With her older sister in her senior year as a swimming student-athlete at Emory University, Lizzie Aronoff was discouraged from following her there by some.
“They were concerned that to be my own person, I shouldn’t attend the same school my sister did. I kept a really open mind through the search process but ended up choosing Emory for the same reasons Jennifer did. I wanted to be a part of such a great school and swimming & diving program and I was determined to be my own person,” Lizzie stated.
Jennifer believed that Division III would give her the opportunity to fulfill her goals in college. “I wanted a school that valued academics and athletics equally and to be in an environment that would push me in and out of the pool,” she explained. “It wasn’t just about swimming, but also to have the ability to grow in a lot of other areas from working in a lab to participating in sorority life. I wanted an opportunity to be multi-faceted while being part of a potential national championship team. I loved (Emory head coach) Jon (Howell) and the coaching staff and the culture of the program.”
“In the beginning I was known as Jennifer’s little sister and there were a lot of nicknames around the fact that we look very similar, are on the shorter side, and swam similar events. We are very similar and yet different at the same time,” Lizzie shared. “It took me a couple months in my first year to become more than Jen’s little sister.”
Jennifer originally had her sights set on working in the public health sphere. “I studied in a lab and got my master’s at Emory to see how we change the environment and its impact on animals and public heath,” she described. “I decided to move more into occupational health and have been at Anheuser Busch for more than a decade. I love it and how it is based around people. Swimming showed me that I wanted to be part of something where I could make a difference. I was a very quiet person until I got to college, but Emory helped me find my voice. I was able to become a leader and help inspire people. I don’t know that I would have ever grown in those areas without my experience at Emory. I work in environmental health and safety, protecting people and the environment as a site leader, overseeing 500 people’s health and safety on the senior leadership team.”
Working with people is something the sisters have in common. “I learned quickly that I am not a bench science or lab person, that I needed to be working with people. I stayed in Atlanta after graduation, working in clinical research studying Rett’s Syndrome,” Lizzie communicated. “I chose to attend medical school at Emory. I love Atlanta and the institution and kept in touch with college friends, kept volunteering with Special Olympics, and was ‘celebrity guest coaching’ after nationals.”
She found her passion in pediatrics and spent her three-year residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and just returned to Atlanta to begin a fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
One thing that the sisters and their family relish is how strong the Emory swimming & diving ties remain years after graduation. They give much of the credit to Howell for continually connecting swimmers & divers with alumni, including as guides and mentors for undergraduates’ career paths. “Our parents appreciated all that Emory provided for us in athletics and academic opportunities to help us launch our careers. The swimming community is one big family and the connections run deep. Our parents keep in touch with their other parent friends from our days there.”
“My time at Emory meant everything to me. It is where I found my passion and grew into myself thanks to the great opportunities given to me by swimming and the school that helped me to grow as a person,” Lizzie added. “The connections I have made through research and medicine helped shape my path. It has been really special for me to stay within the Emory community and know that I will always have a place I can come back to and that I have a history with.”