Ryan Hall

When Melissa Sakmar, a junior from Johnstown, Pa., arrived at University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, she wasn’t sure what to major in, so she enrolled in courses in several different disciplines.

After taking some environmental classes, she chose an environmental studies major.

“I grew up in Western Pennsylvania,” she said, “and lived near woods and mountains. The environment is close to my heart, and I wanted to know more about it.

“I have learned so much,” said Sakmar, who was taking Environmental Communications, an upper-level writing course, during the spring semester. “I thought I knew a lot when I first started taking classes, but I realized there was so much more to learn.”

Before 2001, an environmental studies major didn’t exist at UPB. Michael Stuckart, interim vice president and dean of academic affairs, explains that UPB’s flexibility has allowed many new programs to blossom over the course of the school’s 40-year history.

“The academic programs have grown and developed over the years,” Stuckart said, “because we want to continue to meet the educational needs of the students but also to provide them with the programs that will help them get good jobs and fulfilling careers.”

When UPB was first established in 1963, it didn’t offer four-year programs. The campus was a two-year feeder school for the Oakland campus. Students would attend Pitt-Bradford for two years and then transfer to other schools, preferably to the Oakland campus, to finish their baccalaureate degrees.

Pitt-Bradford’s four-year program was inaugurated in September 1976 under the University’s School of General Studies, and, three years later, the Commonwealth Board of Education confirmed Pitt-Bradford’s four-year status.

At that time, students could earn bachelor’s degrees in administrative science, American studies, community analysis and development, human relations, literature, English writing, history and philosophy of the Western World, physical sciences, and environmental science. Two-year programs were available in petroleum engineering, computer science, and nursing. By 1983, the University offered 11 baccalaureate degree programs and three associate degree programs.

UPB now offers 25 baccalaureate programs along with three associate degree programs and, in conjunction with the Oakland campus, master’s degrees in nursing and social work.

Students now major in such programs as radiological science and environmental studies and also major in disciplines like education, which had been offered at other Pitt regional schools but not at Pitt-Bradford.

Environmental studies majors tailor their courses of study, taking, for example, electives in natural sciences if the student is preparing for a career conducting field research.

Sakmar’s environmental studies major will prepare her for a career in such fields as education, politics, public relations, and resource management. She wants to do community organizing around environmental issues at the grassroots level. Similarly, environmental studies major Randy Abbott, a junior, wants to work on water shortage issues in Arizona, California, and Nevada; Katie Burton, also a junior environmental studies major, hopes to work in educational programs for the U.S. Forest Service.

Freshman Ryan Hall also is interested in the environment—he and his family often travel from Ohio to camp near the Allegheny Reservoir—but it was the radiological science program that brought him to Pitt-Bradford.

Hall wanted to work in the medical field, but he didn’t want to be a physician, responsible for dispensing medicine or performing surgery.

As a high school junior, Hall toured the campus and was intrigued by the radiological science program.

“This program was not offered at any other college close to me,” Hall said.

During his first year, Hall took an anatomy and physiology lab, a nursing class, and general education courses, and he also spent 10 weeks working on the radiological floor at Bradford Regional Medical Center (BRMC).

Hall will spend the next two years at BRMC’s School of Radiography, where he will take medical ethics together with radiological science courses and work with radiological equipment. During his senior year, he will return to campus to finish the coursework for the radiological science degree, which has been available to students only since the fall of 2001.

“This (radiological science program) is one of the few programs of its kind in Western Pennsylvania,” said Lisa Fiorentino, director of the program. “This new major enhances Pitt-Bradford’s and BRMC’s abilities to prepare students for valuable opportunities in growing healthcare fields.”

The program is tailored both for incoming freshman and for certified radiographers who have already completed the two-year program at BRMC’s radiography school and want to earn the bachelor’s degree.

The radiological science program consists of two tracks. In the main track, first-year students like Hall complete two semesters of coursework and then spend their second and third years at BRMC’s School of Radiography. When they successfully complete that program, they will be certified radiological technicians and can work as technicians while finishing their senior year at Pitt-Bradford.

In the second track of the program, people who are already certified and have graduated from a program accredited by the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiological Technology take two years of courses at Pitt-Bradford to earn the bachelor’s degree.

“Everything’s really been flexible,” Hall said. “I made the right choice with radiological science.”

A version of this article appeared in Portraits, a magazine published by the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.