About us

Watch IAM 360 CEO and Founder, Marco Maisano, accept the Telstra Business of the year award

(IAM360 Formerly known as NSR Australia and New Zealand)

Marco Maisano – CEO and Founder

I left school when I was 16 years old with a dream to play my sport professionally. I was a C average student who never really got along with my teachers (PE teachers aside). I knew school was important I just did not apply myself like I should have.

I was one of the lucky ones who signed a professional soccer contract at the age of 16. I was fortunate enough to experience the professional life for a few years, but by the time I was 25, I was broke, uneducated and lost. The only thing I did know, was that I wished I had prepared myself for life after sport.

You see, you only hear about the success stories, the lavish lifestyles of the rich and famous stars you idolize on TV. You don’t hear about the millions of athletes who sacrifice their lives for their sport and then end up with nothing, either because of injury, timing, politics or simply bad luck.

And that’s why I started IAM 360 in 2006.

I wanted to change how young athletes viewed their education. I wanted to give them a pathway to do 2 things once (Education and Sport) whilst ensuring they also learned valuable life skills and created experiences that will stay with them forever.

The American Collegiate system provides all of this for its students. A way to combine everything. A way to create a lifetime of memories, experiences and friendships. An incredible pathway for your sporting or Artistic careers whilst gaining an fantastic education.

Let us enrich your life through your passion for sport or the Arts.

In addition to the US College recruitment process, Marco is available for public speaking opportunities on the following topics:

• Student athlete Motivation and career planning
• Leadership development through Sport
• Goal Setting for young athletes
• Athlete Mindset and controlling your pathway

Contact Marco directly on LinkedIn for all public speaking engagements

Jacob Richards – Operations Manager

My four years in the States was unlike anything I could have imagined. Not once did I think growing up here in Australia, that I would eventually be studying and playing Soccer in the small rural town of Fort Dodge, Iowa.

At the end of year 11 I was given the opportunity to head to the States upon graduation of high school from IAM 360. Thinking back, I’m still not totally sure why I joined the program initially, I just knew I wanted to give myself the option to go to the States after graduating High School. I didn’t decide 100% I wanted to go to the US, I just knew I wanted the option to choose.

In July 2009 I departed Australia and headed off to Fort Dodge, Iowa.

My plan was to stay and study for a year, have an experience, then come home and continue my studies here. After the first week of training, meeting the guys on the team and living alone with people that would eventually become my brothers, there was no way I was coming back until I absolutely had to.

I studied and played Soccer for two years at Iowa Central Community College. An incredible 2-year Junior College that has won multiple national championships in a number of sports and had been ranked the best Junior College in the country for a number of years. Both years we made it to the conference finals only to be beaten by the number 1 ranked soccer program in the country, Iowa Western. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to play in the national tournament, but I had the chance to play against some of the best players in the country.

The most valuable thing I gained from this pathway…

At Iowa Central I roomed with five other guys on the team, 3 from America and 3 from England. These guys, as well as the others on the Soccer team, I now consider family. The awesome thing about College Soccer programs is that it’s more of an international sport, so we had guys from all over the world. The Soccer was awesome, the education was great, travelling the US was insane but the best thing I took away from the whole experience was my friends and the people I met. No matter where I go in the world now I have free accommodation. WINNING!!

After my two years at Iowa Central I transferred with my closest friends to AIB College (American Institute of Business) in Des Moines, the capital city of Iowa. A school that’s athletic program competes in the NAIA, another division of Collegiate athletics. A smaller school with a smaller student body, but it was located downtown, meaning there is always something going on. It was walking distance from the city centre.

We were unlucky yet again as we were knocked out in the conference finals by the number one ranked team in the country in Grandview university. Our cross town rivals. I remember playing in front of a few thousand people in the “Local Derby”. Unlucky in defeat, but it was incredible to play against the best athletes in the country in that division.

I graduated with honours in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a minor in financial services.

University never appealed to me here in Australia. More time in the classroom, less time to play Soccer and probably more time spent working. I spent way less than I would have here, and I had a billion times the experience.

Over the past three years I have been working with IAM 360 helping other student athletes from Australia and New Zealand reach their full academic and athletic potential in the US collegiate system. I am currently the Operations Manager at IAM 360 but my role is pretty diverse. I also host our weekly podcast on US College recruitment, which if you have not had a listen to I encourage you to do so on Youtube.

My USA Highlights

Some highlights of my time in the US include buying an 8 seater van that lasted three years for $1 (true story), Packing 8 of us into a 7 seater rental van and driving 22 hours straight to spend a week in Panama City Florida for Spring Break with no accommodation booked, Halloween was awesome, traveling to Utah and skiing in the mountains, the team bus trips to away games and even home games, and spending every Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving with my American family was without a doubt the best.

Katie Deyzel – Business Manager

My Name is Katie Deyzel and I am the business manager for South Africa.

I am originally from Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa and attended Kloof High school. I moved to Gauteng in 2007 and I currently live in Johannesburg with my husband Derick; his 2 older Sons and our 2 children.

I did reasonably well in school academically and excelled on the sporting
field. I was lucky enough to pursue my preferred sport Nationally and
represented South Africa in 2001. Sadly the sport I was involved with was
not something I could continue with after Matric, as at the time it was only
at school level in South Africa. So when I first heard about IAM360 I was
instantly intrigued at the opportunity that students could further their
sport competitively whilst gaining an international degree in the United
States.

Our family were introduced to IAM360 in 2018, through my brother-in law who lives in Australia. My step son was in his grade 11 year at King Edward VII School and we were starting to look into all the tertiary opportunities
available to him! As an avid rugby player, he wanted to continue his passion for rugby competitively and at the same time study a degree of his choice.

My Husband reached out to his brother in Australia to find out if IAM360
would be able to assist his son here in South Africa. We were then
introduced to Marco and the team. Through the application process we were most fortunate to have been accepted onto the program. This then sparked interest from our schooling community and this quickly lead to a second student starting his journey with IAM360. The pathway with IAM360 was then officially made available to South African families from February 2019. With that Marco needed someone to run his South African offices and I am so privileged and grateful to have been afforded this incredible opportunity!

Having gone through this process first as a parent, I know first-hand the
incredible pathway IAM360 offer their students and I could not be happier to now be apart of this incredible company and family. To date we now have hundreds of South African students pursuing their dreams in the United States and I am so proud to have been part of this journey from the
beginning. I look forward to following all our students’ journeys and seeing
where this pathway takes them!

 

Natasha Jacobs – Student Support Manager

My name is Natasha Jacobs and I am the Student Support Manager for IAM360. A proudly South African sports fan, I live in Johannesburg, South Africa. As a child, I always participated and excelled in many different sports activities at school. I completed my Matric year in 2001, having achieved various sports awards for participation and selection for First Team in Netball, Volleyball, Touch Rugby and Athletics. My most commendable sports award being ‘First Team Netball Player of the Year 2001’.

With a natural flair for art, I followed my passion for creativity and studied Fashion Design. Thereafter, I followed a career path in the magazine industry and worked for FHM magazine as a Fashion Editor for 9 years.
However, as a sports-loving person and someone that has always been enthusiastic about sport and fitness, I decided to change course, and took on the role as assistant Athletics coach at Marist Brothers School. It was here that I had the opportunity to work with the Foundation phase students, helping them to learn and improve on their athletics skills.

Having the privilege of working with young people in a sports environment, it goes without saying, that I was overjoyed when offered the opportunity to join IAM360. My role is to assist prospective international students and facilitate their recruitment to and engagement with, different universities and international sports programs.

I believe that young people should put more emphasis on health and fitness. Integrating sport into their everyday lives and staying active, will bring about more dynamic lifestyles and healthier habits for our youth.
Working as a member of the team at IAM360 has given me great pleasure in helping students pursue a journey that may at first seem impossible. With the tools that IAM360 offers, I endeavor to create opportunities for talented students and athletes, helping them to reach their dreams and at the same time, acquire an honourable education.

 

Chanel Du Toit – Student Support Officer

My name is Chanel Du Toit and I have just recently joined the IAM360 team.
I am a proudly born and bred South African – South Africa is such a diverse country with all 11 official languages, we are truly a rainbow nation.

I was born in Johannesburg 21 years ago and come from a very humble family life. With 2 beautiful Yorkies I might add. They are without a doubt the life and soul of our household. I have a wonderful boyfriend called Adamastor, but my older sister, (who I love dearly) calls him ‘Mashie” – Everyone needs a nickname right? I’m a very creative person by nature and love to draw. Always love sharpening my pencil and thanks to Grandpa Phil, I got my talent from him.

Primary school was a fun time of my life – innocence at its best – High School was not my favourite place but pushed through none the less, as Mom always said” You need your matric”. So, having completed my final year I took a long-deserved break and soaked up the South African sun and Her beauty whilst deciding what to do with my future.

I started finding my feet in the workplace and landed my first job at a recording studio which was pretty awesome. There I met some wonderful and creative people. Very ‘out there” and found them to be a breath of fresh air! I then got an opportunity to work in the corporate life where I got to learn all the tricks in the book on how to run a business and all the finances that come with it.

I was approached to work for IAM360. This has proved to be such a great opportunity for me. What a rewarding feeling it has been for me knowing I am part of such a great team helping and enabling children to further their dreams, and I know one day I will be fulfilling mine by ticking off all the wonders of the world off my bucket list. I’m loving this new journey of mine and as one of the Proudly South African citizens, I hope to help inspire students to reach their Pot of Gold at the end of their rainbow. I firmly believe that to travel is to learn and to learn is to live.