film about women in the military who have been raped or assaulted by fellow soldiers. It will be shown for the first time in Pittsburgh on November 29th when Public Source hosts a free event at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.
 
The film will be followed by a panel discussion on a range of veterans' issues. On the panel are: Jessica Kenyon, a U.S. Army veteran who is currently a victim advocate; Jackie Shellaby, a clinical social worker who runs the Homeless Veterans Day Program at Veterans Place, and Dr. Katie McCorkle, founder of the Balanced Heart Healing Center in Mars, Pa.

"We feel this event is an important followup to the stories we've published with our partners about returning veterans, including reports about slow disability payments, jobs and PTSD," said Sharon Walsh, editor of PublicSource. "It's also an opportunity for the community to come out and discuss these issues."
 
The event takes place on Thursday, November 29 at 6:30 p.m. at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Marshall Building - Simmons Hall. Free parking is available on the site.

The free event is part of the PublicSource Coming Home PA series. See all the stories here.

Writer: Pop City staff
Source: Sharon Walsh, PublicSource

Director Elizabeth Visnic compares the Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners' (PSVP) annual program, the Social Innovation Fast Pitch, to a business start-up incubator: "We're the Innovation Works of the nonprofit world," she says. "We're on the philanthropic map now as an avenue for Pittsburgh philanthropists to get involved and for innovative nonprofits to have an opportunity to network and have a platform."
 
The Social Innovation Fast Pitch provides two months of free communication skills training -- teaching nonprofits how to tell their story effectively -- and many networking opportunities. First, however, the nonprofits have to successfully lay out their new and innovative program to the PSVP in an application. Twelve organizations will be chosen for coaching in December, based on the potential impact of their programs for social change. The Fast Pitch culminates in a final public competition and voting, this year set for March 6, 2013, where several prizes, adding up to more than $30,000, will be awarded -- some by the PSVP's investing partners, some by the audience.
 
"Our pitch events really are ways for our partners to become familiar with what nonprofits are doing," Visnic says. The Fast Pitch event represents a chance for very small start-ups to get noticed, or for existing nonprofits to publicize a new idea, such as North Hills Community Outreach's program, a previous finalist, providing cars to those who need to get to work. As long as the nonprofit operates in Allegheny County, it is eligible to enter. More than 90 nonprofits entered last year, up 50 percent from the previous year.
 
Visnic expects the prize pool to grow this year as it did last year, when local foundations and individuals added in money as late as the day of the final event.
 
"It's not like the traditional grant making," she notes. "Everyone has an equal chance. Something innovative and different is going to catch the partners' eyes and has a chance of impacting social change."
 
The 2013 Fast Pitch application form, available here, is due Nov. 30 at midnight.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Elizabeth Visnic, Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners

"When kids get a chance to ask questions directly to adults, they really take away a lot of wisdom," says Larry Berger, executive director of SLB Radio Productions. "Sometimes it's wisdom the adults don't realize they are providing."
 
That's one of the reasons behind Crossing Fences, a new SLB-produced oral-history project that paired African-American male youths with African American male adults they saw as role models in three neighborhoods: Homewood, Hazelwood and the Hill District. The resulting interviews, coupled with reflections by some of the kids, debut as free books and CDs on Nov. 15 at several public events downtown and in the three neighborhoods. Special SLB StoryBoxes placed throughout the city also provide audio glimpses of the project.
 
Thirty-four youth were chosen to take part with the help of groups in each neighborhood: YMCA Lighthouse Project in Homewood, Center of Life in Hazelwood, and the Hill's University Prep at Pittsburgh Milliones 6-12 school. SLB first met with the boys to discuss what makes a role model, then helped bring the parties face to face and edit the interviews this past summer. The resulting materials will be available here on Nov. 15. Each boy also left the experience with a netbook computer for use in the current school year, and to help him continue sharpening his audio-editing skills.
 
The 36 men interviewed spoke about everything from their community service to parenting and spirituality. Among those participating in Crossing Fences were state Rep. Jake Wheatley, Homewood historian John Brewer, Pittsburgh Police Chief Nathan Harper and City Councilman Robert D. Lavelle.
 
As some of the adults told Berger later, he says, "'The kids made me really think hard about parts of my life, and I said things I didn't realize I was going to say.'"
 
The Heinz Endowments' African American Men and Boys Initiative funded the project, and has already committed to funding a second round of interviews, in neighborhoods still to be chosen. Berger is certain that the kids' curiosity will continue to draw out wisdom from the adults.
 
"There's something kind of special when you're telling your life to someone you haven't met before," Berger says. "You're a little more open. It ends up being a great way to get insight and advice, and to understand the trials the people coming before you might have experienced."
 
The free public celebrations of the CD and book releases will take place Nov. 15 (August Wilson Center for African American Culture, Downtown); Nov. 17 (Center of Life, Hazelwood); Nov. 19 (Homewood YMCA, Homewood); and Nov. 20 (University Prep at Pittsburgh Milliones, Hill District). Make your reservations here by Nov. 12.
 
For Good: Get involved with groups that aid some of the neighborhoods where Crossing Fences helps youth, such as the Kingsley Association and the Hill House.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Larry Berger, SLB Radio Productions

"Jewish" and "theater" have long gone together, but Tito Braunstein's Jewish Theatre of Pittsburgh has been missing from the local scene for five years.
 
That changed this summer, when That's Life opened to reviews and attendance that pleased the 83-year-old founding artistic director and producer of the local nonprofit venture -- although he admits "re-launching is more difficult than launching. It could have been better. It could always be better."
Now Driving Miss Daisy is set to open on Nov. 7 and will play on Nov. 8, 10, 13, 14 and 15 at 8 p.m. and for Sunday matinees on Nov. 11 and 18 at 2 p.m. at Rodef Shalom in Oakland.
 
During the hiatus, Braunstein says, he heard former audience members ask him, "'When are you going to have your next play? We miss your theater.' My wife finally said, 'If you don't start it again, you may be kicking yourself in the pants for the rest of your life.'"
 
The Jewish Theatre's official mission is to offer theater "that explores ideas of community and humanity from both a Jewish perspective and other perspectives as well."
 
"We try to be welcoming … but we produce plays that have Jewish character, Jewish perspectives and Jewish life," Braunstein says. Still, he adds, "it's not just for Jewish people -- to the contrary." For Driving Miss Daisy, for instance, Braunstein has been trying to get an audience from local African American churches, since the play is about the relationship between black and Jewish characters.
 
"There are a lot of our Jewish people who are not well-informed" about Jewish issues, he says. "We want to provide a stage for new ideas and old standards -- plays that have been held in high esteem through the years."
 
Future seasons depend on how much audience support and financial support the Jewish Theatre receives, of course. As Braunstein says: "I'm willing to give my heart and soul, my passion and life to it."

For Good:
Help the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh aid many causes, locally and nationally, by clicking here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Tito Braunstein, Jewish Theatre of Pittsburgh

The benefits for families who eat home-cooked meals together and actually talk to each other, with the television off, are clear. According to the national Let’s Move! Campaign to decrease childhood obesity -- including Let's Move! Pittsburgh -- Americans already eat 31 percent more calories than we did in 1970, including 56 percent more fats and oils and 14 percent more sugars or sweeteners. All that fast food is a big contributor to obesity in kids. Eating home-cooked food together, on the other hand, teaches kids what and how to eat.
 
The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (you have their cookbook, don't you?) has found 68 scientific studies that showed “the more a family ate together the less children consumed dietary components thought to be harmful to health."
 
And most home-cooking is simply healthier for you, says Jamie Oliver, famed British chef and television personality. He was in town this month to challenge attendees at the One Young World conference, and the world, to take action on this issue by joining his "Food Revolution." "Inspired by Jamie Oliver," says Liz Fetchin, Let's Move! Pittsburgh created 10,000 Tables, which aims to get 10,000 Pittsburgh families to add one more home-cooked, television-free meal to each week. Fetchin, spokesperson for Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens (whose head, Richard V. Piacentini, directs Let's Move! Pittsburgh), says the group wanted to come up with a reasonable initiative that could be accomplished over the next year.

Other local organizations also joined in. The City of Pittsburgh aims to increase farmers markets, bikeways and trails, and to increase participation in its CityFit Wellness at Work initiative for employees. Whole Foods will work through its school garden grant program, while the Eat'n Park Hospitality Group's LifeSmiles program will continue a $1 million/20,000 volunteer-hour investment in health and wellness initiatives for families. UPMC's Dining Smart program in 2013 will seek to bring healthier meal and vending choices to its more than 50,000 employees and promote it to other employers, and Propel Schools will increase its use of healthy food choices and My Plate Guidelines for its students.
 
"Most families are eating in front of the TV or are eating separately -- it's because they are so busy," Fetchin allows. Let's Move! hopes this movement to cook at home and eat together will encourage families to enjoy the health benefits more often.
 
Is the participation of 10,000 families realistic? "We sure hope so," Fetchin says. "We think that it will really catch on. We hope to do a lot of outreach," including to neighborhoods where fresh food is not as readily available. Let's Move! soon will be handing out recipes and shopping lists at Giant Eagles and other locations throughout the area, and will be offering cooking demonstrations there and elsewhere.
 
Jamie Oliver has not announced plans to come back to Pittsburgh yet, but, says Fetchin, Let's Move! hopes 10,000 Tables will be so successful that Oliver will be inspired to return to celebrate his Food Revolution again in Pittsburgh.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Liz Fetchin, Let's Move! Pittsburgh

Three Rivers Educational Technology Conference (TRETC) has always been about the best ways to teach kids using the latest tech innovations. But this year organizers are aiming to get even more kids and more people outside the teaching profession involved.
 
Students from Winchester Thurston School and the South Fayette School District will lead pre-conference workshops on app development and the computer language Scratch, while pre-conference keynoter Brian Waniewski, from the Institute of Play in New York City, will talk about its model for learning.
 
According to TRETC organizer Justin Driscoll of the Pittsburgh Technology Council, last year the conference attracted representatives of 100 school districts, while this year the event hopes to add more attendees from nonprofits and higher education institutions.
 
"TRETC showcases the best of the region and pulls in national presenters as well," says Norton Gusky, another TRETC organizers, allowing participants to see "what are some of the great things that are happening in our region -- the innovations that at the same time reflect national and global trends." The 2012 conference is set for Nov. 13-14 at The Regional Learning Alliance in Marshall Township.
 
Collaborations with other local groups will bring to TRETC such new features as the Spark Creativity Zone, highlighting some of the local projects at the intersection of the arts and technology supported by The Sprout Fund's Spark program. Other TRETC collaborative partners include the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the Senator John Heinz History Center and Carnegie Science Center.

The keynote address by internationally renowned educator Gary Stager, says Gusky, "will force people to think about what it means to integrate technology into education. We need to think about what doesn't work. We need to challenge ourselves, and Gary does that."
 
Colorado teacher Aaron Sams, who is now living in Pittsburgh, will present his work creating Flipping the Classroom, a movement to have students do homework as part of classroom instruction and save the traditional class activities, such as listening to lectures, for their homework.
 
TRETC's Digital Playground will include a specially designed MAKEshop from the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. "It will let people play with new technologies," says Gusky, "so people can see this whole world of building, making and tinkering and see what this has to do with learning: How do you engage learners and give them the tools … to make something new?"
 
He adds that, without existing efforts in Pittsburgh to combine arts, teaching and technology, TRETC would not be possible.
 
"Part of why this is happening is because of what the Kids + Creativity movement started," Gusky concludes. "Without the Kids + Creativity movement, we wouldn't see the kinds of collaborations we're seeing today."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Norton Gusky and Justin Driscoll, TRETC

From Pittsburgh park habitués to people who wouldn't know an Oval from a Blue Slide, everyone wants the same things once they go deeper into city parks and hit the trails: a trail map and the locations of bathrooms and water fountains. They also want a schedule of park activities and some way to report a park issue to authorities, a recent Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy survey found.
 
So it's high time for a Pittsburgh Parks app, says Conservancy Vice President Mike Sexauer. "There are psychological barriers to people walking on a heavily wooded trail," he notes -- especially in Frick Park, where there are no interior roads. "Once people take a few steps down a trail and can no longer see where they're parked, [they] sometimes need extra reassurance that they can find their way back."
 
The app is being funded by UPMC Health Plan -- "a natural partner," Sexauer says, given that the app will try to "get more people into the parks for the mental and physical health benefits" -- and designed by Deeplocal for smart phones. It will cover Schenley, Frick, Highland, Riverview and Emerald View parks.
 
"There is a place for technology in the natural world, especially with the implication that technology can enhance someone's experience in our parks," he says, adding, "we'll put some surprises in." For instance, park officials are currently rating trails for stroller and wheelchair accessibility, and noting natural sites and the best views. They are also planning to use the 311 system to let park-goers email a photo of problem areas.
 
The app still doesn't have a name, however, so the Conservancy has set up a Facebook page where people can vote for the moniker. Names the Conservancy suggests: PGH UrbanParks, PGH ParkScout, PGH Parks, ParksBurgh, MyPGHParks or PGH Park Pal. Concludes Sexauer: "We're looking for write-in votes …"


Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Mike Sexauer, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

"We made a lot of great friendships with other writers," says Women Read/Women Write Book Festival co-founder Gwyn Cready, about last year's event. "I'd say we built a kind of sisterhood among the writers and a lot of the attendees -- but there were a lot of men, too."
 
Cready and fellow organizer Meredith Mileti have even higher expectations for the second annual free festival, this year to be held Oct. 27 at the Galleria in Mt. Lebanon. More than 35 authors are expected -- mostly women, and mostly local -- for four panels this year. They include: "Fifty Shades of Blush: The Reverberations of Fifty Shades of Grey in Bedrooms, Book Clubs and Mainstream Fiction"; "Hermoine vs Lisbeth: Brains, Brawn and the Modern Heroine"; "Mining Your Life" (about turning our lives into fiction and memoir) and a repeat of last year's very popular "Getting Published, Staying Published."
 
"Most readers are women," Cready says. "They are the heart and soul of the literary world …"
 
Although the focus is women's writing, the authors in attendance range across many genres, from memoir and mystery to romance, literary fiction, young adult and children's books, self-help and historical fiction.
 
"What genres of the book world don't women read?" says Cready. "Maybe military suspense. We're pretty open."
 
"Women's fiction?" adds Mileti, pondering what defines her own genre. "Often there is an element of romance, but really the focus of the story is the difficulties of the heroine as she faces personal challenges." The Harry Potter vs. Millennium Trilogy panel is intended to assess the place of the heroine in today's fiction.
 
"We intend to keep on doing this," concludes Cready. "We would love to see it grow and grow and draw more and more authors and more and more attendees from other states."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Gwyn Cready and Meredith Mileti, Women Read/Women Write Book Festival

"There's a lot of negativity displayed in the media toward the Hill District youth, and I wanted to give Hill District youth a chance to be better than the stereotype," says 17-year-old Dynae Shaw, leader of a group of 12 high-school students who together form the first Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI).
 
YPI participants, ages 13-18, come from the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation’s School 2 Career Program and are looking for young entrepreneurs to support in the Hill, Uptown and West Oakland. The group raised $614 this summer and program co-sponsor McAuley Ministries, part of the Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, matched it 5 to 1.
 
"When I found out about the money I was really excited," says Shaw, a Garfield resident and senior at Pittsburgh Obama, "because I really wanted to help the Hill District. Youth should be decision makers. We wanted to make sure it was for bettering the Hill District, so we want little projects that can turn into something big." She envisions youth with artistic talent teaching classes in inexpensive or donated spaces, "or a lawn business to make the Hill District look more appealing," she says.
 
Grants of $500 or $1,000 will be given to applicants, who must attend a two-hour workshop on Oct. 27, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Hill House Association. The workshop, run by Hill-based UrbanInnovation21, will help hopefuls devise their business plans and learn to run a thriving business. Applications will be due on Nov. 19 at 5 p.m. via the POISE Foundation.
 
YPI members spent the summer getting acquainted with the grant-making process and are learning now how to evaluate applicants' presentations.
 
"I hope that it will inspire other youth to stand up and follow their dreams," Shaw says about the YPI program. "This will give them not only the chance to do something they haven't been able to do without the money, but to tell them that people care about their community." Shaw hopes YPI will be done again in the future, and that perhaps it will expand to East Liberty and other neighborhoods.
 
"We're not looking at overnight change," she adds, "but we hope people will look at the businesses and say, 'I can do that.' We hope they will look for other grants or say they can volunteer in their community. We also hope to inspire other businesses and other foundations to give youth a chance."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Dynae Shaw, Youth Philanthropy Initiative

Back when there wasn't quite as much science to popularize, Francesco Algarotti was the popular science writer of his day -- the 1700s -- and Isaac Newton was the guy whose theories he was intent on making accessible to the masses. His book, despite its title -- Newtonianism for Ladies -- wasn't just for women either.
 
"He wanted women to be a part of the [readership], but the intent was to make a book that was accessible to a wide, regular audience," says James Lennox, professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. In fact, Lennox says, that's also the intent of a new lecture series and publishing endeavor about to be undertaken with help from a $600,000 grant from the A.W. Mellon Foundation.
 
Lennox and the department's fellow faculty are ranked fifth in the U.S. by the prestigious Philosophical Gourmet report, tied with Harvard and right behind NYU, Rutgers, Princeton and Michigan. The Mellon grant is intended to help Pitt bring greater attention to its strongest academic offerings. It will fund fellowships in the department and Pitt's World History Center, in addition to the new lecture series chronicling how Algarotti popularized Newton's theories, which will be the basis for new University of Pittsburgh Press publications. Paula Findlen, a professor of Italian history at Stanford, will give the first three free lectures Oct. 22-25.
 
Algarotti's era, Lennox says, "was only 100 years or so after people were becoming educated enough that scientific [books] were written in the vernacular rather than Latin," which had reached only the elite. And although his department's focus may sound daunting to some, the department's undergrad courses regularly pack them in, Lennox reports. Thus, echoing Algarotti's hopes, he says, what the department desires for these and future lectures in the series is to reach the widest possible audience.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: James Lennox, University of Pittsburgh Department of History and Philosophy of Science

One Young World has concluded, but the impact will be felt for a long time -- not only by the local delegates but by the local youth reporters who covered the gathering at Pittsburgh Youth Media. As previously reported by Pop City, the  Pittsburgh Youth Media project recruited 32 local high-schoolers from 26 districts to cover the One Young World Summit and to give a youth perspective to other future events in Pittsburgh.
 
Following a boot-camp training on journalism earlier this month, the students converged on the summit, meeting in their own press room at the David L Lawrence Convention Center. For four days they reported on a range of stories, from speakers such as Bob Geldof and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey to the 50 breakout sessions held through Pittsburgh for the 1300 delegates attending from around the world.
 
Want to know what One Young World was like from a young person's perspective? The more than 80 stories at Pittsburgh Youth Media tell the tale from a multitude of angles:
 
An Experience of a Lifetime by Prem Rajgopal, Grade 12, Fox Chapel Area High School.
 
Inspired Delegates Have Hopes For Future Conference, by Sophie Belch, Junior, Riverview High School.
 
Nutrition and Education in Schools, by LaTionna Russell, Pittsburgh Obama 6-12.
 
Youth Summit Delegates Propose Behavior Changes, by Daly Trimble, Freshman, Fox Chapel Area High School.
 
An Apple for an Angel, by Brana' Hill, Senior, Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 and Kendre Blue, Junior, Pittsburgh Milliones University Preparatory School.
 
Best of 2012 Summit, by Elianna Paljug, 10th Grade, Fox Chapel Area High School.
 
Successful Failures: Geldof Shares His Vision at One Young World Summit; article by Megan Fair, Senior, Hempfield High School; photo by Christian Snyder, Sophomore, Riverview Junior/Senior High School.
 
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, by LaTionna Russell, Pittsburgh Obama 6-12.
 
Op-Ed: Lessons Learned on the Roberto Clemente Bridge: One Young World Bridge Party, by Lily Zhang, Senior, North Allegheny.
 
Opening Ceremony Electrifies the One Young World Summit, by Lily Zhang, Senior, North Allegheny High School. 

Writer: Marty Levine

"We have kids who graduate from high school with no plans," says Mary Kay Babyak, director of initiatives for The Consortium for Public Education in McKeesport. "They wake up the day after graduation with no idea what they are going to do," or with incomplete, or completely unrealistic, plans. "We found that a lot of kids didn't know that their grades counted. They'd get to junior/senior years and they hadn't taken the right courses. And they hadn't had adult support along the way."
 
Getting a C- in science in your junior year is bad enough if you're a kid hoping for a career in medicine, she notes. Rather than thinking, at that point, "What else can I do with my life?" wouldn't it be better if, as a freshman, this student had been coached to ask, "How am I going to change my study habits so I can achieve what I want?"
 
To help kids create a smart plan for college and/or career attainment, the Consortium has just unveiled a new program called MAPS (My Action Plan for Success) being piloted this school year by eight local school districts.
 
Through MAPS, says Babyak, students will be able to create a viable post-secondary plan. MAPS connects each student with adult mentors -- teachers, guidance counselors, school administrators and of course their own family members -- who help devise a realistic and achievable course of action. And it introduces planning software -- eMAPS -- that helps kids lay out the various facets of their plans: How do my skills fit my college and career plans? How about my clubs? My community activities? What specific efforts do I need to make to get better results?
 
Babyak witnessed several students speaking to their schools' Freshman Academy recently. One of the kids hoped to be a surgeon. Only after using MAPS, she says, had he realized it would be useful to look at specific colleges' entrance requirements so that he could know what to take in high school. Plus, he hadn't before realized that his extra-curricular activity -- drawing -- could be anything other than a hobby. She recalls him commenting, "'I didn't really think about some of those things, beyond listing them on my college application. I didn't think, what am I learning from them?'"
 
After the pilot program, MAPS will be refined and expanded over the following four years.
 
"The dropout rate of four-year colleges is even higher than the failure-to-matriculate rate in high schools," says Consortium spokesperson Pamela Gaynor. MAPS, she says, will "potentially help kids have a sound enough plan that they won't need remediation on a subject in college. It's about saying, 'How do I get there? What do I need to do?'"
 
Babyak laughs at the memory of her own daughter, who switched college majors after she had already completed three years of another program. "I wish my daughter had had this eight years ago," Babyak says. "It would have saved $100,000."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Mary Kay Babyak, Pamela Gaynor, the Consortium for Public Education

When it comes to the annual TechNow conference for nonprofits, headed for its 9th incarnation on Oct. 25, "Every year is different, because tech changes so fast," says Cindy Leonard, technology services manager for the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University, which runs the conference. "Tech isn't something you get good at and then you're done. There are always new tools out there, new hardware, new software and new techniques."
 
And new reasons to go, she says. This year's keynote address features Rosetta Thurman, Cleveland-based co-author of How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar, 50 Ways to Accelerate Your Career, who will speak on “Social Media for Thought Leadership,” including how to create a social-media mission statement and which social-media tools work best.
 
The day includes sessions on leadership, IT management, communications and fundraising, presented by:
 

• Andre Bouchard, Co-Editor in Chief for www.technologyinthearts.org at CMU
• John Carman, owner of Avenue Design Studios
• Kelly Carter Uzzo, Marketing Communications Manager for Pace School
• Tim Cook, founder and director of The Saxifrage School
• Joe Glackin, Information Systems Manager at Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force
• Scott Hollander, Executive Director of KidsVoice
• Tom Joseph, Chief Executive Officer of Bookminders
• Ashli Molinero, Assistant Professor, Pitt's Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology
• Donna J. Myers, director of TowerCare Technologies
• Lindsay O’ Leary, web content editor, Carlow University
• Dan Rossi, Chief Executive Officer, Animal Rescue League of Western PA
• Sandy Sturgulewski, Technology Systems Manager at Family Resources
• Sherri Titus, account management team leader, Visvero
• Ray Wolfe, Chief Operating Officer, Pittsburgh Mercy Health System

Also new this year is a larger location, at the airport's Holiday Inn, as well as lunch discussions and a final dessert reception.
 
"The biggest value" of TechNow, says Leonard, "is that it gives [attendees] the opportunity to network with their peers at other nonprofits who are interested in leveraging technology to meet their missions."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Cindy Leonard, Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management