Point Park alumnus Miles Ritenour spent last Thursday afternoon in 701 of the Student Center offering advice on college, insight into his marketing job with Bud Light and the importance of making connections.

Ritenour, a 2010 graduate of Point Park, has a degree in advertising and public relations. As a student, he held a number of internships throughout the city, one of which was with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Point Park professor Bob O’Gara had Ritenour as a student.

“Miles took this school for everything he could get,” O’Gara said. “If there’s anything this school is, it’s connected.”

While he did not have a job lined up after graduating, Ritenour found work with Ketchum Sports and Entertainment as an intern. While at Ketchum, he worked in social media with clients such as Pepsi, Gillette and Samsung. Eventually the internship lead to a full time job in New York City.

“If you’re graduating and you don’t have anything lined up yet, that’s okay,” Ritenour said.

Currently, Ritenour is the marketing communications manager for Anheuser-Busch. Working specifically for the Bud Light and Mexican import brands, Ritenour focuses on leveraging sponsorships with the NFL, NBA and the Mexican National Soccer Team.

“When you’re the biggest sponsor, you get a lot of hate from the media,” Ritenour said.

Much of Ritenour’s day consists of working with different media outlets and ensuring Bud Light has a positive public image.

Along with his daily tasks, Ritenour shared his experience working on Anheuser-Busch’s Super Bowl campaigns. He focused on one campaign in particular, the Bud Light golden can. The company placed 37,000 golden cans in packages across the country. One lucky golden can could be redeemed for lifelong Super Bowl tickets.

“One of the things I really love about my job is that sometimes we get to give people the opportunity of a lifetime,” Ritenour said. “It feels like I’m doing something more than just selling someone beer.”

Making connections along the way in students’ careers is another point Ritenour stressed. When naming various internships he held as a student, Ritenour noted each came from a connection made at a previous spot he held.

Along with connections in the industry, Ritenour stressed the importance of getting involved at school. Ritenour is a former sports editor of the Point Park Globe.

Professor Camille Downing also had Ritenour as a student and attended the event.

“He was definitely one of my better students and he was always driven,” Downing said. “I’m shocked anyone can go as far as he’s gone so young.”

To conclude the event, Miles compiled a slideshow of six things students should take away from the presentation: get involved, be willing to give your time, find internships, accept not getting paid, make sacrifices and that working in sports is not a 9-5 job.

“He reaffirmed to me that we should take advantage of the connections our professors have,” sports, arts and entertainment management freshman Toni Mildanov said. “The world of business is about networking, so it’s something students should focus on.”

Each semester, the Pittsburgh Center for Sports Media and Marketing works to bring speakers to talk to students about working in the sports and entertainment industry.

Past events featured the NBC’s Doc Emrick, the Pittsburgh Pirate’s Greg Brown and voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers Fred McLeod. This was the final event of the year for the center.