ASU Programming and Activities Board receives two national awards

Arizona State University’s Programming and Activities Board received two awards at the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) National Convention in Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 16–19.

NACA is an organization that provides leadership development for students who design and implement programs and events for their campus community. The convention provided opportunities for students in professional development and networking.

Twelve PAB students from ASU attended. PAB’s Homecoming shirt was chosen as a winner for the division three apparel category. This category was part of a new graphics competition.

PAB students at the 2019 NACA conference. From left: Josiah Lester, Michael Schuster, Emma St. John, Quinlyn Ashlock and Maria Breeze

The student-made “ASU’s New Student Pavilion” video was also selected as a winner for the division three digital media category. Division three contenders are institutions with more than 25,000 students.

Michael Schuster, a sophomore at ASU studying business data analytics, is the vice president of finance for PAB. He said the convention provided students the chance to learn about what other boards are doing and bring back the best practices and concepts in campus programming and activities to ASU.

“They teach us how to improve our current activities,” Schuster said. “Then we get to network with the vendors there. We watch a lot of showcases so we can see, ‘hey this musician is really good. I want to bring them to ASU.’”

During the convention, students had the opportunity to take part in education sessions. Schuster said the biggest takeaway for him at the convention was the opportunity to find new artists to come to campus.

“Every education session I attended had something to do with finding concerts or concert etiquette,” Schuster said. “Devilpalooza is huge every year, and we spend the whole year working on that, so I just wanted to do some research and find some ways to make it better, make sure we’re bringing an act that people want to see and make sure we’re staying within our budget for it. That’s what I was most excited to do.”

Schuster said being nationally recognized twice was amazing.

“There are so many schools that were there. There were thousands of kids there, and ASU has a pretty highly regarded programming board. Compared to other schools, ours is huge, and we do things on a much bigger scale than a lot of the other boards do,” said Schuster.

The icing on the cake was taking home two awards, Schuster said. “The fact that we won two was insane.”

Emma St. John, a junior studying English, is the director of Game Day for PAB and also attended the convention. She said going to the convention was incredible because the team got to meet other people involved in event planning.

She said she still can’t believe they were nationally recognized.

“I was totally honored,” she said. “To be nationally recognized like that was just an incredible opportunity.”