Alumni Mentor Program Opens Doors in the Sport Industry

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Rogers unknowingly accelerated his own career trajectory when he signed up for the Alumni Mentor Program (AMP). Today, he holds a position with the Golden State Warriors, a role he traces directly back to the community USF helped him build.

“Without the program, I'm not with Golden State right now,” Rogers said. “Most of my experiences, truthfully, were all part of the program.”

His story is not an outlier. It is exactly what the Sport Management program was designed to make possible.

A Program Built on Relationships

The sports industry runs on relationships. Breaking into it requires more than a strong resume - it demands knowing how to navigate a competitive, tightly connected world. That is precisely the gap the Alumni Mentor Program was created to bridge.

Paired with Lisa Fahey, a seasoned executive and member of the Sport Management Advisory Board, Rogers spent two years developing the professional skills and industry savvy that a classroom cannot fully replicate. Together, they built a relationship grounded in consistency, openness, and mutual investment, meeting regularly to work through the full arc of a job search, from crafting a resume and preparing for interviews to negotiation and networking.

“Kai was a model mentee,” said Fahey. “He listened. He actually wanted to learn and deploy what we talked about. He's completely coachable.” Fahey acknowledges that Rogers’ drive, engagement with AMP, and consistent communication were critical factors in their successful mentoring relationship.

For Rogers, the relationship was a lifeline through the highs and lows of one of the most competitive career paths in professional sports. At one point, Rogers was balancing three part-time positions, working with the San Francisco Giants, MLB, and USF and major events, like Super Bowl LX. After an internship experience that left him questioning his direction, it was Fahey who steadied him. “She was just there to support me,” he recalled. “She would always say, if you put everything into it, there's something better on the horizon.”

That something better turned out to be the Golden State Warriors.

The Network That Made It Happen

The position came through a lead generated by Dr. Agha, a Sport Management faculty member whose connection to a hiring manager at the organization opened a door that simply did not exist on any public job board. The moment Rogers got the interview, he called on everything he had learned from Fahey's coaching.

“All the work I had gone through with my mentor helped prepare me for that moment,” Rogers said. He arrived having done his homework, standing apart from every other candidate.

Rogers' story reflects something fundamental about how the USF MS in Sport Management program operates: faculty, alumni mentors, and the broader advisory board don't function as separate support systems. They function as a community, one that shows up for students in ways that compound over time.

Giving Back, Paying It Forward

For Fahey, the decision to become a mentor was rooted in personal experience. She had benefited from mentorship herself and wanted to give that back. What she did not expect was how much the relationship would teach her in return - about the current landscape of the sports industry, about how today's job market has been reshaped by AI-powered screening tools, and about where the next generation of sport management professionals is starting from.

“Mentoring gave me a macro view of what students are experiencing, where students are today versus where I was during grad school,” she said. What she found was a generation of talented, motivated people who simply needed exposure to the full mechanics of professional life: how to find opportunities, how to position themselves, how to follow up, and how to build relationships that last.

“Seeing them thrive and seeing the fruits of your effort, it's really self-fulfilling,” Fahey said. “I feel like I really did help Kai get to where he is.”

For any current USF Sport Management student sitting on the fence, Rogers does not mince words. “There's literally no reason not to join it,” he said. “Mentors want to help you out. They're spending their free time to come help you. You just have to put in the effort.”

From Super Bowl staffing opportunities to Warriors front office roles, the experiences USF students are building are not incidental, they are the product of a program that has spent years cultivating the community to make them possible.

Interested in joining the USF Sport Management Alumni Mentor Program? Current students can learn more through the program office. Alumni looking to give back as mentors are encouraged to reach out to the Sport Management department directly.