When the summer started, Teri Jones and Ted Ritts were shy. Super shy, they’d say.
But an internship — organizing a community block party for Level Up Studios, a nonprofit creative arts center in northeast Pittsburgh — would help with that. Over the summer, the pair would need to line up sponsors, ask for donations, schedule food and entertainment, and navigate the city permitting process. That meant talking to strangers, being persuasive and, on occasion, getting comfortable being told “no.”