Today we’d like to introduce you to Elyse Jensen.
Elyse, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
When my youngest child was two years old, I started hearing about a program called ISR that taught young children water survival skills if they were ever to find themselves in the water alone. My older two kids had had some scary experiences in the water and I was terrified that my youngest would find his way into a pool when I wasn’t looking. After hearing about ISR, I knew it was the right program for my son. I enrolled him for lessons that summer and during one of his lessons my husband mentioned to me that I should train to become an instructor. I have a background working with children and was looking for a job that would be flexible enough that I could still spend lots of time with my three kids. I contacted ISR and ultimately the timing didn’t work out for me to go through the training. However, a few years later we moved into a home with a pool and my husband once again mentioned that I should become an ISR instructor. I contacted ISR again and this time everything fell into place for me to go through the training to become an instructor. I will be starting my 4th season as an instructor this April and love seeing my students learn how to save their own lives.
Has it been a smooth road?
I think when starting a new job there are always challenges. I had to market myself and get the ISR name out in McKinney. I also had a schedule in my mind that I wanted to work, mainly during the day when my kids were in school. However, I quickly realized that most of my students and their families are available in the late afternoon or evening due to work and preschool/daycare schedules. I had to readjust my expectation and be flexible about teaching different hours. I was also new to having business expenses, tax write-offs, and budgeting for taxes, in general. As with any new job, you learn as you go and lean on others that have gone through it before you.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the McKinney ISR story. Tell us more about it.
ISR (Infant Swimming Resource) teaches children as young as six months of age aquatic survival skills should they ever find themselves in water alone. ISR’s motto is that “not one more child drowns.” Drowning is the number 1 cause of accidental death in children ages one-four years and the 2nd cause of accidental death in children ages 5-14. These statistics are horrifying and my job as an instructor is to do all I can to educate parents on water safety and to teach children how to save themselves.
ISR is unique in that lessons are every day for an average of six weeks and are specifically catered to each child. Each lesson is ten minutes or less and is one on one with the instructor. We keep lessons short as children’s attention spans are short as well as to keep them from becoming fatigued. Babies learn to roll onto their backs to float. Older children learn to swim, roll onto their backs to float, then to flip back over to swim and get to the side of the pool or the steps. Once a child is skilled, they will practice their skills in clothing. As most drownings occur when children are in their clothes, we want them to see what it would feel like if they ever had to perform their skills clothed. Each year, students come back to their instructor for a few weeks to “refresh” their skills.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I feel like drowning is starting to get more attention and is in the media more which hopefully will alert parents to the alarming statistics. We also hope that pediatricians will start to talk to their patients about water safety and the serious statistics that go along with childhood drowning.
Contact Info:
- Email: e.jensen@infantswim.com
- Facebook: McKinney ISR
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