Scholar Stories: Parenti Exploring Educational New Horizons in Pursuit of Literal Ones
12/18/2025 10:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
Continuing the series that began in 2016-17, each week MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories.
By Jonathan Franchi
With Olympic athletes as parents, it would be easy for University of Michigan women's gymnast Sophie Parenti to be solely focused on reaching her parents' level of success, but her life experiences have opened new doors of curiosity, while also allowing her to perfect her craft on the gym floor. Parenti's father, Eddie, was a member of the Canadian National Swim Team, while her mother, Paige, was a member of the Canadian National Diving Team. Parenti nearly switched from gymnastics to diving earlier in her career to follow in her mom's footsteps, but she persisted with her gymnastics journey. Although Sophie competes on the gym floor rather than in the water, her parents have always been influential in her athletic interests.
"It's really inspiring. I would say, not only that they both were able to compete in the Olympics, but that's also kind of where they met and where their relationship started," she said. "A lot of people ask me if I ever felt pressure from them because of that, and I never thought of it that way, and it never felt that way. Growing up, I guess sports was a big part of my life, but they were always for fun and to grow. Ultimately, I would just say it's really inspiring, and they always understood where I was coming from. When I had hard days, when I was tired, they can relate to that."
Outside of gymnastics, Parenti has developed a strong interest in learning more about global cultures and perspectives due to her upbringing. Parenti grew up in a large Spanish-speaking region of Los Altos, Calif., where her parents placed her in a Spanish immersion program, taking after her mother, who grew up in a French immersion program. Parenti knew no Spanish before kindergarten, but after being in a Spanish-speaking system through elementary school, learning Spanish became more comfortable to her than learning English. Being in this culture opened Parenti's eyes to different global perspectives and piqued her interest in learning more about the world. After having only traveled outside of the country to Canada, Parenti will travel to Finland this summer to take a three-week, three-credit course through the Ross Global Initiatives program.
"I'm really excited for that opportunity, I've always wanted to travel," Parenti said. "It's been my dream to travel and see the world, so I'm just excited to see different cultures in Europe and explore different places."
Parenti began at Michigan in the School of Language, Sciences, and Arts but transitioned this year into the Ross School of Business, while keeping her minor in Spanish. Stemming from her past experiences and her experience competing on gymnastics teams, it felt like a natural next step for Parenti.
"I love school, and I really like numbers. It's like a puzzle I get to solve, and it's really fulfilling and satisfying to get a right answer," Parenti said. "I feel like a lot of business focuses on that, but there's also the collaboration and teamwork side that Ross really highlights, which is also something I enjoy.
"Being on a gymnastics team, working with other girls, that's a big part of my life. And then also the project-based learning. In middle school, I went to a more untraditional school, I would say, where a lot of the work was project-based instead of tests. And I really like doing stuff like that, like case studies, hands-on learning."
Despite a busy course load and gymnastics schedule, Parenti has gotten involved as the E-Board Representative for the Graham Family Athletics Career Center on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. In this position, Parenti works with the career center to organize and schedule different activities for student athletes, such as resume workshops, creating LinkedIn profiles, mock interview sessions and more. Parenti has improved her leadership skills in this role and has gotten more comfortable with her communication and networking abilities.
Through her work with the GFACC, Parenti was able to travel to Washington, D.C., this past summer on a career venture trip, where she met with leaders across varying industries.
"We got to go to the Secret Service, which was so cool. Yeah, it was amazing. They really got me thinking maybe I should apply for that," Parenti said. "We visited Fox News, the Pentagon, Deloitte, and the World Bank. Just getting that experience and talking to people was very beneficial. Being able to see a company may seem like it focuses on one thing, but there's all these different people with different backgrounds and different skills that come together was definitely eye-opening for me."
Now a sophomore, Parenti gained a lot of experience and enjoyed a successful campaign as a freshman. While she competed in club gymnastics throughout high school, she enjoyed the college style of gymnastics more and felt like she rediscovered her love for the sport in a sense during her freshman year. Parenti was heavily relied upon as Michigan's leadoff on uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. She secured one event title on floor against Alabama with a season-high score of 9.875. Coming in as a true freshman, Parenti was unsure what role she would have, but she gained confidence leading off in three events. That variety of events gave her a different mindset when preparing for all three.
"I feel like bars and beam are pretty similar. I would say I get very locked in. You have to kind of zone in what you're doing, so I might seem a little bit quieter and more focused for those events," said Parenti. "They just take a lot of energy, and there's a lot of room for error, so I kind of just trying to focus on everything and get my confidence up. I talk to myself, kind of in third person, to hype myself up, because beam, especially, is like a different beast hanging on four inches in front of an entire crowd.
"It's a lot, but I just remind myself to stay calm, and take it one thing at a time. And then on floor, that's where I like to have fun. I like to kind of show my personality more, look at the audience, and kind of play with the audience. So, that's probably where you see my personality the most."
With much of her college career left ahead of her, Parenti is off to a great start, seeing success in several different facets at Michigan. Guided by her Olympic-athlete parents, Parenti has excelled at gymnastics while also discovering her love for learning, leadership, and exploring the different cultures of the world. Parenti has found balance and confidence as she looks to carve her own legacy.
Players Mentioned
