Life After Fisher: Alumni Profiles

Four graduates of Fisher’s sport management program share insight into their careers and offer advice for current students.

Frankie Carnevale ’17
Account Executive, Group Events, Prudential Center/New Jersey Devils
Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment

Frankie Carnevale ’17 works in one of the busiest buildings in America; home of the New Jersey Devils, the Prudential Center hosts a wide variety of entertainment events. As an account executive in Group Events for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, Carnevale works with schools, recreation departments, youth sports organizations, and companies to help them experience all the Center has to offer.

“The unique part about working for Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment (HBSE) is that we’re all full menu sellers,” he explained. “Even though my main focus is to sell group tickets/experiences for Prudential Center family shows, I can also sell Devils products, suites, and even Philadelphia 76ers products, because we’re all under the same ownership group.”

For Carnevale, a typical workday includes fielding high-priority calls from clients, making personal outreach to different organizations, and on game days, ensuring clients receive a stellar experience.

“Hours are long, there’s no doubt about it, but when you love what you’re doing, and more importantly who you’re doing it for, time flies,” he said.

Carnevale, who studied sport management and business management while at Fisher, said the intense workload, internship and practicum experience, and approachable faculty members helped him gain the knowledge and skills needed to be successful in his career.

“The leadership team at Fisher is there to teach, mold, and produce the best talent that any sport management program has to offer,” he said. “Never did I think I would be working for a professional sports organization at 24, but I believed I could, spoke it into existence, and worked my tail off to prove that I was worth the investment.”

Meg Nolte ’06
General Manager, UNC Asheville IMG Sports Marketing
IMG College

Meg Nolte ’06 says she’s in the relationship business. With IMG College, a collegiate sports marketing company, she works with the University of North Carolina Ashville to identify multimedia marketing, hospitality, and engagement opportunities for the University. That means understanding how partnerships between the University and businesses can be mutually beneficial.

“Think of your best relationships … you are communicating, you understand each other’s needs, and you are growing and learning from each other—supporting one another. That is the core of my job,” she said. That means cultivating existing relationships and building new ones by meeting with clients or attending networking events.

“Building partnership activation plans, meeting with partners, and recapping former partnership programs is an ongoing responsibility—which equates to time in the office to get organized and build deadlines and materials to communicate accordingly with our contacts internally and externally,” she explained.

As a student-athlete at Fisher, Nolte did it all. She double majored in sport management and marketing and minored in Spanish, was a Service Scholar, and worked a part-time job. So, it’s no surprise that she manages her duties at IMG with the ultimate enthusiasm.

“In having to juggle many priorities, deadlines, and commitments, I learned quickly how to apply myself in many different ways, which shaped me to have the grit to strive for what I wanted to achieve in my career,” she said.

Joe D’Agostino ’16
Assistant Ticket Director
The Ohio State University

Joe D’Agostino ’16 is in charge of packing the house. As the assistant ticket director at The Ohio State University, he is in charge of ticketing for all non-University related events in the Schottenstein Center and Ohio Stadium.

“I work directly with show promoters to ensure all Ticketmaster programming on the back-end is in place so that fans can buy tickets online,” he explained, noting that concert or event days provide a whole different slate of job responsibilities and tasks. “Just about every single day is different which I really love; it really keeps me on my toes and very seldom do I get bored.”

D’Agostino said several of his experiences at Fisher—he was a sport management and Spanish major—provided an avenue into the ticketing industry. As a sophomore, he sold tickets at CMAC in Canandaigua, and then served as an intern at the Blue Cross Arena.

“I learned so much and it came so naturally to me that I knew that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” he said. “Being able to work directly with the Box Office Manager and closely with the GM and Operations Director [at Blue Cross Arena] was extremely valuable and prepared me to enter that industry upon graduating. Before I knew it, I was the guy sending that same job offer to Fisher students and interviewing potential candidates.”

Danae Donatello ’14
Volunteer Operations Management, 2020 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship
PGA of America

Danae Donatello spent her childhood cheering on her brother from the sidelines. Today, she cheers on 1,700 volunteers as they prepare for the 2020 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.

A 2014 graduate of the College’s sport management program, Donatello secured a position as an administrative assistant with the 2013 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club, which she called a “great kick-starter” into the role she has today.

“It allowed me to understand what a golf Championship looked like, how it was run, how the PGA of America functioned, and how the volunteer program was managed,” she said.

She uses that experience to recruit, train, and outfit the Championships volunteers, and also travels to other PGA tournaments to support Advancement Week and Championship Week. While she says no day is typical, January through May are her busiest months.

“This is really crunch time to ensure all the details are laid out and executed to provide all volunteers with an exceptional experience,” she said.