Swim for Success, which offers affordable swimming lessons to Kalamazoo children on Kalamazoo College’s campus, has served nearly twice as many young swimmers in the past year, prompting increased support from the donor who helped launch it in 2012.
Marc Schupan, the former CEO and current chairman of Schupan Inc., a family-owned sustainable materials and scrap-metal recycling company headquartered in Kalamazoo, increased his support this year in honor of former K President Jorge G. Gonzalez, who retired in June. Swim for Success is a partnership between the College’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement and the City of Kalamazoo Parks and Recreation Department. The program offers swimming lessons at K’s natatorium two evenings a week to children ages 5 to 14. About 25 K students serve as coaches and program leaders.
Schupan’s connection to the program began years ago with a newspaper story about two Black teenagers who drowned in the Kalamazoo River. Neither knew how to swim.
“I thought, ‘This should never be,’” Schupan said.
He provided seed money to the city, establishing Swim for Success in 2012, and continued contributing as the program developed into a partnership with K.
Schupan might never know whether the lessons have prevented a drowning, but he sees the potential for their impact to extend across generations.
“Have we saved, or will we save, a life? I don’t know, but it’s certainly worth trying,” he said.
Civic Engagement Scholar Isaac Duncan IV ’27 said Swim for Success offers more than swimming lessons. It also gives children young role models.
“The kids will joke that K students are all about 40 years old,” he said. “But it’s good for them, whether they believe it or not, to have people closer to their age than their parents. We’re teaching them that they can do something they once thought was difficult.”
For some children, progress means learning a stroke or venturing into the deep end. For others, it begins with feeling safe enough to enter the pool. Duncan recalled a young participant who was terrified of the water. For two or three weeks, her coach sat with her on the bleachers, talked with her and gradually earned her trust. Eventually, she decided to get in.
“The rapport and the trust that comes is the biggest thing,” Duncan said. “We’re showing them it’s safe and that they’re going to be fine.”
Fellow Civic Engagement Scholar Briza Leyva-Regalet ’27 sees the value of the program in the connections it creates with their families, as well. On her first night with Swim for Success, Leyva-Regalet met a Spanish-speaking parent who was excited to find someone she could talk with while watching her children in the pool.
“I could just tell the happiness on her face, seeing her kids in the water and taking pictures,” Leyva-Regalet said. “The parents are grateful for this program because their kids have the opportunity to learn how to swim.”
Swim for Success coach Maya Arau ’27 said some of the program’s most memorable moments have occurred outside of formal swimming instruction. Arau recalled working with a child who learned when her birthday was and surprised her with a handmade card featuring a drawing of Steve from the Minecraft video game and movie series.
“With experiences like that, there’s never been a time when I’ve considered not coaching,” she said.
The work has connected her not only with children, but with the broader Kalamazoo community.
“There are some kids that I have seen every term,” Arau said. “It’s so cool to think, ‘I met that girl three years ago,’ and now I’ve seen this part of her childhood two days a week for three years. I love getting to be a part of these families’ lives.”
The experience also helps K students develop skills of their own. Coaches learn to communicate with children of different ages, personalities and ability levels. Civic Engagement Scholars, who serve the community through partnerships with Kalamazoo Public Schools, youth leadership and arts organizations, food justice initiatives, health and legal advocacy groups and government entities, lead the program, recruiting participants and coaches, coordinating schedules, leading orientations and organizing the many people needed to run Swim for Success.
These student leaders also facilitate structured reflection sessions that encourage their peers to explore the structural inequities that contribute to disparities in swimming access. K students leave the program having built meaningful relationships with young swimmers and their families, while gaining a deeper understanding of structural inequities and their role in addressing them.
Duncan said overseeing that work has shown him how much he enjoys management, communication and bringing people together for a shared purpose.
Schupan has been impressed by the K students’ commitment and abilities. He said Swim for Success provides children with a chance to spend time on a college campus with students invested in their safety, education and future, giving Swim for Success a special place in his heart.
“A lot of people judge success by what kind of car, what kind of house or how much money you have,” Schupan said. “But significance is, ‘Do you make a difference in anyone else’s life?’
“When you have a vision of what you could do that will make your community a better place or other people’s lives better, and you see it come to fruition, that’s rewarding,” he said. “I’m hoping this program continues long after I am gone.”