Genuine kindness and care. A supportive and available presence. Character and natural leadership. These attributes are just a few ways that senior Tim Chou has been described by his teammates and coaches. As a member of the men’s swimming and diving team, Chou has become not only an exceptional student-athlete but has also served as a leader for civic engagement within the team and in the greater Tufts community.
As part of the Class of 2024, he navigated a first year without a competitive season, contributing to the new normal for team culture after the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout his career he regularly scored points in regular season meets as well as NESCAC championships. However, where Chou has stood out to his peers and coaches is in his leadership on the team. In addition to time spent training and competing, Chou served as a Tisch College civic life ambassador on the team as well as a leader for Team IMPACT, a mentorship program where college sports teams are paired with children with serious illnesses or disabilities. His leadership both in and out of the pool led the coaching staff to give Chou the coaches’ award this year, alongside teammates senior Jerry Yang and sophomore Armaan Sikka.
“Over 4 years Tim has become a leader on our team through his consistent behaviors – both athletic and personal, as well as his composure in training, competition, and social settings,” head coach Adam Hoyt wrote in an email to the Daily. “[He] delivers a high work ethic, an open mind, a supportive and available presence, and positivity on our team. This consistency makes Tim stand out and thus we wanted to celebrate the contribution he made to our team through the Coaches Award.”
Chou felt encouraged by his coaches to discuss and participate in civic engagement work on the team.
“[The] coaches have been instrumental to my development, as a person, not just as an athlete,” Chou said.
Chou helped lead events for Team IMPACT. The Tufts swim and dive team just had their first signed participant graduate from the program after three years; Chou and other members of the team joined in on a pool party to celebrate their mentee’s achievement.
As a civic life ambassador, he also organized volunteer events for the team in partnership with Tisch College, engaging with the local community through events such as Community Sports Day and the Malden River cleanup.
“I think his high level of engagement in civic life and community involvement speaks volumes about his character and natural leadership in a really positive way,” Avery Newcomer, fellow civic life ambassador and swimmer wrote in an email to the Daily. “I most admire Tim’s genuine kindness and care for other people and the community that surrounds him.”
However, Chou’s civic engagement work was not restricted to members of the swim team. In his sophomore year, Chou enrolled in the Tufts With Rwanda Fellowship, an Experimental College course. After taking the course, he was inspired to participate as a leader; this year, he is coordinating the course alongside Newcomer.
“The Tufts with Rwanda Fellowship is a yearlong program through Tufts Hillel, the Cummings Foundation, and ExCollege, that is centered on genocide education, building international relationships, and empowering participants to become global ambassadors for their community,” Newcomer wrote. “We will use what we learn abroad to ignite action within our own community in the hopes of decreasing and eventually ending mass atrocity and continuing education.”
Chou was first led to the course during his sophomore year when it was coordinated by another member of the swim and dive team, something he is mirroring for his teammates now.
“That experience and learning about what my teammate was doing has shaped my own experience, which has been invaluable,” Chou said. “It felt like [the course] was out of my comfort zone, but now I’ve led it myself my junior year, and now I’m leading it again my senior year.”
Newcomer has appreciated the opportunity to lead the program along with Chou.
“I feel really grateful I’ve been able to be Tim’s co-coordinator,” she wrote. “He’s been a constant pillar of support and leads by example, handling road bumps calmly and with dignity.”
Chou’s growing understanding of the history of Rwanda has led him to focus on ways to engage in the region outside of educating his peers. Chou and fellow senior Cora Cunningham were recently awarded a $10,000 grant through the Tisch College Projects for Peace program; the pair will be working with the NGO MoveUp Global to implement their project, which focuses on a potential healthcare and education-focused intervention around clean water and disease in the rural Musanze district of Rwanda.
Chou’s favorite part of his time on the swim team has been a family-like team atmosphere, and he credits his teammates from the Class of 2024 for taking a major role in shaping the team’s attitude and goals during the return to competition.
“We didn’t have our season [because of] COVID our freshman year,” he said. “We’ve come far within the past three years in terms of cohesivity, getting back into the tenacity needed to be competitive. … My teammates, especially my classmates in the senior class have [developed] together.”
The team has its sights set on a NESCAC championship win, a goal that has been getting closer each year. The men’s and women’s teams both finished second at the championship meet this year.
