Lessons turn Junior ROTC cadets into St. Paul lifeguards: ‘I literally couldn’t swim'

Splashes and laughs echoed across the white tile of the walls and pool deck inside Como Park High School, as a group of about 30 students jumped into the water.

The high schoolers, members of Como’s Junior ROTC, aren’t all strong swimmers. Some can barely float, while others have been swimming since they were toddlers. But they are all training together, with the goal of at least some becoming certified lifeguards.

“Cadets! With me!” shouted David Albornoz, St. Paul’s aquatics director, who runs the swim lessons. He swam toward the students, graying bun bobbing on the water. When his bellow wasn’t loud enough, he blew a silver whistle to get the cadets' attention.

Over the course of an hour, the cadets ran through swimming drills and then took turns dragging each other through the water with a foam float.

The less-confident swimmers practiced floating on their backs, with Albornoz and Sophia Lipset-Dean, an aquatic facility supervisor for the city who helps lead these lessons, sometimes supporting their heads.

That makes it feel safe, said Dontajah Dunston, 19, an alumna of Albornoz’s swim lessons who now works as a lifeguard. She is the lifeguard on duty during the lessons.

“It’s safe here. I’m not going to drown, I’m not going to die. I can do it,” she said, remembering a time four years ago when she was nervous in the water.

Albornoz has been working with St. Paul’s schools and rec centers for years, trying to figure out how to help more children and teenagers learn to swim. He’s passionate about finding ways to reduce the disparity in drowning deaths between white children and children of color. Albornoz’s work won him recognition in 2023 from the National Drowning Prevention Alliance.

Under his leadership, St. Paul’s aquatics staff have set up a flurry of programs and partnerships to teach water safety to children and families, including free community swim lessons, and these lessons with JROTC cadets.

The JROTC, or Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, program is an elective class in St. Paul schools, emphasizing community service, leadership and physical fitness, and can help prepare students for ROTC programs that help pay for college in exchange for military service.

While the cadets are eager to be of service, water skills were a barrier for many.

“In a universe of 50 kids, maybe three or four were able to swim or even float,” Albornoz said.

The partnership with the JROTC arose through conversations between Albarnoz and Sgt. Maj. James Kirkland, who leads Como’s JROTC program, and the pool-safety foundation Abbey’s Hope. The program started in 2022, but was paused for a couple of years, Kirkland said, before getting started again this spring.

Being a strong swimmer could be important for students who want to enter the military, Albornoz said, and he thinks all Minnesotans should be able to swim in our 10,000 lakes.

Adam Dalaska, a Como senior and JROTC cadet who plans to enter the Marine Corps after graduation, said he’s watched his classmates become much stronger swimmers. “We have people who started off levels 1, 2 and 3, and end up in the 4, 5 and 6 area,” Dalaska said.

Albornoz and Lipset-Dean swim with the Como cadets twice a week. It’s a time commitment, but Albornoz thinks it’s well worth the effort to teach the cadets.

“I keep telling everyone, there’s no magic to it,” Albornoz said. “It works because we are deeply entrenched into the community.”

The swim classes are meant to be fun, and the cadets were all smiles at the end of an hour-long lesson one recent Friday afternoon. Albornoz gathered the group for a photo on the edge of the pool, and students climbed on each others' shoulders in the water, grinning and striking poses as Kirkland took their picture.

Helping more teenagers and young adults become comfortable in the water is serious business, even if the cadets are having fun.

The entire country has been short lifeguards since before the pandemic, and, every summer, local parks and recreation departments scramble to staff up and safely open their pools and beaches. Wages are pushing higher, and some cities are offering hiring bonuses. Two summers ago, Hennepin County set aside $1 million to help cities hire guards.

St. Paul has found a way out, Albornoz said.

Lifeguard jobs were fully staffed in 2024 and he predicts another summer of full staffing for 2025. And, he said proudly, about 90% of the city’s lifeguards are “homegrown” St. Paul kids, many of whom have taken advantage of the city’s free and low-cost swimming classes.

That means St. Paul’s lifeguards are about as diverse as the city, Albornoz said.

“Most lifeguards are middle-class, white, with access to swim lessons,” he said, referring to other communities. “But when you haven’t had access to that, you fail the [lifeguard] class.”

On the side of the pool, brandishing a blue float, Dunston watched the cadets swimming and thought about where she was a few years ago. She went through Como’s JROTC cadet program, and learned to swim through these lessons and other city classes.

“It is an empowering feeling,” she said. “I used to be at this level, and now I am saving people’s lives.”

Dunston sometimes can’t believe how far she’s come in the water, she told Albornoz.

“I literally couldn’t swim, and you made me a lifeguard.”