Students everywhere commonly dream of gliding straight from a high-profile internship into a job with the same employer. That dream came true for three sport management majors from David B. Falk College of Sport who interned at The Montag Group in recent years.

Based in New York City, The Montag Group represents more than 200 of the nation’s top sports broadcasters, along with coaches, chefs, and entertainers (see accompanying story). Its Founder & President is Sandy Montag ’85, a highly respected 40-year veteran of the sports industry.

Using Falk College Connections

To get her internship, Caroline Johnson ’21 started by connecting with Kate Ruben ’15, who was The Montag Group’s intern coordinator. Today, Ruben is director of brand marketing for Excel Sports Management. She’s also a member of the , a group of Falk College’s most committed young alumni who provide guidance to current students.

Johnson interviewed and got the internship. But disaster hit only a few months before her start date. In March 2020, much of the country began shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Montag Group decided to continue its internships, but to make them remote.

“I was completely remote,” Johnson says, “but I still loved it. They did a great job of making me feel like I was still part of the team.”

The diverse projects helped her see what areas of sport management interested her the most,�� Johnson says.

She interned from June through December 2020, an unusually long time because The Montag Group let Johnson add her capstone project to the normal three-month internship. Then near the end came a surprise: Ruben told Johnson that Sandy Montag was looking for a new executive assistant and asked if she was interested in the job.

“I obviously said yes,” Johnson says.

She says she believes Ruben helped pave the way for her hiring.

Johnson still had to finish her final semester at Falk College, so between classes she had Zoom calls with Montag’s current assistant to learn the job. She started working at The Montag Group immediately after graduating.

The Montag Group was acquired in 2022 by THE·TEAM, and today, Johnson is senior manager of operations for the company’s in-house speaker’s bureau. Once a client signs a contract for a speaking appearance, Johnson takes over to handle all the logistics.

“No two events are the same,” Johnson says, “so it’s a lot of variation day-to-day, which I like.”

Falk College’s sport management program is “completely the reason I am where I am today in my career,” Johnson says.

“The attention you get as a student is just one of a kind, and the professors are so knowledgeable and they have real-world experience,” she says. “They really stressed the importance of putting yourself out there professionally, putting your best foot forward professionally, and making connections as early as possible with people in the industry.”

Johnson made many of those connections through her work with the Syracuse University chapter of , where she served as vice president and then president, and with the . In her junior year, Johnson co-chaired the club’s annual . Her work in both groups gave Johnson many opportunities to connect with Falk College alumni.

Creating His Own Job

As his remote internship at The Montag Group started winding down, Luca Giacobbe ’22 was on a companywide Zoom call when someone said the agency was going to hire a couple of entry-level people.

“I’m the only one on the call that wasn’t working for the company full time,” Giacobbe says, “So my alarm bells start going off. How can I get considered for one of these jobs?”

He told the agency’s internship coordinator that he was “super interested” in staying, and she told him to hang tight because they were early in the process. He continued working hard, both on projects and on developing his colleagues’ trust. Those efforts included spending a week in Manhattan at The Montag Group’s office so he could meet his colleagues in person.

A day or two before his internship ended, a new meeting suddenly appeared on Giacobbe’s calendar. It was with Sandy Montag.

Montag told Giacobbe that he’d done a great job, and a lot of his colleagues had advocated for hiring him. Would he like to be Montag’s executive assistant? After thinking it over, he said yes.

From that start, Giacobbe has risen to become the agency’s communications manager – a new position he created with guidance and support from his colleagues.

“There’s opportunity for our agents and our clients to be out talking about the sports industry and to position ourselves as thought leaders,” Giacobbe says.

Speaking engagements, panel discussions, podcasts, social media, article placements and other outlets all offer opportunities, he says.

At Falk College, Giacobbe remembers that professors and advisors, including advisors specifically dedicated to internships, emphasized networking and connecting students with alumni.

“The biggest thing that I learned from Syracuse was about relationships and building meaningful ones, not just having a call with someone and not talking to them again,” Giacobbe says.

On April 19, 2026, a humanoid robot developed by Chinese smartphone maker Honor completed a Beijing half-marathon in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, faster than the human world record by almost seven minutes. The improvement from 2025’s inaugural race has generated widespread attention. But what does it tell us about the future of robotics off the track?

is an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and director of the Dynamic Locomotion and Robotics Lab, where he researches legged locomotion. He is a for his research on how animals transition seamlessly between movement patterns and how to give robots that same kind of physical intelligence. Gan helped put the race results in context.

On the Technological Improvements

• “Last year’s winning robot took over two hours, with few teams finishing. This year, a much larger field saw many completions, and the fastest robot surpassed human racers. This reflects advances in energy efficiency, control and morphology, especially with a known benchmark.”

On the Work Still to Be Done

• “The race highlights that humanoid robotics is progressing rapidly in task-specific dynamic locomotion. However, these are structured conditions. We still have work ahead before achieving robust, general performance in everyday scenarios.”

On the Limits of Controlled Conditions

• “While controlled settings allow us to test locomotion in isolation, real-world applications are far more complex. Uneven terrain, obstacles and safety factors require significant advances in perception and adaptability.”

On What to Expect in the Near Future

• “In the next decade, we’ll likely see humanoid robots in well-defined roles—for example, industrial inspections, logistics or hazardous environments—where tasks are repeatable and structured to their strengths.”

When visited campus during an admitted students day, she didn’t think she would end up attending the University. That quickly changed.

“I had no intention of coming here,” says Rafferty. “I had just applied on a whim. And we got on campus and I said, ‘I think I’m going here.’”

Syracuse checked all the boxes for her: a larger school with a tight-knit feel; a student body and alumni network that took pride in its school; and a that could set her on the path toward her career goal of being a sports agent.

She enrolled as a sport management major and became highly involved on campus. As a  she gave campus tours to prospective students and families. The spring semester of her junior year was spent in ���ٳ���dzܲ�����. She joined the ,��, and the . Each experience helped shape her vision for her future.

In particular, the Sport Management Club and its annual  opened her eyes to a possible new career path. Each year, students in Sport Management Club hold an auction during a Syracuse men’s basketball game with all proceeds benefitting a Syracuse-area charity. During Rafferty’s junior year the beneficiary was the  of Central New York, which had a lasting effect on her.

“I really saw the impact of collective action,” Rafferty says. “That if a lot of people came together, and worked hard together, it could make an impact on the community. And I realized community-focused work and events were more so where I wanted to be.”

Even when the auction was over, Rafferty remained involved with the local Make-A-Wish chapter and later, when she moved to Philadelphia, was connected with the Make-A-Wish chapter there to continue her work.

Her senior year also opened another door. She met her future husband, Luke Rafferty ’16, a photojournalism major in the , through the University’s . Both were  and were members of the program’s Community Impact Committee.

They married in 2019.

In the years after graduating, Luke worked as a freelance videographer while Hannah worked in marketing before moving into corporate event planning. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, canceling events for the foreseeable future, Hannah’s position was eliminated. A few local nonprofits hired her to plan virtual events, creating the opportunity for the couple to work together.

“You needed videos for the virtual events, so Luke and I started working together that way,” she says.

It was the start of what would later become their company: , with Luke handling the technical side and Hannah using skills she honed through the sport management program to manage all production logistics and oversee client development and relationships.

Their client list includes the American Red Cross, Make-A-Wish, the Jewish Federation of Philadelphia and other Philadelphia area nonprofits. They also work with companies like American Airlines, JetBlue and Visa, showcasing their community initiatives.

Hannah was named a for their work at Filmiamo Productions.

In starting their company, they leveraged Syracuse’s expansive alumni network and community to connect with clients.

“[Luke’s] Syracuse connections lead him to a variety of different clients,” Hannah says. “Now we’re like five, six, seven steps removed from that, but probably 85% of our business stems back to connections at Syracuse.”

Her bond with the University and the Falk College of Sport is something she is passionate about continuing to grow. She joined Falk College’s (ELC), a group of young alumni who provide guidance to current students, assist with capstones and internships and help them prepare for their futures.

She joined the ELC with encouragement from fellow sport management alumna , who Hannah heard speak at the admitted students day she attended. By chance, Wood became her Peer Advisor freshman year and the two became close friends. Wood later served as a bridesmaid at Hannah and Luke’s wedding.

As an engaged alumna, Hannah has made a  gift through the  to help students access all types of experiential learning, something that, at times, felt out of reach for Rafferty as the daughter of a single mom.

“I recognize the value of experiential learning, and I didn’t always feel I could afford those experiences while I was in college,” she says. “I don’t want another student to have that financial barrier to having that hands-on experience that is so valuable to education.”