Career & Community

Jason Young (CV Class of 1995) with Missie Cekus

Jason Young graduated from Chartiers Valley High School in 1995 unsure of the plans for his future career. Today -- despite his uncertainty upon graduating high school – this Chartiers Valley grad rose to the top of the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel’s Communications Department as Director of Communications.

As director, Jason is responsible for the technologies that support guests, groups and conferences that take place at the hotels.

“We are a third party and don’t actually work for one specific hotel,” explains Jason. “I oversee all the technologies and communications that come through the hotel.”

“We [recently] hosted the Council of Educational Facilities Planners International (CEFPI) and we serviced all the groups’ communications and technical support for the week. We [even] deal with actors, musicians, and professional sports teams.”

After earning a degree in Advertising/PR and Journalism from Robert Morris University, Jason landed a job as a technician at the Pittsburgh Airport Wyndham. He had worked his way up to a coordinator shortly before being asked to work downtown at the Pittsburgh Renaissance Hotel as the Managing Assist Director. 

Since then, he was promoted to Director of Communications for the hotel. Jason has been with the company for 11 years and has been running the Renaissance team for nine years. 

And when it comes to his goals and aspirations, the sky is the limit. Jason says he wants to climb the management reigns even further, with hopes of supporting and managing multiple properties one day.

In addition to his career goals, Jason also has admirable personal goals – one of which is to expand upon his charity work. After being named one of “Pittsburgh’s 50 Finest” for his fundraising work with Cystic Fibrosis, he plans to continue fundraising for non-profit organizations.

“[Last year] I was able to raise just under $9,000 for the charity through private donations and by throwing a Heaven Revisited event at my hotel,” says Jason. “As a goal I’d like to continue to work with different charity groups and help in any way I can.”

Jason credits his Chartiers Valley High School experience with preparing him to become a more outgoing and social person through clubs and extracurricular activities.

“I was sort of shy coming out of Our Lady of Grace grade school and CV was the place where I broke out of my shell,” explains Jason.” This eventually led me to want to get into a creative and interactive profession. That is why I went to RMU for Advertising/PR.”

Jason advises current Chartiers Valley students to “just take your time and figure out who you want to be rather that what you want to be!”

“I believe there’s so much pressure put on young students to try and figure out what they want to do with the rest of their lives and what the next step is while in high school,” says Jason. “I think it’s more important to figure out who or what type of person you want to be. Once you figure that out the rest should fall into place.”

Jason Young (4th from the right) at Pittsburgh's 50 Finest.