Category Archives: education
Students in Action program continues to earn accolades
Students in Action members Jakob Sabatula (left), Jayda Smith, and Andrew Haven, along with sponsor Kellie Polvinale, gather outside the Brownsville Free Public Library, where the team is creating a teen space.
According to Newton’s first law of motion, an object at rest will stay at rest and a body in motion will remain in motion, unless acted on by an external force; in Brownsville that force is Students in Action.
The high school program started seven years ago continues to influence the direction of growth in the downtown area. In the 2011-12 school year, a group of six students approached Brownsville Borough Council with a proposal to put a stage next to the library. The idea evolved until it became a park with a concert gazebo adjacent to the Market Street parking lot along Dunlap Creek. A private developer has constructed senior apartments across the street.
“From people not being able to get things moving, six kids were able to make it happen,” said Kellie Polvinale, one of the current teacher sponsors of SIA.
Polivinale and Rebecca Harvey, both kindergarten teachers, were asked to take over the program at the start of last school year after the first sponsor, Kelli Dellarose took a new position. Polvinale said they were tapped as the sponsors because Harvey’s son was a senior in the program last year and Polvinale’s younger sister had been one of the founding members of the group. Polvinale said the new superintendent, Dr. Keith Hartbauer, has been very supportive of SIA.
“He was very proud of what this team had accomplished and wanted to keep it going,” Polvinale said.
The SIA team is made up of two students from the sophomore, junior and senior classes, with two new sophomores selected through applications and interviews each fall, giving the team continuity and experience from year to year. This year’s SIA team included seniors Jaden Harvey and Andrew Havens, juniors Jayda Jones and Salanieta Waqanivalu and sophomores Sainiana Waqanivalu and Jakob Sabatula.
“At first I wondered why we kept it so small. I looked at other schools that had 30, 40, 50 students involved,” Polvinale said.
Polvinale said she has come to realize that the small team is actually able to accomplish more than a large group.
“Since there are only six of us, if people don’t do their job, you can tell,” Jones said.
SIA is a national student leadership program started by the Jefferson Awards Foundation, designed for students to pursue public service including their entire school and the wider community for maximum impact.
Jones said she was very active at Brownsville Area High School her freshman year, serving as class president and joining other activities.
“But it was all school oriented. I noticed our community wasn’t doing so well,” Jones said.
When the opportunity came up to apply for SIA, she jumped at it, seeing it as a chance to impact the town.
Sabatula said he was influenced by the work of the teams that had gone before him.
“My freshman year, seeing the past SIA members, it was very inspiring. When the stage project was first announced and the sign was put up with the amount they needed to reach, it really motivated me. The stage being completed has spurred other projects in town,” Sabatula said.
Jones said the current team at first thought about ways to bring more businesses to town, even to the point of considering what type of business they would like to start, but realized that running their own business would be impractical.
Smith said the team realized it would be easier to get people from outside of Brownsville to invest in the town if the people who live in the community are already utilizing the resources that are there.
The current SIA team is working to develop a teen space at Brownsville Free Library. The project started with the idea of developing a basement room of the library into a place where teens could collaborate on projects, learn new skills and just have a place to call their own. The library board has asked the students to consider an addition to the library, which would provide even more opportunities. The team has visited other community libraries over the past year to see how teen spaces have been developed and have settled on a model which provides the tools students need, such as sewing machines or guitars, but generally doesn’t have formal programs.
“We’re in the very beginning stages,” Polvinale said. “They want a place where they can get together and share resources and help one another.”
Although the teen space is just a concept at the moment, the project was strong enough to garner first place in the national Jefferson Awards competition this year. Sitting through the awards ceremony was difficult, the students said.
“It was nerve-wracking. Had we done enough to win? These other schools had done amazing things,” Jones said.
The students said that when the bronze and silver winners were announced and only gold was left, they assumed they hadn’t won, but were ready to get back to work on their project.
“When I realized we had won, I didn’t hear anything else that was said,” Haven said.
Polvinale said the Jefferson Awards committee realizes that big projects take time and start with big ideas.
“The original team won on just an idea,” Polvinale said. “What they see with these students is they want to make impacts that will last years and years. When Jakob goes off to college, that stage will still be there.”
Sabatula said it took determination to complete the stage project.
“Just one step at a time, and it carries on by itself. We had the help and support, it was unbelievable,” Sabatula said. “Once we came across a problem, we worked on it as a team and found a solution and kept moving forward.”
Story by Christine Haines for Pennsylvania Bridges
Ghost of club animates Mon Valley Academy for the Arts
The Twin Coaches Supper Club, formerly on Route 51 in Rostraver Township, was a swinging big band joint with a history spanning from the early 1930s through its fiery demise in October of 1977.
The club was purchased in 1944 by Rose and Tony Calderone, who brought major acts to their newly enlarged hotspot – a must-stop venue for touring performers. Legends such as Tony Bennett, Charleroi native Shirley Jones, Canonsburg’s own Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sammy Davis, Jr., graced the club’s stage through the years. Backed by the Frankie Barr Orchestra, whose top-notch professional musicians made easy work of even the most intricate of scores, the sound and scene were the best around.
Sometime in 1997, Charleroi resident and professional drummer, Mark Smith, purchased a 1938 vintage Slingerland Radio King drum kit. Further research revealed it was owned and played by original Frankie Barr Orchestra drummer Glenn Brady. And sometime in 2015, when Smith came across two suitcases full of 68 handwritten music charts from the Coaches, he decided it was time to breathe new interest into the Valley’s music scene.
Smith met with Susan Sparks, an artist with experience in non-profit arts management, and California area representative Pete Daley, to discuss the possibility of forming a charter music school or performance center with the idea “to take art to different venues.” But without sufficient funds or additional personnel, a clear pathway for their idea was not evident. However, Smith, with big band charts in hand and keen interest from original members of the Frankie Barr Orchestra, created an event to turn the ghost of Twin Coaches Supper Club into a living, breathing phenomenon.
On November 16, 2016 “A Night at The Coaches” gala music event took place. “We had a reunion concert at Belle Vernon High School, geared on the Coaches show, including nine members of the Coaches band,” Smith enthused, “It was our first big venue. We had 350 people for a two hour show dedicated to memory of the Coaches, a dance troupe, and five featured vocalists.”
Though the show was a great success, it also revealed a somber truth about arts in the Mon Valley. “We said ‘there is a void here,’” Smith explained, continuing “I made a living in the Valley playing. And in the Valley, the arts have fallen apart…for the last 15 – 20 years work has become difficult. In the Valley’s heyday you could make a living as a musician and raise a family. (In more recent years) it has dwindled, and all my colleagues have trouble, too.”
Still, “Memory of the Coaches sparked this renewed effort for live entertainment” in the Valley, Smith said. So, to fill the void, Smith and company “decided to create and incorporate Mon Valley Academy for the Arts (MVAA, a 501(c)(3), with Smith as president). Our mission is to create cultural events and incubate younger players with older players.”
To find those players, Joe Campus, 83, a trumpet player, conductor, and arranger from the Coaches “came up with the idea of the Twin Coaches Junior Stage Band,” Smith said. “We went to local middle and high schools and recruited 17 student musicians. Each had to be interviewed, auditioned, and rehearsed, just like the Coaches band.”
Students from areas traversing Woodland Hills to Waynesburg passed muster and became part of the junior stage band. With mentoring and teaching help from Duquesne University graduates, along with Joe Campus, those students are learning the ins and outs of both music performance and the music business.
Smith said of the mentoring process “We talk to them about the economy of the business – how to be on time, how to dress, how to spend your money, how to practice. We talk about the whole rounded business of being a professional musician.”
Funding for charts, advertising, and more is provided in part by the Frick Tri-County Credit Union, which sponsored the junior stage band and provided an additional perk for each student who completed their 2017 concert: A $200 cash scholarship. An additional perk for the student musicians was playing with Joe Campus’s former Twin Coaches Supper Club band. “We did this as a tribute to Joe. We want to keep the junior stage band intact so it’s a working band with its own jobs” Smith said.
Word of the junior orchestra is out and having positive effects for live music in the Valley. In addition to Chess Park concerts by jazz and big band acts, along with The Twin Coaches Junior Jazz Trio, Smith received a “great call from a local dance studio that wants to do a dance recital with the Twin Coaches Junior Orchestra. Over the years, dance recitals went to records and CDs, but we’re talking about live music with dancers on the stage.”
The Mon Valley Academy for the Arts has also grown into its own permanent office at the newly renovated Mon Valley Chamber of Commerce Building, along with enjoying an expanded volunteer board, advisory board, and staff. Additional funding to keep the programs running is an ongoing need, and the MVAA continues working on grants to help cover expenses.
To find out more about the Mon Valley Academy for the Arts and its upcoming events, including its November, 2018 gala, art shows, and more, friend them at facebook.com/pg/monvalleyacademyforthearts.org/ and for the Twin Coaches Orchestra Project, facebook.com/groups/1694687720747275/about/ Contact MVAA via e-mail at info@monvalleyacademyforthearts.org
Story by Keren Lee Dreyer for Pennsylvania Bridges
Pennsylvania Bridges June 2018 Edition – Lean on Me
The June 2018 edition of Pennsylvania Bridges – Lean on Me – is now available online and in print.
May 2018 Edition – “Coming Back to Life”
The May 2018 edition of Pennsylvania Bridges – “Coming Back to Life” – is now available online and in print.
Pennsylvania Bridges April 2018 – “Spring Into Action!”
The April 2018 edition of Pennsylvania Bridges is now available online and in print.
Pennsylvania Bridges March 2018 – “Make Some Noise!”
The March 2018 edition of Pennsylvania Bridges – “Make Some Noise!” – is now available online & in print.
February 2018 – “All You Need Is Love”
The February 2018 edition of Pennsylvania Bridges – “All You Need is Love” – is now available online and in print.
January 2018 – Opportunity Knocks?!?
The January 2018 edition of Pennsylvania Bridges – Opportunity Knocks?!? – is now available online and in print.
December 2017 – “The Gift of Giving”
The December edition of Pennsylvania Bridges – “The Gift of Giving” – is now available online and in print.
November 2017 – Let’s Talk Turkey!
The November 2017 edition of Pennsylvania Bridges – Let’s Talk Turkey! – is now available online and in print.
