Next On Q, a local school that is breaking down barriers and beating the odds by focusing on the arts to help young students achieve greater academic success.

We'll take you inside Dilworth Traditional Academy.

Also coming up next, close to a year after its launch.

We're going to check on and Grow Up Great $100 million i into young children.

And instead of eating them right out of the box, we'll show you how some local culinary students cooked up some new recipes using Girl Scout cookies.

It's all coming up next On Q, so stay connected.

Welcome to On Q magazine, I'm Stacy Smith.

If you live in the Pittsburgh region, you probably know about the PNC Grow Up Great program.

On Q is proud to be a Grow Up Gr in this mission to better prepare young children for school and for life.

Now over the past year our staff members have reported on many of the local places, the people, and the programs that carry out the grow up great mission, from reading and literacy to early math and science to parenting and health care.

But tonight, our focus is on the importance of the arts in early education.

On Q contributor Cindy HSu Han visits a school in Highland Park where music, theater, and dance are helping t educate and mold young minds.

When you're in preschool, you learn by doing, often b making things with your hands.

Want any more whiskers?

And by playing with thoughts and ideas.

What color are they?

They're green eyes.

That's the basis behind a program that teaches children literacy through art.

What's your favorite thing to do here at preschool?

Read books.

at Dilworth Traditional Academy for the Arts and Humanities in Highland Park, the arts play a vital role in each student's curriculu from preschool to fifth grade.

And it starts as early as age three.

These preschoolers get to experience art in a very special way.

Thanks to instructor JoannKielar.

You don't have a name What does your mouse like to do?

The first step in Joann's method is simple.

She reads the children a book.

Then she gets them working on a art project based on something they heard her read.

Sometimes the books are abou real life creatures, like birds.

Other times, they center on fictional character like Frederick the Poetic Mouse.

This story led to children creating mouse sculptures.

What were you guys making today?

Mouses.

How, how do you make that?

You roll it into balls.

May I have your mouse?

Joann says allowing children to express their thoughts about books through art gives them a jumpstart on literacy.

What I'm trying to do is work the way a child's mind works which is not isolating things.

So if they're reading a book and they're a child who loves the arts or is very tactile, they're going to absorb th message of that book much more if they can then touch something, especially at the preschool level.

They are learning to communicate through their artwork.

They're, they're not at a level most of them where they can write what they're thinking, but many times they can show it by their artwork.

They read about a mouse, and look, this is my mouse that I made.

Joann teaches children from preschool through first grade, including Headstart and Early Intervention.

Her art class is one of several preschool programs offered in Pittsburgh public schools.

The class reflects the overall philosophy of the school, which makes art an integral part of day to day learning.

It teaches them problem solving, and I think people miss that a lot of times when they look at art, especially the art component of it.

If you're reading a book about trees and then suddenly someone gives you a pencil and you have to draw a tree.

It's a tremendou amount of problem solving there.

How does a tree really look?

How are the branches really shaped?

It also helps them to feel confident in their abilit to express how they did things or carried through that process in their own way.

Up here, Cindy, these these pieces here were done by first graders in groups.

Dilworth principal Rober O'Keefe has steered the school in the direction of the arts for about seven years.

His objective?

To continu building up Dilworths curriculu while fostering collaborations with arts group such as the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

We have built a program that infuses the curriculum areas of reading, and math, and science, and social studies, etc.

with the various art forms, visual art forms, music, things which bring children the complete message, really, as to what it is we intend for them to learn, as opposed to just a more of a segmented, subject area type of curriculum.

[Singing] [Singing] Dilworth students also get hearty dose of music education.

[Singing] Tania Grubbs is one of many music instructors affiliated with the school.

She says the students are doing more than just singing children's songs.

Children learn through repetition, they learn through play and music, and rhythm is a part of everyday life.

Music is is is a natural, free thing.

And for myself, I really believe is that music and literac are parallel with one another.

A child learns to read by you reading to them and reading to them with inflection and and music should be introduced in the same way, with enthusiasm and variety and in a context of fun and and without words and with words and all those things.

Whether the students are learning music, art, reading, or math.

The ultimate goal at Dilworth is to help them become good communicators.

Being able to use language well is a key to success.

The fact that we help the children reaching their potentials as learners to me is the most important.

I don't want a child to come out of elementary school and say that you know, or look back someday and say, if I had only had a chance, I might have been a wonderful musician, or I might have been a great artist.

Children have different strengths, and I think that we need to, we need to tap into where their strengths lie and make sure that they understand that everyone is gifted, and indeed, they are.

It's just a matter for us to determine and to help them understand where that giftedness lies.

And as Cindy tells us that right now, Dilworth is the only arts magnet school within the Pittsburgh Public School System.

The Center for the Performin Arts, or CAPA, as it is called, is the only arts magnet high school in the city.

Dilworth attracts students from all over the city, but most are from the surrounding neighborhoods of Highland Park and East Liberty area.

For more information you can always visit our website at wqed.org just click the On Q link on the first page.

Now still to come we're going to catch up with PNC president and CEO Jim Rohr for an update on PNC Grow Up.

Great initiative.

We'll find out how the program is doing close to a year after its launch And then coming up a little bit later this half hour, some unusual uses for Girl Scout cookies.

You're not going to believe what these local culinary students are cooking up.

It's still to come.

So stay connected.

You're watching On Q magazine because these foundations care enough about local programing to help pay for it.

The Howard Heinz Endowment, th Richard King Mellon Foundation, the McCune Foundation, the Pittsburgh Foundation, the Hillman Foundation, the Grable Foundation, and these corporations also support On Q. PNC Grow Up Great preparin young people for school and life so that an entire generation won't just grow up, theyll Grow Up Great.

Have a greater hand in your health with Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.

And we couldn't do it without you.

The members of WQED.

Now, just under a year ago, PN announced that the corporation was embarking on an ambitious ten year campaign called PNC Grow Up Great.

The plan is to invest $100 million into preparing young children from birth to ag five, for school and for life.

PNC recruited partners such as Sesame Workshop and Pittsburghs own, Family Communications Incorporated to assist with this effort.

Well, now that it's been underway for just a little under a year, we wanted to find out how it's going.

Chris Moore continues our coverage.

Chris.

Well thank you Stacy.

Yes, we are going to continue our coverage and get an update as we have joining us now, the chairman and CEO of PNC Financial Services Group, Jim Rohr.

Jim, welcome to the program.

It's been a yea since you all kicked this out.

I understand you're looking holistically at the child, social development emotional their cognitive skills tell us what this last year has brought.

Well, you know, we kicked it off as, as you said, about a year ago.

And the commitment was multifaceted for us.

One was for our contribution to various entities that provide early childhood around our region.

And we've started that.

We've actually identified a couple here in Pittsburgh.

We've identified 11 across the PNC footprint.

We started contributing money and actually we've impacted about 4000 students, since we started about 6 or 7 months ago in terms of the contributions.

I understan that this is the only corporate sponsored program of its kind around.

Is that true?

I think it is.

I think it is.

But we're finding that a number of corporations would like to involve themselves with Grow Up Great.

Thats a good thing.

It's turned out, It's turned out particularly well.

It's also for our employees.

You know we really identified the opportunity for our employees to focus their volunteer efforts on on the early childhood initiative.

And we found a number of things.

Each state has their own requirements.

You've got to have you've got to fill out the forms that identify issues.

You've got to take a TB tes or to show that you're qualified to be a volunteer.

And we've had our employees, really accept that tremendously.

4000 employees have already signed up and started to provide volunteer efforts for early childhood initiatives across our footprint.

That's a lot of volunteerism.

That's a lot of hours donated in order to hel children grow up great, right?

Yes, we actually pay our employees up to 40 hours a year to to focus on volunteerism.

Now, that's a little bit different in terms of, corporate volunteerism, isn't it?

Well we've really committed to this, when we did the research.

Our employees actually wanted to focus our efforts on, on volunteer and on early childhood initiative.

Children and educatio and the early childhood area is something that just kind of jumped off the charts for us.

You know, the underserved child shows up in kindergarten anywhere from 25 to 50% deficient in his vocabulary or her vocabulary, and they never make it up.

The gap actually increases over, over time.

And so, in order to really help our early, our children, perform at a later level, you have to really address it in the early childhood.

So.

So this could be something as simple as one of your employee volunteering to read to a child, because that helps get them up to that level you were talking about just a minute ago.

Reading is is very important, you know, and and in some of our ads, you've seen where, the mother or the caregiver actually take the child to the grocery store.

And rather than just take the trips to the grocery store they can actually use the trip as education for a nutrition, or color, or counting.

Read that cereal box.

Read that cereal box.

Or there's just small things that can help the child in many ways.

Okay you produced a couple of spots here that show how it works.

And we're going to take a look at one of them right now, and we'll come back and talk about it.

Let's take a look at this spot from Grow Up Great.

Every day is an opportunity to do more for our children, encouraging them to become strong learners before they set foot in the classroom is crucial to their future success PNCs Grow Up Great program brings together preschool experts and parents to prepare kids for school and ultimately for life.

Make a real difference in a child's life today so they won't just grow up, but grow up.

great.

Stop by, call, or visit pnc.com.

Now, it sounds like you'r encouraging the general public to get involved, as well as the employees of PNC, right?

Oh, yes, very much so.

You can see the ads that we've had, we've had a tremendous response from, from a number of people and constituencies across the state, as well as in Washington, D.C.

these these ads really invigorate people to try and identify opportunities to take care of the kids.

And frankly we're getting the best response.

The most memorable responses really come from these ads.

Of all the ads we have, I might add, and we had over a half a billion impressions on Grow Up Great and early childhood images, just last year.

Well, how can you resist when you see those kids faces like that?

You know, you got to get involved and help out.

Now you've worked with a lot of partnerships, including some people like Family Communications within this very building, Right?

Well, absolutely.

They were really the cornerstone to our really kicking this off Family of Communications, actually QED too, have been great partners along with Sesame Stree and PBS kids, to really help us professionally produce the right kinds of things.

And you can see this in the happy, healthy, ready for school kit that we hand out in our branches.

Over 100,000 were handed ou just last year, for caregivers and parents across the PNC regio Now, when you talk about the PNC region that's bigger than just the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

You had mentioned that the other paperwork you run into in other states is it proving to be a little bit more complicated than you thought it would be?

As you as you go across the PNC region?

Well, state by state, it's different.

Everyone has their own qualification requirements.

And so our team, led by Ava Bloom and others, really went state by state, create the appropriate documentation.

We have onsite tests now, we have a website that really shows the employees the volunteer opportunities.

So they've really done a great job of researching and enhancing the capability for the employees to really help the children.

When you think about all the things that corporations could get involved in this has got to be one of the best one because it just the title alone grew up great.

These are going to be better and more well-rounded people, and it helps develop the workforce, too.

I guess.

Well, absolutely.

Chris, you know, 20% of our workforce here in the United States is functionally illiterate or innumerate.

That's a new word for me, too.

For me anyways.

And the only way you can really address that is through early childhood education.

And there was a study just done by Jim Heckman, who was a Nobel laureat from the University of Chicago that shows that through it, every single dollar that you invest in early childhood education, it gives $7 back to the to the society, eithe by reducing the amount of rehab or incarceratio that might take place over time with a challenge child, or in fact, getting taxes back from a more productive workforce.

So the more productive workforce we have, the better off we are as a society.

It just occurred to me that you could be stopping future Bank Robbers of America, too, you know, because you're getting people involved.

They they get literate, they get a job and they don't get desperate and start robbing other people or committing crimes.

And as you say it, that that that keeps the recidivism rate down.

It keeps people out of trouble.

It keeps people involved in productive lifestyles.

Oh, Chris, you are exactly right.

And one of the most interesting things is that the state of California uses third grade literacy as the best predictor for the need for jail cells.

20 years later.

Is that right?

So investing in early childhood education really does pay back to the community for a long time to come.

We've only got a minute left.

I wonder what you can say about this, because there's all sorts of debate about when the government gets involved and and Head Start kinds of programs.

But evidently corporations like PNC are seeing the value of these kinds of programs to make it a better America.

Well, at PNC, we'v always had to have a commitment to our community.

It's one of our four constituencies that we serve along with our shareholders, our customers and our employees.

Our employees said this was important to them and they, and our communities have said this is important to them.

And we've done the research and found that it is really important.

So we really put our shoulder behind this.

And it's not just to have the children grow up, but it's to help them Grow Up Great.

It's a great mott and we thank you for being here.

Congratulations on the program.

We hope you continue to help children Grow Up Great in this region.

Thank you for being a great part of it.

It's our pleasure.

And we thank Jim Rohr and PNC, and Stacy that means it's time to go back to you.

All right.

Thank you.

Chris.

Still to come, local culinary students come u with some exotic new creations featuring Girl Scout cookies.

Thats still to come, so stay connected.

When viewers request, we respond.

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Let us know by logging on to our website, wqed.org then click On Q to submit your request for an On Q story.

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Just go to our website, wqed.org and click On Q. Our next story is about the famous cookies that only go on sale once a year.

That, of course, would be the Girl Scout cookies.

And even though most of us can't resist just eating them right out of the box, some local culinary students use their imaginations to come up with some new Girl Scout cookie creations.

Chris Moore has this story as well.

Most of us just eat our Girl Scout cookies.

But you'd be surprised what a Girl Scout cookie can build.

Kelly, tell me about your creation.

What's it called?

It's trefoil tiramisu.

I'm going to make cold sesame noodles today.

All right Tom, what are we making here?

I'm going to make the Aloha chicken breast.

It's with the Aloha macadamia nut cookies.

And what do you call it, Jun?

Green tea crepe With oatmeal cookie That's right.

These dishes were made with Girl Scout cookies, Trefoils, Do-si-dos, Aloha Chips, Olé Olés.

They were created by aspiring chefs attending the Art Institut of Pittsburgh's culinary school.

It's an original idea that started in Pittsburgh.

The Girl Scouts came to the Art Institute and said they had this idea that our students would be working with a variety of all of their cookies and to come up with different kinds of things that would be interesting, that people could use the cookies for instead of just eating cookies.

And I gave it as an assignment to my students.

And the things that they came up with were just amazing.

I mean, they came up with stuff that was, that you wouldn't thin you would have cookies in it.

It was not just an assignment, but also a competition.

They had to fac a panel of judges from the Girl Scouts of Southwestern Pennsylvania and a local restaurant manager.

The judges chos a winner for originality, taste and presentation.

It's very simple.

It takes only about 15 minutes or something like that.

Very simple.

Kyunghee Han is a native of South Korea.

She took the prize for taste Kyunghee used Do-Si-Dos, the crunchy oatmeal peanut butter cookies, to add snap to a traditional Asian dish called sesame noodles.

Would you have ever, normally, because this is a pretty traditional dish, would you have normally thought about using Girl Scout cookies in it?

No, it's not normal.

It's very special.

I have never used, cookies, but it is a very, very special experience.

From now on, I'm going to use the, Girl Scouts cookies whenever I make noodles.

While Kjunghee stuck to her noodles, Jun Oh brewed something different.

Green tea crepes with Olé Olés.

Now, did you ever think you'd be putting together any kind of great recipe like this with Girl Scout cookies?

Was that a surprise?

Yeah.

Did you like it?

I like it.

Yeah.

It's it's a great chance t make experimental with a cookie.

In another dishes.

So.

So it's, it's creativity for you.

It was coming up with the idea right?

Yeah.

It's fun.

Did you have to taste the cookie to decide what would go good with it.

Yeah, I tasted all of the and I like it this Olé Olé cooki because it's more light than the others.

The Art Institute's culinar program hasn't been around long.

It opened in the fall of 2002, after spending nearly $2 million of construction.

The program offers bot Bachelors and Associates degree.

Culinary arts is much different from food service.

Culinary arts, you're really concerned about the presentation, the food sells itself because the first thing that people see in food is obviously the visual part.

It has to taste good as well, but the visual is extremely important.

Are you going to cut your chicken in any particular way To Cut it on a bias.

Okay.

So that, you know, it looks a little better on the plate.

Thomas Moore is preparing hi Aloha chicken breast creation.

It won first place for originality.

Did you ever think you'd be cooking an entree with Girl Scout cookies?

No.

Absolutely not.

What did you think of the idea when it was first suggested?

That was a pretty good idea.

I mean, it was it was something different.

It was unusual.

I had a feeling everyone was going to do dessert.

So that's why I went ahead and started thinking of some no dessert items to come up with.

Not much of a dessert eater myself.

But fellow student Kelly Walsh is.

She enhanced a trendy favorite, tiramisu.

Yeah, tiramisu is like one of my favorite desserts.

And you can use a variety of things.

I usually use pound cake, but shortbread cookies work perfect for it.

Kelly does this exercise of creating a dessert with Girl Scout cookies help your imagination, any as a cook.

Oh, definitely.

It's just fun to create new things, or even just to embellish on recipes that are already established, just to do something neat and different with them.

And that's the whole idea, creating something new.

And in this case, thinking outside of the box.

In class, you have set things that you have to do.

You have to cover this, this and this.

But when you're developing, that's where you really start the thinking.

You actually get the gray matter working and you get that creativity and the thought proces of going from Girl Scout cookies to sesame noodles to the in-between part, that's the important part.

And that's the part that makes a chef.

That's the part that makes the student become the chef.

You like it?

Yeah, I like it.

This is delicious.

Everyone likes sesame noodles.

Everyone likes it.

I think it's delicious.

Let's eat.

Now, those are some creations.

Stacy.

You never had Girl Scout cookies that tasted so good.

I want you to know it was delicious.

I guess they were.

I still like the Thin Mints, though.

Yeah, it's still hard to beat, though.

You're right.

What's your favorite?

I just like the the.

Not gingerbread cookies.

Shortbread cookies.

Shortbread cookies.

But I'm kind of a plain guy.

Yeah, I know.

All right.

Thanks, Chris.

Before we go tonight, here's a look at some of the other stories we're working on this week.

Tomorrow night On Q, we show you how Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh is working to wipe out the number one birth defect in the United States, heart defects.

More children die from heart defects than from all childhood cancers combined.

Find out how cutting edge research happening right now in Pittsburgh may help prevent heart defects in children.

Wednesday night, she's the new president of th Pittsburgh chapter of the NAACP.

We'll introduce you to Gayle Moss.

Thursday, school board president Bill Isler will be here.

We'll talk to him about why the board decided it was time for a change.

And what will happen as the search for a new superintendent gets underway.

And then on Friday, On Q is Off Join our regular panelists, Alan Cox, Fred Honsberger and Ruth Ann Dailey for a look back at all the big news stories of the week.

We're live at 7:30 every night this week.

Stay connected.

Thank you for watching.

We will se you live at 7:30 tomorrow night.

Stay connected, and have a good night.