New to CIS last school year, Maria is a Lakeside Grade 5 student, and a promising young member of the Husky Swim Team. After 7 years living in Beijing, Maria joined CIS and settled in to swim team life quickly. She adjusted to the early morning and afternoon training schedule, and swim team life.

Although Maria is an active and friendly student, changing schools and environments at a very early age impacted her; socially and academically. Her parents noticed that compared to her older sister, she had a harder time making friends and her sensitive spirit resulted in her feelings getting hurt rather easily. Because of this, Maria’s sense of self confidence was not what it could be. But this quickly changed when she joined the swim team.

As soon as she started excelling in training and at swim events, Maria’s parents noticed a marked shift in her personal development and sense of personal pride: Maria was proud of her achievements and started to believe in her own potential. She also learnt about failure, and how best to handle it. She obviously doesn’t like losing, but she developed a sense of resilience and used the failures to push herself and try harder.

Swim training and local and international competitions have been excellent platform to learn about good sportsmanship. These events help Maria understand how much she needs to improve her swimming or her strokes. They also teach her to respect others’ achievements and to congratulate them on a job well done.

During her time swimming, Maria has quickly realised her real rivals are not her swim team friends and other competitors; her biggest rival is herself. This has compelled Maria to set her own goals and try harder to attain them.

Swimming gives Maria two important feelings: the feeling of freedom and pride. When she is under the water, she feels free. When she accomplishes a new personal best, she feels pride in herself. As a member of the black squad, she feels privileged to practice with her elder teammates, and feels supported as they cheer and support her. And of course her rigorous journey to hit new personal records keep her alive!

Maria’s mindset and motivation has not only improved her swim performance and self confidence, it has permeated the rest of her school life. She bikes to school every morning with a big smile and great energy. She applies the same skills in order to overcome challenges that she encounters in her academic life. This has positively influenced her academic performance, and helped her to improve her work in Math and English, and her overall communication skills.

The swim team is a close knit community. Team members, parents and coaches have a strong bond, and encourage each swimmer to thrive. Maria’s mother, Heesun Tak expresses her appreciation for coaches Jeffrey, Kristinn, and Mark’s efforts and the way they approach the swimmers and their development. She believes that because of them, CIS swimmers aim high, try their best, and go for it, and go forward.

It is evident that Maria’s swimming experience have provided her with a set of life skills that will permeate her life. Skills that will have her want to do her best, be a better person, a supportive team player and successful professional, according to her mother.