Amphibious Achievement: a dual athletic, academic mentorship program
Wang ’26: “Seeing the high schoolers try their best makes you feel inspired that you can be someone that can help others.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF TEAGAN SULLIVAN
Every Sunday morning, Elizabeth Wright ’26 wakes up early to arrive at Lobby 7 at 8:15 a.m. to meet high school students who come around 8:30 for breakfast. By 9 a.m., she and other MIT student mentors start coaching high school students rowing at the MIT boathouse, teaching students rowing techniques on the machine.
Wright is part of Amphibious Achievement (a.k.a. Amphibz), a MIT student service organization that mentors low-income high school students from the Boston area through a combination of athletics coaching and academic tutoring. This semester has around 25 student mentors and 45 high school students who are called “Achievers.” The program comprises ten sessions across the semester, and each session is divided into two parts: athletics training from 9 to 11 a.m., and academics from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m.
In the athletics session, students learn either rowing or swimming by doing practice drills to build their physical technique. In both rowing and swimming, students are divided into a novice group and an experienced group.
For rowing practice sessions, the experienced group uses the boats to practice their stroke technique, whereas the novice group learns the stroke technique using rowing machines in the boathouse. At the end of each session, Achievers do a two-minute test on the rowing machine to track their PR (personal record) progress over the course of nine weeks. For the swimming practice sessions, mentors teach Achievers various swimming skills, from kicking and breathing patterns to strokes. To measure their progress, novice swimmers do a PR test of 25 yards, while experienced swimmers do 50 yards.
The purpose of integrating athletics into the mentorship program is that athletics can teach Achievers skills that are also important for academic success, especially grit and resilience. Wright, who is the Director of External Relations aspires to teach students that the lessons she learned from swimming—chasing a personal goal and dealing with setbacks—are relevant in other contexts like education. Besides developing grit, the athletic training helps students grow in various other ways, from building confidence to focusing on personal growth.
“One of my Achievers came into Amphibz pretty shy,” Director of Campus Relations Teagan Sullivan ’26 said. “I have seen him become more confident in himself that he can be a leader, and I see that reflected in academics.” On the other hand, Session Planning Coordinator Kevin Santiago ’27 encouraged students to focus on their own improvement instead of others, which led to a change in mindset among the Achievers. “A lot of times, high schoolers can get into the mindset of wanting to compete against the other person,” Santiago said. “With PRs in athletics, we really try to emphasize focusing on your perspective and how much you can improve.”
A lot of Achievers enter the program not knowing how to swim or row, but develop a passion for these new sports by the end of the program. “I had never done rowing and had rarely used rowing machines before Amphibz,” Lukas G., an Achiever, said. “But I’ve felt a new passion for rowing since joining, and I believe this is the next step in my fitness journey.”
The academic session is divided into three components: deep dive, lessons, and PR groups. In deep dive, mentors work with students one-on-one on topics that the Achievers want help on, such as homework help or college application advice. After deep dive, mentors teach Achievers lessons that encompass a wide range of subjects, from entrepreneurship to engineering. Last but not least, Achievers work on a semester-long project on a subject of their choosing, which are called PR (personal record) groups. Recent PR groups include underwater robots, 3D design, and computer science.
Not only do Achievers enjoy the athletic training but also they find the academic mentorship valuable. “Joining Amphibz helped me learn key concepts in programming and Python, which has benefited me immensely,” Alfredo V., an Achiever said. “Last year, I won first place at my school’s science fair, and I owe my thanks to the mentors at Amphibz for having helped me throughout the process.” The positive, supportive community in Amphibious Achievement has convinced many Achievers to stay in the program for multiple semesters. In fact, some have been in the program for all four years of high school.
What makes Amphibious Achievement meaningful for MIT students is the positive impact that the mentorship program has on high school students. “Seeing the high schoolers try their best makes you feel inspired that you can be someone that can help others,” Executive Director Kimberly Wang ’26 said. Santiago’s motivation to be part of the organization echoes Wang’s. “Even though you have that one-on-one connection to know one Achiever really well, you also get to know other Achievers, and it creates a family bond,” Santiago said.
Although one major part of Amphibious Achievement focuses on swimming and rowing, not all mentors share this athletic background. Executive Director Sharaf Rashid ’25 didn’t swim or row in high school, but what inspired him to join Amphibious Achievement is “serving the under-resourced community,” as he identifies as a FLI(First Generation and/or Low-income) student.
Like the Achievers, the mentors find the close connections that they develop with the student community to be deeply meaningful. “You see everyone grow. You see their struggles and their triumphs, and you can’t do that with a lot of programs,” Sullivan said.