Scholar Stories: Krebs Seeks to Be Positive Influence in Healthcare, Rowing
4/3/2019 9:49:00 AM | Rowing, Features
Continuing the popular series that began in 2016-17, each Wednesday MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories, presented by Prairie Farms.
By Max Brill
In most ways, University of Michigan rower Emily Krebs was just like any other high school student.
She toured a handful of schools, focusing mostly on what sort of academic experience she could see herself having at each. Then, she came to Ann Arbor for Tech Day, an event put on by the College of Engineering to promote and showcase the breadth and depth of opportunities in academics, student organizations and social life at the University of Michigan.
"Once I met with the students that went here and heard about their experiences, everything just clicked with me and I knew that I wanted to come here," said Krebs. "I was academically focused coming into Michigan."
She even knew that she wanted to major in biomedical engineering from the get-go. Her focus was on positively influencing the lives of as many patients as possible through healthcare, something she was not sure she could accomplish as a physician because, as she explained, physicians are limited by the number of patients they can see daily.
Her path to biomedical engineering was a sure thing. Her path to collegiate athletics was not as rock solid.
"I was a competitive swimmer all throughout high school and middle school, so athletics was always a big part of my life," she said. "I knew it was something that I wanted to continue doing during college, but I had no idea that I would be participating in athletics as a varsity athlete."
That changed when she received an email from Michigan Athletics asking her to try out for the rowing team. The Lake in the Hills, Illinois, native ran into some members of the rowing team on the Diag in her first week on campus. They managed to convince her to come to the team's informational meeting. As soon as she met the team and coaches, she knew she wanted to give rowing a shot.
"I came to the tryouts for a brand-new sport, a sport that I knew nothing about," she said. "The cool thing was that the people coming in also knew nothing about the sport. I was at the same level as everyone else, and I realized that this was something I could pick up and start doing."
Three and a half years later, Krebs is now one of the senior leaders on the team. She was an Academic All-Big Ten honoree in her sophomore and junior seasons and won a bronze medal at the Big Ten Championships in 2018 as part of the 1V4 boat. Her boat finished fifth at the NCAA Championships later that year. And even with all of those accolades, Krebs thinks that her greatest accomplishments have come off the water.
"I'm working on my senior design project right now. We're building a stabilization device for weightlifters with disabilities, and we're working with a client that has a neuromuscular disorder on one side," she said. "We're trying to address slipping and other issues that he runs into."
Krebs (far left) helped U-M's varsity four boat to a Big Ten bronze medal in 2018.
Krebs explained that client interaction with the products she and her team create are the best part of the work that she does.
"The most rewarding thing was to see the before, with all of these issues he had been describing to us, and the after, seeing him using our device to have that stability and be able to go through his lift. Seeing that interaction gives you a reason to do all the reports and background research so that you can deliver a product that will be able to help the client."
She also enjoys the collaborative aspect of biomedical engineering. The experiences working with students in other departments, engineering majors on different paths, and faculty have been invaluable.
"When you all come together and everyone has a different perspective and different ideas, you usually get the best result possible."
Before she graduates and goes into the healthcare field full-time, she has some unfinished business she would like to take care of with her rowing teammates. After losing to Ohio State at the Big Ten Championships each of the past two years, including a devastating one-point loss in 2017, Krebs wants to help bring a title back to Michigan.
"We've gotten so close and haven't gotten it, so this year we've just got to take it as far as we can go," she said. "If we win Big Tens, that doesn't mean we have peaked. We can compete with every team at NCAAs. We can't limit our own potential. We need to push our boundaries."
When this season and her college career are over, she hopes to have made a mark with the underclassmen on the team.
"I have always been a lead-by-example kind of person," she said. "I've tried to set that example for freshmen and sophomores and tried to be someone who is showing up every day, who is always giving it their all, who is consistently improving. I think a lot of people respond to that because it's easy to say those things but it's completely different to show that through your actions.
"I think to leave that mark with my class would be so satisfying -- the culmination of my four years of rowing."
Players Mentioned
