It’s an ordinary day on campus, the birds are chirping, and the Aquatics Club is

swimming. Under clear, chlorinated water that never goes less than eighty degrees, a member of

the Aquatics Club is making laps back and forth while a fellow swimmer bobs for bubbles in the

neighboring lane.

The Aquatics Club meets twice a week every week. With the passion to utilize that

Olympian-sized John Moore Athletic Center Pool, the Aquatics club is surrounded by joy and

laughter.

Whether you are wearing flip flops or walking barefoot across the tiled floor of the

JMAC Pool, you will get a warm feeling in your belly. The chlorinated scent gets caught in your

nostrils.

President of the Aquatics Club, Sinia Amanonce reflected on her desire to jumpstart the

Aquatics Club, “When I started as a freshman in the fall of 2011, I started working as a lifeguard

and I asked if there was a team… We wanted an Aquatics Club where everyone could come and

swim. Everything that we do in our workouts is to make us better swimmers.”

The Aquatics club is not biased to those who can and cannot swim; in fact, they are

extremely welcoming to swimmers of all levels.

“We have swimming workshops where we can teach people how to swim. Those who

already do swim, can swim for improvement. They can really just improve in their strokes,” said

Kevin Le, a member of the Aquatics Club.

With the sudden blossom of the Aquatics Club, as well as their growing membership to

the NJCU pool, Amanonce explained the initiative of wanting to create the club.

“There wasn’t really anything like this on campus, so we let it die down until I saw other

people who had the desire for it, and then I thought we could really do this,” Amanonce said.

As a new club, growth is vital which has called for the introduction of workshops and

events that were held through the spring semester.

“For our swimming workshops we do have a decent amount of people that come to our

workshops,” Le said. “We have about three to four people who come by every other week for the

workshops.”

The Aquatics Club is chockfull of events and is steadily trying to prove themselves to the

NJCU campus.

“And because we are a new club people don’t really know about us. Our club members

are our lifeguards, and people who come in and see what we do. We’re approved-in-full, we’re

trying to prove ourselves for the spring. We don’t have a mass following but we do have people

that come by and want to hangout.” Amanonce reflected on the background of the Aquatics Club

and then proceed to speak on a previous event. “We had a Dive-in theater where we projected

Finding Nemo, everyone had their rafts and crocodiles that they could chill out on.”

“It’s a relaxing activity, it’s being in a pool, it’s comfortable and it’s not as boring as

watching someone do a presentation.” Le pointed out some keywords that could really make new

members of the Aquatics team feel at home.

“You’re with Friends!” Amanonce emphasized.

“You get to splash water, dive, communicate in the water, swim, dance, and have fun,”

Le smiled as he looked at the water.

“Our club members are our friends and we encourage people to come down and just to

share this. We are really passionate about what we do and we want people to come join us. It’s

just the feeling of doing something that could better you physically,” Amanonce said.

Aquatics Coordinator and Aquatics Club Advisor, Thomas Lee II, explained the necessity

and desire of adding the Aquatics Club to the clubs that could be found on campus.

“Everybody is laughing, everyone is enjoying it. If I could use one word across the board

it would be make it “Enjoyable.” Make sure everyone is enjoying it, enjoy the learning to swim

process, enjoy the activities… to me it’s a life skill. Swimming is a life skill.”

While staring out at team members of the club he projected an example of future

encounters students may have with the water.

“When you leave this university you are going to the pool, you’re going to go to the

Poconos, the beach, on a cruise. You’ve got a room with the ocean view, and you don’t want a

room with the view of the garden you want view of the ocean. And people want to do that, being

in the water. The more people we can make a positive difference and an impact on. That’s

important,” Lee said.