JCC Winter Program Guide - Flipbook - Page 8
Meet Our Team
Adrian Negenborn, Senior Aquatics Director
Users come from other JCC programs,
What drew you
whether from JCamps, Discovery Club, ELC,
to a career in
our member base, or the general public.
Aquatics?
It does not matter if you are Jewish or not;
I grew up as a
all of our users receive excellent services and
competitive
swimmer at a young a sense of belonging in all of our programs.
age. I have always How does Aquatics help build community
worked in Aquatics. beyond the pool?
Lifeguarding was
Our Aquatics programs build community in
my first job as a
and out of the pool every day. Our Karishim
teenager, and I have Swim Team is one great example, with
held almost every role in Aquatics since then.
swimmers training and strengthening their
How do you create a positive first swim
skills all year long, supporting one another
experience for young children or nervous
both in practice and in competition. We also
new swimmers?
see a lot of connections being made among
Young swimmers and folks who are nervous
our lap swimmers-many of whom have been
need to understand that they are safe.
coming to exercise in the pool for years and
Sometimes with young swimmers, it's about
have seen and supported one another
redirection, and for others it's a more structured through all kinds of milestones both related
approach, especially if there was a negative
and unrelated to swimming. Even our
experience in their past. Either way, we strive
youngest swimmers feel a real sense of
to meet them where they are.
camaraderie when they're learning how to
What do you love most about working
poolside every day?
I love the impact and the scope of it all, and
mostly I love seeing a pool full of people.
Throughout the day, the pool serves individuals
at every stage of their swimming journey—some
come for relaxation, others for intense workouts,
rehabilitation, instruction, and many other
purposes. We touch so many lives and make
an impression across stages and generations.
What makes JCC Aquatics different from
other swim programs in the area?
The JCC Aquatics program differentiates itself
through its position alongside the larger JCC
mission. We try to foster an environment that
is highly inclusive through high-quality
programming, staff, and our facilities. Our pools
are meeting places within the JCC, which have
their own internal communities. We see nearly
one thousand users weekly, all coming for
various uses and programs.
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swim together. It's a point of pride for me to
see how our team supports our swim
community in the pool every day knowing
that the impact they have lasts long after
our swimmers have dried themselves off.
What is one thing you wish more people
knew about Aquatics at the JCC?
Starting this summer, we are centralizing the
JCC Aquatics experience even further across
multiple sites, with our new initiative overseeing the waterfront at Camp Grossman.
What we want everyone to know is that
whether you take swim lessons with us
year-round, during school break camp, at one
of our Leventhal-Sidman summer camp
programs, as part of our Godine Early Learning
Center program, or at Camp Grossman, you
are getting the same high-level expertise and
seamless experience that our team provides
for everyone in our community every day.
