May 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 77

Member Spotlight: Nichole Bohner
By Vitisia Paynich

his summer, Nichole Bohner will mark her fourth year as the Aquatics Division manager for the city of Round Rock, Texas. However,
the initial road to a career in parks and recreation took a few minor
twists and turns along the way. But, from the sound of it, this graphic design major wouldn't have had it any other way.
Parks & Recreation magazine recently talked to Bohner to learn
more about the journey that led her
to parks and recreation, her agency's expanding aquatics program,
as well as her favorite success story
about learning to swim. A portion
of that conversation follows:
Parks & Recreation: What was
it about parks and recreation
that prompted you to pursue it
as a career?
Nichole Bohner: It came about by
accident. I started as a lifeguard
for my hometown park and recreation agency when I was 15. For a
long time, I wasn't looking at the
park and rec field necessarily as a
career opportunity. I went to college studying graphic design in my
home state of Ohio and worked at
pools during the summer. During
college, I worked at our Campus Recreation Center for all four
years. And when I graduated, I
ended up having more experience
in the park and recreation field
than in anything else, and it kind
of became real to me that what I
had been doing could be my career.
I was applying for any sort of job
I had qualifications for, all over the
country. I wasn't getting callbacks
for the graphic design jobs, but the
jobs in aquatics were replying to
my inquiries. I applied for a job in
California, and they offered to fly

me out for the interview. So, it kind
of became quite real there. I didn't
get that first job in California, but
what it did do was prompt me to
start pursuing other positions in
the aquatics field, and, eventually,
I was lucky enough to get selected
for a position in Lake Tahoe.
I hadn't really realized that the
multiple summers working in my
hometown at that pool in Ohio
could really translate to a career
with a salary; [that] was all brand
new and amazing to me. And as
an added bonus, I was really able
to utilize my skills as a graphic designer to help promote programs
within our department. That skill
set now has helped me sort of shine
above other folks with similar backgrounds in aquatics, because every
program needs to be promoted,
and I'm able to do that on my own.
And, it's sort of led, in a roundabout way, to a conglomerate of
two things I love: being in aquatics
and graphic design. I've been able
to meld them into what I'd call my
'dream job.' It might not have been
what I had envisioned initially,
but it's turned into this thing that I
love, and it's amazing!
P&R: Can you tell us about the
aquatics program at your agency?
Bohner: I came to the city of Round
Rock at a really exciting time. They
had taken a successful, smaller wa-

terpark and tripled it in size. They
were doing this big expansion project and we were, in turn, growing
the Aquatics Division. So, it went
from a program that included two
lifeguard classes per year, to the
point where we're now running
about 20 classes per year in-house.
We really had to grow our team
and pull together a stable of instructors from our ranks.
We also have really focused on
growing our swim lesson program.
We're exploring classes that fill the
needs in the community. For example, we've seen a lot of kids come
to the pool with mermaid tails. A
lot of aquatics professionals say,
'No mermaid tails whatsoever!'
But, we wanted to find a way to
allow them safely. So, we began
teaching a class about safe use of a
mermaid tail and the steps to learn
to swim with it. And, we really
pushed that because we believe we
were filling a need, whereby these
kids who were showing excitement
about swimming wouldn't get
turned away anymore and would
have a controlled environment to
learn in...
To read the entire conversation, go online to www.nrpa.org/
parks-recreation-magazine/2019/
M ay / m e m b e r - s p o t l i g h t - N i c h
ole-Bohner.
-Vitisia Paynich is a Freelance Writer for Parks & Recreation magazine.

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