UCSD - University of California - San Diego

04/07/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/07/2026 02:05

Still in the Game

Published Date

March 31, 2026

Article Content

Lily Hermosillo didn't set out to be an anomaly. She grew up 25 minutes from UC San Diego's La Jolla campus, in Chula Vista, the daughter of a father who played college baseball and a mother who played softball. By the time she arrived at UC San Diego as a freshman, the sport was as familiar to her as the Southern California sun. Finishing her degree in three years was not part of her plan.

"I didn't come into college planning on graduating early," she says. "I finished my sophomore year, and I was like, oh, I think I could maybe finish it this year. So it kind of happened very quickly."

It was fast, but it created a problem. Hermosillo had a year of athletic eligibility remaining-a year of softball she wasn't ready to surrender. Graduate school wasn't yet on her radar. Simply stopping, she admits, was something she considered. "I feel like I might have just stopped after my third year," she says. "My softball career would have probably ended a year earlier than it did."

It didn't, because of a pathway she hadn't known existed: a postgraduate certificate through UC San Diego's Division of Extended Studies, taken in partnership with UC San Diego Athletics. Hermosillo enrolled in Business Managementand Digital Marketingcertificates, kept her roster spot on the Tritons softball team, and, now a team captain in her fourth year, never looked back.

Tyson Dunn arrived at UC San Diego by a more circuitous route. He grew up in Newmarket, Ontario, about an hour north of Toronto, in a family where basketball was practically a second language. His father coached. His older brother played. Dunn played through high school, earned a kinesiology degree at Western University in Canada, then transferred to the University of Buffalo for a year. When NCAA rule changes granted him an additional year of eligibility, he entered the transfer portal.

"I was really just trying to find a good basketball program that had the playstyle and the coaches and the players that I would enjoy playing with," he says, "and then also had a helpful and meaningful academic side as well." He found what he was looking for in Extended Studies' Project Managementcertificate. "This Extended Studies program was perfect for it."

Dunn was candid about why a full master's or doctoral program didn't appeal. "It wasn't as daunting as a true master's or a PhD program," he says. "It's the right amount of knowledge and experience and learning, but still the flexibility of being able to play a sport and not have your life bogged down by being a PhD. student or a master's student."

Guard Tyson Dunn is in his final season with UC San Diego men's basketball, pursuing a Project Management certificate through Extended Studies.

The partnership that made both stories possible is, in practice, an exercise in pragmatic design. Extended Studies certificate programs-covering fields from project management to data science to health and wellness-are built for working professionals, which means they are structured to accommodate irregular schedules, travel conflicts and competing demands. A single weekly session or asynchronous online format fits a Division I athletic calendar in ways a traditional course load simply cannot.

This year, the partnership spans eight sports teams and serves 12 student-athletes across five certificate programs.

"Our certificate programs are designed for people who are serious about their professional development but can't put the rest of their lives on hold to pursue it," said Hugo Villar, dean of the Division of Extended Studies. "Student-athletes, it turns out, are exactly that kind of learner: motivated, disciplined, and working within real constraints. This partnership is a natural extension of what Extended Studies has always done."

For both coaches, the partnership has become a recruiting asset as well as a retention tool. Head softball coach Nikki Palmer notes that the certificate pathway now enters the conversation early: "When we speak with athletes who are nearing completion of their undergraduate degrees but still have eligibility remaining, we're able to present the Extended Studies certificate pathway as a unique option at UC San Diego. It's a powerful combination-continuing to compete at a high level while also pursuing additional education that can enhance their professional opportunities." For men's basketball coach Clint Allard, the fit is equally clear: "With the vast majority of our postgraduate athletes having just one year remaining of eligibility, the Extended Studies program is the most straightforward way to continue their education and continue their pursuit of on-court success."

The benefits run in both directions. What postgraduate athletes absorb in the classroom-leadership, communication, organizational thinking-flows back onto the field and into the locker room. Hermosillo finds the parallels constant. "There are so many similarities between team sports and just organizations in general," she says. "It's definitely helped my leadership skills and just my communication." Dunn puts it similarly: "The leadership aspect's definitely been helpful, just to learn more, explore that more, and then try to take that to the team, and to the court."

"When we speak with athletes who are nearing completion of their undergraduate degrees but still have eligibility remaining, we're able to present the Extended Studies certificate pathway as a unique option at UC San Diego" Nikki Palmer, Head Softball Coach, UC San Diego Athletics

Allard notes that Dunn and fellow postgraduate teammate Emanuel Prospere II "both used their experience to help give perspective to the younger players, and they understand what a connected locker room does to the culture of a program." Palmer is equally direct about what Hermosillo brings: "She leads by example and helps reinforce the standards we want in our program both on and off the field."

Both athletes are clear-eyed about where the certificates are taking them. Hermosillo wants to work in sports marketing and is already building toward it, including coursework in AI tools she wouldn't have encountered as an undergraduate. "These classes are kind of moving with the times," she says. Dunn is less certain of his destination but frames that openness as the point. "Broadening the horizons of different possibilities and different things I could get into has definitely been helpful," he says. His cohort of classmates from Mexico, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan has expanded those horizons further still.

The logic of this partnership, when you hold it up to the light, is almost elegant in its simplicity. Student-athletes who have exhausted their undergraduate options but not their competitive drive need a structured academic home that respects the demands of their sport. Programs that serve working professionals, built for flexibility and practical application, happen to fit that need almost precisely. Coaches who want experienced, mature players on their rosters gain access to athletes they might otherwise lose to other programs or to early retirement from competition. And those athletes depart with credentials that are genuinely marketable, whether they go into sports business, tech, healthcare management or somewhere their 22-year-old selves have not yet imagined.

Their advice to other student-athletes is unambiguous. Hermosillo: "Know your goals, know what you want to do and know where you are in your athletic career." Dunn is more succinct: "I would say do it. Long story short, take advantage of a great program that we have."

Villar sees the partnership as a model worth replicating. "This is an example of the many campus collaborations we are building to serve the whole student, inside the classroom and out," Villar said.

For student-athletes caught between the end of a degree and the end of a competitive sports career, that investment turns out to be precisely enough.

"I would say do it. Long story short, take advantage of a great program that we have." Tyson Dunn, Guard, UC San Diego Tritons Basketball Team
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