Lara De '26 Recruiting Profile

I have been swimming for 8 years at a competitive level. I have been on different teams and I have attended many different levels of championship meets. These include the 2021 Eastern Zone LC Championships, 2021 and 2022 Junior Olympic SC Championships, PVS Senior LC and SC Championships, and the 2021 Mid Atlantic Age Group Championships. My most memorable experience as a swimmer so far, however, was when I attended a highly selective intensive training camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. It was extremely rigorous, with two practices a day plus drylands and hikes/sightseeing, but I learned a lot about team dynamics and pushing myself to my limits. As a young swimmer, I always loved being in the water. However, swimming did not come naturally to me. I started out at the very bottom, but my determination to get better and my passion for the sport allowed me to get to where I wanted to be.

This was not easy. I had to push myself in every way imaginable and I could never allow myself to give up in the middle of a tough set or take a day off practice because I felt like it. I practiced extra at the pool at my local gym to be able to get better and stronger. However, my dedication and willpower not only manifests in swimming, but also at school. I get the most out of my academic experience by independently enforcing my knowledge of the concepts taught at school, even going more in-depth to get the most concrete understanding of the topics as I can. This hard work has allowed me to maintain straight A's through my entire academic experience so far. In the future, I hope to advance to NSCA championships in swimming while still maintaining an above 4.0 GPA at school by staying focused on my goals and never giving up on myself.

When looking into a college, I would prefer to attend an institution that maximizes my academic potential as the topmost priority, but also gives me the best opportunity for a successful swimming career. My goal is to study computer science and software development so that I can enter the field of cybersecurity. Cybersecurity has always interested me, because I want to be able to make online information as secure as possible. These days, everyone's personal information is stored online, meaning that it is vulnerable to all sorts of viruses and ransomware. I grew up wanting to be a superhero and protect people, but police work or the armed forces never seemed to be the right career for my interests. Working as a cybersecurity professional gives me the ability to shield innocent clients from hackers and ransomware that can be just as evil as real life villains.