Meet Our Student Member Officer Pals
Splash Pals Adapted Aquatics has outstanding student member officers with a wide variety of backgrounds and leadership skills. We are here to assist you in every way possible and retain Lifeguards and CPR Certified individuals at all times to provide a fun AND safe environment.
Lana Ilazarova
(President)
Lana was born in Brooklyn, New York and has resided in Florida for 7 years after traveling around Central America for 3 years. After living in Central America with her mother who was a traveling Physical Therapist, Lana learned the value of helping others and the importance of personalized healthcare and medicine. This love for helping others fostered a love for medicine, which lead Lana to start volunteering at the Boca Raton Regional Hospital in 2015.
Every week Lana looks forward to working with the participants on their personal and health related goals.
Lana earned her Associates of Arts degree at Palm Beach State College and is now working on her Bachelors of Science degree in Biology at Florida Atlantic University. Her long term goals are to take her experience, compassion, and love for medicine to medical school to become a doctor and help those in need as well as morph the health care system into something that benefits everyone.
Elia Gourdji
(Secretary)
Elia was born and raised in Honduras and has been living in Florida for 13 years now. She is currently a senior at Florida Atlantic University getting her Bachelors of Science degree in Biology. After graduating she will pursue her Master’s degree in Biomedical Science. Elia is also involved in research at the College of Medicine of FAU researching cardiomyopathies. She is passionate about helping others and has volunteered in a nursing home for five years with elders that have Alzheimer’s disease. She also has attended two medical mission trips to Honduras with the goal of giving back to her country and staying in touch with her roots. She loves working with children and volunteering in splash pals is the highlight of her day. She has created amazing bonds with the children and their families and enjoys coming to the pool to spend time with them. Elia’s long term goal is to become a pediatrician so she can keep making children smile. Elia enjoys spending time with her family, friends and her 13-year-old poodle. She also loves traveling and exploring new cultures. Elia is excited to keep volunteering and helping out in splash pals as well as seeing not only the children but also the students have a great time and create amazing friendships.
Ellie Reiter
(Outreach Coordinator)
Eliane "Ellie" Reiter was born in Lima, Peru and moved to the United States at the age of six. Even at a young age, Ellie's true passion was to help those around her. She loved to brighten the room anyway she could. She is a recent graduate from Florida Atlantic University pursuing a career in Occupational Therapy. Her biggest goal is to open her own practice and help children with disabilities full time. In the next few months, Ellie will be obtaining her certification as a Registered Behavioral Technician, to later pursue a Master's in ABA.
Before joining Splash Pals, Ellie volunteered at many other organizations such as Boca's Helping Hands and the Youth Group at the YMCA. Splash Pals has become one of Ellie's biggest motivators to continue pursuing her goals.
Leah Goodwin
(Vice President)
Leah was born in Saratoga Springs, New York, but was mostly raised in Columbus, Georgia. She then moved to Oviedo, Florida to complete high school and start her college experience. In high school is where she got involved with swimming and water polo which led her to apply for a life guarding job at the pool she plays at back in Oviedo. With the new job, she got involved with coaching kids to swim. All throughout high school, she became a part of the preschool program at her school and thoroughly enjoyed being around children. This sparked her interest in education which is what she is majoring in at Florida Atlantic University.
Leah came from a long line of teachers and continued to move forward in her dedication to education. In her high school, she joined a club called the Future Educators of America where she got to shadow elementary and middle schoolers. This is where she got to experience working in classrooms with children with disabilities. Since she had such a great experience working with those children, when she started her first semester at FAU, she was immediately drawn to Splash Pals. She has stuck with this club for almost two semesters now and plans on continuing throughout her college career helping those children every Monday.
All her life, she has been surrounded by children and has found that educating and working with children is her passion in life. Leah wants to continue to make a difference in children’s education and make it worthwhile. Since she started working with Splash Pals, it has only encouraged her more to step outside her comfort zone and become a leader. Leah’s passion has only grown since starting this club and she wants to continue working with children for as long as she can.
Tasha Ramnauth
(Treasurer)
Natasha (Tash) Ramnauth was born and raised in Pembroke Pines, FL where she spent most of her life before moving to Boca Raton, FL. She is currently a rising Senior at Florida Atlantic University studying Neuroscience with a minor in Public Health Administration. Her goal is to attend medical school to become a pediatric oncologist one day. During her time at FAU, she was an orientation leader, currently volunteers at Boca Raton Regional Hospital and is currently the Co-Director of Records of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA).
Her ultimate life goal is to promote happiness and kindness through her community. Inspired by her autistic cousin and love for kids, Tash joined to Splash Pals to learn more about children with disabilities and to get more exposure with children. During pool sessions, she feels she has made an impact within the community when she sees the children having fun with their smiles and laughs. During her free time, you can catch her at the gym working out, hanging out with her dog Snowy or playing competitive video games. Tash is excited to be a part of Splash Pals team and hopes to see you in the pool one day!
Richard Cook
(Water Saftey Coordinator)
Richard was born and raised in South Florida and loves to be in the water whenever he has the chance. He is currently enrolled at Florida Atlantic University as a full-time student, pursuing a double major in Ocean and Mechanical Engineering. So far in his time at FAU, he has earned a Certified Student Leader certificate and has also had many volunteering opportunities for various organizations within the community, including working with students with disabilities at various high schools in South Florida. Richard is also on the FAU Water Polo club team where he practices in the competition pool after Adapted Aquatics. With these students, Richard had the opportunity to help teach them how to swim and to compete on a high school swim team. As a part of Splash Pals Adapted Aquatics, Richard looks forward to working more with individuals with disabilities, empowering them to achieve their personal and health related goals.