For many college athletes, the end of their collegiate careers brings a difficult decision: should they continue pursuing a professional sports dream, or begin building a career outside of athletics? Across the NCAA, more than 500,000 student athletes compete in sports that have professional leagues—yet fewer than 2% ultimately reach that level.
For Georgetown women’s golfer Olivia Ty (MSB ’28), her answer to the question of whether to pursue golf or another career has shifted throughout her college experience.
“I’ve been making vision boards for five or six years now, and my very first few vision boards had professional golf on them,” she said in an interview with the Voice. “I’ve always dreamed of playing.”
However, Ty acknowledged the challenges that come with going pro: “It’s very difficult. It’s so expensive. It takes a lot of time and effort, and it will break you down mentally.”
Ty explored opportunities beyond athletics, including finance recruitment, and found that balancing collegiate golf with career exploration is not easy. The demands of travel, practice, and tournaments make it difficult to gain the experience employers expect.
“I would be told, ‘You’re a great candidate,’ but then they would say my resume isn’t built up enough,” she said. “As a golfer, I don’t have the time to be part of these extracurricular clubs that build your resume. My entire resume is centered around golf.”
Over time, Ty’s perspective shifted about the job application process and recruiting—she decided to focus on her experience in college and continue to follow her dream of professional golf.
“At some point, I decided to live in the present,” she said. “I wouldn’t say ‘I didn’t choose recruiting.’ I think the root is probably what’s more important, which is me choosing to enjoy my four years here and make the most of it.”
Some Georgetown athletes have gone on to achieve their athletic dreams after graduation. Georgetown men’s soccer alum Maximus Jennings (CAS ’24), who has been playing professionally for over a year and recently signed with Westchester SC, has achieved what many student athletes dream of: turning his passion for the game into a professional career.
“One thing I always knew since I could remember was that I wanted to be a professional athlete,” he told the Voice.
However, his path wasn’t always clear.
“My freshman year and part of my sophomore year, I didn’t touch the field,” he said. “There were definitely moments of doubt.”
After being drafted by Real Salt Lake in the 2024 Major League Soccer SuperDraft, the decision to continue playing felt obvious.
“If I were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to fulfill my childhood dream of playing professionally, I was going to take it,” Jennings said.
For other athletes, collegiate play exists completely outside of career plans. Georgetown lightweight women’s rower Austin Forrester (CAS ’27) has always approached rowing as an experience beyond her professional life.
“I don’t think I ever really considered going forward with rowing in a professional context,” she said in an interview with the Voice.
Instead, Forrester focused on preparing for a career in consulting. Consulting recruitment is an intense process, especially when balancing with rowing.
“I did almost all of my interview prep and applications over the summer,” she said. “While the fall is our less busy racing season, we were still training for Head of the Charles [the world’s largest three-day rowing race].”
While Forrester doesn’t plan to row after graduation, the sport has remained an important part of her college experience.
“I keep rowing for a lot of reasons […] The main reason is just love for the sport itself,” she said. “It’s so nice to get out on the water every day and focus on something other than academics.”
Regardless of if they’re planning to go pro or not, all the athletes emphasized the importance of their coaches and teammates in supporting their goals. For Forrester, coordinating interviews with practice schedules required careful planning and communication with coaches and teammates.
“In rowing, if someone is out, that impacts the whole eight-person boat, so we really try to minimize absences,” she said.
Forrester added that the rowing community has been critical in her job hunt process.
“Several former rowers and their friends were super helpful on the networking side of things,” she said. “I practiced casing [interviews based on real-world business scenarios] with a few other rowers in Lau when we had the time.”
The soccer community at Georgetown, particularly Jennings’ coaches, were also pivotal as he figured out his life post-graduation. Jennings credits the program with setting him up to succeed in professional soccer.
“There’s a standard of excellence in the [Georgetown] program that pushed me to grow not just as a player but as a man,” he said. “I give a lot of credit to Coach [Brian] Wiese and the coaching staff…Even though the people and place were different, the professionalism and expectations of how to approach each day felt very familiar.”
Now pursuing his dream, Jennings reflects on how his both experiences shaped him.
“Going to a place like Georgetown prepared me for life beyond soccer and made sure I had options. I know the game eventually comes to an end, but right now I’m grateful to be chasing this dream and making the most of the opportunity while I have it,” he said. “My dad used to tell me not to let sports use me, but for me to use sports to create opportunities for myself.”
Like Jennings, Ty noted the support she has received from her coaches and team as she looks to pursue golf professionally.
“Our coach is super supportive of us, and she just wants us to be happy, have fun, and work hard,” she said. “Everyone here just wants the best for everyone.”
Ultimately, the community around Ty, from her coaches and teammates to her family, made it possible for her to pursue her goals.
“Life is short,” she said. “My grandparents and my parents sacrificed so much so that I would have the opportunity to chase my dreams, and I feel I’d be wasting that opportunity if I didn’t try to pursue it.”
