The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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10 THE WOLVERINE JUNE/JULY 2021 INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS A Walpole, Mass., native, rowing se- nior Emma Luniewicz never thought she'd end up at the University of Michi- gan. But when she took her visit to the campus during her senior year of high school, she fell in love and felt like U-M was "home." It was an easy choice from there. "I always say, it was the best decision I've ever made," she said. A graduate of the sport management program in U-M's School of Kinesiol- ogy, she's happy to report that she'll be sticking around one more year at U-M to continue her athletic pursuits and receive her Master's of manage- ment degree from the prestigious Ross School of Business. A former community outreach and external affairs intern for the New York Mets, Luniewicz hopes to work in the business side of sports once her schooling is complete. She is passion- ate about the growth of women's ath- letics, and partnerships and activation. While the transition from high school to college can be rocky for some, Lu- niewicz feels she was set up well after attending Ursuline Academy, a Catho- lic, all-girls school located outside of Boston, where "everybody was smart and everybody always did their home- work and everybody always studied for the test." To keep up, and stand out, she turned to hard work, and has contin- ued to do the same at U-M. "I never had that natural ability to not study or just hope for the best," Luniewicz explained. "I've always been somebody who has had to put in the work to get the good grades, and I think that has helped me a little bit in college. "Growing up, it was a matter of, if you have to stay up all night to fin- ish [schoolwork], then you have to do that. A lot of times, if you have to get up at 5 a.m. to finish what you didn't get to at 10 last night, you have to do that type of thing." A two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, she also credits a strong team culture and emphasis on aca- demics, led by head coach Mark Roth- stein, for her success in the classroom. "My team is really smart — every- body is really focused and does a lot of research and does a lot of studying — so it's easy to want to do well in school when everybody around you is doing well in school," Luniewicz said. Luniewicz has also made a name for herself as a rower, having been a key piece for the Wolverines for four years and earning a bronze medal at the NCAA Championships in 2019. Her "bucket list" items for the next calendar year are to take home first at the Big Ten and NCAA championships — both are coming up for the 2021 campaign — and make the most of her final months living in Ann Arbor. "I'm grateful to be part of this huge, big, awesome family that is Michigan athletics and the rowing team," Luni- ewicz said. "We say all the time, 'Who's got it better than us? No one.' And I think that is true. "On our rowing team more specifi- cally, we have our four [core values]: 'do it, own it, give it and appreciate it.' And when we're asked which one we reso- nate most with, I always say, appreciate it. We wouldn't be here and be able to do what we do without all the people that help us, and showing apprecia- tion to them and everything is super important." And she'll be able to carry forward what she's learned at U-M into the rest of her life, when the time to move on comes. "I feel like, leaving Michigan, I'm going to be sad. But there's no better place to have spent the last five years than in Ann Arbor, and there's no better peo- ple," she said. "I know that, with Michi- gan in my corner, I'll be set up for life." — Clayton Sayfie Luniewicz, a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, is a graduate of the sport manage- ment program in U-M's School of Kinesiology. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY Student-Athlete Of The Month Rowing Senior Emma Luniewicz