Rowland School of Business Marks the End of the Semester with Music, Fashion and Academic Wins
Pioneer Records held its annual Pioneer Star Showcase at Stage AE in April. Photo by Jordan Kullen '26.
Point Park University's Rowland School of Business closed out the academic year with events that recognized students' academic performance and shined the spotlight on their hard work from the last semester. Check out highlights from students' spring celebrations.
Cleveland Cavaliers Sales Team Trip
Point Park students who spent the semester selling tickets on the Cleveland Cavaliers Sales Team traveled to Rocket Arena to take in a game and celebrate another successful season. The team is one of several that provides students with hands-on sales experience.
Senior SAEM major Kate Painter was the top salesperson for the Cavs Sales Team this year.
Learn more: Point Park's Sports Sales Force Sets Students up for Success
Pioneer Star Showcase at Stage AE
Point Park's student-run record label Pioneer Records hosted its annual Pioneer Star Showcase at Stage AE with performances by student artists Lotus Headen, Alexis Zak and Marshall Benton. The show provides students with learning opportunities in artist development and management, marketing, public relations, advertising and music, film and event production. For the first time, a music video produced by the Music Video class of Pioneer Star Marshall Benton was also shown.
Learn more: SAEM Program Prepares Students for Careers in Live Entertainment
Business of Broadcast Sales Challenge
Students representing a variety of Rowland School of Business degree programs competed in the Business of Broadcast Sales Challenge in the Michael P. Pitterich Sales & Innovation Center. Students played the role of sales account executives for a fictitious Pittsburgh-area broadcast station and practiced their sales skills with an industry professional. The competition helped students increase their knowledge of the broadcast and media industry and provided a valuable networking opportunity to meet working professionals. Participants included:
- Luchama Lubin, first place
- Giula Follador, second place
- Lucy Mincek, third place
- Autumn Ashbaugh, honorable mention
- Abel Ang, honorable mention
- Marcos Navarrette
- Victoria Drury
- Ives Fung
- Jana Schmid
- Ruben Kuypers
The challenge was made possible by the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasting (PAB).
Learn more: PAB Partnership and Business of Broadcast initiative
Entrepreneurial Leadership Council Intercollegiate Fashion Show
Students in Professor R. Hagen Starz's Business Models of Sports, Arts & Entertainment class collaborated with students from colleges across the region to produce the Entrepreneurial Leadership Council Fashion Show at the Hilton Garden Inn in Downtown Pittsburgh. The entirely student-run event showcased designs and fashion from student designers.
Janiah Tillman '25, a senior SAEM major, served as social media director for the event, creating a content strategy and social media calendar for pre- and post-event publicity.
"This experience was definitely interesting and I've learned a lot about planning an event," she said. "Something that this experience taught me is consistency, such as being consistent with reaching out to individuals about specific information that you feel is necessary to the event and your role that benefits the event. Another important thing I've learned from this experience is to never slack off when asking questions, because that is how you start a trend of miscommunication! These vital things that I learned will help me in the future when I've landed my first career job."
It was Tillman's first time managing social media for an event.
"That had to be the most exciting part of putting this event together — coming up with ideas to promote the event, being creative with countdown posts and venue videos, and making captions that hyped our audience up for the fashion show," she said.
SAEM Graduation Celebration
SAEM majors organized a reception for friends, family, faculty and staff to come together and celebrate the 2025 graduates from the program. The poignant ceremony included heartfelt remarks by professors, a photo booth and a then-and-now photo slideshow of seniors.
PICPA Competition
Accounting majors Heather Bruder, Lenina Ebert, Vanessa Ellwanger and Joseph Phillips took second place in the Spring 2025 Pittsburgh Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) case competition. Students selected a topic and prepared a 15-minute presentation to demonstrate their accounting and auditing knowledge for a panel of industry professionals.
In another accounting-related win for the school, Phillips received the prestigious Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs (PICPA) Outstanding Senior Award. The award recognizes academic excellence, leadership, hard work and peer mentorship.
Learn more: Phillips Highlights Positive Expriences at Point Park
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Business Analytics Technology Awards
The Department of Business Analytics Technology held its annual awards event to recognize students majoring in accounting, economics and finance and applied computer science.
Outstanding Student Awards
Rowland School of Business students were also recognized with several awards at the University's Outstanding Student Awards ceremony. See the winners on the ceremony's 2025 webpage.