| Date:
August 6, 2009
to August 31, 2010
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| Listing Type:
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Announcement |
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| Description: |
Mr. Strickland is the founder, President, and CEO of the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center, which are both located in Pittsburgh.His touching speech, which earned spontaneous standing ovations, gave insight into his projects and how he helped revitalize his neighborhood by creating new jobs and giving people a sense of ownership. The Bidwell Training Center is open to everyone and offers various educational programs.Mr. Strickland is a native Pittsburgher who grew up in an impoverished and run down area of town. Since the age of 19 he has worked on the same premise—helping people get along and providing a way for them to succeed. He earned a bachelor’s degree in American History and Foreign Relations from the University of Pittsburgh. In 1968 he opened a row house to help urban youth learn the basics of making pottery in what became the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild. The nationally recognized program conducts arts education programs including an acclaimed jazz-performance curriculum to inspire young people in the inner city to become productive and business-savvy citizens. The nonprofit Bidwell Training Center prepares its students for jobs in fields such as business travel, food preparation, and information sciences. It also helps young people and adults obtain their high school diplomas so they can qualify for employment and apply for college.
In the grit of the city Bill completed the development of a production greenhouse for orchids and vegetables, a medical technology complex, and a facility that houses a music hall, library, art studios and labs, dining and meeting rooms, audio and video recording studios.
The model he created in Pittsburgh is being studied and replicated in 200 cities around the world opening new opportunities for those whom otherwise might have none. Over the years he has received numerous prestigious awards for his contributions to the arts and the community including the MacArthur “Genius” Award for leadership and ingenuity in the arts. He accepted on behalf of the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild the “Coming Up Taller” Award presented in a White House ceremony by former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and is a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
He has lectured at Harvard and Stanford and holds honorary doctorates from ten colleges and universities including Pitt, Rutgers, Columbia, and Carnegie Mellon University. A year and a half ago he authored the inspiring autobiography-- “Make the Impossible Possible: One Man’s Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary”.
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| Category:
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University of Pittsburgh -- School of Medicine -- Orthopedic Surgery
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| Contact Information: |
Suzanne McWilliams
Executive Secretary
412-605-3203
mcwilliamssg@upmc.edu
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