Sebastiana Lopez, 17, is the leader of her crew team. “Before I used to be really shy and I didn’t really speak up for myself,” Lopez said.
Rainy-day practices are the worst, especially in the cold. As she leads her rowing team, Sebastiana Lopez feels the rain pelting her face, soaking her clothes and working its way into her bones. Her fingers go numb.
Yet Lopez, 17, a high school senior, calls this the best thing she has ever done for herself.
As an eighth grader, she had signed up for this test of toughness at Row New York, a nonprofit that teaches city students how to row and gives them academic support and college counseling. Now, more than four years later, her routine includes pushing through her grueling sport’s trying moments.
“I can handle the hard days,” Lopez said. “I make myself do it because I really want to go to college and I know this will help me get there.”
She tries not to cry, but fails, and says, “I do want a better life for my family.”
(Erica Yoon for The New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/25/sports/she-wants-to-row-to-get-from-nyc-into-college.html
Young women participate in rowing practice through Row New York at Meadow Lake on Thursday, May 2, 2019 in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Sebastiana Lopez, 17, a coxswain, left, gives direction to her teammates during practice at Meadow Lake on Thursday, May 2, 2019 in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. “Before I used to be really shy and I didn’t really speak up for myself. When I exercise my position as a coxswain, I learn how to speak up for myself and always be heard out there,” said Lopez.
Young women carry their boat over to Meadow Lake to get ready for practice with Row New York on Thursday, May 2, 2019 at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Young women in the Row New York Queens program huddle together at the end of practice on Thursday, May 2, 2019 at the World’s Fair Boathouse in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
(From left) Sebastiana Lopez, 17, Ix’Chel Angeles, 16, and Salma Youssef, 17, wait in a shuttle with other young women near the 7 train subway stop at Willets Point to head to Flushing Meadows Corona Park for rowing practice on Thursday, May 2, 2019.
Sebastiana Lopez works on her homework and looks through mail sent from different colleges while in her kitchen at home in Queens Friday evening, Oct. 11, 2019 after rowing practice late in the evening. Lopez is a coxswain for Row New York. Lopez says she probably wouldn’t have toured any colleges if it weren’t for Row New York.
Sebastiana Lopez talks with her mother Cristina Cuevas late Friday evening in their apartment in Queens Oct. 11, 2019.
Sebastiana Lopez gets ready for her next day’s rowing practice while her father Isadoro, left, and brother Adrian, 16, relax in bed Friday evening, Oct. 11, 2019. The family of five share a room together. Isadoro relaxes after a long 11-hour day of work. Lopez is a coxswain for Row New York.
Bre Fitzsimmons, the Queens varsity coach, leads a number of recruits through instructions on how to begin rowing on an erg. Tryouts for RowNY were held at the Long Island City YMCA on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019.
Sebastiana Lopez, left, tells recruit Mariya Sergeeva, an 8th grader at Russell Sage Junior High School, to try and row harder to hit a certain number on the erg, with fellow recruit Ariana Reyes, right, also rowing alongside her. Tryouts for RowNY were held at the Long Island City YMCA on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019.
Sebastiana Lopez, 17, left, feeds a snack to her teammate Ix’Chel Angeles, 16, right, as Salma Youssef, 17, center, walks with them back to the 7 subway train at Willets Point after rowing practice on Thursday, May 2, 2019 in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Sebastiana Lopez, 17, walks home from the train station after rowing practice on Thursday, May 2, 2019. Lopez commits six days a week to practice after school and usually gets home around 7:30pm.
Sebastiana