Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

“Dr. Dave,” aka Dr. David K. Merwine, associate professor of biology at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, talks with first graders at George G. Blaisdell Elementary School about the evolution of brain science. He acted the parts of Franz Josef Gaul, father of the mistaken “science” of phrenology, and the characters in a story made famous by neurologist Oliver Sacks, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.” Here, as Gaul, he uses a plastic magnifying glass as a monocle to measure a student’s head. Merwine also brought with him models of human, rat and fish brains and small plasticized brains that elicited screams of “ewww!” Photo by Kimberly Marcott Weinberg

Streaking, keeping students from falling out windows on Main Street, and Tullah Hanley were among the topics shared by former and longtime employees of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford during a panel discussion Wednesday night. Several members of the audience also participated in the discussion moderated by Kimberly Marcott Weinberg, assistant director of Pitt-Bradford’s marketing and communications department. Panelist Margaret Bryner was the dean of women from 1970 until 1972 and lived with the student in Emery Hall (now Emery Towers) when it was a dorm. She said one of the hardest parts of her job was keeping the students from hanging out the windows. Current staff member Jeff Armstrong not only talked about his time working at the university, but for working at the home of then-president Dr. Donald Swarts. He and the other panel members all had kind words to say about Swarts and his wife Mary, who they credited with giving the institution its strong foundation. Ray McMa...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford will celebrate the campus’s history as Bradford’s original airport as part of celebrations for its 50th anniversary. Today’s Pitt-Bradford is located on a tract of land that served as Harri Emery Airport from the 1920s until the Bradford Regional Airport was constructed in the early 1950s. Pitt-Bradford retiree and local historian Linda Delaney has researched and curated an exhibit with the help of Bruce and Beverly Perry and Bernie Picklo. The exhibit will open Tuesday as part of Founders’ Day events planned at Pitt-Bradford for its 50th anniversary and remain on display in the KOA Gallery in Blaisdell Hall through Oct. 6. The gallery is open from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday. Special hours are planned for Alumni and Family Weekend Oct. 4 through 6, when the exhibition will be op...

Temple Beth El in Bradford will hold services for the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Services will be conducted by Rabbi Susan Stone of Cleveland, Ohio, with music provided by Charles Stone. Evening services will begin at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 4 at the temple, which is located at 144 Clarence St. in Bradford. Morning services will be held at 10 a.m. Sept. 5 at the temple, followed by taschlich in Callahan Park and the dedication of a Holocaust memorial at the Hebrew Cemetery in Bradford. Yom Kippur services will begin with Kol Nidre at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13 and continue with morning services at 10 a.m. Sept. 14 at the temple. Yizkor and concluding services will begin at 4 p.m. Sept. 14, followed by a break-the-fast meal. For more information, contact Kimberly Marcott Weinberg at 814-331-5664. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford has added new state-of-the art electronic equipment to its criminal justice forensics lab, exposing students to the top-notch tools and giving Pitt-Bradford more opportunities to provide training for professional law enforcement. “This lab will advance the criminal justice program to heights that have never been seen,” said Dr. Tony Gaskew, associate professor of criminal justice and director of the program. Several new pieces of advanced forensic equipment have been added to the lab: a Deployable Device Seizure, a Police Body Camera with GPS, a CYCLOPS Imager, a Forensic Digital Optical Video Magnifier, a Video-Based Optical Comparator, a CSI Metal Detector, a Forensic Alternative Light Source Detection Kit, and a new KRIMESITE Imager. The Deployable Device Seizure can access all information kept on a mobile phone, tablet or laptop. A...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing University of Pittsburgh at Bradford Stephanie Welge does not want the words “opera” or “Wagner” to scare anyone. “Opera is all about feeling,” she says, and more familiar than most people think. Welge will share her love of both opera and Wagner in a recital at 7:30 p.m. May 17 in the Bromeley Family Theater in Blaisdell Hall at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. The concert is free, and programs will provide synopses and translations of each piece she plans to perform. There will be a short reception afterward. Before George Lucas brought the world of “Star Wars” to the screen, before JRR Tolkien created Middle Earth in “The Lord of the Rings,” Richard Wagner created his own world on so grand a scale that the adjective for such epics became “Wagnerian.” The 19th century German composer’s scores are still heard today in movies and television commercials. Bugs Bunny’s “Kill the W...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing Dr. Om Singh, assistant professor of biology at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, is the editor of a new book, “Extremophiles: Sustainable Resources and Biotechnological Implications.” Extremophiles, organisms that grow under extreme conditions, have long been of interest to Singh, who says they have great potential to help solve problems in global warming, biotechnology, medicine, food production and energy. Singh gathered, curated and edited 17 chapters about extremophiles in order to bring them to the attention of the larger scientific community. Singh co-authored two of the chapters himself – one with former Pitt-Bradford students Erin Copeland and Nicholas Choy that looked at radiation-resistant microorganisms. The second chapter, written with scientists from the Department of Biotechnology, School of Engineering of Loreno, at the University of São Paulo, Lorena, ...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing Ernest Benkovski, a history-political science major from Pittsburgh studying at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, will be taking a keen interest in the Nov. 6 election. His boss from his summer internship, U.S. Sen. Robert Casey, D.-Pa., is up for re-election. Benkovski spent his summer in a flurry of staff meetings and event briefings, drafting letters, attending high-level political soirees, and monitoring every media source on the planet for any incident, change in public opinion, or noteworthy press release that might be of interest to the senator. As an intern in Casey’s office, Benkovski had a vast amount of research and writing to do in addition to his other duties. “It’s a good thing I did well in my English classes,” he said. Benkovski started his trek with his work with Dr. William Schumann III, assistant professor of anthropology, and the Appalachian Reg...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing Alex Nazemetz, director of admissions at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, always knows what time it is in Beijing, just a part of recruiting Pitt-Bradford’s largest group of international students ever. This year Pitt-Bradford is welcoming its largest group of international students ever – three times as many as came to Pitt-Bradford in 2011. As classes got under way last week, they included 32 new international students from Gambia, Germany, South Korea, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, but mostly from China. The new students – nearly 10 percent of the freshman class – bring the total number of international students on campus to 48. The learning curve for Nazemetz, who does most of the international recruitment himself, has been steep. For example, international students are often interested in different things than domestic students, things that Nazemetz has found out ...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford contributed $67.5 million to the regional economy in 2011, according to a new study by the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research, which has performed economic impact studies for small colleges across western Pennsylvania. Conducting the study were Dr. Sabina Deitrick, director of the Urban and Regional Analysis Program at the Center for Social and Urban Research; Christopher Briem and William Lafe, who noted that “the institution has expanded and become an even more critical part of Bradford and its regional economy. As we move further into the 21st century, Pitt-Bradford’s role will likely expand even more, helping to grow the region, improve the quality of life of its residents, and add to prosperity across sectors.” The researchers examined economic data from the Pennsylvania counties of McKean, Elk, Warren and Cattaraugus Coun...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing For the ninth consecutive year, The Princeton Review has recognized the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford as one of the best colleges in the northeast. “We are very pleased that Pitt-Bradford once again has received this national recognition,” said Dr. Livingston Alexander, president. “We are even more pleased this year that The Princeton Review specifically cites our affordability since everyone on our campus works very hard to ensure that students get a quality education that is affordable.” The education services company selected Pitt-Bradford as one of 222 institutions it profiles in its “Best in the Northeast” section of its PrincetonReview.com feature “2013 Best Colleges: Region by Region.” Says Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s senior vice president and publisher, “We’re pleased to recommend Pitt-Bradford to users of our site as one of the best schools to earn ...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing Dozens of first- through sixth-grade students are immersing themselves in science this week at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford’s X-treme Science Camp. The camp was organized by Dr. Lauren Yaich, associate dean of academic affairs and associate professor of biology at Pitt-Bradford, and Brenda Brandon, who has worked with the campus’s Science in Motion program. Each day of camp has a theme such as motion; water, buoyancy and density; the natural world; and every kid’s favorite, gross stuff. Motion was the theme on the second day of camp, with students learning about machine, human and animal motion in hands-on labs planned by Pitt-Bradford faculty and brought to life by middle and high school teachers from the area. Building roller coasters for marbles taught children all about how to get an object to build and keep momentum. The goal of the exercise w...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing Werewolves and vampires are real – or at least based on real medical phenomenon. Area students learned that and other Medical Mysteries during a high school enrichment course held at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford this week by Dr. Lauren Yaich, associate professor of biology. Yaich’s course, “Medical Mysteries—Solved,” wrapped up Thursday and is the first of three enrichment courses being offered for high school students this summer. Yaich covered six major topics in relation to the biology of the human body and treating diseases: myths such as werewolves and vampires, disorders of bones and muscles, disorders related to aging, cancer, neurological disorders, and careers in the medical field and medical research. “I don’t have to stick to a strict curriculum” Yaich said of the course, which gives her a chance to talk about topics of special interest to her that she doesn’t ...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing Artists Monet, Van Gogh and Georgia O’Keeffe were inspired by flowers, but Bob Harris, facilities worker and gardener at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, is inspired by the artists. This year, Harris has designed the flower beds at Pitt-Bradford with an artistic influence in mind. Each major planting is inspired by the work of an artist: Monet, Van Gogh, Titian (he wanted to throw in a Renaissance painter), Georgia O’Keeffe and Picasso. It’s not the first year his beds have had a scholarly theme. They’ve been based on the colors of ancient Egypt (complete with plexiglass pyramid), mimicked Victorian carpet patterns and reproduced the Minotaur’s Labyrinth on the Greek island of Crete. This theme, he said, reflects his interest in and envy of painters. Plus, he’s got art in the family – a wife who loves art history and a daughter who’s a mixed media artist in New M...

Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing University of Pittsburgh at Bradford When Shane Close of Bradford decided to leave home for the first time, he really went for it, spending 16 weeks in Russia, Europe and the United Arab Emirates. Close, 21, a junior history/political science major at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, traveled to St. Petersburg and Veliky Novgorod, Russia; London; Moscow; Helsinki, Finland; Tallinn, Republic of Estonia; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates; bringing back worldly experiences from each courtesy of the Pitt-approved study-abroad program and the American Institute for Foreign Study. While studying at the St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University along with nearly 21,000 other students from all over the world, he attended a rock concert at the Lensovieta Palace of Culture and a ballet performance at the Mariinsky Theatre. In England he visited Buckingham Palace, the Tower ...

Temple Beth El will hold services for the Jewish New Year Sept. 28 and 29 in the temple at 144-146 Clarence St. in Bradford. Erev Rosh Hashanah services will be held at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28. Rosh Hashanah morning services will be held at 10 a.m. Sept. 29, followed by Taschlich at noon. Services will be conducted by Rabbi Susan Stone, who most recently served as interim rabbi at Suburban Temple-Kol Ami in Cleveland, Ohio. For more information, contact Kimberly Marcott Weinberg at (814)362-1866 or Larry Lawson at (814)368-7181.

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing For a moment Sunday afternoon, opera legend Marilyn Horne presented an alternate scenario for not only the city of Bradford, but also for herself. Speaking to the media before addressing the largest graduating class in University of Pittsburgh at Bradford history, she wondered if perhaps her family might have stayed in Bradford had Pitt-Bradford existed in 1945. She later touched on the same idea during her speech to the graduates. “Who would have thought when I left in 1945, that I’d be back speaking to the graduating class at Pitt-Bradford, which didn’t even exist at the time,” she said, explaining that her family left Bradford when she was 11 in part to seek an affordable higher education for her and her sister, Gloria. She also spoke about her personal history with her hometown. Although she has graced the world’s most important stages, her first performan...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing When Lyndon Orinion came to the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, he thought that most other first-generation students would be like himself: children of immigrants. After all, he thought, everyone who’d been in America already had been to college, right? He found out differently when he began meeting his fellow Pitt-Bradford students, many of whom are first-generation college students. In fact, last fall, first-generation students made up 41 percent of the entering freshman class at Pitt-Bradford, which puts it in the top 10 of four-year baccalaureate-granting institutions in Pennsylvania. For those who have earned their degree and are crossing the stage in the KOA Arena Sunday, earning their college degree isn’t just for them, it’s also for their family. Orinion’s parents grew up in the Philippines province of Pangasinan, which Orinion said is a poor region of the country lacki...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing University of Pittsburgh at Bradford The University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Family Medicine working in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford’s Center for Rural Health Practice, has received a $1 million collaborative grant to bring medical students to the region. Third-year and fourth-year medical students from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine will begin arriving for four-week rotations beginning in May, working with Jill Owens, M.D., and Robert C. Guadagno, M.D. The five-year grant came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration, which promotes better access to healthcare for patients who are isolated. The grant began last year and will continue through 2015. Doctors at Pitt Medical School wanted to expose their students to a rotation in rural health care, in the hopes that ...

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing For Dr. Fumio Kobayashi, visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, being away from his home in Japan in the wake of a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami is difficult. He is comforted by the knowledge that his family, city and school, Pitt-Bradford’s sister school in Japan, Yokohama College of Commerce, made it through the crisis relatively unscathed. Yokohama, where YCC is located, is part of the Tokyo metropolitan area, a half-hour train ride from the capital. It’s about 200 miles from the areas of Japan that have been dealing with the effects of a 34-foot-high tsunami and problems with nuclear reactors. Friday morning’s quake, however, did hit Yokohama and continues to. Kobayashi said there has been little damage in the city because most buildings were constructed after the destruction of World War II to withstand an earthquake, but aftershocks co...