The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/465847
INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Now that Flanagan is a kinesiology major with a pre-med focus at Michi- gan, he's thankful he was brought up the way he was and appreciates the fact that his early formed study habits have allowed him to be successful with a rigorous academic load. Being a cross- country runner and a member of the track and field team is very demanding, but Flanagan's upbringing and under- standing of what it takes to be success- ful in both arenas has allowed him to flourish at U-M. "My dad often stressed to me to man- age my time as effectively as possible," Flanagan recalled. "He always told me about how important it was to stay on top of things. "His other big message was to always understand what you're doing instead of just doing it. Very often he would em- phasize getting things done correctly rather than just getting them done to be done. "Those messages really made me re- alize why I was doing things. It taught me that I always needed to give my full effort and do things to the best of my abilities. That has been the case in the classroom and also crossed over into running. I learned at a young age that if I wanted to reach my goals it was going to take my full effort." Aside from being a student-athlete at Michigan he is also involved in several programs that go beyond the classroom and the track. With little time to spare, he's able to balance multiple facets of his life and is helping other student-ath- letes learn how to do the same. "I'm in this thing called the Student- Athlete Council," Flanagan stated. "We meet bi-weekly and talk about ways to get involved in the community. We also talk about ways that we can affect the NCAA and athletics at the Michigan level. I'm a SAC representative, so that's a good thing. "I'm also in a sub-committee of SAC called Community Engagement, and that primarily focuses on the volunteer- ing aspect of the program. "Lastly, I'm part of something called the Leadership Academy. It's essentially a program that teaches ways of being a leader in whatever you do. It helps other students and student-athletes find their approach to becoming a leader on their respective teams. "They are all pretty related and they meet every two weeks or once a month so it's not too demanding, but I enjoy the interactions and the objectives of each program." Flanagan is proud of his experience in Ann Arbor and summarized it in a way that makes you believe he's just getting started. "To be completely honest, I think every day is a proud moment," he said with a chuckle. "It's easy to focus on the diffi- cult things as a student-athlete because it is demanding. I've learned to take a step back and realize the situation I've been given and how grateful I am for it. "I've been able to accomplish a lot of goals at a more than respectable insti- tution. Because of that I can't really say there is one particular event, but every day is really a privilege to be a student- athlete at Michigan." — Brandon Brown