PittWire University of Pittsburgh

Announcements and Updates In fall 2025, more than 8,000 boxes were shipped to campus residence halls before arrival through the Ship2Pitt program. Pitt is once again partnering with UPS this year to help students lighten their load on move-in day. Starting today, students can create up to four free shipping labels online through July 14. Packages of up to 50 pounds and with a maximum measurement of 20-by-20-by-20 inches can be dropped off at a UPS Store for shipping through July 22.

The health care system is complex and can be difficult to navigate. Receiving a life-changing diagnosis such as cancer can only make the process harder. Teresa Hagan Thomas saw this when her mother — a self-sufficient woman who had twice been a cancer caregiver and whose daughter is expert in health care self-advocacy — struggled to navigate the system after her own cancer diagnosis.

Though she grew up in Pittsburgh, Marie K. Norman was born in Kathmandu, Nepal, and spent the first three years of her life there. Exploring those beginnings, she said, influenced her curiosity about culture and all the possible expressions of what it means to be human.

At Pitt Magazine, we love getting mail from alumni around the world, and now we're sharing those postcards with you. Click on a marker below to learn more about your fellow alums' adventures. You can join the fun and help us fill out the map by submitting your own postcard at classnotes [at] pitt.edu.

A team of engineering and architecture students created a detailed model, which will be on display in the William Pitt Union through spring 2025. Your professors can help you explore your academic interests, build your network and find resources to improve your Pitt experience. Mary Mulcahy spent the summer trapping, sorting, weighing and tracking key species around Bradford.

Announcements and Updates Looking for ways to better share your research, or just want to learn a new communication skill set? The Jarman Lab @ Pitt is accepting applications from faculty, staff and graduate and professional students from across all University of Pittsburgh schools, departments and units. This free, how-to intensive on filmmaking is led by instructors from the Derek Jarman Lab at the University of London.

The four-day film bootcamp for faculty, staff and graduate and professional students returns in May. Apply by Feb. 21. Sara Rimm-Kaufman of the University of Virginia will present on Feb. 3; Stephen Hutt of the University of Denver will speak on April 7. Submit the form to showcase your company, connect with fellow graduates and collaborate with University units. This year’s theme is Reducing Barriers, Creating Opportunity. Scholar and Pittsburgh native Andre M. Perry will serve as keynote speaker.

Announcements and Updates The Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) at the University of Pittsburgh has established a colloquium series as part of its 60th anniversary commemorations. The events will feature distinguished speakers from a variety of disciplines, bringing unique perspectives on timely topics. Anyone in the Pitt community is welcome to attend.

When she was a kid, Angela Stewart spent a lot of time in the family car. Her father’s career in the Marine Corps required frequent cross-country treks from one base to another. To help pass the long stretches of endless highway, he installed a DVD player in the back seat. But this was the ’90s, before cars came equipped with such technological luxuries, so he toiled for hours to create a mobile movie theater, affixing straps to the back seat console and running power cords from the AC converter.

Just an hour’s drive from Pittsburgh, Fayette County is home to some of Pennsylvania’s most scenic areas, including Ohiopyle State Park, the Laurel Highlands and Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. Once a major player in the coal and coke industry, most of Fayette County’s coal mines were exhausted by the 1950s. This contributed to a population decline from 200,000 in 1940 to just 128,000 today.