This story is part two of a two-part series. Click this link to view part one.
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 Syracuse University Emerging Leaders Council, 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, and 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. 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 Women in Sport and Events, where she served as vice president and then president, and with the Sport Management Club. In her junior year, Johnson co-chaired the club’s annual Charity Sports Auction. Her work in both groups gave Johnson many opportunities to connect with Falk College alumni.
Luca Giacobbe, Elizabeth Vogt, and Caroline Johnson sit on their computers in an office space at The Montag Group.
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 said, “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.
Another important factor in his professional development at Syracuse, Giacobbe says, was his heavy involvement all four years in the Sport Management Club and its annual Charity Sports Auction. In his senior year he co-chaired the auction. “I could see the people that were leading in that club were the ones that were getting great internships and great jobs,” Giacobbe says. “The Sport Management Club was definitely the most rewarding thing that I did in my four years at Syracuse. And it opened up a lot of doors for me.”
Making the Most of Internships
In Elizabeth Vogt’s ’24 first class at Falk College, Introduction to Sport Management, Associate Professor Gina Pauline “emphasized the importance of having experience and getting internships – that’s what sets you apart,” Vogt recalls.
She took the advice to heart, racking up four internships during her four years at Syracuse. Vogt interned with USA Water Polo, Nike, Syracuse Athletic Communications, and – during the last semester of her senior year – with The Montag Group.
The coordinator for her remote internship at The Montag Group was Caroline Johnson ’21, who herself had been an intern there. During a companywide Zoom call late in her internship, Vogt learned that Johnson was moving to a new position in the agency. She later congratulated Johnson on the move and expressed her great interest if an opening occurred.
To improve her chances, Vogt decided to go to New York City to meet her colleagues in person. “I wanted to introduce myself and make sure everyone knows who I am,” Vogt said, “and so they can understand my personality and see if I’d be a good fit for the company.” She made sure to sit down with Johnson while she was at the office, too.
Her hard work and hustle paid off when The Montag Group offered her a full-time job. Today, as manager of talent and media, Vogt uses many of the things she learned at Falk College.
Most of all, she uses what she learned in Sport Law, an “infamously hard class” taught by Professor John T. Wolohan. “We got a crash course in law,” Vogt recalls. “I learned how to read legal jargon and understand what’s important and not important. In my job I’m reading contracts every day. I found it really helpful to understand and know how to read a contract and legal jargon. It’s a hard skill I learned at Syracuse that I use multiple times every single day.”
Those contracts are generated by the agency’s six agents, for whom Vogt provides support. She does everything from managing and tracking contract negotiations to handling logistics for client events to filming and editing videos. “I have a hand in everything, which is really fun,” Vogt says. Her minor in graphic design from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications comes in handy for some of her marketing work.
As if classes and four internships weren’t enough, Vogt was a member of the women’s rowing team for four years after walking on as a freshman – with no previous rowing experience. Vogt rose to become team captain in her senior year, when she helped lead Syracuse to its first ACC championship in women’s rowing.
The ACC championship came amid “a whirlwind” in Vogt’s last semester at Falk College that saw her finish her remote internship with The Montag Group, graduate, complete her rowing career at the ACC and NCAA championships, go home to California for two weeks while working part time remotely for The Montag Group, move to New York City, and start working full time at the agency. “All in like a month,” Vogt recalls with a laugh.
Vogt remains close with many of her Falk College classmates, including playing soccer weekly with a woman who now works at the NFL. “The people that you go to school with become your network,” Vogt says. “They become your coworkers, the people who potentially work for you, your colleagues, or your confidants in the sport industry.
“The sport management program did a really great job of emphasizing the need to stay close to people in this program and to other people at Syracuse. They’re who you’re going to grow with.”