A Julia of All Trades
Senior Julia Friberg runs down one of the cross country paths during practice as prep Jack Liu catches up to her. “Hey, you’re Brandon Liu’s brother, right? He gave me his fish last year. I kinda killed them,” Friberg jokes, introducing herself. The four-year senior is well known on campus for her sense of humor, among many other aspects of her personality. While balancing her commitments as a proctor in McConnell Hall, a member of the cross country and varsity lacrosse teams and the Head of Accounting on The Exonian Business Board, Julia shines with her bright smile and inviting character.
These are just a few of the traits that made McConnell Hall elect her as proctor. Senior Henrietta Reily, prep Selma Unver and many other residents of the dorm have described Julia as incredibly kind and always willing to talk or listen to anyone in or outside of the dorm. “These are qualities I imagine a younger student would appreciate in a proctor, so I voted for her,” Reily said. Friberg serves as a role model to many of the new students in the dorm. “She’s always there when I have a question and she even helped me try to get my riding horses as a sport petition approved, which meant a lot to me,” said Unver.
When Friberg herself was a prep, she joined The Exonian’s Business Board and chose to work in the board’s accounting department. By her lower year, she was already on the upper board as the Director of Accounting. Despite her fast success on the board and natural talent, Friberg disclosed to The Exonian that she “abhors accounting.” Although she felt this way about her duties on Business Board, former Chair of the Board, senior Timur Luke remarked that, “She promoted a great work environment and completed all her tasks on time, despite the occasional schedule conflict.” Outside of working with the Business Board, Friberg would also periodically treat her department to dinner or ice cream in town.
“She is one of the most positive people on the team. I don’t think I have ever heard anything negative come from her mouth.”
Friberg’s bright and inspiring personality is acknowledged outside of the Business Board as well, having competed on the girls varsity lacrosse team since her lower year. Senior and teammate Hannah Gustafson said, “She is one of the most positive people on the team. I don’t think I have ever heard anything negative come from her mouth.” Despite her lack of playing time during games, Friberg explained, she is always ready and willing to help out her teammates, pushing them in both practices and in games.
In the classroom, Friberg opted to participate in the Senior Research Seminar this term. The culmination to this course, a final research paper on a chosen topic, will discuss a Zionist political philosopher in Palestine. Her advisor, History Instructor Michael Golay, described Julia’s avid interest in Judaism. “She has a great topic and I’m very enthusiastic about what she’s working on.”
Despite juggling clubs, sports and academics, Friberg manages to expertly manage all her responsibilities. She explains that she is missing an “it-thing,” one topic or subject that really grabs her interest, to define herself. Consequently, she uses this lack of a defining feature of herself as motivation to explore and pursue her abundance of passions instead. Her love of biology which has led her to become one of the co-heads of the biology club here at Exeter. Ever since she was the age of seven, Friberg remembers wanting to be a surgeon. Following her passions, Friberg had the opportunity two summers ago to observe a surgery and hasn’t looked back since. “I love science and I love people. Medicine is the perfect overlap of the two,” Friberg said.
When asked about how Exeter had helped her evolve as a person, Friberg said that before coming she was “pretty naive” as she had “always lived in a wealthy and white rural New Hampshire town.”
She described her prep year self as someone in her own bubble and totally self-absorbed. However, according to the man she jokingly calls her life coach and to whom she attributes most of her happiness, Michael Golay, Friberg has lost much of her selfishness while retaining her infectious sense of humor and good nature. “One of my colleagues, when I first got here, said to me that Exeter is a place where people come to grow up. And I think Julia really exemplifies that. She came here as kind of a wide-eyed ninth grader and she’s leaving a very confident, a very accomplished young woman. And it’s been a great pleasure to see that happen over the three and a half years so far.”