Business is the State System's largest academic program, with more than 13,000 students. Now more than ever, PASSHE universities are ready to prepare more students for high-growth business jobs.

 Content Editor

Success Highlights

 
Aspiring entrepreneurs from Bloomsburg and across the state descended on Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg on March 23 to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges at the sixth annual Husky Dog Pound Competition. Middle, high school, and university-level students competed for $20,000 in prizes across two divisions.
 
As senior business administration major Nathan A. Rosario prepares for graduation from Cheyney University, it’s clear that he is ready for the next chapter in his life. He credits his education at Cheyney with giving him more skills to grow his business. An accounting course taught him proper budgeting and financing, and a course on business law showed him how legislation can impact the bottom line. Rosario plans to get his MBA and focus on marketing, all with a goal of combining his two passions: basketball and entrepreneurship. 
 
Rebecca Serafin of Easton, Pa., attends East Stroudsburg University as a nontraditional student planning her next chapter. Already in the workforce, Serafin plans to use her years of experience in the retail and food services management industries as the foundation for an accounting career. She starts her new job with Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy DeFoor’s office two weeks after graduation in May.
 
Joshua Muscatello, a 2006 Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems and 2011 Master of Business Administration graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), used his education to open the door to opportunities he never imagined. Joshua credits the high-quality, affordable education he received at IUP for much of his success.
 
Rotuk Rahedi, a native of Nairobi, Kenya and sport management major at Kutztown University, aspires to work with a sports team in one of the major leagues in the United States or a sports agency firm. KU’s program is helping him develop a better understanding of the sports industry so he can apply his knowledge in the real world.
 
In early March, four Commonwealth University-Lock Haven sport management students traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, to attend the Cleveland Cavaliers Sport Business and Data Analytics pre-game panel. While in Cleveland, the students also toured the Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Guardians facilities and connected with staff from both organizations. Providing sport management students with experiential learning opportunities outside of the classroom is a core value of the sport management program.
 
Commonwealth University-Mansfield is among eight Pennsylvania colleges and universities who will take part in the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) 2023 Community Bank Case Study Competition this year. Now in its ninth year, the Case Study Competition offers undergraduate students from all fields of study the opportunity to partner with local community banks to gain first-hand knowledge of the banking industry.
 
Fourteen students from Millersville University's Lombardo College of Business kept busy over spring break traveling to London to visit major businesses and visit other attractions. The students visited many places that gave them insight into international business and marketing. The trip was jam-packed with visits to various company headquarters, where students could gain insight into how these businesses work and what they offer.
 
Alexia Doumbouya ’05 is passionate about giving others a hand. As a student at PennWest California, Doumbouya studied international business and economics, with a minor in leadership. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with the degree at first, but she knew that she wanted to help people. Since then, she’s found multiple ways of doing just that.
 
If the COVID-19 pandemic gave us anything, it might have been more time, or the opportunity to use our time differently. PennWest Clarion alumnus Nick Brucker ’09 didn’t let any time go to waste. Already the CEO and founder of Sparq Designs in Pittsburgh and Nashville, Brucker randomly met Eric Lloyd in a Whole Foods, and that meeting led to a friendship with big ideas. The pair developed the idea of combining electrostatic sanitization and drones for a solution to a major problem that hit when the pandemic did.
 
Four PennWest Edinboro personal financial planning and accounting students volunteered this spring to prepare and file tax forms for low- to moderate-income workers in Erie County, Pa. The students trained to become IRS certified tax preparers through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program and worked with United Way Erie FREE Taxes for the 2022-2023 tax season.  
 
Senior management major Khalilh Jackson realized a childhood dream by taking a new step toward career success with an internship with Schroders, an international asset management firm. Jackson first learned about the internship when he connected with the Shippensburg University Career Center in early 2020, but COVID delayed his opportunity. In fall 2021 he had the chance to network with Lee Gardella ’89, a member of the John L. Grove College of Business Advisory Board and head of Investment Risk and Monitoring at Schroders, and eventually landed an interview for the internship.
 
It's not every day a college student is able to say, "I have a meeting with the CEO later today." But for 27 health care administration and management students at Slippery Rock University, access to CEOs, presidents, and other C-suite executives is part of their classwork. The access they receive to senior executives in the health care industry is unlike anything they would find in even most graduate programs across the country.
 
Dubbed a promising Student Entrepreneur in Residence at West Chester University’s Cottrell Entrepreneurship Center, 20-year-old economics and finance major Zach Starr is challenging the burgeoning vaping industry with a Quix fix that is designed to help a growing number of young vapers reduce their addictive habits. Starr’s company, Quix Labs, created The Quix as the first all-in-one disposable aerosol system that delivers a nicotine-reduced experience to consumers as a viable way to empower individuals to eventually kick the habit. As a manufacturer and distributor of the first nicotine-reduction focused smoking alternative, the company has recently sold the product to distributors in the U.K. and it will soon be marketed in the U.S.