Logan Whitaker
Founder & President
Merrimack College
01Our Mission
A student-athlete’s calendar is full long before anyone mentions internships.
Practice, lifts, travel, film, treatment, study hall, and a full course load are scheduled first and moved for nothing. What’s left over rarely lines up with the hours of the business world. Internships, info sessions, and networking events almost always fall during the exact hours athletes are on a field, in a training room, or on a bus.
That’s not a matter of drive or ability. The ethics that fill an athlete’s calendar are the same ones every hiring manager says they want: showing up early, being coachable, performing when it’s measured.
The Athlete Advancement Initiative closes that gap in the one window athletes reliably have — an evening, in person, to get to know other hardworkers in the same position as themselves and those who want to hire them. In a single night, they can expand their network, listen to those who hire, and climb the professional ladder.
02Featured Event
22Oct2026
Foot in the Door: How Athletes Break Into Business
An evening with people who have already made the walk from a locker room to a payroll: what they applied for, who answered, what they wish they had known in their sophomore spring. The panel runs first. Then the floor opens, and it stays open until the questions run out.
- Date
- Thursday, October 22, 2026
- Location
- Location to be announced
- Format
- Live panel, followed by open Q&A
- Audience
- College student-athletes, and the professionals who hire them
03Founding Board
Who is accountable for this
The Initiative is governed by its founding board. Every seat is filled, officer titles follow Massachusetts nonprofit practice, and the people below answer for how this organization spends its time and its money.
Kyle Wagner
Vice President
Stefan Bilc
Treasurer
Springfield College
Reece Lindstrom
Clerk
Merrimack College
Kasen Owens
Director
Manhattan University
Nykolas Whitaker
Director
Emmanuel College
Joseph Sowers
Director
Merrimack College
Kai Vogel
Director
Concordia University Irvine
04Three Ways To Get Involved
An evening of your time is worth a semester of cold emails
Every one of these starts with a note to the same inbox, and every note gets a reply.
Speak on a panel
Ninety minutes, one evening. Tell a room of student-athletes how you actually got hired — including the parts that were luck. No slides, no preparation required.
Sponsor an event
Sponsorship covers the room, the chairs, and the food that keeps a team in the room after practice. Firms are credited at the event and on this page.
Spread the word
Forward this page to a coach, an athletic director, an alumni network, or the one colleague who always knows who is hiring. Reach is the cheapest thing you can give us.