It really starts for Stephanie Mejia in, of all places, China.

Mejia had intended to go to medical school when she graduated from USC. An internship with Cartan Tours changed that calculus. She spent the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the InterContinental Hotel, working around Team USA’s men’s and women’s basketball teams and networking with influential stakeholders. By the Games’ end, medicine was no longer her path of choice.

She wanted to be an agent.

“I remember being young and cold-emailing every single agency I could and trying to get in front of people going to different events, trying to introduce myself,” Mejia said. “I didn’t have the ‘pedigree’ that would appear to be an agent. I just kept getting [told], ‘No.’ I kept getting told, ‘Hey, maybe you could do PR, or maybe you could be the day-to-day person.’ But that’s not what [I was asking].

“For me, it’s just important for people to be able to live out their dreams, whatever that is.”

Mejia was raised in Los Angeles, the daughter of a single mother, Elsa, with family roots in El Salvador. She’d always had a fascination with sports, a love she credits to her brother, Jason, who is eight years her elder.

Today, Mejia is an increasingly prominent player in the NBA ecosystem. Her client list at WME includes Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards and projected 2025 first-round pick Dink Pate, who’s playing with the G League’s Mexico City Capitanes this year.

She credits her family — and her mom, specifically — as support systems throughout her rise in the industry.

“I recently started my executive MBA program at Yale, and I was concerned with, ‘Is it something I should do? Am I picking the wrong time? Am I too old?’ All the questions,” Mejia said. “My mom’s a warrior who figured out life here without knowing a language, so [I] can figure out life as well.” — Ben Portnoy