Will Lewan

Will Lewan wanted to be an engineer, and he was not going to take no for an answer.

Now a fifth-year senior and just a semester away from earning a bachelor's degree in Michigan's heralded environmental engineering program, Lewan followed a somewhat bumpy path from his start in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts to the School of Engineering. The process took a couple years; he had to apply for a transfer twice after his first attempt was denied. But he stuck with it, worked on elevating his grade-point average, continued to take engineering courses and prerequisites, and in the end it worked out.

"That was just a roadblock," said Lewan, a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. "I knew I wasn't going to give up. It wasn't easy, but I'm glad I did it. I really enjoy problem solving and learning and using technical skills to solve problems in the real world, and I felt like the engineering school suited my skills the best. I'm definitely enjoying what I'm doing now in environmental engineering."

Environmental engineering is the newest degree program within U-M's School of Engineering and was introduced in 1990 as part of an expansion of the school's oldest department: civil engineering. Among the fastest-growing fields in engineering, environmental engineering ultimately aims to help protect the planet and its inhabitants from environmental impacts caused by natural and human activities.

U-M's undergraduate program features four focus areas: water quality and health, earth systems, environmental fluid dynamics and environmental policy and sustainable infrastructure. But the program also prides itself on its comprehensive curriculum, something that has particularly appealed to Lewan, who identified renewable energy among his primary interests.

"It's a rather broad field, and it's not as black and white as some other engineering fields," said Lewan. "Some of those topics are a little more open to interpretation and allow for more creativity with your options and problem-solving methods. Take, for example, solving the energy crisis. There are thousands of different ways you could go about it, but it takes creativity and new ideas to come up with the best solution."

Alongside, and hand-in-hand with, his environmental engineering concentration, Lewan also has completed specialized coursework in the sustainable engineering program, essentially earning an unofficial minor with a focus on systems that promote material and energy efficiencies to minimize their environmental impact. This semester, Lewan and a classmate performed an eco-audit that examined the total carbon footprint of a product -- in their case, a computer mouse -- throughout its entire life cycle from material extraction to manufacturing, its use phase and finally, end-of-life disposal.

"It was just crazy to see how much this one little thing can contribute to the overall global carbon output," said Lewan. "And there are just so many products -- just look at everything in this room alone; every single thing in here took energy to produce. I just thought it was really cool exploring a real-world scenario and accessing a product as in depth as we did. It provided a new perspective.

"I definitely see the need, especially in the near future here, for environmental solutions. People want answers for some of the stuff that's happening in our society and on our planet, and I'd like to be involved with that. It feels like a valuable and worthy investment. I have passion for the environment, keeping it clean and just doing my part, and I see an opportunity in something that's only going to need more and more attention."

As far as his near future, Lewan does not exactly know yet how he will apply his engineering degree after college, but he has some time to figure it out. First, he wants to be a wrestler for a while longer.

Lewan's roots in wrestling stretch back to fourth grade and coincided with his exit from basketball after he was deemed too physical for the sport.

"They'd get mad at me for fouling out every game," said Lewan, "but I just thought I was playing the game. I was just more aggressive than the other kids, so apparently basketball was not the sport for me. They took me out of that, and my mom wanted to find a new sport for to do in the winter. She saw wrestling as a good option to get some aggression out."

He won all of his first-year wrestling tournaments -- "I thought I was a beast" -- and was immediately hooked. Eventually he shed summer baseball in order to wrestle freestyle and Greco in the summertime, and upon entering high school, he dropped football to dedicate himself to wrestling year round.

The extra focus paid off. He was an Illinois state champion and four-time state placewinner for Montini Catholic High School and in 2017, during the summer between his junior and senior years, he captured a cadet freestyle world title with his high school coach Izzy Martinez and Sean Bormet -- then Michigan's associate head coach and an assistant for the U.S. cadet world team -- in his corner. Nine days later, Lewan committed to be a Wolverine.

At Michigan, Lewan has been a four-year stalwart at 157 pounds. He is 67-22 in his career and a two-time All-American, earning a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championships last March in Detroit while previously earning NWCA second team All-America honors as a first-year after COVID-19 canceled the NCAA tournament. This year, he lists No. 4 in FloWrestling's national rankings with a 7-2 record along with an exhibition win in the NWCA All-Star Classic last month.

After his all-star win, discussion picked up on social media sites about Lewan's wrestling style. It's not a new conversation, though with greater success and visibility it has drawn in more participants and opinions. Lewan's style is rarely flashy or high-flying -- though he does have the capacity for that -- but most commenters have expressed an appreciation for his incredible soundness and focus on fundamental wrestling and good positioning. It is a style that seems to match his analytical mind. Lewan suggests it is simply instinctual.

"I'd say I'm a rather strategic wrestler," he said, "and my thinking throughout my matches is very strategic. That's what comes naturally. I'd like to think that I have good match awareness. I know what I have to do to win and what I need to do in each scenario in a match to come out on top; it might not work every time, but I'm at least comfortable that I know what I need to do. That feeling never wavers in my head during a match."

Lewan's wrestling style also is one that will transition well to freestyle, which he wants to pursue further after college. But he has another year of eligibility before that time comes, and he has applied to the Masters of Management program through the Ross School of Business. Ultimately, he would like to operate his own business and thinks the combination of degrees will serve him well.

"I don't see myself stopping wrestling in the near future," said Lewan. "So, I feel like I can kind of relax right now, continue wrestling and really see what calls me after college. It's something I still have to research more and I'm trying to keep my options open. The goal is to eventually own my own business. I feel like wrestling has prepared me and given some of the leadership qualities to be successful."