{"id":14447,"date":"2023-12-01T01:40:46","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T09:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/?p=14447"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:07:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:07:23","slug":"dean-janikowski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/2023\/12\/01\/dean-janikowski\/","title":{"rendered":"OMBA Program Helps Dean Janikowski Kickstart Philanthropic Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"WSU
MBA student Dean Janikowski leverages his college football career and social media fame to raise money for people in need.
Photo by WSU Athletics.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Dean Janikowski<\/a> (\u201823, Digi. Tech & Cult.) says he \u201cwas never the smartest guy.\u201d And yet, after earning his bachelor\u2019s degree in three years, the WSU kicker has maintained straight As through his first year in the Carson College\u2019s online MBA program<\/a>, all while leveraging his college football career and social media fame to raise money for people in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBusiness school has helped me with all of it, I think\u2014from being able to write an email to marketing yourself,\u201d Janikowski says. \u201cWith philanthropy, it helps with understanding the different documents, the seriousness of it, and knowing what it means to be a nonprofit\u2014all that money goes to someone that needs it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally from Fallbrook, a small town in California, Janikowski\u2019s main sport was soccer, but after joining the football team in high school, he found his calling as a kicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His high school team would go on to win a few state championships, and when Janikowski started to receive offers from college football programs, Washington State University stood out to him\u2014he knew he wanted to stay on the west coast and attend a Pac-12 school. Upon visiting Pullman, he committed immediately, saying the town felt like home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Walk-On to First-String<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a walk-on freshman in 2019, Janikowski wouldn\u2019t get a chance to play in a WSU game until his third year, and even then, he was scheduled to ride the bench for the year. But when the team\u2019s starting kicker was injured ahead of the Cougs\u2019s first game of the 2021 season, Janikowski was thrown into play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a few games, the starting kicker was ready to return, but Janikowski had shown his worth and retained the starting spot. That season, he led the conference in field goal percentage, was named to the All-Pac-12 Conference First Team, and tied the WSU record for successful field goals in an Apple Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Janikowski was pushing himself on the field, he and his family were contending with a more personal crisis at home. After repeatedly battling cancer into remission, Janikowski\u2019s mother, Heather, began treatment once again in 2020 when cancerous cells were discovered in her lung and brain. She died in January 2022, just a month after the conclusion of that award-winning season. Shortly after, the family established the charitable nonprofit Heather Janikowski Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was 12 when she first got breast cancer, and so since then, she was kind of fighting it for a little under 10 years,\u201d Janikowski says. \u201cWhen it took her life during the football season, we were just trying to get through it, and we wanted to keep her name around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kicks for a Cause<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For his part, Janikowski has found a way to leverage his star power as a college athlete and social media following of nearly 60,000 people to raise money. Every dollar donated goes to someone battling cancer to help defray the cost of their treatment. In addition to an annual fundraising event called \u201cKicking Cancer,\u201d hosted at Zeppoz in Pullman, Janikowski also started \u201cMore Than a Kick,\u201d a pledge campaign tying each point he earns in a game to a raft of donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campaign became a hit and spread across social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 125 pledgers signed up for the 2022 season\u2019s campaign, every extra point he kicked was worth $243\u2014and each field goal raised about $730. All told, Janikowski raised $17,762 of his $25,000 goal that year. He held another More Than a Kick drive in the 2023 season, raising an additional $13,813, and has plans to host the second iteration of Kicking Cancer in April, just before the team\u2019s spring game. The first event raised $33,000, which went to a teacher in Colfax, Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Savvy Helps Build Personal Brand<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The same year as his first triumphant season playing for WSU, Janikowski earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in digital technology and culture. He entered the Carson College\u2019s online MBA program the following year. He says the business training has helped him manage his philanthropic efforts and has even come in handy when setting up lucrative name, image, and likeness deals to capitalize on his status as a student athlete. Some of these efforts have been captured on his Tik Tok channel where he can be seen kicking chicken McNuggets, showcasing DIY projects, and jumping dirt bikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe online master’s program has been great,\u201d he says. \u201cI really appreciate just being able to go at my own pace, and do a bit of everything, and the teachers and everyone have been so helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he\u2019s unsure if an NFL career is in his future, Janikowsi is certain of one thing\u2014he wants to own his own business, and he feels confident his instruction at WSU will help him to get there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dean Janikowski<\/a> (\u201823, Digi. Tech & Cult.) says he \u201cwas never the smartest guy.\u201d And yet, after earning his bachelor\u2019s degree in three years, the WSU kicker has maintained straight As through his first year in the Carson College\u2019s online MBA program<\/a>, all while leveraging his college football career and social media fame to raise money for people in need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":[629],"featured_media":16484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[617,425,625,428],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/629"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14447"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18546,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14447\/revisions\/18546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14447"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author?post=14447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}