Athlete Spotlight: Hope

For Hope, rowing started with an introduction. She had heard about the sport through her cousin on the East Coast and family friends connected to Pocock Youth Rowing, but her first direct experience came through ERG ED® at school.

“At first I didn’t realize the erg was connected to rowing,” Hope remembers. “I only joined the Learn to Row a year later.”

But that introduction planted a seed.

Encouraged by people around her, Hope eventually signed up for a free Learn to Row - and discovered that rowing was something she wanted to keep doing.

“I had so much fun during my first free Learn to Row that I signed up for the spring Learn to Row, then the summer’s Learn to Row.”

As Hope spent more time at the boathouse, she found more than a new sport. She loved the structure of being on a team, the motivation to work hard, and the example set by the athletes around her.

“It was really inspiring seeing the older athletes around the boathouse,” she says. “I love the structure that being part of a rowing team gives me, and I feel more motivated.”

But perhaps the clearest sign of how much rowing has come to mean to Hope is who she brought with her when she came back.

“I came back for this free Learn to Row because I wanted my friends to try it with me.”

Hope had been given the chance to discover rowing through ERG ED® and Learn to Row. Once she found something she loved, she didn’t want to keep the experience to herself. She wanted her friends beside her.

And when she talks to other students who might be thinking about giving rowing a try, she offers the same encouragement that helped bring her to the boathouse:

“I would tell them to try it because you never know if you will end up loving it.”

That’s how access can grow into something bigger. One student gets an introduction. She finds a sport, a team, and a place where she feels motivated. Then she turns around and invites someone else in.

For Hope, the win isn’t just finding rowing. It’s bringing others along with her.