Media should cover positive events at University Prep
Published on March 4, 2016 by Sean Farr | bit.ly/1UF1TPr | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
As I watched the news and saw the coverage of the fight at Pittsburgh Milliones 6-12, also known as University Prep (“Milliones School Suffering Safety ‘Crisis,’ Group Says,” March 1), I was saddened and angered by the media’s lack of coverage of all the good that goes on in the Hill District and at University Prep.
I’m the center director at Higher Achievement’s Hill District location. We run our after-school academy out of University Prep. Higher Achievement is a college preparatory program for fifth-through eighth-graders. You can witness middle-school youth from University Prep and various other Hill District schools working on academics, reciting original works of poetry at our annual poetry contest, debating the qualifications they would want from the next superintendent in our Ambassador competition or even pitching original business ideas in a mock “Shark Tank.”
The program is year-round, so in the summer they get the opportunity to attend our college experience. They stay on campus at a local college for two nights and three days, getting a chance to experience what it’s like to take classes and live like a college student.
I invite the media to our Love Out Loud Poetry performance on March 16 at the Elsie H. Hillman Auditorium in the Kaufmann Center of the Hill House. We also invite media to be present during our Ambassador competition in April at University Prep. For more information about these events, contact me via email at sfarr@higherachievement.org.
I hope this letter charges the local media with doing a better job of finding the positives that go on in the community.