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 Ģ������ƵStories      November 3, 2025

Seventy-one thousand fans in the stands. Another 200 more cheering from the luxury suites.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium is lit for the Atlanta Falcons, and as the audience roars to announce their arrival, two Ģ������Ƶ grads celebrate the success at the sidelines. One more good game for the books. Then they’re back to work.

For Jeremy Jordan ’18 and Ali Schreiber ’24, this spectacle is another day in the office, one more reminder of how far they’ve come for all their hard work.

Jordan, a Franklin native, is a premium sales manager for Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

When he started with WCU’s sport management program, Jordan wasn’t sure about a career in sales, but an internship with WCU’s athletic department in his sophomore year and the advice of Charlie Parrish, associate professor of sport management in the College of Business, gradually changed his mind.

“I was able to work in a bunch of different departments, and oddly enough, my very first cold call was for someone to renew Catamount season tickets,” Jordan said.

“I really found myself gravitating towards sponsorship and ticket sales and that revenue-generating arm of the athletics department. I thought it was great to be able to bring the university money for athletics.”

Before his time at the university was through, Jordan raised over $5,000 for the Mountain Heritage Day 5K, breaking a university record.

Through Parrish, Jordan connected with another recent grad of Ģ������Ƶwho helped Jordan nail his first interview. When the call from the Atlanta Falcons came to join the team as an inside sales representative, Jordan jumped at the opportunity and was pleasantly surprised to see just how well WCU’s program had prepared him for the role.

“Nothing was a curveball. Nothing was out of left field,” Jordan said. “They do a really, really good job of preparing you and allowing you to go out into a big city and it not swallow you up.

“Atlanta’s home now, and Western has everything to do with that. Their fingerprints are on every part of my career, and that’s why I believe in the university so much.”

Schreiber, an Atlanta native and former Division I volleyball player, knew from the age of 12 she wanted to work in the NFL, and she’s worked morning, day and night to make that happen.

Playing volleyball for Ģ������Ƶwhile being a full-time student of the sport management and marketing programs didn’t intimidate Schreiber. In fact, from her first semester, Schreiber was searching for ways to get more involved.

That search put Schreiber in touch with Todd Shealy, director of football operations at WCU. When Schreiber shared her NFL ambitions with Shealy, he was more than happy to have her help on the team, and in her sophomore year, she began to do just that.

“For the next two years, I was basically his assistant. Planning games, getting pregame meals, getting contracts out, itineraries – he and I worked hand in hand on that,” Schreiber said.

“They all welcomed me with open arms, so it was just an amazing experience.”

Schreiber was connected with Jordan while she had Parrish as a professor. Jordan instantly recognized her skills and told her about an inside sales job opportunity in the months to follow.

Not half a year later in January 2024, before graduating with honors from Ģ������Ƶin May, she was walking into the Atlanta Falcons’ stadium for her first day.

Schreiber has since been promoted from the inside sales position she and Jordan started in and now works as a ticket sales account executive for the Atlanta Falcons. In the first five months of 2025, she’s done sales numbers far and above her season target.

“The fact that I am working for an NFL team is insane. I’m selling on a team of 10 for an NFL team when there’s only 32 teams, and some of them don’t even have sales staff,” Schreiber said.

“I got promoted. I took my time to celebrate it, but now I’m pushing myself to the next goal, because I do feel I have a high ceiling that I want to achieve.”

The pair faced plenty of competition when they joined the Atlanta Falcons’ and Mercedes-Benz Stadium team, and both spoke to an unflinching attitude to failure as key to the growth of their careers.

“I face rejection literally every single day. When I was in inside sales class, I was told no 110 times a day. But if I got that one ‘yes’, it made it worth it,” Jordan said.

“I know having the work ethic got me here and being able to learn and grow and take feedback,” Schreiber said. “I always say, ‘Get an inch better every day, and even if it’s a centimeter, you still got better.’”