This past weekend, December 4th to December 6th, the sustainability, business and urban studies/political science cohorts represented the University of Pittsburgh and Frederick Honors College at the 2025 Appalachian Regional Commission Initiative Research Forum in Washington D.C. We started our trip on Thursday, December 4th, in which we focused on finalizing our presentation. Although we…
Category: Capstone
From Presentation to Partnership: ACRI’s Connellsville Presentation
Although I was unable to return to the Canteen in Connellsville for our November 14th presentation, the sustainability team –Iris, Owen and Eliziabeth – thoroughly debriefed me on the experience. Their recap helped me clearly understand the flow of the session and gave our entire team a stronger sense of what to expect as we…
Discovering Fayette County: Community and Collaboration
Last weekend, the Pitt ACRI Sustainability Team embarked on a trip to Fayette County. While my group mates had visited before, this was my first time in the region. We began our trip at the historic Summit Inn Resort, and later settled into our accommodations at the Touchstone Center for Crafts. That evening, we were…
Final Word
Pitt has now completed its fourth year of the Appalachian Regional Commission’s Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative, or what we have been calling the ARC-ACRI. Our sustainability group, consisting of me, Rebecca Jalboot, Katherine Fazzini, and Kelly Nguyen, was one of four that made up this year’s cohort. At Pitt, students get involved with the ARC-ACRI…
Final Reflections: ACRI and Fayette County
Prior to joining the ACRI project, I knew very little about the Appalachian region and far less about Fayette County. I grew up in a large, populated suburb outside of Philly, where a majority of Pitt students are from. It is not surprising that Pitt’s in-state students are from mainly the Pittsburgh or Philly area,…
Reflection of the Semester – ARC ACRI
Now that the end of the semester has arrived, it only feels right to reflect on the work we have done and the project as a whole. I will begin by putting it simply; I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work on this project and would not trade this experience for any other….
Final Presentation in Uniontown and Connellsville
Since I’ve last posted here, our project has had some major developments. For one, we made the complete shift to having the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Uniontown as our stakeholder. As I mentioned before, our sustainability group had another site visit in Uniontown in late October to gather information for our new project…
Last visit to Fayette County
On December 6th, my group and cohort went to our last site visit to Fayette County to present our findings and deliverables to the Fayette County Cultural Trust Fund and Uniontown City Council. This journey would not be possible without the support of our professors, stakeholders, and other community members who took time out of…
A Final Visit to Fayette County
Since my last post, my sustainability capstone group and I returned to Fayette County twice. The first visit was a follow-up site visit to collect additional information on Uniontown since we narrowed down our focus and the second visit was our final presentations. On October 25th our group returned to Uniontown where we met with…
A Trip to Fayette County
From October 3 through October 5, 2024, the student and faculty cohorts of the Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative (ACRI) went to Fayette County. This visit to Fayette County was the first site visit of the semester and consisted of trips to local towns and businesses. My group, the sustainability capstone, visited Connellsville and Uniontown during…