The Pitt-Johnstown Great Americans Day Citizenship Forum is an annual series of programs focused on the lives and contributions of a wide range of great Americans. This series is intended to help us all remember that this experiment in democracy is not yet over, and that we all need to work individually and collectively to extend it further than the founders ever dreamed possible.
Each year, the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, in coordination with various secondary schools from the Johnstown area, and the friends of Howard M. Picking III will invite a scholar to our community to make a public presentation concerning the life of one Great American in the month of February, between George Washington's and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays. A different Great American will be featured in the series each year. The program is intended to bring together University faculty, staff, and students, local secondary school students and educators, local business people, and the Western Pennsylvania general public to not only honor a Great American in observance of "Great Americans Day," but to engender an ongoing discussion about what all of us can do to be better citizens in the community of mankind. By focusing on the triumphs, trials, and tribulations in the lives of outstanding citizens, we hope to spark introspection into our own.