Story told by Mandy McMahon

Nicole is the Assistant Director of Risk Management and Aquatics at Clemson University, where she leads a team of lifeguards and oversees lifesaving skills training for the campus recreation department.  

"I work in campus recreation; everyone in the recreation department has to be certified in CPR—CPR courses are offered once a month,” said Nicole, an American Red Cross-certified lifeguard and training services instructor. “We’re running lifeguard classes once a semester at least. I also do a lifeguard instructor and CPR instructor certification courses once a semester.” 

Before moving to South Carolina from Pennsylvania two years ago, Nicole previously worked for the YMCA of Philly, where she witnessed the most challenging test of her aquatics career. 

“When I was coaching a summer outdoor rec league years back, we had an individual who dove way too deep into about 6 feet of water. It was a pool for racing, and she unfortunately didn't execute the dive well,” said Nicole. “She hit her head on the bottom of the pool. That was the most intense save I’ve had to execute. We had to spinal backboard her and get her out of the pool. She ended up being ok, but that was definitely one of the more intense, more difficult challenges I’ve had as a lifeguard.”  

American Red Cross training courses give participants the confidence and skills to act in an emergency. To help make the water a safer place for everyone, the Red Cross continues to innovate and deploy new technology in water safety and aquatics training. 

“My training gives me tons of confidence. I’m a lifeguard instructor, lifeguard instructor trainer, so I teach this stuff, I do this stuff daily. Just knowing the material inside and out and training my staff has helped me to understand the skills and their importance even more so,” said Nicole. “The Red Cross prepares us and then we have an emergency action plan for the facility – the combination of those two things helps everyone prepare for an emergency so we know how to respond.”   

As an instructor, Nicole takes a lot of pride in her work and enjoys seeing students she’s trained move up in their positions.  

“The progression of how students can develop within our program is pretty cool. They can start as a lifeguard and then become an aquatics manager and then oftentimes they’ll become lifeguard instructors themselves,” said Nicole. “To see them progress from a lifeguard just trying to understand the skills to then turn around and now teaching new lifeguards is really rewarding for me as their supervisor and as someone who’s trying to develop young people.”  

The Red Cross has been the premier lifeguard training organization for more than 100 years with over 300,000 people enrolling in courses each year. Lifeguarding candidates can gain the knowledge and skills to prevent, recognize and respond to emergencies at pools, waterparks and non-surf beaches. In addition to water rescues, participants learn first aid and CPR/AED skills — everything from treating scrapes and bites to rescuing a swimmer who needs help. To learn more and to register go to redcross.org/lifeguarding.