Olga L. Perez
Transforming water safety education into skills, careers, and community impact.
Where It All Began
For Olga L. Perez, entrepreneurship began with a decision: if the opportunity she had worked for wasn't going to be given to her, she would create one herself, and create opportunities for others along the way.
With more than 25 years of experience in aquatics, Olga built her career from the pool deck up, as a lifeguard, lifeguard instructor, water safety instructor, and spa manager. Through those experiences, she developed a deep understanding of the aquatics industry while also seeing firsthand the barriers young people often face when trying to enter the workforce.
In 2017, after being overlooked for a promotion she had worked hard to earn, Olga transformed that disappointment into action and founded MVP Lifeguards, LLC, a Bronx-based minority- and woman-owned business. MVP stands for Most Valuable Professional, reflecting Olga's belief that every young person has the potential to become a valuable professional when given access to training, mentorship, and opportunity.
What began as Olga creating an opportunity for herself soon became something much bigger: a business built around creating opportunities for others.
“It's great when I get a text message from a young lifeguard, telling me they 'got the job'.”
From Learning to Swim to Entering the Workforce
MVP Lifeguards operates at the intersection of water safety education and workforce development. The company provides learn-to-swim programming, water safety education, lifeguard training, job readiness, and employment opportunities, creating a pathway that can take a young person from developing essential swimming skills to becoming trained, certified, and prepared to enter the aquatics workforce. For many young people trained through its programs, MVP Lifeguards also provides that critical first opportunity by hiring newly trained lifeguards and becoming their first employer.
Through partnerships with New York City agencies, public schools, and community-based organizations, MVP Lifeguards has brought aquatic programming directly into communities where access to swimming instruction, lifeguard training, and water safety education has historically been limited. As a New York City-certified M/WBE and a provider for initiatives including the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) Making Waves program, MVP Lifeguards demonstrates how a small business can combine public safety, youth empowerment, and workforce development. Over the years, Olga's work has helped create more than 500 lifeguard employment opportunities.
As the business grew, Olga recognized that meaningful change had to begin even earlier. The disparities were impossible to ignore: 64% of Black/African American children and 45% of Hispanic/Latino children have low or no swimming ability. Olga believes every child should have the opportunity to learn how to swim and develop lifesaving water safety skills, regardless of their background, neighborhood, or ability to pay. That realization led her to expand her mission through MVP Swimmers, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to increasing access to affordable, high-quality swimming and water safety education in underserved communities.
Together, the organizations create a continuum: learn to swim, become water safe, develop your skills, train for a career, enter the workforce, create opportunity.
Turning Barriers Into Opportunities
Building MVP Lifeguards required more than expertise in aquatics. Olga had to learn how to build and operate a company, navigate government contracting, manage employees, secure institutional partnerships, maintain compliance, manage cash flow, and sustain programming while remaining committed to the communities she set out to serve. Each challenge strengthened both Olga and the business.
Over time, she began to recognize that many of the barriers she encountered professionally were connected to the same issue she saw among the young people she served: access to opportunity. Talent alone isn't always enough. Young people need access to instruction, to pools, to training, to mentorship, and ultimately to someone willing to give them their first professional opportunity. Rather than viewing swimming instruction, water safety education, lifeguard training, and employment as separate services, Olga connected them into a pathway.
Olga has also carried this perspective into conversations about public policy and community investment, advocating for greater access to swimming instruction, water safety education, youth development, and professional opportunities. Her journey has reinforced a fundamental belief: when you remove barriers to opportunity, you create possibilities that can extend far beyond the pool.
Building an Aquatics Ecosystem
Olga's vision for MVP Lifeguards extends far beyond operating individual swim programs. She is building toward a comprehensive aquatics company capable of providing swimming instruction, water safety education, lifeguard training, workforce development, staffing, and pool and amenity management services. The next phase includes expanding further into the private sector, providing aquatic and amenity management services for residential properties, co-ops, private facilities, and other organizations.
But the larger vision remains centered on people. A child who learns to swim today gains a lifesaving skill and confidence in the water. That child may eventually become a lifeguard. That lifeguard may become an instructor. That instructor may become a supervisor, aquatics director, entrepreneur, or community leader. Through MVP Swimmers, Olga also envisions expanding access so that a family's ability to pay does not determine whether a child has the opportunity to learn a lifesaving skill.