Evan Aballea '20 Recruiting Profile

Swimming has been a big part of my life. It is not only what I do, but it has also contributed to the shaping of who I am in very significant ways. It is through the years of swimming that I have developed some of my most important traits: grit, leadership, and the importance of teamwork. These skills have developed due to the need of training no matter what and organizing my life well in order to balance academics and swimming and compromising neither. I have applied these skills academically throughout high school and also in my work with the community. 

Swimming has also taught me to be resilient and to keep going no matter what because it is only through practice that we can improve. The skill of resilience has helped me through my whole high school life and it helped me push my GPA from a 3.2 in freshman to a 3.7 last year. 

Swimming also has taught me to put others first, therefore it has resulted in me becoming a good team member. This also has helped me become a better swimmer. The desire to contribute to my team drives me to do my best. I encourage my team during meets and to do their best, even if it means breaking my records. The mindset of “we” that I learned from swimming has encouraged me to participate in activities outside of school. I hold an executive role in Habitat for Humanity at school. Last year for my spring break I traveled to Cambodia to help build a disabled man’s house. Another example is me being in Link Crew (group of students that facilitate the transition of freshmen into high school). I spent a few days of my summer to train to become a Link Crew and it has really helped me ease them into high school. 

The benefits to swimming have pushed me to encourage a lot of people to swim, and I have also dedicated my time in teaching children with special needs the basics of swimming. As a link crew I also encouraged all of the freshmen to swim due to its benefits. 

I also applied the value of grit in my participation at the intensive pre-law camp at the University of Pennsylvania, in which I persevered and excelled despite the academic intensity.