February 12, 2019
Speaker: Mina T. Levenson
Mina will discuss the history of Squirrel Hill’s most illustrious public school, Taylor Allderdice High School. Generations of graduates have made their mark in the world after spending their formative adolescent years at the grand old high school.
Named after industrialist Taylor Allderdice, our own neighborhood public high school opened in 1927 and has been credited many times over the years as a National Blue Ribbon School and as one of the best high schools by both Newsweek and US News & World Report.
Allderdice is one of the largest high schools in the City, and boasts of a population of about 1,500 students from Squirrel Hill and numerous nearby neighborhoods.
Among its alumni who have followed the school motto to “know something, do something, be something, ” is a uniquely long list of notable musicians, actors, professional athletes, scientists, economists, mayors, political activists, artists, writers, and filmmakers – including Billy Porter, Rob Marshall, Kathleen Marshall, Wiz Khalifa, Sally and Maxine Lapiduss, Curtis Martin, Bob O’Connor, Richard Caliguiri, Sara Alpern, Gary Green and so many others.
About the Speaker: Mina Levenson was born and raised in Pittsburgh, in Squirrel Hill, she graduated from both Colfax Elementary and Allderdice H.S. and hold degrees from the University of Pittsburgh (BS & MS) and the Universidad de Salamanca (MA). Mina has taught Physical Education and Spanish in the Pittsburgh Public Schools since January of 1974. After substitute teaching for 1 semester, her teaching began at Allderdice where she has taught, save a few years, at Brashear H.S. when it opened (1976-1979). She has presented papers at local, state, national and international conferences and venues.
Mina’s certifications are as follows:
NBCT (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards) in “Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood/World Languages”- 2005 to present
CEP – ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) Certified Clinical Exercise Physiologist 1987 to present
ITL (Instructional Teacher Leader) World Languages 2.005-2.018
President of PSMLA (Pa. State Modern Language Association)-January, 2018 until December, 2020.
Squirrel Hill Historical Society 