Scholar Stories: Meier's Journey at, After Michigan Shaped by Family
4/8/2026 12:00:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse
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
Family influence can often go a long way. For University of Michigan women's lacrosse student-athlete Kennedy Meier, two important life decisions have stemmed from her family. Her older sister, Charley, played lacrosse at Harvard, serving as an inspiration for Kennedy to pursue a similar path and work toward a Division I scholarship. When deciding what to study at Michigan, Meier originally planned to pursue a degree in Economics, but she transferred to the Ross School of Business to enroll in more finance classes. With her mother having a career in international banking and her father working as a financial analyst, Meier always felt a strong pull toward a career in finance. Through her experiences and internships at Michigan, she has narrowed her focus to pursuing a career in wealth management.
In finance as well as athletics, there is constant pressure to perform. As a junior defender on the No. 6-ranked team in the country, Meier is grateful for her background in lacrosse because the tense moments, stressful situations and quick decision-making have allowed her to develop the ability to perform under pressure, a skill that will be integral to her professional career.
I think that being able to perform under this pressure constantly and just being comfortable being uncomfortable all the time is something that I will 100 percent take with me for the rest of my career, said Meier. I know that I'll always be able to either communicate or express my feelings in a way that I've been able to feel more comfortable doing if I wasn't ever in a high-stakes environment all the time.
Meier grew up in Wilmette, Ill., just five minutes away from Northwestern, but the passion for Michigan and overall support from the school stood out to her during her recruiting process.
The passion everyone has for the school really stood out to me. Every time I mentioned Michigan, everyone always just has a great feeling about the school -- either someone that went here or someone connected to you, Meier said. I think there's just an overwhelming amount of support and love that you get for going to a school like this, not only from alumni but also from people at the school themselves.
Michigan has provided Meier with premier opportunities on the lacrosse field while also allowing her to gain the necessary experience to better navigate her professional path. During her Michigan tenure, Meier has taken part in internships that have reaffirmed her passion for finance. She worked as a financial consultant with other student-athletes on a micro project for Eli Lilly's new Alzheimer's drug, helping with early-stage research and building financial models. While she had never worked in a role like this before, she gained invaluable insight from the project.
I think it was my first big exposure to data that was just handed to me, and then I had to decide what to do with it, which was kind of really nice for me, Meier said. It was my first project working on how to put all this into a financial model and then use data, spreadsheets and different things like Excel to show numbers and insights that were presentable to a senior leadership group. So, I think the biggest thing that I took away from this was just how to present strategic recommendations and data to senior leadership that was both professional but also informative.
The following summer, she worked as a Business Data Analyst intern at a data management company called Byga. In this role, Meier created her own customer satisfaction survey to better understand client and affiliate experiences, and she worked directly with upper management and clients. Being able to work with clients and establish those authentic relationships is what drives Meier and something she really values in her professional career, leading her to wealth management.
I really was drawn to wealth management just in terms of building relationships with people and having your client and addressing your client's needs and putting them at the forefront of your mind, Meier said. Rather than just only being behind the scenes in terms of a data role, where all you're doing is working on a computer, I thought it was really important for me to continue to build those relationships and use these skills that I've worked on.
With her focus on wealth management, Meier was able to secure an internship with JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the U.S. Private Bank Wealth Management division in Chicago. In this eight-week program, Meier will gain essential skills needed in the industry, focusing on relationship management, client engagement and portfolio strategy. Excited about the opportunity, she is looking to immerse herself in her role to better understand what a future career in wealth management will look like.
I'm looking forward to reinforcing that a wealth management and private banking role is something I want to move forward with in my career, said Meier. It's an eight-week internship program that I'll be able to then not only see how it is to work face-to-face with clients but also learn about market exposure and how to interpret market information, which is obviously very dynamic. I also want to network within the office. I was inspired by one of our past alumni who made it a goal to set up a coffee chat with one person in the office each week. So, I want to try to hold myself accountable to set these up at least once a week with anyone in the Chicago office, so hopefully I'll be able to leverage that.
With a big emphasis on relationship building, Meier believes she has a great background in this regard -- something she takes to heart and really values as a member of the lacrosse team.
I think it's just the relationships that I have established, but also continue to make throughout all my years here. Every year, it's different in terms of 10 new girls that come in, and I think it's so amazing that I could say throughout all my time at Michigan that I constantly have 40-plus best friends all the time, Meier said. It's not something that a lot of people can say, especially at a big university like this, but another part that is so special about our team is how everyone at all ages respects each other, can get along with each other, but also has these like personal relationships with each and every single one of us, no matter your position on the team, no matter your role on your team, no matter your experience on the field or off the field at any point in life.
Being a contributing member to such a highly competitive program as the Michigan women's lacrosse team, Meier values playing for something bigger than herself and playing for the name across her chest.
Being able to play for something bigger than yourself has taught me a lot about how to hold myself, how to keep myself up, and be able to present myself in a way that is always up to the standard of not only the university I'm representing but also my program itself.
Meier's journey at Michigan shows how much family, experience and personal growth can shape a path. From the early influence of her sister to the impact of her parents' careers, she has found a way to combine her interest in finance with everything she has learned as a student-athlete. Through high-pressure moments, strong relationships and hands-on opportunities, Meier has built a foundation that goes well beyond her time in Ann Arbor. As she looks ahead to a future in wealth management, she does so with confidence, carrying with her the lessons, connections and perspective she has gained along the way.
