To address his academic deficits, he enrolled at Merced College and made such progress in two years that Stanford, Washington State, UCLA, Duke, and the University of Alabama all offered him full athletic scholarships.
After his junior year where he had 10 receptions for 123 yards and one touchdown, he transferred to San Diego State University where his brother Nate was a wide receiver and because he felt the passing offense gave him a better chance at a professional career.
He then moved on to work for Professional Asset Securities, whose primary line of business was to advise and manage excess liquidity for banks, foodservices companies, trusts and pension funds.
He was tasked with raising Kennedy's visibility by organizing rallies, leaflet drops, outreach to the many black churches in the area and fundraisers, including a highly successful Dizzy Gillespie concert.
For the next 10 years, Fergerson would be mentored by Pulitzer Prize winning author Doris Kearns-Goodwin and her husband Richard, the former Presidential speechwriter for the late John F. Kennedy, the late New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Fergerson then entered Harvard Business School to earn an MBA in 1987.
On November 15, 1988, Fergerson was invited to Washington, DC to receive a citation from Governors William Jefferson Clinton and George Kean.
Fergerson spent the next year and a half as one of Al's ‘kitchen cabinet’ advisers, a group that provided statewide advice for the campaign.
After Checchi's defeat, in conjunction with the Staubach Real Estate Company, Fergerson worked to develop living wage opportunities for residents of Harlem.
Chancellor Klein signed the waiver allowing the Harlem Hell-fighters to organize as a scholar/athlete program to serve the needs of the at-risk urban males of color.