Jonathan Lindstrom

I have been diving for 4 years now and love it, everything about it....the feel of the boards, the challenge...the smacks...the growth...the refinement of each part of each dive...the mental and physical training...the shear thrill...new dives and personal bests...and especially all the amazingness that comes with having teammates and being part of a team. I would absolutely love to continue as part of a team at the collegiate level for the next several years!

For leadership on the field, or I should say on the pool deck, I started just by being an older kid to join my summer dive team...I was 13 and the team was about 20 people. I was a swimmer...but we needed divers so I stepped up and others soon followed. I was a roll model for all of the younger divers. I progressed quickly and our team, which was fading away, rebounded and grew in numbers. I soon became a junior assistant coach for my summer dive team and was then hired as the head coach for summer 2019 and summer 2020. Being a head coach at 16 years old threw me into a major new roll. I was now the leader for the largest team in the division with 60+ divers age 5-18. At the start of the 2019 season, we were ranked last. I led, taught, roll modeled, and mentored...and took 16 of my 21 Divisional divers to All Stars. We won the Divisional meet, but missed first overall in the division by one point. We pulled off a socially distant 2020 season with 40 divers, 8 per group, 5 groups per day. I was excited to see the passion and growth in the divers even though we didn’t compete this year. On my high school swim and dive team, after 3 years as a varsity diver, I was elected captain for the upcoming 2020-2021 season because of my great communication skills and friendliness with my fellow teammates. I'm looking forward tackling this leadership roll.

In school, I don't have time to join programs like Robotics or become president of a club due to my dive practice and competition schedule. However, in my Computer Science class I am often collaborating with, leading and teaching others in the areas of 3D modeling, programing, and project design. Most of what I know has been self taught and I’m always happy to teach others too! For 2020 I will be completing a virtual internship at VariQ. I independently found and secured this internship.

I dive because I love it. And because I love it, I give it my all. I have 6 designated practices a week and spend about 12 hours in the pool or doing diving related activities with my team. Additionally I stretch, do yoga, and work out on my own. I also balance a rigorous academic load with athletics, healthy eating, and sleep. I work on mindset, use visualization strategies, and mentally rehearse my dives. I balance dive together with my high school work which includes 3 AP classes, a college course at my local community college, and an internship. Even though school is virtual...diving is back and I’m psyched to be hitting the boards most days, even if it’s 615am! I also take time out to build legos and play spades with my brothers...those mental breaks are key too!

I have over 300 hours of community service in multiple areas. Primarily I have volunteered at a soup kitchen once a month since I was 12 years old and continue to do so (with the exception of the current stay at home order - the soup kitchen is closed). Other hours include coaching my little brother's soccer team and being a summer camp counselor. After that I was a volunteer coach for both my summer swim and summer dive teams. I volunteer at my MDC club dive meets. I have also received hours helping at my elementary school with school sponsored events, helping with bake sales for charity fund raising, and helping with our annual community thanksgiving charity run.

My communities...from my neighborhood, to my school, to my club pool, to my greater Bethesda area have helped form who I am. As a part of these communities, I feel it's important to give back and help out where I can.