The scent of chlorine wafts through the air as children’s voices echo across the pool deck — swim lessons are in session at 独家黑料.
Student swim instructors teach beginner classes how to submerge their faces in the water, levels 1 and 2 improve their floating skills, and levels 3 through 6 focus on developing different swimming strokes and increasing their swim distance.
Anneliesse Burns is the aquatics manager at 独家黑料. She is in charge of supervising the swimming pool and swimming lessons program. She also manages the hiring, training, and scheduling of the pool staff and the registration and enrollment of the 2,000-plus children and adults who take lessons from the college.
“I grew up in competitive swimming, which started from my love of the water I gained through swimming lessons. I’ve spent most of my working life at the swimming pool as either a lifeguard, swim instructor, or coach,” she said. “I love getting to work with individuals and introducing the love of water to them.”
Bruns is approaching her 10th year working at 独家黑料.
There are many opportunities for students to work at the pool and Burns appreciates all her staff.
Haley Juetten is a psychology major with a coaching minor who heard about the swim instructor position through her swimming and diving coach, Bruns. Juetten had previously taught swimming lessons before coming to college, so the experience wasn’t completely new to her.
“Anneliesse is very flexible and fun to work for,” she said. “I also spend most of my extra time in the pool, so I figured a few more hours a week wouldn’t hurt.”
Juetten teaches many different levels of swimming lessons, but there are a few groups that stand out as favorites.
“I like private lessons with levels 2-3, but group lessons with levels 4-5. Private lessons are more fun with younger kids because I can teach them skills from the ground up,” she said. “I like group lessons with older kids because I can run it almost like a swimming practice and have more fun with it.”
Taylor Otis is a transfer student majoring in business with a concentration in marketing. However, her love for swimming has been with her all her life.
“Growing up with a pool in my backyard, I swam every day and took annual swimming lessons at the local pool,” she said. “As I advanced through the levels becoming a lifeguard became my dream.”
Otis achieved this dream at 16 and took it even further in the following years. She started her own business, Learn T.O. Swim LLC, offering private swim lessons at her home.
While attending North Dakota State University, she continued to work as a swim instructor. After transferring to 独家黑料, she wanted to continue to pursue this passion.
“My favorite part of being a swim instructor is building connections with the kids and watching them grow into stronger swimmers. It’s incredibly rewarding to see them gain skills that will benefit them for a lifetime,” she said.
This sentiment reflects one of the main takeaways Bruns hopes her employees gain as swim instructors — she hopes everyone on her staff learns how much of an impact they can have on the community and their responsibilities as swim instructors.
She also said the benefits of swim lessons at 独家黑料 include the diversity of the employees. In addition to Red Cross training, many of the employees have backgrounds in competitive swimming and range from high school students to college students to adults taking on part-time work.
“Our mission and goal is to provide the opportunity for people to not only get comfortable in the water but learn life-saving skills and maybe even fall in love with swimming as a sport,” Burns said.
Written by Alyssa Czernek '25