District 9 City Councilman Rev. Ricky Burgess sprinted into another year of his term without missing a beat. Before the first month was through he introduced legislation to activate Pittsburgh’s Living Wage Ordinance and laid the groundwork for several other initiatives.

AT WORK—Reverend Ricky Burgess reviews legislation for an upcoming city council meeting.

“Workers who mop the floors of our buildings, who guard our buildings, who empty the trash or pick up the garbage, they are saying ‘enough’ to poverty wages, the lack of respect, the bad working conditions,” Burgess said. “No matter what people do—whether they take care of the elderly, or they are teachers, or they make the beds in our hotels—people who do work should be rewarded, and rewarded with a living wage.”

In three years, the number of African-American students who were proficient in reading at Louisa May Alcott Elementary School in Texas rose by 16 percentage points to reach 90 percent. During that same three-year period, the percentage of Black students who were proficient in math also reached as high as 90 percent.

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT—Principal Marshall Scott explains how his students are improving.

In an effort to see these kinds of results in Pittsburgh schools, University of Pittsburgh professor Jerome Taylor invited the school’s principal, Marshall Scott III, to share what he has done to reverse the racial achievement gap.

“I don’t have a secret curriculum to fix inner-city schools. I don’t know if one exists,” Scott said. “Your approach has to be one student at a time.”

Starting in February, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Inclusion in Health Care will be hosting a series of career fairs for sixth-graders in the Pittsburgh Public School District. The fairs will expose students to a variety of careers in the health care field, beyond the usual professions.

Winifred Torbert and Dawnita Wilson

“It gives the students the opportunity to explore the many different areas they can go into health care,” said Winifred Torbert, program director, education partnerships. “You don’t have to be a doctor or a nurse and students aren’t aware of that. So it’s an exploration activity.”

What better way to usher in the beginning of Black History Month than with a celebration? The University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Africana Studies celebrated its 40th anniversary on campus in the William Pitt Union Jan. 30.

BRENDA BERRIAN

The Africana Studies department has seen many changes over the past 40 years, beginning with its name, which was the Department of Black Studies when it was established in 1969. Positive changes the department has seen are the expansion of the department’s curriculum to include the study of Caribbean and African cultures and histories as well as African-American culture and history, and the enrollment of non-African-American students has increased to the point where some classes will have as much as 70 percent non-Black students in attendance, said department chair, Brenda Berrian.