Another year in the books here at The Globe, and this issue, we are focusing on the Millennial generation coming to an end at universities worldwide.

To start, the phrase “millennial” is defined differently by everyone it seems. For me, I consider a millennial to be anyone born between the years 1980-1999 – that is, anyone who was born in the years leading up to the change of the millennium.

This year, a lot of the freshmen that came in were born in late 1999 and even 2000. Personally, it makes me feel SO old that there are people that are young adults that were born in the year 2000.

This week, I wanted to focus on the millennial athletes that have changed the course of athletics here at Point Park most recently and the future of the Pioneers with the non-millennial athletes that have made their debuts this season.

The two millennial athletes that most stick out in my mind are cross country star Anna Shields (obviously) and women’s basketball standout Kaitlyn Smith.

All too often, we have heard that millennials are lazy, disloyal, technology-driven, overly-sensitive clones of one another.

Both Shields and Smith challenge every single one of those assumptions.

Lazy? Smith is the executive director of the Campus Activities Board, was the senior (and only) captain of the women’s basketball team, boasts a 3.98 GPA, and is most recently the winner of the Outstanding Student Leader award at the Outstanding Student Awards this past Friday.

Shields, well, I don’t think there is a person on this campus that does not know the story of Anna Shields at this point. In addition to her 3.7 GPA, she has achieved an immense amount of awards, recognitions, and records in cross country and track and field – all of which can be found under her biography on the Point Park Sports website. Most recently, she set a facility record at a 95-year-old facility. 95 years of runners and she is faster than all of them.

Disloyal? They are both captains of their teams and I think that says enough.

Technology-driven? It is impossible to live in this day in age and not rely at least partly on technology, which is not a personality trait anyway.

Overly-sensitive? Again, they participate in athletics, which is telling enough to me that they aren’t.

Clones? Not only are they both independent, successful women, but if they are the same as every single other one of their peers, how do they shine so bright among the slew of student-athletes that exist in the world?

On the opposite side of the spectrum lies Taylor Goldstrohm and Hailey Leitner and Abel van Beest, all of which are freshmen that have proven themselves in their sports and in the classroom.

Goldstrohm, a two-sport student-athlete. Leitner, a standout softball newcomer. Van Beest, another two-sport student-athlete and star among the men’s soccer team.

They may not be millennials, but I think the future of the Pioneer athletic programs are pretty safe in the hands of Generation Z.