Rylee Tolson

It can be easy to forget that an essential part of being a student-athlete at the University of Michigan is being a student. These two aspects work together to set every student-athlete up for success, whether it is in their academic or professional sports pursuits. Rylee Tolson embodies everything it means to be both a student and an athlete at the University of Michigan, through her tireless pursuit of education, championships and community.

Rylee is a senior distance runner for the women's track and field and cross country teams, majoring in anthropology, with a minor in human anatomy and physiology. Outside of her training and studying, Tolson also works as a student-athlete ambassador for Michigan Athletics, working game days and at donor events with the development team.

“We can't get those opportunities anywhere else,” Tolson said. “Being able to meet with donors that help support our opportunities here, it's a very important mechanism of giving back to those who have donated so that we could be here. I just get to know the donors that are making this opportunity possible for us.”

Tolson's favorite part of being a student-athlete ambassador is getting the opportunity to interact with donors, and put a face to the name of those who have supported her throughout her athletic career.

“I have always thought of donors as these really big, important people, which they are, but they're also people with personalities, and lives, and families,” says Tolson. “Seeing that side has been enlightening because we see the opportunities that they create for us on a day-to-day basis.”

Tolson is also in the process of putting together her senior honors thesis, where she is working to trace the provenience of some of the skeletal remains from the collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archeology.

“There's a lot of universities around the world that have literal skeletons in their closets, and the problem is that they don't know where any of them are from,” explained Tolson. “My project, specifically, is taking a subsect of one of those collections, and trying to figure out where they're from. It's been very interesting because you don't realize how many academic disciplines it takes to figure out where this individual is from. It's a lot of historical record research and doing non-metric trait analysis on the individual themselves to figure out ancestry, age, or sex, anything to help figure out who this person was and how they ended up in our collection.”

Being a student-athlete has significantly impacted Tolson's educational experience. The opportunities available to her through the athletic department and the University have prepared her for graduate school, and a career after graduation.

“I wouldn't have had as many academic opportunities to explore as I did if I wasn't a student-athlete. So, in a way, being a student-athlete has exposed me to a variety of different disciplines, and without all of that exposure and seeing all of the options and paths that I could take, I don't know that I would have ever found this discipline specifically,” says Tolson.

She also praises the resources that are available to her, such as the Graham Family Athletic Career Center.

“The career center is super underrated. I just had a meeting with one of the representatives to talk about my career moving forward and which pathways I should take for graduate school or to pursue my long term goals,” said Tolson.

Away from the track and skeletons, Tolson also plays four different instruments. She started out playing the trumpet in fifth grade. Having always been a team player, when the director of her small high school band needed someone to fill in the important parts, Tolson stepped up and learned how to play tenor drums, the french horn, and the baritone.

Despite all she does, and constantly running around - on the track, between classes, and work - Tolson has become a pillar of her track and field community, as a captain on the cross country team, and a member of the Track and Field Leadership Committee.

“My team at this point is my family and my best friends,” she said. “Every year when we add freshmen, it's like adding built-in friends. It's been very, very special to get to be a part of. I'm an older person on the team, so in a way, I get to mentor them, but I also learn from them every single day.”

From experiencing Big Ten Championships to spending three weeks in Italy, Michigan has made it all possible for Tolson. This past summer, Tolson received funds for a study-abroad experience in the mountains in Italy at an archeological site.

“I helped excavate, and learned foundational skills for potentially pursuing a career in archaeology,” says Tolson. “That was an insane experience. It was just so surreal, and I couldn't believe that I had the opportunity to do that.”

Tolson will remain at the University of Michigan for another year as a graduate student, where she will enter the transcultural studies accelerated master's degree program. She has one more year of eligibility remaining on the track and field team. When she graduates, she hopes to teach in a collegiate setting and contribute to research within her field. Her work in the field, as a student-athlete ambassador, and as a student, embody the hard-work and determination of Michigan Athletics.