Saturday, February 10, 2018

Fwd: USNA Summer Seminar and Summer STEM - Now is the Time!

Something to consider for summer for middle and high school students:

These programs at NAVY may interest some, especially if STEM-focused.  

1.  For an out-of-the-ordinary STEM summer session at the U.S. Naval Academy (5 days, students residing in the dormitory, Bancroft Hall), and it's for 8th-10th Graders (for the Fall).  The Academy Admissions Office drafted the email notice itself, and passed it out to USNA Blue & Gold Officers around the country.  "Blue & Gold Officers" (like Coach Ed) work with the Admissions Office to help spread the word about not-your-normal but hopefully stimulating programs that younger students may find challenging, particularly if they love STEM or science fields.  

2.  For a Summer Seminar about a college - a week like no other.  This is for rising Seniors who may be considering a career in the Navy or Marine Corps, and wish to see a bit of what it may be like (or more!)  Through the lens of one of the pathways to becoming an officer, at the U.S. Naval Academy.  Like the STEM Summer Session for younger students, this one is also residential, so parents drop 'em off and pick 'em up later!  

Below is the approved USNA-style email advisory:

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Good afternoon!
The applications for the United States Naval Academy's Summer Seminar and Summer STEM are OPEN!

Summer STEM is geared toward students currently in 8th, 9th and 10th grade, the Summer STEM residential program will give attendees an opportunity to engage in hands-on math and science activities with our faculty and midshipmen. 
 
2018 Sessions:
June 4-9 for current 8th graders (rising 9th graders)
June 11-16 for current 9th graders (rising 10th graders)
June 18-22 for current 10th graders (rising 11th graders)
 
Attached is a digital brochure and the website is:

Naval Academy Summer Seminar (NASS) offers an opportunity for rising high school seniors to experience the academy for one week. Participants learn about life at the Naval Academy, where academics, athletics, and professional training play equally important roles in developing our nation's future leaders at this four-year college.
2018 Sessions:
June 2-7
June 9-14
June 16-21
 
Attached is a digital brochure and the website is:
This past summer,
USNA
 hosted students from all 50 states, US territories, as well as students living abroad. Both attendees and parents raved about the experience, and we are counting on you to help spread the word about these fantastic opportunities. 
You can check out more on Facebook at:
 
Please watch and
feel free to
share our videos:
 


Thursday, February 08, 2018

Path crossing opportunities are welcomed in sports

VP Mike Pence is in South Korea at the Winter Olympics and reports say that he asked organizers to help PREVENT him from crossing paths with those from the North Korean delegation. WTF? That is so what the Olympics are NOT about. VP Pence should GO HOME if he can't handle an encounter with other people of sports. 

I would love to be at the Olympics, again, in a foreign setting, especially if it wasn't as cold. 

But I have my own sports encounters today to attend, and I welcome the path crossing opportunities.
--
--
Ta.
 
 
Mark Rauterkus       Mark@Rauterkus.com
PPS Summer Dreamers' Swim & Water Polo Camp Executive Coach
Varsity Boys Swim Coach, Pittsburgh Obama Academy
Recent Head Water Polo Coach, Carnegie Mellon University Women's Club Team
Pittsburgh Combined Water Polo Team

http://CLOH.org

412 298 3432 = cell

Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Fwd: [Art-All-Night] Art All Night 21 Planning committee meeting

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Art All Night <info@artallnight.org>


Greetings Art All Nighters,

Art All Night is embarking on it's 21st year of celebrating art, music, and performance in a free, non-juried, non-censored show!

It will be held at the end of April in a location to be determined. Art All Night needs one thing in order to be successful: a planning team of dedicated people to take on the responsibilities required for show preparation.

Art All Night Planning Members:
  • meet Wednesday or Thursday from now until the end of April.
  • meet Saturdays in April to prepare a warehouse.
  • take on decision-making roles for certain aspects of the show.
  • are not alone-- members support one another and each have a voice.
  • work outside of meetings to fulfill responsibilities.
Being part of the team takes work, but it is also genuinely rewarding and super fun. If you are curious about learning more, come to the kick-off meeting:

First Planning Meeting
when: 7 pm on Thursday, February 15
where: The Shiloh Building basement, 3832 Mintwood St, Pittsburgh, PA 15201.
         *** Note that this is a different location than previous years. Please enter through the door off of Mintwood Street that has a white Art All Night Sign on it.

Planning Meeting Schedule
Planning Meetings will alternate between Wednesdays and Thursdays, and will fall on these dates:

7 pm on Thursday, February 15

7 pm on Wednesday, February 21
7 pm on Thursday, March 1
7 pm on Wednesday, March 7
7 pm on Thursday, March15
7 pm on Wednesday, March 21

Any questions or comments? We would like to hear from you. Please email info@artallnight.org or visit www.artallnight.org.

If the planning team is not for you, know that you are still needed! Over 250 volunteers help out during the event. Volunteer sign up information will be sent out in early April.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ArtAllNight
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/artallnight


Art-All-Night mailing list
Art-All-Night@artallnight.org
https://www.artallnight.org/mailman/listinfo/art-all-night

Monday, February 05, 2018

PPS offering Restorative Practices Training Sessions

Several restorative practices training sessions are being offered in February and March, 2018.

Introduction to Restorative Practices and Using Circles Effectively is offered once per month at no-cost to PPS staff and District partners who have not yet attended restorative practices training. Note that all sessions take place at the Greenway Professional Development center (1400 Crucible St, 15205) from 8:30 am - 3:30 pm with a one hour break for lunch. Additionally, registration is limited to 30 participants per session. District partners can register by e-mailing restorativepractices@pghboe.net. For additional details and contact Keiterez Bynum at 412-529-3985 with questions.

More insights at this PDF.

draft of a new slide deck on issues with PPS


Slide show updated

Fwd: The Eagle


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: The Eagle <noreply+feedproxy@google.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 5, 2018 at 5:15 AM
Subject: The Eagle
To: <mark@rauterkus.com>


The Eagle


We Interviewed Dan Gliman on His New Position as the Mayor's Chief of Staff

Posted: 04 Feb 2018 02:22 PM PST

Last month, Dan Gilman left his position on City Council to become the Chief of Staff for Mayor Peduto. We talked with him about his role, his vision for Pittsburgh, and his perception of today's political atmosphere.

 

Sam Bisno: For anyone who is unaware, what exactly are your duties as Mayor Peduto's Chief of Staff?

Dan Gilman: Pretty much everything. It's my job to implement the Mayor's vision for Pittsburgh – a legislative agenda, a statewide and national policy agenda, and most importantly, running the city day to day. Through directors of different departments and chiefs of bureaus, the city has just over 3,000 city employees who all report up through a structure to my office to the Mayor, so that's everything from snow removals and potholes to police fire and paramedics to zoning parks and recreation and other public works functions. It's a lot that goes into running a city on a daily basis.

 

Daevan Mangalmurti: You've had a pretty interesting career. You began as Mayor Peduto's Chief of Staff back when he was a councilman. Then you were elected to a seat yourself, and now you're once again the Mayor's Chief of Staff. How did you end up on this path?

DG: My path through this entire career is a nontraditional one, which I think is actually kind of the more usual path for somebody. I never thought I would run for office. I never dreamed of a career in government. But what I did have was a passion for leadership, for volunteerism, for organizing, and that includes being on student council as a kid and things like that. And then when I went to college I ended up in student government, and through that I interned on Capitol Hill one summer and found I really enjoyed D.C. but couldn't stand the bureaucracy and the failures of government. I saw the opportunity of what government could do, but saw partisanship at its worst. I came back, and through kind of an accidental meeting met then-first-year City Councilman Bill Peduto, and he offered me an internship between my junior and senior year of college. I did that, and I found that local government was where innovation was occurring, local government was where the most basic government functions still worked and worked for the people. You could, as an intern in City Hall, get a pothole filled or get a stop sign put back up or a baseball field prepared for a little league game, which was more than I was seeing done in D.C. And so when I graduated from college, I had a job offer from Bill Peduto and I had a job offer from Bill Clinton, and I made the decision that I really wanted to be in Pittsburgh. I wanted to be in local government and see what would happen. And I did that with a plan to do it for a few years and to go to law school or maybe into the nonprofit world or the state department. I had any number of options, but it was never a career; it was never to run for office. But I really fell in love with City Hall. I believe strongly in Bill Peduto's vision and I believe strongly in what good, optimized government can do for the people. You kind of blink and ten years later you're still there, and now it's fourteen years, and I still love coming to work every day.

 

SB: You said that you consider your job to be carrying out Mayor Peduto's vision for the city. What do you consider your top priority in terms of what you hope to achieve as Mayor Peduto's Chief of Staff?

DG: It's hard to narrow it down to one, but if I try to encapsulate everything, it's making Pittsburgh a world-class city for the twenty-first century while staying true to our core beliefs, our core values, and our core identity. That means looking at everything from smart transportation to equitable development to childhood health to equitable green space, and doing it all in a way that we grow and we become the model, but we don't lose what makes Pittsburgh Pittsburgh – we don't lose the identity of our neighborhoods, we don't lose our historic architecture, we don't lose our civic pride. I like that if you get dropped in Pittsburgh you know you're in Pittsburgh. It feels different than Columbus or Indianapolis or Phoenix or Orlando. I don't want to lose that, but I also want to grow. I don't want to stand still and let time pass us by.

 

DM: What do you see as Pittsburgh's strengths as a city right now?

DG: Pittsburgh really has two key strengths. One is the quality of life. While we, of course, have challenges that we are all aware of in tackling, we remain an incredibly affordable city to live in compared to other major American cities. We have and bikeable neighborhoods. We have strong business districts. We have an amazing park system, and arts and culture. We have three professional sports teams. It is a city that people want to live in, and you combine that with the talent – what's being graduated from our universities on an annual basis – and that's the magic combination for success.

 

DM: What do you see as Pittsburgh's weaknesses as a major city?

DG: We still remain incredibly segregated. Pittsburgh is a city where our neighborhoods are in some ways our greatest strength and our greatest weakness, and we've had incredible racial segregation in this city. It is a huge weakness and a huge challenge we have to overcome. We also remain a city that is very much split economically. While we are continually ranked as most liveable and one of the best cities to move to, I still have one out of every four residents who are struggling to pay rent or struggling to put food on the table for their families, struggling to make a mortgage payment on their home. We don't want to be a city of the "haves" and the "have-nots". That's a core challenge to our identity and where we go. And then the last is structural. The Pennsylvania structure of government for cities is failed. Our tax policy from Harrisburg is failed; our representation from gerrymandering in Harrisburg is failed; our rights as a local government to govern our citizens is failed. We must structurally change that to succeed.

 

SB: You touched on this just a moment ago, but more specifically, as I'm sure you're aware, a few months ago Anthony Bourdain taped an episode of his show, Parts Unknown, here, and he talked a lot about how Pittsburgh is focusing too much on developing high-paying careers for young middle-class professionals in the industries of technology and entertainment, and at the same time Pittsburgh is squeezing out working-class, often times black residents. Some are calling it the "Googleization" of Pittsburgh. Do you agree with this assessment? If so, is it something that needs to be stopped, or is it just being misdirected?

DG: I don't agree with his assessment, but I agree that there is a serious core problem that needs to be addressed. I don't think he highlighted challenges that aren't real or stories that aren't real, but I think he missed some of the core reasons why, and I think he failed to highlight a lot of the efforts to address it. When you look at what we've done on the Learn and Earn Summer to give thousands of young people summer jobs, our free childhood bank accounts for any child, free summer lunch programs, free dinners in our senior and rec centers, free access to swimming pools, our partnership with public schools to teach all second and third graders how to swim, our Rec2Tech program where we're turning our recreation centers into tech training centers for kids, our My Brothers Keeper initiative, our finding homes for over 500 homeless veterans, there's a lot being done to address these issues, and in fact it takes a lot more of our time, a lot more of our attention, a lot more of our finances than the development. That may be happening through the private sector, but the notion that it's getting the attention and the focus and the others not I think is inaccurate. That being said, only time will tell if we succeed, and I think that is the question- can Pittsburgh through all of the programs that we are implementing do enough to overcome the challenges this country faces as we've squeezed out the middle class and we've disinvested from urban communities and we've disinvested from public transit and we've disinvested from infrastructure? Can we address it? And in Pittsburgh, we're looking to overcome decades of failed urban policy, decades of a lack of investment. When you look at Councilman Reverend Burgess's district, which Obama is in – and he represents neighborhoods like Homewood, East Liberty, Larimer, Lincoln-Lemington, East Hills, Garfield – he lost almost 25% of his population between the year 200 and 2010. That predates any technology boom. That predates Google and Uber. That was the African American community moving from the city, whether it be the suburbs or other cities, because of a complete failure of city government to invest in those neighborhoods and invest in the people in those neighborhoods. So our real displacement happened from a lack of investment, a lack of concern, and institutionalized racism for years more than it is from the activity today.

 

DM: Going off of attracting more investment to the city, there's definitely been some attention to Amazon possibly choosing Pittsburgh as the locale for its new headquarters. Do you think that this could actually become a reality?

DG: I do. I'll never say that it's likely, but I think we have as good of a shot as any city. I think there's probably seven or eight cities that could say the same thing, but I think we're right there with any other city in the running. I don't have any insight. They don't communicate much with us, so I have no idea where that will go, but I do think that it is a real possibility, and really for the reasons that I listed before. When you look at the talent, when you look at the quality of life, when you look at the smart urban planning and progressive policies on equality, on transportation, on green space, those are the core values that Amazon and companies like Amazon are looking for. 

 

SB: Recently – in the past few years, but really in the past few months – the "Me Too" movement has revealed a very concerning trend, and countless male elected officials have been forced to resign after women have come forward revealing their pasts of sexual harassment and assault. As a male public official yourself, what's your take on this?

DG: Shame on all of us for not speaking out sooner and not being more aware in taking this strong movement to take action. It is remarkable to hear the stories of so many strong women who have been leaders, whether it's in Pittsburgh or around the country, in Hollywood or on Wall Street, and what's been happening. We've known secretly that it's been happening and haven't had the guts to stand up and talk about it, and by "we" I mean men in the community, not women when I talk about having guts. And shame on us. Kudos to the women who have stood up and led this effort, and I can only hope that it's something we take to heart and implement real change out of. At the city level, we're looking at changing our sexual harassment training, our sexual harassment policy, and making sure that there's ongoing training, not just some basic training on your first day at orientation. It shouldn't have taken this movement to do that, but I'm glad that we're responding.

 

DM: Obama is the only inner-city school in Pennsylvania that participates in the YMCA's Youth and Government program, and each Spring we take over the State Capitol building for the weekend and hold a model legislature. As someone with considerable political experience, do you have any advice for us politically minded youth?

DG: First of all, that's an interesting fact. That's great. I knew Obama did the program; I did not know that they were the only school that did. I have a couple pieces of advice. Number one, if you're looking for a career let me give you this advice, and that is: just get in the door and be a part of the effort. My first experience with anything to do with politics was in 1999 working for the Al Gore for President campaign, and my job was basically to run around and deliver and pick up mail. But it was a great experience and it led to more. There's no task too small, and you're always an important piece of the larger puzzle. I would also say that you've got to be able to focus on crawling and running the marathon at the same time. You look at my day today, and I am dealing hands-on with complaints about snow removal while also having conversations about multi-million dollar projects and workforce development initiatives. You've got to be able to do both. You can't focus on one thing at a time. And then lastly I would say to never lose the identity of who you are and why you got into it. As I've said a couple of times in the interview, government can work, and it can work for the people in a good way as long as you stay true to who you are and why you wanted to do this. Whatever those reasons are, whatever the issues are that you're passionate about, don't let that get taken away by frustration, by bureaucracy, by a lack of partisanship or civic dialogue. Stay true.

 

SB: You mentioned your process. You got interested in politics in high school and then on into college you had an internship. What do you think that the single most important thing that you did in high school was that you feel has really stuck with you up until today?

DG: I actually would say that the most important thing I did, looking back on it, was to be taught how to be critically problem solve and think. You don't always get trained for the situation you're in. There's not a college class or a high school class you can take that teaches you everything you are going to do. If you can critically problem solve and think through a problem strategically, you can figure most things out. That's probably the most important thing I've taken. In terms of like an actual experience or action, I actually think it was my work sophomore of junior year of high school – I can't keep them straight anymore – working in a bagel shop behind the counter. That customer service experience – getting up early in the morning, putting in eight hard hours of service work – really strengthened who I was and strengthened my character. 

 

SB: Well, that's all we have. Thank you so much for taking the time.

DM: Thank you.

DG: Thanks, guys. If I can ever do anything, just let me know.

SB: Absolutely. Thank you.

DG: Alright. Talk to you soon.

 

We'd like to express our gratitude to Mr. Gilman for taking the time out of his busy schedule to give us a call. We look forward to seeing the changes he brings to our city during his tenure as the Mayor's Chief of Staff.

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--
--
Ta.


Mark Rauterkus       Mark.Rauterkus@gmail.com
Swimming and Water Polo Coach, Schenley High School, Pittsburgh, PA
http://CLOH.wikia.com
412 298 3432 = cell

Friday, February 02, 2018

Fwd: Russia . . . the danger ahead!


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John H


Below is a link to a Real New Network interview with noted Russian expert Stephen F. Cohen.  This brief 12 minute interview should get your full attention as he describes the current fixation on the so-called Russian influence in the U.S., which some are referring to as a new cold war, as creating a situation much more dangerous than the first cold war – making war with Russia much more likely than ever before.  This is dangerous stuff folks and we all should be taking it seriously.  Sadly it is being pushed hardest by the Democratic Party establishment in an effort to excuse their own perfidy and political ineptness.  If you want more information on this please obtain and read Dan Kovalik's excellent recent book, The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Russia.  These are dangerous times and all the more so because there no longer seem to be any cool and rational heads in Washington or in the mainstream media.

 

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21038%27%20style=%27color:#000;

 

John

 

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Fwd: Amazon HQ2


From: John H


If anyone in Pittsburgh (or wherever else you might be if your city is making a pitch) wonders just why it is not such a great idea to win this negative lottery, take a look at this information provided by Wolf Richter at Wolf Street.  Pittsburgh survived the housing bubble crisis quite nicely thank you because we did not have the kind of bubble that much of the rest of the nation (particularly California and Florida) experienced.  Housing bubbles are wonderful for those relative few who need to sell, but they are hell for everyone else – particularly low income wage earners and renters.

  John

Why is it easier to imagine the total destruction of mankind, from nuclear war to a climate catastrophe,
than to work on changing the system of relations spawned by neoliberal capitalism?

Pepe Escobar



Monday, January 29, 2018

Fwd: Two for the price of one


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John H

Two very good articles for your evening reading.

 

John

 

The Left has an Intersectionality Problem, in PDF

Whole Foods, Amazon and Pittsburgh.



Saturday, January 27, 2018

Fwd: These are the books you should read to master the liberty message


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Tom Woods


January 26, 2018
View this email in your browser
It's been quite a while since I've shared my recommended (if non-exhaustive) reading list intended for people who want to understand how the world works.

I should probably add a few titles from the past year that would likewise be helpful, but I'm taking the kids out of town for the weekend and I'm in a bit of haste, so this will have to do. (I would certainly add Paul Johnson's Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Eighties. Incidentally, his updated edition that extends through the nineties involves a defense of George H.W. Bush's foreign policy and is unsatisfying.)

Before you ask me, Woods, why haven't you included Amazon links to these books, the answer is that strictly speaking sending Amazon links in an email is a violation of the terms of their Associates program. No way am I taking chances with that. So at the very end I'll give you a link to a page on my website that does have the links, for your convenience.

Here's my short list of books I would recommend to someone who is interested in the ideas I write and speak about and wants to learn more. If you read and absorb these books you will never look at the world the same way again.

If you're like me, you are annoyed by books that teach you three new things. My time is limited. I like books that are full of things I didn't know, or ideas I'd never thought of.

The books I recommend below belong in that category. They teach you something new and unexpected on every page. And they are a perfect antidote to the propaganda fed to us in the ideological prison camps where most of us spent our formative years. I list them in no particular order.

Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt. Important for beginners. Also useful for beginners is Peter Schiff's book How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes.

The Revolution: A Manifesto, by Ron Paul. This is another good one for beginners. It has a good track record as a proselytizing device.

Democracy: The God that Failed, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Just read it. Trust me on this.

The Quest for Community, by Robert Nisbet. Here is a graduate course in political philosophy. Except in this one, the state is not the glorious summit of civilization and the indispensable source of human flourishing. As the new edition explains, "Nisbet argued that the rise of the powerful modern state had eroded the sources of community—the family, the neighborhood, the church, the guild. Alienation and loneliness inevitably resulted. But as the traditional ties that bind fell away, the human impulse toward community led people to turn even more to the government itself, allowing statism — even totalitarianism — to flourish."

The Left, the Right, and the State, by Lew Rockwell. Lew (who of course runs the indispensable LewRockwell.com) did the world an incalculable service with the founding of the Mises Institute, but he is grossly underrated as a thinker in his own right. He has extended Rothbardian thought in numerous ways, and has influenced my own thinking more than almost anyone in the world.

The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays. Features essays by Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Gottfried Haberler, and Murray N. Rothbard. An effective introduction to the Austrian theory of the business cycle, which anyone who wants to understand the real causes behind boom and bust must know.

What Has Government Done to Our Money? by Murray N. Rothbard. An excellent little overview of the origin of money and its fate at the hands of government.

Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays, by Murray N. Rothbard. The quality of the essays in this book is astounding. You will not think the same way ever again after reading "Anatomy of the State" and "War, Peace, and the State," to name just two.

After you read these, I recommend the following:

A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Hoppe's books put everything together for me.

The Economics and Ethics of Private Property, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. This book blew me away when I first read it. Its title makes it sound dull. It is one of the most intellectually exciting books I have ever read.

Man, Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles, by Murray N. Rothbard. This one, and the two that follow, are for the especially ambitious. This is a systematic exposition of Austrian economics. The sheer elegance of the Austrian system is on impressive display here.

Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, by Ludwig von Mises. (Some disagree with me, but I favor beginning with Rothbard before moving on to Human Action.)

Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles, by Jesús Huerta de Soto. Here is the Austrian theory on money, banking, and business cycles, presented in systematic fashion, and compared with the Chicago and Keynesian alternatives. I have a friend who was so impressed by this book that he learned Spanish so he could pursue his Ph.D. under the author in Spain.

I could name other books, naturally, but to my mind these are the absolutely indispensable ones.

One of the goals of my own books, for that matter, has been to get people up to speed on various topics as quickly and with as little exertion on their part as possible. Rollback, from 2011, covers a very wide range of topics and replies to the most common objections to the free society. I was delighted to hear a student tell me just the other day, "I realized as I was reading this book that it would help me win debates." That was part of the idea, for sure. I tried to do the same thing in some of my other titles, like The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History33 Questions About American HistoryMeltdown [on the financial crisis], and Nullification.

For a version of this list with links, plus how you can get some of these books free online, click here:

http://www.tomwoods.com/goodbooks

Potpourri:

(1) Students: there's still time to apply for the academic event of the year: the Mises Institute's week-long Mises University summer program. Info here.


(2) Via my entrepreneurship site: the replay of the webinar with Steve Clayton (guest on episode #1070), who has helped my listeners earn small fortunes via eCommerce, will be up only until tomorrow (Sunday) night at 6pm Eastern, so all you folks looking for a side hustle, you know what to do: http://www.tomwoods.com/ecomreplay

Tom Woods
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--
--
Ta.


Mark Rauterkus       Mark.Rauterkus@gmail.com
Swimming and Water Polo Coach, Schenley High School, Pittsburgh, PA
http://CLOH.wikia.com
412 298 3432 = cell

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Interview with Principal Colbert at Obama Academy

Article was published in the school newspaper, The Obama Eagle:
Posted: 24 Jan 2018 07:07 AM PST
Yalonda Colbert is the new principal at Obama Academy, and if this isn’t your first year here you may remember her as the Assistant Principal and Middle School Director. But do you know how she came into this position? There are a lot of things about our principal that you may not know, but I got to sit down with her and take a look into the life behind our principal.

How would you describe being the Principal so far based on this school year?
So far, first of all I’m super excited. But, there’s a lot of paperwork. And I think that, that sometimes interferes with my ability to be as visible as I would like to be sometimes and as supportive as I would like to be. Especially in the classrooms to help students and thinks like that. It’s been really good, parents have been very welcoming, students are I think really giving me an opportunity and a chance to provide support and insight on things that we want to change, things that we want to keep, things that we want to improve upon. But it’s been a lot of work, which I expected. But like I said the paperwork piece is really- I don’t want to say overwhelming because I knew that there would be a lot just being here the past to years. But the paperwork is intense. Kind of like, you guys’ class schedules and managing all of your papers and projects you guys do. I’m having to do that for the entire school. But it’s definitely been fun, I’m enjoying it. Just kind of getting to know all of our systems that we have in place and how to make things better. So I’m just looking forward to the second semester.

What was your position before becoming Principal?
Before I was Principal for the past two school years I was the Director, so that’s kind of like being Assistant Principal. The only difference is that I was responsible for a lot more of the paperwork than someone who is an Assistant Principal in the District. So there was a lot of work that I did side by side with Dr.Walters these past two years just because of the nature of my role. So on top of being in charge of discipline for middle school, I also had to support discipline for high school. But then also having to be like Dr. Walters’ right hand person, whether he was physically in the building or not. I had to make sure that school was still happening, students were being taken care of, parents were listened to and taken care of, activities were still going on, the budget, all of those types of things. It was really fun but last year I just felt like I was able to get out into the hall space a lot more.

What were some jobs you had before that helped you prepare for being a Principal?
I began in the district in 2006, I started at Arsenal Middle School. I was a middle school math teacher. After that, I applied to be one of the founding teachers to open up University Prep at Milliones here in the district. So I left Arsenal Middle School and started over at U-Prep in the 2008 school year and I stayed there until 2013 I think. So I was a middle school and a high school math teacher for about seven, seven and a half years then I became a high school and middle school math coach for U-Prep. So I did that for one year and then I had the opportunity to apply to become a Secondary Supervisor over curriculum for mathematics for grades 6-12 math at the district where I was able to be a supervisor and go over and write the curriculum and kind of get some things going on to support students in their learning and teachers in their teaching. And with that I was able to learn all about budgets, all about writing, board tabs to like say “Hey we need this program to come in or we need this person to come in.” So I learned a lot of the back end paperwork from growing from a teacher to a coach to being an assistant supervisor over in the central office, so the math department. And then, like I said just with Dr. Walters’ leadership and challenging me to learn. I learned a lot in two years, he always tells me that. We learned a lot in two years and you don’t often see that from a lot of people. Those are basically the things that really helped me but I think the biggest thing that helped me is just that I’ve always been pushed by others to be a leader. I enjoy leading people and helping, you know to be their best and that really began for me when I used to help my friends who were struggling in math and were struggling in French because I really love French and I really love math, coming through 6th grade to 12th grade. I always loved math probably since I was really little but I didn’t even really get the chance to take French until middle school. So I’ve just always tutored people, helped my friends’ kids, my cousins, and always just being pushed to be a role model so I think that those are my early year experiences all the way through like becoming a teacher and things like that.

Where did you go to college and what did you major and minor in?
So I first started off at Penn State. I had a full ride scholarship, so all I had to pay for was my books. So I was very blessed and thankful for that experience. I declared myself as an Accounting major at first, because I loved math. But I found it to be quite boring so I kind of left that alone and enrolled myself, well declared myself to be an Education major. I transferred up to the main campus and I didn’t have a good transition from the branch campus to the main campus. So what I ended up doing was transferring back to Pittsburgh and I came to the University of Pittsburgh, their main campus and I enrolled in a program that was under the psychology branch. My Bachelor’s is in Developmental Adolescent and Adult Psychology so that helped me to really begin to learn why people behave the way they behave, why they think the way they think and things like that. So I would also say that my Bachelor’s learning and stuff also helped me to be able to really help children and be in the position that I’m in right now. I remained at the University of Pittsburgh where I got accepted to their secondary mathematics education program there so I became certified as a teacher in secondary mathematics. So middle school and high school mathematics. I am still certified to teach, like if I decided I don’t want to be a principal anymore I can go back to teaching math. And then I went to IUP to get my principal certification. And so you learn a lot about community engagement and what it means to be a principal and how to support all three entities in the school. So not just the students but the parents and the community, they make up the school. It’s not just your school and you run it, you have to really make sure that you pay attention to all of those variables.

What was your first choice in careers?
My first choice was accounting, when I was going to school Penn State had a partnership where they helped students get jobs and if you had a certain GPA and you passed your exams, you were guaranteed to be starting out at like $80,000. So like what kid–you know you’re 19-20 years old. I was a very good kid, I was always on the Dean’s’ list. I had to be on the Dean’s list to keep my scholarship. And so just the incentive of, “Oh my gosh, I can really work for a really prestigious accounting firm for $80,000. I’m young, single, I can do this by the time I’m 22 or 23.” That was like really awesome for me but I was missing the whole relationship piece which is what drives me to do what I do like interacting with human beings. Sitting and crunching numbers all day, that just wasn’t going to work for me I couldn’t do it. And so knowing that I still love numbers and I love math I knew that a lot of African-American students in particular just reflecting back on friends they would say, “I hate math, I don’t know how you like it, what is it about it? What is your obsession with it?” It just kind of makes me feel powerful and strong and confident. So I just thought that I could be a role model in that space if I sought to become a mathematics teacher. Not only being an African-American but being a female. You really have a female math teacher so that was how I chose what to do. So first accounting but I quickly switched over to education.

What were some other passions you had that could have affected your career choice?
Middle school was really when I became– people would always say like “Yalonda you are so ambitious” like kind of just know what you’re going to do. And so, I actually applied to go through the Magnet process here in Pittsburgh Public Schools. I’ve been in PPS all my life. I went to Oliver High School which is now closed, but I went there because I actually wanted to be a lawyer at one point. And then somewhere my teachers kind of turned me off, which I would never advise a student to let anybody get them into that kind of space. But I had a rocky road with a couple teachers in that program which caused me to not even be focused on it or love it and enjoy it, and pursue it as much as I probably would have had I not had those encounters. But I would say early on that was one of the spaces that I really wanted to go into and be this voice of justice, voice of reason because of all the stuff I was witnessing in that community. You know with the drug epidemic at that time when I was growing up and I had my peers thinking that early encounters with sexual promiscuity meant that “Oh I’m going to be ok” versus staying in school and being educated and things like that. So I just knew something had to change. I saw a lot of my friends, not necessarily my friends but just people I went to school with being arrested, getting into gangs, just the typical statistical type of thing. What people would say “You’re another statistic” about or something, so that’s why I was interested in pursuing law and just becoming an attorney and I hoped I could be a judge at some point. I can give someone someone a second chance if I really have evidence and I can really see that they deserve a second chance.

Do you ever wish you had chosen a different career?
Sometimes I really do wish I would have at least stuck with pursuing law to at least achieve earning my Juris doctorate. Sometimes I even consider it, will there ever be a point in time in my principalship where I could go to night classes and take those classes so I could at least be certified and go through those courses because I feel like those courses may give me the opportunity to still support some other places that students would need my help and support here in school. So that would be one thing I kind of still have on my bucket list. I haven’t quite put it off but, that’s one thing I still hope to be able to do.

What are some hobbies you have outside of being a principal?
I don’t know if it’s a hobby but I enjoy being a mom, I enjoy being a wife, I enjoy like– I don’t think you guys would even know because I don’t think you guys kind of give me the opportunity to like interact in that way but I love to dance, I love to sing, I really like to eat, I love movies, I just really love to be silly and hang out with my friends. I guess that’s kind of boring but that’s who I am.

What would you say to a student that wants to become a principal some day?
I would say that you have to accept that this position is not necessarily a position of power. So don’t let the title get your head big. You have to approach the position and the work that you have to do through a servant’s heart. The work that you will be charged with as a principal is very delicate and you have to be ok with being lonely. Because it is a very lonely job. And at the end of the day you’re held accountable and responsible for everything and even like your assistant and other people aren’t always going to be there for you or physically in the space when everything is happening. So you have to be ok with working in solitude because it is a very lonely space.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Fwd: Third Community Charrette


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: City of Pittsburgh <no-repl@pittsburghpa.gov>
Date: Wed, Jan 24, 2018 at 10:33 AM
Subject: Third Community Charrette
To: <mark.rauterkus@gmail.com>


Published:
01.24.2018
Contact:
Daniel Wood
D6 Staff
District 6
412-255-2134
daniel.wood@pittsburghpa.gov

Third Community Charrette

Lower Hill Redevelopment


 

First Phase of Residential Development

Third Community Design Charrette

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

6:00-8:00 PM

 

Location: Jeron X Grayson Community Center

1852 Enoch Street, Hill District

 

AGENDA:

1. Presentation of Preliminary Concepts that Incorporate Community Input Received during the 2nd Charrette

2. Other Updates


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Ta.
 
 
Mark Rauterkus       Mark@Rauterkus.com
PPS Summer Dreamers' Swim & Water Polo Camp Executive Coach
Varsity Boys Swim Coach, Pittsburgh Obama Academy
Recent Head Water Polo Coach, Carnegie Mellon University Women's Club Team
Pittsburgh Combined Water Polo Team

http://CLOH.org

412 298 3432 = cell