This week in the Fortinet Intern Spotlight Series, we introduce Kasey Vigoda. In the Summer of 2021, Vigoda served as a Communications Intern. Vigoda went on to work for ESPN for two years as a Digital Video Associate. She is now the Manager of Volunteer Operations for the 2025 Ryder Cup at the PGA of America.
Can you tell me a little about your background?
I grew up in Frisco, Texas and live in New York now. I was raised in a sports-centric family. My parents both worked in the sports department of the newspaper in the West Palm Beach area, so sports are in my blood. I picked up golf just before high school and played on my high school and college teams. I loved it at a young age but didn’t think I’d be working in it by any means.
I grew up wanting to be a sports reporter for ESPN as both my dad and brother worked at ESPN, so it was like the family business. I thought it would be my turn, but I struggled with finding a full-time role in sports after college. I worked at Disney World in my first role out of college and then with the U.S. Open Tennis to get back into the sports world. Ultimately, I found the AJGA and was able to land a role in communications and the rest is history.
Getting into the sports industry is always challenging. Would you say that the AJGA was the launching point for what you wanted to do?
Absolutely. Sports roles that I had previously weren’t necessarily what I thought I wanted to do. Although it was at the internship level, media and communications were more of a professional level than what I had done prior. Ultimately, I loved running social media with the AJGA. Being able to meet professional players and working with them on ideas and creating content was key. The videos we did ramped it up for me and made me realize that this could be a reality of working in sports as a full-time job. Even meeting those people along the way from parents to the full-time AJGA staff that would sit and talk to you and get advice [from them] made such a difference for me.
What were some of your favorite experiences on or off the golf course during your internship?
My favorite place was Big Sky [Montana] because it was so beautiful and it happened to fall on my birthday. My boyfriend, now fiancé, came up and we went to Yellowstone and it was just such a blast.
As a team, we got to go to a Mariners game while we were in Seattle and Disneyland when we were in California. I'm a big [New York] Islanders fan and they were making quite the playoff run. It was a lot of highs and lows for me, but whenever the Islanders were on the whole team would have my back and we would go find a place to watch.
I remember all those activities that we did on the side. I remember the work, but the number of hours we spent working seemed like nothing in the grand scheme of things to how much fun we had. On the course, we got to meet C.T. Pan, Patrick Reed and Mariah Stackhouse and they were all very nice to us. I think Pan was the most fun because he was willing to do all our crazy ideas and videos. We got to hop in his RV, and he would chunk shots for us for our TikToks and he didn't care so he was a blast.
Working at ESPN was always a lifelong goal for you. What skills helped during your time with the AJGA to prepare you for that next step?
I was lucky to get on the Digital Video team at ESPN, which publishes all the videos for ESPN.com and their app. The videos that I had edited with the AJGA, like tournament recap videos, and showing my video editing skills helped build my resume and they felt confident to give me the opportunity. Those things made such a big difference in landing that role. On a team of 30, ESPN focuses on the big four sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL) so I ultimately became the resident golf person on our team. Right off the bat, I was assigned the Masters and Tiger’s return, which was such an incredible opportunity to be trusted, but I think my golf background and age had a lot to do with it.
You’re back in the golf industry now with the Ryder Cup. Did you ever think that coordinating and training AJGA volunteers when you were an intern would come full circle?
I think this role has more to do with my experience with the AJGA than ESPN because it’s dealing with people. I have 4,200 volunteers that I manage for the Ryder Cup. To see something like the work I did with the AJGA volunteers in a tournament and the training that came along with it is crazy to me. It played such a key part because of the communication aspect of effectively talking with groups of people, but it’s a dream job. Being in sports and golf was specifically what I wanted so I’m very lucky to be in a role that I’m passionate about.
What would you tell someone who is thinking about doing the AJGA Internship?
I took an unconventional route, taking the internship two years out of college, which isn’t typical. However, it made such a big difference for me and I would do it again. It was the right move. I think being able to be willing to take a chance even if it’s not what you ultimately want to do can make such an impact on your career. There’s a lot of pressure in seeing your peers land full-time roles, but it’s okay to start small and be patient knowing that these skills will help you with whatever you want to do whether it’s with the AJGA or beyond.
If you're driven to be part of this dynamic community, applications for the 2025 Traveling Internship will open in August. For more insights into the #AJGAInternship, explore the AJGA Careers webpage and Instagram channel .