My scuba journey began with an after school volunteer program.

In my senior year of high school, I attended a speaker event that the school put on during our lunch period. We were offered free Roundtable pizza and we would hear from local business owners about how they got their start and the work that they did in our community. I will admit that the pizza is what got me in the door, but one of the speakers was the owner of a local dive shop. He made everyone there an offer: If you came and volunteered two weeks of your time to his summer kids camps, then he would waive the fee and rental charge for us to get our open water certification.

I and one other student took him up, and this is where I fell in love with the idea of teaching other people new information or a new skill. We would teach a class of children some basic marine biology and environmental information, and the second half would be teaching them first to snorkel, and then to use scuba equipment in the confines of a local municipal pool. Many of the camps were subsidized through the raider foundation and were given free of charge to under-privileged youth. This was one of the most fulfilling things that I had done in my entire life up to that point.

I would then go on to take a paid position for his summer camps, and furthered my own scuba training to eventually obtain an advanced open water certification with training in altitude diving, underwater navigation, and search and rescue procedures.