This club makes waves for the Carolina community
For over a decade, Dive In: Chapel Hill has helped families overcome financial and language barriers to give children quality swim lessons.
Carolina students are always looking for ways to support their community. One student organization does that by helping kids and their parents learn how to stay afloat.
For more than a decade, Dive In: Chapel Hill has offered free swimming lessons to local families facing economic or language barriers. The Dive In team teaches children from 2 to 18 basic swimming fundamentals and teaches parents life-saving skills — in both English and Spanish.
“All of our communication happens in both languages,” said club president Olivia Li, a senior majoring in statistics and business administration. “I think for the Spanish-speaking students, it’s a great way to feel comfortable around their own language but also allows them to get used to an English-speaking environment.”
Li is a lifelong swimmer who started lessons at age 4 at the YMCA, where she participated in both artistic (synchronized) swimming and competitive swimming. She said the coaches who trained her inspired her to join Dive In at Carolina.
“I think the way I was taught still influences the way I teach,” Li said. “Just making sure that everything is adjusted to what each individual child needs and also what the volunteers need is important.”
(Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)
While Li oversees the entire club, she’s just one part of the team that keeps Dive In running.
Courtney Parrish, a senior business administration major and the club’s treasurer, spends much of her time coordinating with staff at the Bowman Gray Indoor Pool to reserve space for their regular lessons. Before taking on her executive role, she also volunteered as a swim instructor for the club.
She described working with younger students as one of the most rewarding experiences of her time at Carolina.
“My first day with Dive In, I had this little girl who would not stop crying and did not want to get in the water at all,” Parrish said. “But I vividly remember the first day she decided to go under the water and began swimming back and forth on her own. It was such a big day for the whole Dive In team.”
(Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)
“There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing growth,” Li said. “I’ve had kids who were just so shy when I started out, and they’re still here, and now they have the biggest smiles on their faces and just can’t wait to get in the water.”
Both Li and Parrish said they’ll miss serving the community through Dive In after graduation.
“After I leave, I just hope that the Dive In keeps being a place for Tar Heels who want to give back,” Li said. “It’s a place where the desire to provide future generations with equal opportunities and a love of swimming can coexist.”
