Joining the Campus Activities Board (CAB) is a great way to get involved at Point Park, and sophomore behavioral sciences major Autumn Plutt decided to do just that last semester. 

“I commute and I live at home, so it was kind of hard to be physically there a lot outside of classwork,” Plutt said. “So I wanted to be there for the friendships and the students and get that student body experience that’s not in the classroom.”

Plutt is heading into her second semester as the Experience Pittsburgh Coordinator of CAB. She has lived in Pittsburgh her whole life and thought the committee would suit her local expertise and admiration for the city. 

“The last few years there hasn’t been a Pittsburgh born and raised student having the Experience Pittsburgh position, so they just thought that it was a perfect fit,” she said. “I just love everything about the city, so I think it was a perfect fit to do events that revolve around my favorite city.”

Plutt hosted an event in the fall called “Crazy for Cocoa,” which was her favorite event from the fall semester. There were personalized CAB marshmallows and mugs, and she said many people attended. She also helped run a tie dye event that was planned by Chad Mercer, the Special Events Coordinator, which she said she had fun with. 

An event that inspired Plutt to join CAB was the Just Ducky Event from last year, planned by the current VP of Programming in CAB. 

“Shelby Armetta brought the live ducks to campus, and then you’re wondering ‘how can I get involved in that?’” Plutt said. “That was just the one thing whenever I just really wanted to know what CAB was all about.” 

Because the fall was her first semester involved in CAB, she immediately had to get used to planning completely virtual events. However, the amount of students who continued to attend and enjoy the virtual events was a pleasant surprise. 

“Since I’m a commuter, I know how hard it can be to wanna go to an event that starts at 9 p.m. when I have to drive to it, so I wouldn’t go often,” she said. “But now that there’s an option to attend online, there’s a lot of people who have been coming to virtual events, so it was kind of a surprise.” 

Although all of the events in the fall were remote, CAB is hoping to ease into some in-person events for the spring semester while following COVID-19 restrictions. 

An event that the Experience Pittsburgh committee will be doing in the spring that Plutt is looking forward to is the Love Pittsburgh event, which will be on Monday, Feb. 15. 

“Normally for Love Pittsburgh, we would have everything out and students would just come and pick it up, but this year we’re gonna have bakeries individually wrap items, so I’m really looking forward to that,” Plutt said. 

Plutt looks forward to being able to host more events, both virtually and in-person, for students in the spring semester.