Nonprofits Archives - Page 10 of 16

I Am Homeless

Back in 1988, I wrote a series about Pittsburgh’s homeless, based on my living on the streets for 14 days and nights, undercover, with long hair and a beard. I was 26, and the Pittsburgh Press series changed my journalistic trajectory, won national writing awards, and later became part of the landmark Supreme Court media …

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Education

Path to Delinquency

by Jeffery Fraser

Aaron Thomas was 14 when a Pittsburgh police drug task force raided the Garfield home where he lived with his parents, whose lives were ruled by an addiction to cocaine and heroin. That led to his first encounter with the juvenile justice system. But the time he would spend in and out of jail, youth …

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Region

The Template for Sustainable Development

by Evan Pattak

It was several years ago that Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto was chatting with André Heinz, soon to be chairman of The Heinz Endowments, about development in Pittsburgh— specifically, Hazelwood’s Almono site, where the foundation is a principal. The more they talked, the more they realized they shared a vision for a new type of growth …

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Region

Pittsburgh: Too Much Same Ol’ Same Ol’

by Paul Scripko

Despite being one of the country’s hottest cities, at least as far as mainstream media reporting goes, the Pittsburgh metro still provides less opportunity for its residents than its peers. That fact was borne out by recently released employment numbers for July: unemployment is rising above both State and national levels. Worse, the local labor …

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Events

Doors Open Pittsburgh

by PQ Staff

On the weekend of Oct. 1 and 2, Pittsburghers will have the opportunity to see and experience a variety of the city’s most interesting architectural buildings. As part of a new event called Open Doors Pittsburgh, visitors will be able to view some 40 different buildings including: The Engineers Society, the Mayor’s Office/Council Chambers, The …

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Education

Honey, I Have an Idea…

by Terry Miller

In May of 2013, Renny Clark and I arrived at the Hillman residence at 11 a.m. Our mission was to propose the creation of a forum for student civic engagement at the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute of Politics and hopefully the seed of an endowment to support the forum’s work. Elsie responded with her typical …

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Region

The Road to Sustainability

by Jeffery Fraser

In a region conceived around the principles of sustainability, clean, healthy air is an undisputed staple. Southwestern Pennsylvania is not there yet. The air has markedly improved from the days when industry was the backbone of the economy. Yet, in the best of years, it’s only good enough to warrant a healthy rating on one-third …

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Nonprofits

The Right Thing To Do

by Margaret J. Krauss

It had stormed the night before, hard enough to postpone the Pirates game and scrub the air, leaving it sharp and glittering for the early morning joggers along the North Shore Trail. The bridges overhead buzzed with the aggregate sound of thousands of people going to work. Halfway between PNC Park and Heinz Field, two …

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Education

A Question of Value

by PQ Staff

Pittsburgh Quarterly invited the heads of the region’s top independent schools to address, in 150 words or less, the following question: What is your value proposition for students and families? Winchester Thurston is recognized for innovative teaching that combines rigor and relevance. After visiting WT this year, National Association of Independent Schools interim president Donna …

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Region

Prospects for Pittsburgh Where You Might Not Expect Them

by Paul Scripko

Two recent reports have me thinking about the Pittsburgh region’s future, especially those areas that aren’t part of the latest international praise for being “hip” or “high tech” or “urban cool.” It seems, touch wood, that a large part of the region is on the path to the only measures of economic success that matter: …

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Region

The Decisive Decade

by Douglas Heuck

After going to college and law school in the south, Jack Barbour decided to return to Pittsburgh in 1979. “When I said I was going back to Pittsburgh, everyone looked at me like I was nuts. They still may look at me like I’m nuts. But there’s no longer that stigma about Pittsburgh,” said Barbour, …

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Education

When Applying to College

by PQ Staff

What do you wish you could tell young people who are considering applying for college? Marc L. Harding, University of Pittsburgh If you know what you want to study in college, great… and if you don’t, please know you’re in the majority. This is the time to explore. Do you want to improve global health, …

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Events

Pittsburgh Quarterly Turns 10

by PQ Staff

In early June, Pittsburgh Quarterly celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a cocktail reception for nearly 200 contributors, advertisers and friends at the Cultural Trust Cabaret Downtown. Speakers included: Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto, who said the magazine’s in-depth journalism and particulary its measurement of Pittsburgh’s strengths and weaknesses helps keep the city moving forward; Richard Simmons, …

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Nonprofits

“It’s Bitcoin for Volunteers”

by Margaret J. Krauss

Dan Little has wanted to build the infrastructure of the future for a long time. So while he enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University to study architecture, he switched to civil engineering. “The recession happened and Obama got elected and there were all these promises about infrastructure. I thought, ‘It sounds like civil engineering is going …

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Education

Engineering the Future at Pitt

by Danielle Commisso

It was the early 1960s, and it was a different time, recalls John “Jack” Mascaro. Like many of his fellow baby boomers, the young student showed up to his engineering classes at the University of Pittsburgh sporting a sweater and a tie, while his professors wore suits. It was a time when engineering students were …

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Region

Thinking Green

by Jeffery Fraser

Allegheny County got rid of desk-side wastebaskets in the County Office Building and Health Department administrative offices last year and, as a result, sent 64 percent less trash to landfills. In its Downtown office tower, Highmark swapped fluorescent lighting for LED, and energy consumed fell by 20 percent on every floor where the lighting was …

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Education

Voyaging to College

by Margaret J. Krauss

The road to college is much like an expedition. It can appear overwhelming, exciting, and at times too far away to be tangible. However, much like planning a trip out of town or across the globe there is preparation involved, and it is always best to start that planning early. First, you must figure out …

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Education

Setting a New Standard

by Evan Pattak

The professor sits at her console and looks to the monitor at her right. There, she sees the smiling, eager faces of her students, 16 strong, for this evening’s lecture. She greets them and is greeted in return. On the monitor to the professor’s left is a SMART Board, an interactive whiteboard that she uses …

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Education

A Pittsburgh Masterpiece

by Ben Schmitt

When Rachel Rosenberg arrived at the University of Pittsburgh from California as a freshman, she was immediately drawn to the cultural classrooms lining the Cathedral of Learning’s first and third floors: their alluring aesthetics, stunning architecture and meticulous attention to detail. “There’s nothing like this anywhere else,” she said. “They really set the University of …

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Nonprofits

A New Initiative

by Maxwell King

John Kane was the quintessential Pittsburgh working man: tough, hard-working, unpretentious, and yet extraordinarily creative. He emigrated from Scotland in 1879, worked for Frick’s coke works, Carnegie’s steel mill and the Pennsylvania Railroad where he became a painter of boxcars for the railroad. Later, emerging as a true artist, he created some of the most …

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Region

Diversity Through a Local Lens

by Jeffery Fraser

Earlier this fall, more than 3,550 southwestern Pennsylvanians shared their views on racial and ethnic diversity in a region where the population of African Americans, Asians and Hispanics—and the slice of the labor force they hold—are among the smallest in metropolitan America. What emerges from the Pittsburgh Regional Diversity Survey is a complex portrait of …

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Environment

Clouds gathering over Pittsburgh

by Nick Keppler

As his rowboat swept over Penn Avenue, Charles H. Allard looked for the bronze tablet on the Horne’s building. The object commemorated the high water mark of the Flood of 1907, previously the most severe flood to ravage Pittsburgh. Allard, reporting for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on March 18, 1936, couldn’t see it. Allard and two …

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