This past week I had the pleasure of interviewing a star volleyball player from Pasadena City College, Shaylee Ungos.
Shaylee is not only an athlete, she creates social media content focused on life as a student athlete, her personal journey, and even helping others capitalize on their NIL opportunities. Shaylee posts her content to an audience of over fifty-thousand loyal followers to help others navigate through the windy road of being a student athlete.
One thing is certain, she is not your average Pasadena City College volleyball player. Shaylee grew up on a military base in Osan, South Korea; which made recruiting for college extremely difficult for her. She explained how the level of competition is very different than it would be in the states, so many times she had to train on her own or find any coach who could support her.
Also, she did all of her own recruiting such as emailing coaches from hundreds of schools around the country; proving that her success is not by accident. Shaylee always wanted to live in California, so when transitioning to the states she eventually found her home at PCC after connecting with coach Mike.
After finding herself fully submerged in volleyball, whether it has been playing the sport, watching it, or making content revolving around it, she began to experience burnout as any normal person would. All while nursing a major injury from high school that would lead her to have many internal conflicts about herself outside of athletics.
In hindsight, she says all of this adversity made her stronger mentally and also encouraged her to use social media to help others who may relate the realities of her own life.
Again, Shaylee is not your average student athlete. Realizing her other passions such as food, she shared with me that she hopes to one day open a location where people can come together through sharing food and building a community; lets add entrepreneur to her list of hats she wears.
The main tip I got from her when it comes to NIL and brand deals is to stay true to yourself.
She explained it’s important to connect with brands that you have some connection towards. Taking every single opportunity you get could make it confusing for your audience to understand what you stand for or what your true brand is.
For example she partnered with United Sports Abroad which is an organization that help’s military athletes who are abroad get exposure for college. As someone who was in that situation herself she knows how important it is for these athletes to get the attention they deserve.

Shaylee will be off to new beginnings as she has committed to play volleyball for an NCAA D2 college; fulfilling yet another goal which has been to play in the PacWest!
Follow Shaylee on Instagram @shayleeungosvb