Courtesy of Southwest Regional YMCA

The pool of the Southwest YMCA where seniors Beni Mercurio and Elli Kline work.

Many students go to the Southwest YMCA for a chance to get some exercise. For the past year, seniors Beni Mercurio and Elli Kline show up whenever they can, but for a completely different reason — they have jobs as lifeguards and swim instructors. They have regular training and months of experience. 

Mercurio focuses on coaching swim lessons 

Last year, after applying to 11 other part-time jobs hoping to earn some income, Mercurio finally landed an interview at YMCA as a swim instructor. After the interview, a background check, a swim test and a shadowing experience watching another swim instructor for eight lessons, he finally got to teach his own class. 

Luckily, all of his training went into quick use. On his second day, Mercurio recalls having to save a student from drowning on the opposite end of the pool after a swimming drill went astray. While unexpected, it was an unforgettable experience. 

Mercurio loves seeing his students improve from his lessons, especially when he gets to see them move onto more advanced levels. 

After around six months of consistent training, Mercurio also received certification to become a lifeguard, a position that involves 15- to 45-minute shifts watching the pool while using key tools such as a whistle, non-rebreather mask, gloves and a walkie-talkie. 

Early in the job, Mercurio said he experienced imposter syndrome. Everyone around him seemed to be much more qualified, and the other lifeguards had done a lot of competitive swimming; many were even state level swimmers.

“It’s a lot because it feels like: ‘Oh no, I’m not good enough to be here,’ so I had to deal with that for a while,” he said. 

As he balances the workload of being a lifeguard with school, Mercurio works 5-12 hours per month, which to him is a huge time commitment especially with the ongoing marching band season. Luckily, he can work 10-15 hours a week outside of the marching band season, earning $22 per hour for lifeguarding and $25 per hour as a swim instructor. 

Mercurio also teaches private lessons where students are trained at individual swim levels, with some even starting training for pre-competitive swimming.

“My favorite part of the job is seeing kids improve especially over a period of time,” Mercurio said. “You get to see kids who started in stage three moving on to the swim team, which is really cool.”

Kline focuses as a lifeguard while occasionally coaching

For her part, Kline started working as a lifeguard instead of a coach; she was inspired by her older sisters who previously worked at YMCA with the same job. 

Her sisters made her apply for it for her 15th birthday and with the incentive of a good pay and flexible schedules, Kline felt it would be a cool experience for her as well. 

“My sisters hyped it up a lot, and they told me that it’s really good because it pays a lot,” Kline said. “It’s also really flexible, so I knew that I could schedule it around school.”

To get the job, Kline says she didn’t even have to submit a resume. All it took was an interview, a swim test and the completion of a lifeguard certification class, which took three and a half days. 

“You just have to be able to swim the bare minimum amount,” Kline said. 

Something Kline likes about the job is the efficient scheduling, because it creates a good work-life balance for her, while also having a lot of break time to catch up on school work and still having a high pay. Kline typically worked around 35 hours a week in the summer; now, she works 6-8 hours a week, making $20 per hour. 

“Especially in senior year, I don’t have a lot of homework from my course load, so it gives me more time to work,” Kline said. 

Recently, though, Kline hasn’t been able to work as much in the job, due to being in the school play while also having to focus on her college applications. 

Some moments that Kline found memorable and hilarious were when she had to deal with many annoying kids, who were very mischievous and would cause a lot of problems while she worked as a lifeguard. 

Kline’s favorite part of the job is her co-workers, whom she enjoys getting close with. She also likes meeting and working with new staff every now and then.  

Unlike Mercurio, however, Kline never really stuck with being a swim instructor — she worked as one for about a month. Still, she tries to work as a lifeguard as much as she can, especially on the weekends or after school.