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 Absopure.
By David Woelkers, Jr.
With university of Michigan junior Julia Fliegner growing up in a family of tennis lovers and surgeons, one would be excused for thinking the No. 22-ranked singles player in the NCAA intends to go into medicine when her college days are over.
Appearances can deceive, as Fliegner is forging a new path for herself entirely — one based on a lifelong love of art and fashion.
“I don’t really know how I just kind of ended up being the black sheep, which is funny now, but I really love art and design and fashion,” Fliegner said. “Originally, my whole family is in medicine. They’re all doctors.”
Fliegner’s love of art is intrinsically tied to her love of the game she has dominated. From a young age, she found herself at the matches of her brother Max — an accomplished college tennis player at Dartmouth turned doctor himself.
Like all young children, Fliegner was given things, including coloring books, to distract her from the often long and tedious breaks between her brother’s matches. What her parents did not realize was how influential those books would become to their young daughter.
“I actually started doing art when I was little because I was at my brother’s tournaments,” Fliegner said. “My mom would buy me coloring books to entertain me while he was playing matches because I wasn’t interested in the tennis at all. And so that’s actually how I developed my love for art. Then she bought me a fashion design one and that’s how I started loving fashion and sort of following it like reading magazines and, you know, following shows and stuff like that.”
Like her brother, Fliegner aspired to go to the Ivy League for her college career. One visit to Ann Arbor, though, was all it took to change that part of the plan as well.
“I was actually going to take a visit to Princeton, but I took a visit here and just knew it was where I wanted to be,” Fliegner said. “I knew I wanted to be somewhere that valued my athletics and would take me further as a tennis player. This probably sounds like a broken record, but it’s truly the perfect mix of academic and athletic excellence, and I don’t think I’d be happier anywhere else as an undergrad. We’ve been incredibly successful this year as a team, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything while I get an amazing undergraduate BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) degree.”
For an artistically minded student like Fliegner, business school might seem like a bit of a surprise. However, she sees the value of mixing her passion with a grounded education in order to get the most out of her future prospects.
“So I actually applied to Ross with the intention of doing a STAMPS minor and to do fashion business eventually,” Fliegner said. “As I got into school though, a STAMPS minor didn’t really seem logistically plausible with tennis and the Ross major. So I ended up not doing that. I’m actually doing an art history minor now, which is really fun. I really enjoyed those classes and that’s like those are my fun classes to me.”
So what constitutes “fun” to Fliegner?
“I love art and I love history. It was always my favorite subject in school. So the combination is kind of just learning about human history through visual representations, which I love,” she said. “I’m a very visual person. So learning — right now I’m in a class about Greek art and archaeology and I’m actually taking it with my Greek teammate (Gala Mesochoritou), so it’s kind of funny — but I just think it’s the best way to learn about human history, through a beautiful medium.”
As an upperclassman, Fliegner has thought carefully on how she wants to take her combination of business expertise and artistic mindset to the next level. After considering several options, including a return to the family business of medicine, Fliegner looks to pursue the legal field after graduation.
“I’m actually intending to apply to law school though. So yeah, a little bit of a circuitous route to my final decision,” Fliegner said. “I actually also was maybe considering doing the pre-med track alongside Ross, but I ended up deciding that law was the route I wanted to go.
“Right now I’m actually in a Ross class called the business law of marketing. It is kind of art related. You learn about copyright and infringement on artistic works, and I do think that that stuff’s really interesting. I could see doing some intersection of law and art in the future.”
No matter what she pursues — tennis, art, or business — Fliegner is performing at the high level expected of the leaders and best at the University of Michigan.
