The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS As the son of a schoolteacher and a nurse practitioner, sophomore Ben Fla- nagan was brought up in an environ- ment where education was extremely important. Flanagan also had to follow in the footsteps of two academically driven older sisters and chose to sur- round himself with friends who took school seriously as well. Those influences molded Flanagan into a four-year honor student and also earned him the St. Mary's Academic Ex- cellence Award from his high school in Kitchener, Ontario. All of those factors have turned Flanagan into the success- ful student-athlete that he is today. "A lot of it was just influenced by the kind of people that I surrounded myself with," Flanagan explained. "With my dad being an elementary school teacher, he put a lot of emphasis on education when my sisters and I were young. My mom's background as a nurse practitio- ner made her a natural in taking care of me the best that she could, and teach- ing me about education was one way she did that. "My sisters, Jamie and Kristen, were both very, very successful students in high school and I kind of had to follow their lead. A lot of teachers that had them before me had high expectations for me, and I wanted to live up to those. "Pretty much all of my friends were re- ally focused on school as well so it was just what we did. I've just always cared a lot about my academics." Student Athlete Of The Month Men's Distance Runner Ben Flanagan The U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association named Flanagan an Academic All-American in 2014. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS