We are the Martin Sisters, Michael & Morgan. As two sisters, born five years apart, both with a passion and talent for athletics, we dreamed of being professional tennis players on the tennis circuit.
Separately, injuries short circuited those plans. It was a heartbreaking loss after thousands of hours of training and dreaming. But we didn’t allow it to crush our aspirations of working together. Our lives have always been parallel. Although there is an age difference, we grew up pretty much doing everything together.Given the rigors of our practice and tournament schedule, we both knew that attending brick-and-mortar college would not be possible. So, Michael began shopping around for the best virtual college programs that one could find and research guided us to the Lebow College of Business at Drexel University.
With two Ivy League graduates as parents who were also first-generation college graduates, we knew that the bar was high. By the time we’d both graduated Summa Cum Laude from Drexel University, Morgan had knee surgery and Michael had undergone shoulder surgery. Both of our doctors made it clear that we would most likely not be able to train or play at the level required for professional sports. Accepting this reality was incredibly difficult and painful, but we both knew that there was life after tennis and that we had to figure out how to keep moving forward.
Quitting is just not an option. In one of the most competitive application years in history, we both were accepted into Columbia Law program and are applying to the MBA program as we pursue our law degrees. We are so proud to be second-generation Columbia students and second-generation law students. We landed in New York on August 15th and started our journey 3000 miles away from our home in Los Angeles. We moved into separate apartments just four blocks from each other. We are in different first-year sections, but we are as united as ever. We are super excited about the future and about pursuing our dreams as doubles partners off the court…and maybe ending up as doubles partners in moot court.