The college athletic recruiting process is a pathway for young people to access higher education as well as invaluable opportunities for skill development and career networks. Yet for many athletes, this recruitment process is frequently accompanied by apprehension, pressure, and isolation.
Student-athletes Aviva Schnitzer ’28 and Malia Apor ’28 were far too familiar with this particular struggle and decided to take part in changing the recruitment process. They founded HerWay, a female-driven recruiting agency aimed at assisting female athletes in the midst of the recruitment process by offering mentorship and holistic support.
The Argus sat down with Schnitzer and Apor to discuss their motivations for founding the agency, their entrepreneurial experiences, and their future plans.
“Our motto is, ‘the big sister you never had,’” Schnitzer said. “Our purpose is to make the recruiting process much more enjoyable, much more personal, [and] much more personalized to female athletes and their specific journey, everything from athletics and academics to mental health and the whole spectrum of things.”
Schnitzer and Apor first became friends during their first year at the University. Schnitzer is a member of the women’s basketball team, and Apor plays for the women’s softball team. After comparing their experiences with the athletic recruitment process, they quickly realized that for many female athletes, the path to playing collegiate athletics is far from straightforward.
“I think that it’s not a lack of [recruiting] agencies as much as it is that agencies don’t do what we do,” Schnitzer said. “The recruiting process feels so businesslike and so professional, which it is—and it should be—but it’s also about relationships and somewhere you’re going to literally be spending the next four years of your life.”
Aviva and Apor emphasized how important building relationships is while recruiting, something they aim to prioritize in their work. Another element that separates Schnitzer and Apor’s work from other recruiting agencies is their female focus and work to empower young female athletes.
“I think what’s special about HerWay is that it’s a female-to-female recruiting service,” Apor said. “For me and Aviva, we both found so much happiness and joy from our female friendships and female mentors. I personally went to an all-girls school and know the power of female-to-female interactions and how that helps give girls success.”
According to a study conducted by Ernst & Young, 52% of women who hold a C-suite position—an executive role in an organization usually beginning with “chief”—are former collegiate athletes. Given the link between sports participation and high achievement for women, Aviva and Apor stressed how important they believe mentorship is for young female athletes.
“I think [embracing] holistic [practices] really defines what HerWay is,” Apor said. “The support you can get from other services is purely transactional, where [at] HerWay, you’re creating a relationship with another female athlete to help you become successful.”
Apor and Schnitzer have had to navigate a daunting entrepreneurial world, but they have also had the opportunity to meet and network with many accomplished female leaders.
“I would also say that through HerWay, we’ve done so much networking and so much of just meeting people,” Apor said. “And it’s really inspiring to see how other women run big businesses or [how] huge corporations want to help us and want to get us to grow to our full potential.”
Less than six months have passed since Apor and Schnitzer launched HerWay; nevertheless, they are already making major strides during this extremely exciting time for the two of them.
“I think the growth that we’ve made in such a short amount of time has shocked me, and I think [it has] shocked all the people that we work with,” Schnitzer said.
Both Apor and Schnitzer are full-time student athletes among other things. They said they’re grateful for support from the Patricelli Center for Entrepreneurship and Marisa MacClary, the Center’s Entrepreneur in Residence.
“I say this with everything, but if you want to do something, you can do it, especially at Wesleyan,” Apor said. “If you have an idea, just put your effort into it, and if your heart is behind it, there’s always a way to make it happen.”
For Apor and Schnitzer, this project is more than just a company: It has grown into a constant opportunity to connect with a community of female athletes.
“I’ve talked to professional athletes, college coaches, college athletes, a ton of the coaches here and [in] other divisions, international athletes, just all of these people that have this shared experience as female athletes going through this process,” Schnitzer said. “Whether it was 50 years ago, four years ago, or right now, we all have had the same challenges, have had the same struggles, and also have the same passion for helping other female athletes.”
Maggie Smith can be reached at mssmith@wesleyan.edu
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