Ryan Schulken '20 Recruiting Profile

Persistence, patience, leadership, and teamwork. This is how swimming has made me the person I am today and continue to become. It’s not the way I can’t wait to get into the pool every day. It’s not the feeling of adrenaline in my veins when I dive into the pool for a race. It’s not the calm focus I feel after a swim. It’s not even the fun and friendships, though these are the motivators, the drivers, the unexpected benefits that the 13-year-old me had no idea would become such a big part of my life when I first joined that summer swim team. My patience and persistence were strengthened as I began the sport coming in last and needed to build a growth mindset being persistent and patient and focusing on my own milestones, rather than comparing myself to others. I learned how to take these skills, along with my love for swimming, and pass them on through leadership roles of volunteer coaching and teaching summer swim lessons. I also learned how important being a part of the team is to give and receive encouragement and motivation and to work together to achieve a goal (putting up the winter tent, volunteering at the team booth, counting, and timing, and really just being there for each other).

Now that I’m looking toward college and what direction I want to take for several years after high school, I have come to understand that swim and my quest for academic excellence have become synergistic. Swimming fuels the energy and focus that I count on to ground me in achieving my academic goals, and my academics give me the reasoning and critical thinking needed to plan and develop swim goals. When I join the college setting, I hope to bring the skills and lessons I have learned through swim into both the pool and academics. With the right combination of academic rigor and swim program, I know I can bring everything I have learned with me to be a great asset to the team and institution