our history
Amy Leaphart’s first time teaching children’s swim lessons was as a 15 year old lifeguard at a community pool in Columbia SC; she was immediately “hooked” for life. The experience of teaching children life-saving and lifelong healthy behaviors while they were engaged in playful activity became a central part of her existence- the profound sense of purpose and helping others was too rewarding to ever stop.
During college and graduate school Amy continued to teach swim lessons in addition to teaching water aerobics, coaching swim teams, and working as an Aquatics Director for multiple facilities in South Carolina (first Columbia and then in Charleston). However, her primary career plan was a life as an English professor, so aquatics was the necessary financial support while she continued graduate school (at USC) and taught as an adjunct professor. As part of efforts to acquire additional knowledge and share her expertise, Amy took her American Red Cross (ARC) instructor certifications to the next level as an ARC Instructor Trainer - which meant she was training others across the greater Charleston area to teach swim lessons, lifeguarding, and CPR.
While serving as an adjunct professor teaching CPR, First Aid, and required aquatics classes at The Citadel, Amy realized that her passion for and interest in aquatics, health, and wellness were equal to her passion for teaching literature and writing. This realization led Amy to pursue a second master's degree, and her graduate courses in motor learning & development, exercise science, biomechanics, kinesiology, women’s health, and sports psychology were key components to a deeper and sharper awareness of effective strategies in aquatics instruction - from infant swimming to adult aqua fitness and rehabilitation.
Early in her position as a manager and water fitness instructor at the MUSC Wellness Center, Amy recognized that the population-dense Charleston area was underserved in terms of children’s aquatics and youth fitness programs and pushed to create a youth activities department (2008) that would serve the needs of not only the many MUSC families, but also local communities that needed these programs. Although she returned to working in higher education full time at MUSC in 2011 as a program manager and then faculty, she continued on with her roles of swim teacher and water fitness instructor on the weekends. One of her fondest experiences was when the founders of the Meeting Street Academy shared their wonderful vision for a school and asked Amy to help with the required swim education component for their inaugural group of students. Amy was able to volunteer for two years with this program before taking a position as a full time professor at USC-Beaufort (which involved a daily commute to Bluffton, South Carolina).