Pitt-Bradford receives gold, bronze awards from CASE

BRADFORD, PA – The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford has received two awards – one gold, one bronze – from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s District II Accolades Awards Program, which recognizes outstanding programs in higher education.

CASE, which is an international association of educational institutions, announced its 2015 award winners on Tuesday. Pitt-Bradford received a Gold Award in the Promotional Items: Calendar category for the university’s 50^th anniversary calendar, which was created to commemorate Pitt-Bradford’s 50^th year in 2013. Additionally, the university received a Bronze Award in the Creativity on a Shoestring category for its work in using its longstanding Law Enforcement Awareness and Familiarization (LEAF) Day to recruit prospective students from the region who are interested in criminal justice.

“We’re delighted to be recognized by our colleagues at CASE,” said Pat Frantz Cercone, executive director of communications and marketing. “Several members of our faculty and staff, as well as alumni and current students, had a hand in helping to create and execute both of these projects.”

Some of the judges’ comments regarding the calendar included “really sharp photos, nice use of time line and really cool font choice.”

The 12-month calendar, which was distributed last year to employees, alumni, donors and friends, was designed by Mark Zampogna of Laser Layouts in Bradford who is a 1988 Pitt-Bradford alumnus. The calendar showcased many old photos taken by the late master photographer Forres Stewart.

This is the second time the university has been recognized for the calendar. In March, Pitt-Bradford received a Gold Award from the national Collegiate Advertising Awards Program in the Calendar category.

In awarding the Bronze for expanding LEAF Day, the judges said, “great way to take an existing event and make it more effective and serve other audiences. Cost effective.”

The LEAF Day project started when the Crime Scene Investigation House opened in 2008. At that time, university officials decided to invite those high school students in the region interested in criminal justice to attend LEAF Day, tour the new CSI House, meet current criminal justice students and professors, and have lunch in the dining room. Since then, nearly 400 students have attended LEAF Day and many of them have enrolled in and graduated from Pitt-Bradford with their degree in criminal justice.

District II is the largest CASE district, which includes more than 675 institutions from Pennsylvania; New York; New Jersey; Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Delaware; West Virginia; Ontario, Canada; U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.