A Page from His Undergraduate Playbook

What put Pitzer College on Joaquin Valdez's ’26 radar?

A message on his phone.

At the end of his senior season as a Seattle-area high school football player, Valdez was sitting on his couch one Sunday morning when a Twitter notification popped up. It was from the Sagehens’ football coaching staff.

“They liked my grades and films and thought I’d be a great addition,” he said. “It was very cool that they reached out. It shows how, at a smaller school, athletics and admissions really work together. I wasn’t just a number. They wanted to hear my full story.”

Now an economics major, Valdez has built a successful college career with the Sagehens. He’s scored in the annual rivalry game against CMS, contributed to the team’s SCIAC championship push, and built relationships that are shaping his professional future. This spring, he’s interning as a production assistant at FOX Sports.

“I love sports. I always have,” he said. “To be there, in the middle of everything, is amazing.”

The opportunity came through fellow Sagehen Kenric Jameison ’23, who works as a production assistant at FOX Sports and helped connect Valdez with the right people. Along the way, Valdez has discovered what he calls the strategic advantage of a small liberal arts network.

“At a bigger school, alumni in high-profile roles might get hundreds of messages asking for help,” he said. “At Pitzer, it’s easier to reach out and get a response. There’s almost always someone doing what you want to do—and they want you to succeed. They feel the same pride that you feel about our school.”

Valdez is spending the spring at FOX and will return to Pitzer in the fall to complete his senior year. It’s not exactly how he envisioned his college experience, but being an athlete has taught him—among many other things—the need to adapt and improvise. During the second game of the 2025 season, the 21-year-old receiver fell and suffered a severe wrist injury, including a break and ligament damage, that ended what was supposed to be his final season prematurely.

With the support of his parents, he decided to use the recovery period to focus on professional development and gain some hands-on experience (and more professional connections) in sports production.

His path at Pitzer has included other pivots as well. Valdez said he initially planned to study science and pursue a career as a pediatrician. But watching older teammates translate their economics degrees into strong careers shifted his thinking.

“I realized I wanted to do the same thing, and Pitzer’s econ program is really strong,” he said. “I’ve had some great professors.”

He points to Professor Meric Keskinel’s macroeconomics and economic development courses as particularly influential—challenging classes that sparked his interest in the business world and presented that world through a lens of economic equity (and inequity) and green applications. In addition to his work at FOX Sports, Valdez has also interned in cloud sales with Amazon, gaining real-world experience that complements his coursework.

What’s sharpened his professional edge, Valdez added, is the fact that he’s been a student-athlete at Pitzer. Besides enabling him to pursue his love of sports as a Division III player, he said being a part of Sagehen Athletics has given him additional qualities that employers appreciate.

“I’ve found that people in the workforce like that you’ve been involved in college athletics because it’s such a big commitment at this level,” he explained. “Seeing that I come from a school with a great academic reputation and that I’ve been an athlete, they know I can manage my time and that I’m driven and self-motivating. Employers want that kind of energy around. Knowing how to be part of a team is huge. I’ve definitely found that at Pitzer.”

Sagehens Athletics Giving Day

Celebrate and support the Pomona-Pitzer athletics community during our annual Sagehen Athletics Giving Day.
Give Now