General | 2/5/2021 9:00:00 AM

RIT is celebrating the 35^th anniversary of National Girls & Women in Sports Day (NGWSD) this week by highlighting five former student-athletes that used sports to springboard themselves to success. Every day this week, a Q&A from each individual was featured, highlighting their insights and successes in their own words. Be sure to check out the previous four Q&As from earlier this week.

Jessica (Gugino) Connolly
Softball
2000 - International Business
Co-Founder, Mavens of Marketing

Jessica Connolly played softball at RIT from 1997-2000. A career .318 hitter, she is seventh in program history with 144 appearances and still ranks in the top-10 on eight season and career lists in the Tiger record book. The standout second baseman earned Nattion Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Second-Team All-Region honors in 1999 after hitting .361 with 28 runs scored and 14 RBI while leading RIT to an appearance in the ECAC Tournament. Also named captain for her season year, the Pulaski, N.Y. native was voted only the third CoSIDA Academic All-America in program history after graduating with a degree in international business. She went on to earn an MBA from Rensselaer in 2004. Connolly spent seven years at ESPN as a Senior Marketing Director and was the co-founder of Mavens of Marketing in 2009.

Connect with Jessica
LinkedIn: jessica-connolly-760bb63
 
How has your involvement with sports shaped who you are today?
From a young age and through high school, I played organized sports - soccer, basketball and softball. I was fortunate enough to be coached by tough, uplifting, and confidence-building coaches who I am still in close contact with today. The playing fields/court gave me a place to unleash and work out my daily stresses and insecurities while teaching and preparing me for so many life lessons.
 
With a passion for softball and a knowing RIT would be my college of choice, I reached out to the RIT roach with the help of my travel and high school coaches. Those four years on RIT's softball field created familial-like bonds with people that supported me during and after the ups and downs in my life. While studying at RIT's College of Business and working within RIT's Sports Information Department, I landed a six-month internship with ESPN. After graduating, I moved to Connecticut and had a successful career at ESPN for eight years. During that time, I took advantage of the company's educational reimbursement program and obtained my MBA from RPI, and I was also lucky enough to meet my husband, Justin, at ESPN as well.
 
In 2008 I was fortunate enough to make the choice to "retire" and start raising our family. I have four children - two girls - Carthan (12), Brynn (11) - and two boys - Drew (9) and Jack (8). When my girls entered into their 1st and Kindergarten years of school, I signed them up to play softball and decided to start coaching. From 2015 through 2020, I coached girl's softball and basketball in our town. It was a way to give back in a way that I felt had the biggest impact on me when I was young. Over the past five years, I went on to grow and lead our town's Little League and travel softball organizations. I also joined and ran the PR/Marketing efforts for a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide safe and updated sports fields for the town to utilize.
 
Sports are absolutely integral to my story and to my life. They've taught me grit, resilience, teamwork and passion. Sports have brought me friends, family, work and complete joy.
 
Tell us about your current professional position or career: 
Our family recently moved to Pasadena, Calif. and am volunteering for my children's schools and in my community.
 
Has being an athlete opened doors for you professionally? How so? 
Absolutely. My initial contact at ESPN was an RIT alumni who also happened to play lacrosse at RIT. Mentioning my athletic career has definitely highlighted to employers, my clients and organizations I've volunteered for, my ability to lead and work well with others.
 
It was just 50 years ago that Title IX removed barriers to allow girls and women to participate in sports. What are your hopes and dreams for girls and women in sports for the future? 
My hopes and dreams for girls and women in sports are that they feel more supported and equal than they do today. We still have a lot of work to do. I hope that more women are placed into positions of leadership, power and decision making locally and nationally - whether that's in local or national government, in coaching positions, education, business, media or otherwise. The more women seated at the table in any facet of life AND with equal pay, the more balanced the playing field will be in both sports and throughout this country.
 
What advice do you have for young female athletes today? 
Be your boldest self. Implement a "leave it all out on the field" attitude and apply it to daily life. Play life like you play your sport - with your back up against the wall, like the final seconds are ticking off the clock - just go for it with all of your might! Do not expect to get the starting position, to win, get into the school, get the job, get the promotion, etc. without putting the effort in. Study hard, play hard, ask for the unthinkable and then ask again. BE RELENTLESS AND PERSISTENT. Work for it and earn it.
 
What would most people be surprised to learn about you? 
That I was a drum majorette in high school. I was both a band geek and an athlete.
 
When you're not working, you can be found... 
In my backyard playing catch with a kid or carpooling to practices/games.