TAMPA, Fla. — Lily Schwartz has been around sailboats most of her life.

What You Need To Know

  •  Lily is part of the Eckerd Sailing team that made nationals this year.

  •  Lily is part of a leadership program at Eckerd

  •  She has been sailing since she was five

  • Lily is trying to change the stereotype that surrounds the sport of sailing

Hesitant at first, it didn’t take very long for the Ohio native to fall in love with the sport.

"It’s pretty cool, I’m out here on a boat by myself, there’s nobody around, nobody telling me what to do".

That was the beginning of a competitive sailing career that landed her here at Eckerd College where she is a skipper for the Tritons sailing team.

For the last three years Lily has been part of a leadership program at Eckerd where she has been chasing a bigger goal.

She wants to make the sports of Sailing more assessable to everyone.

"Sailing is such a sport that has kind of a mono-culture in it, you know it’s mainly a white a wealthier sport and I wanted to get kids in boats of all socio-economic backgrounds, all races" .

Part of Lily’s leadership program included a trip abroad, so she took three of her best friends on a 48 hour sail from her hometown in Sandusky, Ohio to Canada.

Lily will graduate in May with the hope that her past three years of work, helps to make a difference, changing the sport she loves.

"I think the future of sailing needs to look a little bit different than the past and I’m ok saying that because I would like to see a more diverse group of sailors and I would like to see just more people on boats in general".

And she is chasing that dream, one wave at a time.