For a Division I student-athlete, preparing for life after competition can be its own endurance event. Practices, travel, coursework, and team commitments leave little room for internships, career programs or informal networking. Angela Devine saw that gap firsthand—and used her applied research project as part of her M.S. in Sports Administration program to turn it into an opportunity for connection.
A shared experience becomes a professional network
Angela’s project centered on a practical question: How can Boston College Athletics build a structured student-athlete alumni mentorship program that improves career readiness, expands networking opportunities and supports the transition out of sport? Her answer was the BC Eagle Athletes Alumni Group, a dedicated community within Eagle Exchange, Boston College’s established alumni networking platform.
Instead of asking busy students and alumni to learn another platform, Angela built on a resource already trusted by more than 35,000 members of the BC community. The group gives current student-athletes a direct path to alumni who know what it means to balance academics with the demands of varsity athletics—and who have already navigated the shift from collegiate sport to professional life.
Angela partnered with the BC Career Center and BC Athletics to move the idea from research to implementation. Conversations with Howard Thrasher, Jonathan Rosenthal of the career center and Joshua Beekman of the athletic department helped shape the group’s setup, outreach and engagement strategy. The project drew on comparable programs at other universities and on BC’s own student-athlete subgroups that were in a google spreadsheet, then adapted those lessons to the particular needs of student-athletes.
397
women’s rowing alumni contacted
43
members in the live pilot group
31
varsity sports in the long-term vision
A pilot designed to create lasting value
The women's rowing community became the first pilot. As a BC rower, Angela brought credibility, empathy and a personal understanding of the audience she hoped to serve. She launched the group with a clear About page, verified membership controls, career resources and discussion spaces for introductions, internships and jobs, career paths, and advice about life after sport.
She then led outreach to 397 women's rowing alumni, spanning graduating classes from 1974 to the present. By the close of the project period, the group was live with 40 members and follow-up outreach underway. That early participation created something BC student-athletes had not previously had in one designated place: access to professionals across industries who share the identity and experience of competing for Boston College.
For alumni, the group creates a low-barrier way to remain connected to the program and give back. Participation does not require a formal mentoring commitment; being available for a conversation, sharing an opportunity or offering perspective can make a meaningful difference. For current rowers, the value is equally concrete: a welcoming place to ask questions, explore careers and learn how former Eagles translated discipline, teamwork, leadership and resilience into the workplace.
The pilot also produced institutional value. Angela documented the buildout and onboarding process, tested the sequence of recruiting alumni before inviting current athletes, and created an outreach framework that can inform expansion to Boston College’s other 30 varsity teams. Just as important, the project surfaced a critical operational need: keeping alumni contact information current. More than 40 initial emails bounced, leading Angela to work with Career Center staff, use LinkedIn and Eagle Exchange for follow-up, and update records for future outreach.
Learning by leading
The project gave Angela the kind of real-world experience that cannot be replicated by a traditional research paper. She moved among roles as researcher, project manager, platform administrator, communicator and community builder. She analyzed literature and peer programs, interviewed campus stakeholders, built a live digital community, managed a large contact list, wrote and refined outreach, tracked engagement and adjusted the rollout when evidence challenged her initial assumptions.
One of the most important lessons came from a gap between awareness and action. Even among a highly engaged team, simply making a useful resource available did not guarantee participation. Angela learned that sustained engagement requires thoughtful onboarding, repeated and personalized communication, visible activity and patience. She began exploring new approaches, including captain-led promotion, student-athlete orientation, alumni Facebook groups and individualized outreach.
Those challenges became part of the project’s value. Angela gained practical experience solving messy problems, building consensus across departments and responding constructively when results came more slowly than expected. She also learned to prioritize meaningful engagement over vanity metrics: a smaller group of active participants can offer more value than a larger but passive membership list.
Building a stronger transition beyond sport
The BC Eagle Athletes Alumni Group is still at the beginning of its story. Because Angela’s implementation took place over the 2026 summer semester, long-term outcomes such as mentorship relationships, internships and job placements remain to be measured. But the project has already created the infrastructure, partnerships and first community needed to pursue those outcomes.
Its promise extends beyond networking. Student-athletes often invest deeply in an athletic identity, making the end of college competition a profound transition. By connecting them early with alumni who have successfully navigated that change, the group can help athletes see a future in which the qualities strengthened through sport continue to matter—and in which they remain part of the Boston College community.
For Angela, the work clarified a professional purpose. The experience deepened her interest in helping student-athletes develop off the field and strengthened her skills in outreach, administration, leadership, problem-solving and partnership building. Her project demonstrates what applied research can achieve at its best: a rigorous inquiry that becomes a real resource, a learning experience that creates value for others, and an idea built to endure well beyond the classroom.
The message behind the initiative is fittingly Boston College: Once an Eagle, always an Eagle. Angela’s project gives that promise a new, practical expression—one conversation, one connection and one career at a time.
“ I am proud that this subgroup exists, as before there was no designated area for student-athletes to connect with like-minded alumni. ”
