Pitt-Bradford receives award from CASE

Pitt-Bradford has received an honorable mention for its freshmen orientation handbook from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education in its District II Accolades Awards Program.

Pitt-Bradford received the award in the Student Handbooks category for its Beginnings Orientation handbook, which is distributed to incoming students during orientation in July. CASE, which is an international association of educational institutions that annually recognizes outstanding programs in higher education, announced its 2016 award winners Friday.

The 88-page handbook featured information to help incoming students and their families adjust to life at Pitt-Bradford, including a campus map; academic majors and resources; contact information for all campus offices and departments; and information on student clubs, organizations and athletics. Additionally, the handbook included material on off-campus restaurants, stores, services and area attractions.

“Our goal in creating this handbook was to help make orientation and the transition to college easier for our students and their families,” said Pat Frantz Cercone, executive director of communications and marketing.

Creating the handbook was a campus community-wide effort, Cercone said. Not only did many offices on campus contribute information, but it also was designed by Mark Zampogna of Laser Layouts in Bradford, a 1988 Pitt-Bradford alumnus, and many of the photos in it were taken by Alan Hancock, a 2007 graduate. Additionally, current students and recent alumni contributed advice to the incoming freshmen, which is sprinkled throughout its pages.

This is the second time the university has been recognized for the handbook. Last year, Pitt-Bradford received a gold award in the Handbook category from the national Collegiate Advertising Awards Program.

CASE has eight districts. District II is it largest, 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.

The handbook is available online at www.upb.pitt.edu/beginnings.