For Good

Zoe Deschanel is famous for releasing unbearably cute song videos, but the one she did this past winter with Joseph Gordon-Levitt -- "What Are You Doing New Years Eve?" to mark that holiday -- pushed Josh Verbanets over the edge.
 
Verbanets, a member of the Pittsburgh band Meeting of Important People (his music can also be heard on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, The Real World, Jersey Shore and The Ghost Whisperer), had already been opening at clubs for comedian Gab Bonesso and vice versa. So the pair got together for a parody video to allegedly celebrate President's Day: "The Story of a Man Named Honest Abe." Bonesso had never sung on stage before, but there they are, smiling as much as the Hollywood actors and singing sweetly about Lincoln's assassination and his bloody exit wound.
 
Somehow, after seeing the video, Bonesso's friend in the Montour School District decided that the pair would make great children's performers for an anti-bullying presentation. And The Josh and Gab Show was born. Verbanets wrote garage band songs, fresh takes on the White Stripes' sound and other anti-bullying songs, and "these kids went nuts," Verbanets recalls. He plays guitar and Bonesso uses a small drum set for the interactive musical/comedy program, including songs such as "Everybody Clap Hands," about a way to feel together with your classmates, even though you feel alone.
 
Verbanets' bands had always worked with student groups, teaming with CAPA High School students for WYEP's Holiday Hootenanny performances and playing the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, Mars High School, and Shady Side Academy's band camp. But the Josh and Gab Show was something different: "I haven't felt that kind of reaction in a long time," he says. "I felt like we were really making a difference. Gab and I started dreaming really big."
 
The pair have since performed at the Pittsburgh International Children's Festival and have gigs set for the Mount Lebanon and Elizabeth-Forward school districts this fall, as well as a teen workshop at Bricolage theater, and are looking for more opportunities.
 
Verbanets give a lot of credit to Bonesso for their success - and accessibility. "She is such a good communicator," he says. "She is so likable."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Josh Verbanets, The Josh and Gab Show

When Jesse and Joziah Council, then 11 and 12, first entered Biz Camp sponsored by Pittsburgh's Entrepreneuring Youth group, EY's Cathy Blanchard remembers their motivation:
 
"The only reason they went to the first camp was that they were going to get paid," she says.
 
"And then the entrepreneurial spirit latched onto us," says Jesse, laughing. After three years of camp -- and that initial camp investment of $50 in materials to help the Council brothers with their idea of making a soothing skin cream for arthritis sufferers -- the brothers are winners. Their idea, which has now morphed into a line of all-natural products, won them first place in the local Youth Entrepreneur Regional Business Plan Competition sponsored by the Tippins Foundation. They and second-place winner Lisa Huff, 15, will journey to New York City to compete for a $25,000 prize in the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship's 2012 national competition in October. Last year's Tippins winner made it to the semi-final round.
 
So how do teens turn into entrepreneurs?
 
Jesse and Joziah's great-uncle was their first inspiration. He had arthritis and was searching for a natural way to relieve the pain. The brothers took training from a local herbalist to make their skin cream. They even made their own commercial, starring themselves with local actors.
 
"When they see an African-American running a business, educated, believing in ourselves and our future," says Joziah about his fellow Beaver Area High School students, "it actually gets
them excited and wanting to do something with their lives as well."
 
The first product the brothers hope to manufacturer is an all-natural germ-killing room spray from mint, rose and other essential oils. "Mass production is one of the feats we have to accomplish," cautions Joziah.

Empowering Youth teaches kids the rudiments of entrepreneurship at the Biz Camp cosponsored by the Franklin Center of Beaver County in Aliquippa. However, says Jesse, "their goal isn't to teach you how to make a business and get it running but so you'll have that mindset."
 
The entrepreneurial mindset has also captured Lisa Huff, a Christian Hope Academy student in Aliquippa whose Decadent Delight business involves cooking up Oreo Bonbons (Oreos and cream cheese dipped in white chocolate). Hers will be a catering business, although she has had success selling small packages of Bonbons at the mall.
 
Entrepreneuring Youth, she says, " has definitely given me people skills and marketing skills," helping her gain confidence after preparing numerous business presentations and participating in other business-plan competitions.
 
"I have big hopes for Decadent Delights," she says. "In New York, we will knock it out of the park and beat Jesse and Joziah." Plus, she adds, "Who doesn't like to eat sweets?"
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Jesse and Joziah Council; Lisa Huff; Cathy Blanchard, Entrepreneuring Youth

Tim Kaulen and 21 other artists have spent the last 15 years constructing 20-foot tall sculptures of steelworkers from steel beams taken from the Hot Metal Bridge and scrap metal from the Hazelwood LTV coke plant site, including a ladle.
 
Now the sculptures, called The Workers, are ready to be set in their permanent home at the South Side Riverfront Park near the 18th Street boat launch, and Kaulen is both happy and relieved.
 
What began as an homage to steelworkers, unions and other long-powerful labor forces in the city has become now, Kaulen says, "about the people who go to work every day -- a broader homage to labor and the spirit we all carry in this region. I'm still a little bit nervous, anticipating completion."
 
The two figures will be visible from the Birmingham Bridge, the south shore of the Monongahela River and perhaps even the cars rushing by on the opposite side of the water. But there is still "some assembly required," Kaulen says -- and he hopes that assembly draws a crowd. The Pittsburgh Industrial Arts Co-Op, as the artists are collectively known, plans to announce the artworks' moving date within the next two weeks. Concrete is already poured, but slightly disassembling the figures, moving them and reconstructing them at their new home will take three days.
 
The project began in 1997 as a commission from the City of Pittsburgh and the Heinz Endowments. The PJ Dick Corporation and Century Steel Erectors are working to put it in place.  
 
"I'm hoping the site can become a destination," says Kaulen. "For me, having the piece in public and accessible is the new goal, and at that point I think it will speak for itself."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Tim Kaulen

"The stories I heard from my fellow delegates from different areas of the world about the hardships they have faced by the time they are 22 … were so touching and so emotional," says Anjali Kundu. "It is one thing to hear about these things on the news, but to have a conversation with someone in the midst of it all, living in a war-torn region or amidst political turmoil, impacts you at such a deeper level."
 
Kundu, staff associate in the Medical Oncology Network of UPMC Cancer Center, was one of Pittsburgh's delegates to last year's One Young World Summit in Zurich, Switzerland, which brought together young professionals to meet with global peers and develop ideas and projects together, for the benefit of multiple countries.
 
Now One Young World is coming here on October 18-21, and other young nonprofit leaders from around the region have the chance to apply to be this year's nonprofit delegates. The World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh will choose eight to 10 such delegates, ages 21-29, whom the Council describes as "team players who demonstrate leadership potential, and who have the ability to grasp complex concepts and provide valuable insights, as well as a commitment to cultural diversity." The application is available here.
 
Kundu's colleague Eric D. McIntosh, UPMC Cancer Centers' HR director for the International and Commercial Services Division, is already signed up to attend this year. He sees it as "an opportunity to develop ideas with a global view … to develop solutions to some of the issues that plague our planet.


"People don't really realize the significance of this," he adds. "It's a really prestigious event that will showcase Pittsburgh as a world leader in a number of areas."
 
Brandon Blache-Cohen, executive director at Amizade Global Service-Learning, was another nonprofit delegate last year. "I travel to 65 countries, but the world never felt as small as it did at the conference last year," he says. "The empowering experience [was] being with these folks who are doing such amazing things all over the world at such a young age. It's been really lovely, since this conference, to stay engaged with what they are doing and how we can exchange [ideas]."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Eric McIntosh, Anjali Kundu, UPMC; Brandon Blache-Cohen, Amizade Global Service-Learning; The World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh

Perhaps the most startling finding from the recently released study of users of the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail, which runs 151 miles from Homestead to Cumberland, Maryland, is that the majority are not youthfully vigorous and relatively job-free, with time for hiking and bicycling. They are the older and richer folks -- but still job-free because they're retired.
 
In fact, slightly more than 50 percent of trail users are 45-64 years old, and most are retired with incomes above $100,000 per household.

Also pretty surprising: The Pittsburgh region contributes the younger people using the trail -- the 16- to 24-year-olds who use it around West Newton and the 35- to 45-year-olds who enjoy the trail around Homestead and Connellsville.
 
Whatever their ages, says William Prince, in charge of the survey as coordinator of the Trail Town Program for The Progress Fund, "trail users are making an impact on the trail businesses" in towns along the GAP. Greensburg's Progress Fund, which makes small-business loans for tourism and agriculture, is happy that businesses along the trail route say nearly a third of their revenues come from trail users. That's up 23 percent from the similar survey in 2008.
 
"There are people who use it every day from the region and there are also people using it who come from across the region, the country and the world," says Prince, pointing to users the survey traced from Seattle, for instance.
 
And just as in 2008, 20 percent are first-time users. "We know trail use is increasing and finding out about it is increasing," he says. For the 80-percent enjoying a repeat visit, the draw is everything from recreation and health-related jaunts to day trips and full-length vacations. Nearly 30 percent of GAP visitors stay overnight (more than 80 percent for more than one night) in local campgrounds and bed-and-breakfast places, less often in hotels.
 
The trail is almost completed, save for a stretch of less than a mile near Sandcastle that has a few legal kinks to work out. It also now has at least three loop or extension trails and connects to the C and O Canal Towpath to take users 184 more miles to Washington, D.C.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: William Prince, The Progress Fund

Some people have sat so still and unblinking for their film session that it seemed the camera was broken. One couple sat nose to nose on the lone stool before the camera and are planning to come back to kiss for the entire three minutes.
 
They're all doing Screen Tests at the Andy Warhol Museum -- a new opportunity for patrons to duplicate Warhol's Screen Tests from the mid-1960s. Back then, Warhol stood a 16mm Bolex camera on a tripod and ran three minutes of black and white film on nearly 500 subjects in his Factory, asking them simply to sit still.
 
"He called them a 'stillie' at first," says Greg Pierce, assistant curator of film and video for the Warhol.
 "They turned into Screen Tests later.
 
"A lot of people couldn't sit still," he says. "Some people took three minutes to tousle their hair. Artist Jim Rosenquist rotated his stool for three minutes."
 
The museum has duplicated the Factory setting, placing a digital camera inside a gutted Bolex and even recreating the sound of the film spooling through. Patrons who buy a museum admission, starting this week, can watch some of Andy's originals in the sixth-floor film and video department and then choose their own black or white background, camera distance and lighting. The video is then sent instantly to a museum computer, which creates a Web link for the video. Subjects can choose to share their Screen Test publicly -- or not.
 
When played back, the video runs at three-quarter speed -- just as Andy showed them during Factory events, giving the films a "a dream-like quality," says Josh Jeffery, the Warhol's manager of digital engagement.
 
"You are the artist and the superstar," adds Jeffery, noting that the use of black and white is neither a gimmick nor a nostalgia trip. It's just part of Andy's artistry. "We've found ourselves over the past couple of years going out and showing how these processes were done for real," he says -- something's that's necessary in the age of Instagram photo filters. "Warhol created these really beautiful things and there was a process to them. We want you to understand the process by making your own."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Greg Pierce and Josh Jeffery, Andy Warhol Museum

Just because there are a lot of retail jobs out there, it doesn't mean that being a retail salesperson is easy -- or that people can be successful at the job right off the street, says Cindy Cassell, economic development manager for Neighbors in the Strip.
 
And merchants at the Pittsburgh Public Market, which NITS operates, have been clamoring for good sales people, she says. So the Public Market will be opening The General Store soon as a booth dedicated to providing retail sales training to those on, or eligible for, unemployment or public assistance. Ideally, Cassell says, the one-year pilot program, funded by a grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, will give some of the trainees enough help to open their own Public Market booth.
 
"Retail is a very skilled position," Cassell says. "I've done it on and off for many years. Customer service is first and foremost: knowing your product, engaging the customer, finding out about the customer needs and trying to meet those needs. There's a very specific skill set for retail sales."
 
Each 12-week program, held three times a year beginning this September, will be "very small and very intensive," she says, taking four trainees each time through the entire process of opening a small retail business. That will include 11 weeks inside the General Store, learning to sell on the spot. The first classroom session will cover everything from inventory and money management to opening and closing procedures, while the hands-on sessions will involve learning to set up the booth, create signage and product displays, develop a work schedule and other important skills. Participants will receive a $1,500 stipend during the three-month training period.
 
Trainees will also help the Market gain insight into products customers are seeking, such as artisan breads, fresh pasta or custom trail mixes. With the training booth named The General Store, Cassell notes, " we're positioned to have a variety of products."
 
For an application, click here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Cindy Cassell, Neighbors in the Strip

Is this the kind of stuff you have lying around your house -- extra items for which you'd love to find a new home?

• Dog and cat carriers
• Building materials
• Bikes and bike parts
• Supplies for arts and crafts, school and office
• Backpacks
• Tote bags
• Furniture and clothing that's still in good shape

These items and more can find another use thanks to eight area local nonprofits gathering under the name ReuseFest on Aug. 11 at South Side Works.
 
For several years, the Pennsylvania Resources Council has been collecting hard-to-recycle items handled by some of these same nonprofits. Now the first ReuseFest will help Global Links send extra medical supplies to Latin American and Caribbean countries, assist Construction Junction in reselling more building supplies in its nonprofit retail store and aid Off The Floor Pittsburgh in its effort to give furniture and bedding to disadvantaged families.
 
Other nonprofits accepting items at the event are the Animal Rescue League, Free Ride, Goodwill, the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse and the Pittsburgh Tote Bag Project.
 
"They're utilizing items that are perfectly fine and finding downstream needs for them," says Sarah Alessio Shea, the Resources Council's environmental education coordinator. The ReuseFest is a pilot project funded by a seed award from the Sprout Fund. "Hopefully, we'll use this as a springboard for years to come," she says. The festival is still seeking volunteers to set up, unload vehicles, hand out educational materials and help with other duties.
 
The Resources Council is also glad the festival will give participating groups some helpful publicity. "Don't forget," says Shea, " these organizations collect material 365 days a year."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Sarah Alessio Shea, Pennsylvania Resources Council

Vanessa German's front porch community art project at her Homewood house -- Love Front Porch -- is set to expand this week when German opens an entire "art house" one door down to accommodate all the neighborhood kids who now insist on making art.
 
German, who sculpts and performs poetry and other arts, was creating large figures on her porch when local kids stopped playing at being a gang in her alley and started asking to join her and make their own art. That's when she knew she was onto something big.
 
"When they're on the porch, most of the time I am also working, so the porch becomes a kind of open studio -- an open art access point," she says. The kids use her paints, or help with sculptures, or use wood and coffee cans or anything else she can muster as their media.
 
German, named Pittsburgh Center for the Arts' 2012 Emerging Artist of the Year, recalls working recently with CMU artist Yona Harvey on the front porch - part of German's preparation for her PCA exhibition. One young girl visiting the porch said she had never met a poet before and pulled down Harvey's hand to read a sheaf of poems. That's how hungry the children are for art experiences, German marvels.
 
She and partner Michelle Carello plan to bring their other artist friends to the new art house to share their talents with the kids, including trumpeter Sean Jones and comic-book artist Jim Rugg.
 
"I've seen that they understand that there is a place for art and that art is a part of their lives," she says of the kids who have painted her fence and porch and increasingly crowd the small yard. "I've seen that the neighborhood protects the space. They look out for the kids and the space and they understand what is happening. It's like a sense of community that is definitely new to me, but it's wonderful.
 
"I live around a lot of prostitution and drug activity," she adds. "To see the way even people who are doing things that are unsavory care about and protect the front yard! They'll stand at the fence and say, 'I like that one' and 'That one is new!' The kids know the same people. It's not a judgmental space, but it is opening up a space for human communication."
 
The kids have learned to share, to protect each other and to accept a compliment, she reports. "I'm watching them start to steward each other. They take care of each other, and that's directly related" to their participation in the art. "When the art house opens, we'll have more art projects to direct them to."
 
The art house has seen its share of troubles, German says. She and Carello ended up temporarily caring for three of the four children who lived there, after they were removed and the house was closed as uninhabitable earlier this year. The house has since been cleaned up and Allegheny Housing Rehabilitation Corporation is allowing Love Front Porch to use it temporarily. German plans to hold public art days in the house as well.
 
Though the house opens this week, German is seeking funds to make the art house complete -- it doesn't even have furniture yet. She plans for it to have "the same organic sense of learning that artists" enjoy, and the same atmosphere as Love Front Porch: "an environment that kids can trust but explore."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Vanessa German

Unicycles, tandems and electric-assist bicycles are just some of the styles people can check out at the Try-A-Bike Jamboree, says Scott Bricker, leader of cycling advocates Bike Pittsburgh. And that's just one of more than 80 events (Bricker says he has lost count) at the 8th annual BikeFest August 5-19 all over the city.
 
"One of the things we keep hearing from people, especially those who are new to biking, is that they don't know what type of bike to buy," Bricker says. The Try-A-Bike Jamboree, Aug. 12 at the Bud Harris Cycling Track (a half-mile loop along Washington Boulevard), will offer a chance also to try mountain bikes, cross bikes (built for racing and the street), commuter bikes, tandem bikes, tall bikes, and cargo bikes.
 
Some of the activities joining BikeFest are weekly, while others are one-time events new even to the festival this year, and most are free and open to the public. "Part of the fun of Bike Fest is that anyone can put a ride on the schedule," Bricker says.
 
That includes the "Thank You For Being a Friend" scavenger-hunt ride on August 19 and three different rides that test cyclists' hill-climbing abilities. This year's bike-themed movie, which riders can bike up to, is American Flyers, about a bicycle race across the Rockies and the humans who do or do not make it.
 
There's also the new Babes, Tots, Kids on Board slow ride on August 6, an Aug. 16 "Pittsburgh Underwear Bike Ride," a trek to the Carrie Furnace site, and an August 9 women's mountain bike clinic. Another new ride is designed to gather cyclists' opinions on the MOVEPGH comprehensive transportation plan that the city is formulating.
 
BikeFest begins with PedalPgh on Sunday, August 5, a fundraising ride that had previously been run by a non-bicycling organization. "It's the first time the proceeds raised will go to making the conditions of bicycling better in the city," Bricker says. The fest also includes BikePgh's annual fundraiser on Aug. 10 at the Pittsburgh Opera.
 
Overall, says Bricker, BikeFest "is time to celebrate bicycling and to have fun by bike in the City of Pittsburgh."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Scott Bricker, Bike Pittsburgh

Since nuclear weapons haven't killed anyone in most Americans' lifetimes and nuclear power accidents seem mostly to affect far away countries, what chance do people calling for further nuke curbs have in America?
 
"Actually, the attitude of most people in this country about nuclear weapons is clear – they should be abolished worldwide," says Robin Alexander. "However, it is one more issue that has gotten tied up in political gridlock. We need to send a clear message to politicians of all political parties that our future is not a partisan political issue and that the U.S. should exert strong leadership in reducing stockpiles and working towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
 
That's why Alexander is one of the organizers of Remembering Hiroshima, Imagining Peace, events marking 67 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II. The annual event is organized by local labor, peace, environmental, educational and cultural groups.
 
On Aug. 5, the movie Nuclear Savage, about Cold War radiation experiments on Pacific Islanders, will be followed by a live Skype session with peace activists from Kobe, Japan. It will be followed on Aug.5 and 6 by the Shadow Project, which duplicates on city surfaces the shadow images left by some nuclear bomb victims. Participants will be creating the images in front of the Melwood Screening Room, Shadow Lounge and the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, where they will also be folding paper cranes as a symbol of peace.
 
The events end on Aug. 6 with a spoken word and music program at the Shadow Lounge.
 
One hopeful sign for the world, Alexander says, is the shutdown of nuclear power plants in Japan following the earthquake and the meltdown of the Fukushima Daichi power plant. Recent plant re-openings caused demonstrations. Less hopeful, she says, are possible actions in the Middle East buy Israel against Iran's potential nuclear capabilities.
 
"We hope that people will reflect on both the devastation caused by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaskai and also on what peace can mean: for our lives, in our neighborhoods and for the world," Alexander says,  "then get involved in some way -- whether it is to help stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons, question the use or safety of nuclear energy, or to stop the violence in our own neighborhoods."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Robin Alexander

Just yesterday, Gwen Watkins says, she was volunteering at Rodman Street Missionary Baptist Church in East Liberty, making fleece blankets for senior citizens in a local apartment building.
 
"It's a passion with me," Watkins says of volunteering, "and I don't think it will ever go away."
 
Perhaps that's why Watkins was chosen as the latest local Dignity and Respect Champion by the national Dignity and Respect Campaign, which began in UPMC's Center for Inclusion.
 
"I was taken back by it," she says. Watkins was honored for her work as events coordinator for community service in the University of Pittsburgh's Office of Community and Governmental Relations, from which she retired at the end of June.
 
"The university believes in giving back to the community," she says, and has 3,600 volunteers among staff and faculty. Her office partners with student volunteer efforts as well, and they work on projects all year, in partnership with community organizations. They include Project Bundle Up with the Salvation Army and a food drive with the Boy Scouts of America, as well as sending volunteers monthly to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, feeding people at Pitt on Christmas Day, and collecting socks for shelters and pet food for people who can't feed what is sometimes their closest companion. The need for volunteers has only gotten more severe in this economy, Watkins reports. "You don't even have to look for it and you can see it," she says.
 
She has appreciated the chance to do in a secular setting the work her religion requires, Watkins explains: "I like to meet people where they are. I try very hard not to judge people. If they have a need they have a need. You need help right now. I try to put myself in somebody else's position: Would I want my neighbor to help me? It would be a sad state of affairs if you see your brother in need, you have it to give and you won't give it."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Gwen Watkins

'Activation' happens when kids are self-propelled toward learning in science. Kevin Crowley and Christian Schunn have seen it in action.
 
"Activation is a state that kids can get into, the thing that gives them momentum toward engaging with science, when they have a choice," says Crowley, director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments. "That sort of experience sets up a positive feedback loop where they will look for other opportunities in science as they move forward."
 
Activation, says Schunn, senior scientist at Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center, "would make the next experience richer and [the child] would be more likely to choose it" on his own, despite "deactivating forces at play" -- such as the distraction of the Internet and the disinterest or disdain of friends.
 
That's why The Sprout Fund will hold a free Spark Strategy Session on Understanding Learning Activation on July 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Downtown's Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel.

Spark has been funding and nurturing projects for young learners at the intersection of the arts and high tech for several years now. Organizers hope Crowley and Schunn's work on what activates or motivates young science learners can translate to what does the same for students more broadly -- or, as organizers put it, how activation can be applied "to the learning ecosystem in Greater Pittsburgh." The event will involve breakout sessions and small-group discussions.
 
Crowley says the group will begin to address what will be the optimum educational path for kids growing up in Pittsburgh and how it will change the momentum toward art and high tech learning.
 
There are many programs already in Pittsburgh whose missions dovetail with this effort, he notes. Without making the "educational ecology" less diverse, the group will try to get a clearer picture of what roles we're all playing in kids' lives.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Kevin Crowley, University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments, and Christian Schunn, University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center

"Every software engineer has something that gets them hooked their first time" on computer science, says Nate Good, who just received $1,000 from the Awesome Foundation -- their monthly local award -- to bring the First Bytes Society to Pittsburgh. "For me that was making games on my calculator when I should have been doing something else. There's a whole creative side of software engineering. I wanted the First Bytes Society to be that critical hook for those kids. Once you get bit by the software bug -- once you experience the kind of creative outlet that can be -- it can propel itself."
 
If they start in college -- as cutbacks in high-school computer-science course are increasingly forcing kids to do, he believes -- it may be too late, since college courses begin with math and theory. He sees First Bytes as "an alternative path to computer science education" for fifth through ninth graders.
 
Good, who lives in Friendship, will hold the first meetings of First Bytes at the ticketing software development company Showclix, where he is director of software engineering. "I thought it would be interesting to get students in an environment where they can see what the whole young, start- up high-tech, computer-science industry looks like," he says, "and to sell students on the fact that not only can this be a fun thing to do, but it can be a fun career path."
 
His goal is to reach out to diverse groups that might not be represented in computer science, which he admits "is going to be one of the trickier parts of the program." In preparation, he has met with other community-focused computer groups to study their approaches, which are often to work with teachers and let teachers nominate students.
 
The group's Webpage, still under construction, will soon have applications for both students and potential teachers. You can also follow the group on Twitter at @firstbytes.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Nate Good, First Bytes Society

“What we try to do is kind of show off the parks to people because we have the best mountain biking in Pittsburgh versus any other city in the U.S. – hands down, bar none,” said Mike Connors, avid cyclist, who helped organize the Seventh Annual Allegheny County Mountain Bike Festival. 
 
“From downtown Pittsburgh within an hour and fifteen minutes there is probably about 18 places you can ride for a minimum of an hour and a half," he adds.
 
The Pittsburgh Trails Advocacy Group teamed up with the Allegheny County Parks Department and the Pittsburgh Off-Road Cyclist to host the bike fest.  The event, which attracted more than 200 participants, was held at Hartwood Acres, Boyce and North Parks from July thirteenth through the fifteenth, with a change of venue each day.
 
Connors, a former board member of PTAG, put together the framework for the event in conjunction with Bob Bannon, the vice president of the group.
 
Mountain bikers of all skill levels, ranging in age from about twelve years old well into their sixties combined all three days pursuing their passion to cycle off-road and explore terrain that has been uncharted by most.  “North Park five years ago probably had twenty miles worth of trail now there’s almost forty," Connors notes.
 
The final day ushered in a pig roast where ten local breweries donated beer for a celebration gathering. Overall, it united and enlightened off-road mountain bikers from all over Pittsburgh by encouraging them to conquer new territory, Connors says.

“The biggest thing to stress is for people to get out there and to make new friends mountain biking,” he suggests. “There is so much to do in Pittsburgh mountain bike wise and there’s not a chance in the world you’re going to find this stuff on your own.”
 
Writer: Emily Shields, intern
Source: Mike Connors