Friday, October 21, 2005

When it rains, it pours. No school to day at Chartiers Valley - but what about Bill's talk?

No school on Friday, today, at CV. But, Bill is slated to speak. Sorry.
Chartiers Valley High School graduate and Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto will be feature presenter today at the eighth annual Business Information and Government Career Cluster, featuring 300 students from his alma mater and seven neighboring high schools.

These alumni will be featured presenters: Bill Diffenderfer, crim inal attorney; Herb Higginbotham, vice president of Michael Baker Corp. and former director of Pittsburgh International Airport; and Alan Hertzberg, Allegheny County Common Pleas judge and former city councilman.

Clusters are offered throughout the year to provide students with information about career opportunities.

Conference attendees will be from Chartiers Valley, Bethel Park, Canon-McMillan, Mt. Lebanon, Peters Township, South Fayette, South Park and Upper St. Clair high schools.

The districts will host career clusters on a rotating basis. Chartiers Valley and South Park share the hosting duties for the business information and government career cluster. Other clusters held throughout the year are engineering, industrial systems and trades; arts and humanities; and health and human services.

The career cluster program is primarily for sophomores and juniors.

Perhaps it is time for Bill to start speaking again about campaign finance reform, now that the election cycle is about to end. We ended our work on the campaign finance reform task force -- but nothing was done about it -- yet. Leadership is expected, welcomed and the holding pattern is nothing but a delay.

Speaking of delays, this weeks city council meeting must have had nearly a dozen instances where those at the table said, "Hold for one week." They have been holding many bits of legislation. Humm. Some might say that the delays and do nothingness is better policy than what we've been getting. At least they are not putting additional hurts on the city.

Let's see if this trend continues. We'll be holding for the next mayor soon enough. And then he'll be holding for the next thought to enter the scene. Then we'll hold until we get the blessings of the overloards.

Before you know it, our kids will grow up and leave the area, for another with less water main breaks.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

CV students at career fair
By Jonathan Kyle, Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Chartiers Valley teamed with local politicians to set high school students on the path to a good career.


Students from CV and seven other districts converged on the Thoms Run Road facility last week to be informed about career choices and what they can expect after high school.



Pittsburgh city councilman Bill Peduto, who graduated from CV in 1983, gave the keynote speech to the crowd of about 300 sophomores and juniors.



"Over the course of the next 30 or 40 years, you will have to get up every morning and go to work," Peduto said. "You have to make sure it is something you like doing."



Peduto spoke of his experiences that led him to a career in politics, such as running for class president in high school and holding several internships on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.



"The only time you fail is when you fail to try," Peduto said.



Steve Greenberg, Duquesne University executive and former vice president for marketing with the Pittsburgh Pirates, addressed the crowd about the importance of career choices.



"It's really important that you find a job you enjoy," Greenberg said, "because you will have to drag your butt to work every morning for forty years." Other speakers included FBI special agent Jim Knights.



Peduto also discussed the job market in Pittsburgh, noting that of his group of friends in high school, only he and one other found success in the area. The rest have moved to other parts of the country, one as far away as Arizona.



"Will there be something for you to do in Pittsburgh?" Peduto said. Talking about the collapse of the steel industry, he said "it's 2005 and that excuse is far gone."



The event was organized by Lynn Heasley, community outreach coordinator for CV. She has been a part of the program for the eight years it has been in operation.



There are four of these such events each school year, and they are held at each of the eight schools on a rotating schedule. The talks are part of the Future Learning Experiences, or FLEX, initiative.