Scholar Stories: Farley a Community Champion for Michigan Athletics
1/15/2020 10:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics, Features
Continuing the 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 Conor Stemme
Grace. Precision. Strength.
Those are words that one might use to describe the sport of gymnastics. University of Michigan junior Lauren Farley checks those boxes and so many more.
School and gymnastics have been part of Farley's life since she was 2.
"Academics is definitely something my parents just instilled in me," she said. "You always need to be working hard at everything that you're doing, and school is no different."
Farley was the valedictorian of her high school class at Spring Creek Academy in Plano, Texas, and is now an organizational studies major with a minor in business administration at the Ross School of Business. She has enjoyed her time in the program, which features a combination of sociology, psychology, and economics. Through the major, she was able to make her own path focusing on human relations and leading change in businesses. She enjoys the small community the major provides; in the program, there are only 50 juniors and she has had the opportunity to work with everyone in her class.
She has been balancing school and gymnastics since elementary school, training about 36 hours a week. The change from training and high school to training and college was not as big as it may be for others, mainly due to the time management skills she learned at a young age and the resources available on campus.
At Michigan, Farley has been a great contributor to the gymnastics team, twice earning All-Big Ten honors, including a first-team nod last year. Gymnastics may be viewed as an individual sport in that when performing, each gymnast is solely responsible for their performance. But in college gymnastics where there are six routines per event and five count, having a reliable routine from Farley is immensely valuable. Michigan has won two Big Ten regular-season and Big Ten Championships titles, and made an NCAA Championship appearance in her first two years.
She did have to adapt to one thing, though. Her graduating class at Spring Creek Academy was just 13 people strong. Spring Creek Academy is a private school that caters to highly competitive athletes and others who could not be at a normal school including other gymnasts like Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin.
"Coming to Michigan was definitely a huge adjustment," she said. "I remember going to my first stats class as a freshman, and there were 300-plus people in it. My calculus course in high school had two people. It was crazy different, but I got used to it."
Farley (right) studies with teammate Anne Maxim on a women's gymnastics road trip
Farley put her studies to good use when she was invited to attend the Athlete Leadership Connection Conference this past Ocober in New York City. She was able to network with many professional athletes and women in the sports industry. Her highlight of the trip was hearing tennis legend Billie Jean King speak.
"It was incredible to just hear her talk about all of her experiences and just how she's fought for female presence and female respect in sport," she said. "And it was honestly just so inspiring to get to be around so many successful women in sports and learn from them."
She applied her academic skills to the EPIC Summer Internship program with the Michigan athletic department where she worked with Colette Hemker, the program's community engagement director. Farley focused on leadership development, working YMCA camps and running workshops with other varsity teams on campus.
This included a DISC assessment with the women's soccer team, a piece of programming which helps individuals identify leadership qualities. The DISC assessment centers on patterns of visible behaviors using directness and openness to help evaluate an individual's leadership style by making an individual aware of strengths while others find how best to interact with that individual. She was able to discover how the team reacted to its results, and the different leadership styles that the individual players, coaches and staff possessed. Everyone has a different way they want to be managed, and this helped the women's soccer team learn more about its players and what leadership styles they responded to best.
After witnessing first-hand how another team applied the results, she approached Hemker and head coach Bev Plocki about doing it with the women's gymnastics team. They agreed.
The women's gymnastics team enjoyed the experience which allowed them to see other people in different, more positive ways. It taught student-athletes to appreciate differences in leadership styles and personalities, and then work with each other in spite of those differences.
In the future, Farley wants to do something similar with her internship. She would love to work within an athletic department and be able to use sport to reach youth in the community.
Before arriving on campus in 2017, she went to Haiti with Mission of Hope twice: once before her senior year of high school and once after her senior year, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, painting houses and running afternoon programs.
"It was super eye-opening to see just how much joy these people had when they literally had nothing," she said. "It definitely puts things in perspective."
While at Michigan, she was the leader of the department's "You Go Girl" Day in partnership with the women's soccer team. She recruited female student-athletes and together they ran 15 stations for young girls to get a taste of different sports. The girls would explore the stations with their parents where the varsity student-athletes would encourage the girls and teach them different aspects about their respective sports.
"Oftentimes, girls around fourth or fifth grade have the highest dropout rate for girls in sports," she said. "So, we wanted to do everything in our power to encourage them that they are strong, and they are beautiful and there are so many great things about sports."
Farley loves being able to give back and inspire. Like so many other Michigan student-athletes, she is able to do this weekly through visits to C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. She enjoys being able to make the kids' days, whether that meant bringing gifts or even dancing for an hour and a half.
The parents always thank the student-athletes who come. Farley, however, wants to do the opposite.
"Honestly, we want to thank them for letting us come because it's just such a refreshing time towards the end of the week when you get a little tired," she said. "it's just such a good energizer."
Farley chose Michigan because academics are just as important as athletics to her, and Michigan was able to offer both at a very high level. The excellence of the university itself is something that inspires Farley. With a year and a half left in her college experience, she is taking full advantage of everything it has to offer.
"There is no other university like Michigan," she said. "To be able to pursue excellence, get an incredible degree and have this athletic experience while contending for a national championship with my team, it's just all I could ever ask for and more."
Players Mentioned
