Born to a Dutch Mother and an African-American Father, William Has Experienced Many Cultures of the World
DIVERSITY PERSONIFIED
William McKinley Rodgers IV, who goes by Bill or Billy, was born in 1997 in Williamsburg, VA. He spent much of his childhood there, where his parents, William McKinley Rodgers III, Ph.D. and Yana Van der Meulen Rodgers, Ph.D. taught at The College of William and Mary. In 2004, his parents began teaching at Rutgers University. He then moved to Montgomery, New Jersey.
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Billy played 3 years of varsity soccer for Montgomery High School and went on to become the team captain in his senior year. During this time, every spring, Billy, his brother, and his dad would travel throughout Europe to experience soccer in ways that many dream of. He will never forget visiting Emirates Stadium (Pictured Above) on Easter to watch Arsenal thrash Liverpool, 4-1.
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ABOUT ME:
Upon graduation of high school, Billy strived to turn his love of the game into a future career. He committed to play NCAA Division III soccer at McDaniel College, in Westminster, Maryland, where he majors in Communication and minors in Marketing. He was named to the Centennial Conference Honor Roll multiple times and was a role model to many of his teammates.
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Billy has worked extensively with FC Copa, one of the premier youth soccer clubs in New Jersey. In his first summer with the club, he began as an intern. Then, through hard work and dedication to the content that he produced, he was asked to return for a second summer with the club, where he worked as a full-time employee. He is proud to have created and designed FC Copa's new website which occurred while Billy was a main voice in the launch of a new FC Copa logo and line of uniform's for the club. The new website was the first of its kind in FC Copa's history, since the creation of the original site, when the club was founded in 2004. The site now has over 120,000 visitors.
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After graduating from McDaniel in the Spring of 2019, Billy spent six months in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he worked with MLS club Minnesota United FC as the Digital Content Intern during the 2019 season. In his time with the Loons, Billy wrote a wide variety of feature articles, press releases and much more. Along with writing for the club, he interviewed players and coaches, transcribed interviews and copy edited content that held up to MNUFC's high standards. He learned invaluable writing, editing and communications skills while working under Copywriter Steve McPherson (See Recommendation Letter).
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He is now looking for full-time employment in New York City or Washington D.C.
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Billy aspires to become the Director of Communications for a large European soccer team, such as his boyhood club, Arsenal FC.
