Bachelor's Degree in Business Leads to Management Promotion for 2013 Alumna

Meet Elizabeth Andreakos

Job title: Assistant Facility Manager
Employer: CBRE
Degree earned: Bachelor of Science in Business, Point Park University, 2013; and Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts, Community College of Allegheny County, 2011
College activities: Gettysburg trip with Professor Bromall's class
Hometown: Dubois, Pa.
High School: Dubois Area High School
Now living in: Allison Park/Pittsburgh, Pa.
Hobbies/interests: Finding new and challenging races to train for (such as the Pittsburgh Half Marathon), reading, cooking, trying new foods and spending as much time with my family as possible (especially my nephews)
LinkedIn: Elizabeth (Andreakos) Fisher

How did your B.S. degree from Point Park help you become an assistant facilities manager?

The knowledge I gained during my time at Point Park was the driving force in my promotion. It was that knowledge that my direct boss recognized and ultimately led to his decision to recommend me for the position. I wouldn't have had the qualifications required without the skills I obtained at Point Park.

Why did you choose Point Park?

I chose Point Park for three reasons.

My first reason is for the Downtown Pittsburgh location. I was a student going back to school while working a full-time job. I really needed a school to be in a central location so that I could easily access it.

Second, being able to take classes on Saturdays was extremely important to me. This allowed me to not only get all the classes I needed within a reasonable time frame, but it also helped me to balance my school workload with my job.

The final reason was for the small class sizes. I had this fear of going back to school and being the old person in the room who couldn't keep up. But the very small class sizes created an environment that was comfortable for me.

How do you apply what you learned in class into the work you do today?

There were so many times in school when I said, "Why are we wasting time on this? I'll never, ever use it." But that couldn't be further from the truth. I genuinely find I often use a little piece of every class in some way.

The concepts I learned in my classes on communications, accounting (I definitely repeated the statement above more than once in that class), human resources and ethics, and the surprising one, international business, I use on a daily basis. Communicating through email is such a huge part of what I do and how I stay in contact with people professionally. As for accounting, every aspect of business circles back to some sort of accounting function. Had I not been encouraged to understand what a general ledger is, I never could have kept up when people were referring to things like how something affects the "GL." Also, I use the skills I learned in my human resources and ethics classes in every interaction I have with tenants and vendors.

Lastly, international business was the class I thought I would never use. We learned a lot about how business is conducted in different areas of the world. Until I moved into my current position, I had worked for locally-owned, small businesses. Now I work for an international company with offices all over the world. I interact with people from a diverse range of ethnic backgrounds and have found the lessons from my international business class to be helpful even in local situations.

What's your favorite Point Park memory?

Having the opportunity to travel to Gettysburg for class credit and bond with my classmates was an unforgettable experience. I learned much more about Gettysburg than I ever would have sitting in a classroom. This also really rings true for my entire Point Park experience. Some of the friendships I have from my time there are genuinely special to me and I know they are going to be for life.

What are your career goals?

There is so much I want to experience and learn. Many people have influenced my career and given me opportunities I never imagined possible. Three people in particular who I think of as mentors include a controller, the president and owner of a very successful Pittsburgh-based company and my current boss, the regional facility manager of CBRE. I aspire to fill one of these types of positions at some point in my career. Their work makes a positive impact on their companies, they are passionate about what they do and people see the differences they make. My ultimate goal is to become the person whose contribution impacts his or her company in a positive way and creates an environment that is looking to the future.

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