A Commodore and a Dolphin

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As a student of the ancient world, Kailia Utley understands that little we do as individuals stands the test of time. History is too vast, millennia too long. Our day-to-day successes and failures soon fade, important as they seemed in the moment.

What’s left behind in pottery shards and manuscripts is the story of communities and collaboration—what people built together and how they treated each other.

So it matters that Utley last year became the first Vanderbilt swimmer in more than 30 years to qualify for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. It matters that she made it back to that stage this year, becoming the first Vanderbilt swimmer since the Reagan administration to compete at the championships on multiple occasions.

From early morning laps to long hours in the weight room, she invested too much passion across too many years for it not to matter that her name litters the Vanderbilt record book. No Commodore swam faster in the 100 or 200 butterfly or the 200 individual medley. No quartet ever did better than her record-setting 400 medley relay team.

Put simply, at Vanderbilt, Utley seized the opportunity to find out how good she could be.

Through years of volunteer work and an internship with the non-profit Nashville Dolphins organization that brings the benefits of swimming to people with special needs, she also used her time at Vanderbilt to explore how much good she could do.

Both legacies matter, but especially for the people whose worlds opened with her help, there isn’t much doubt which will stand the test of time.

Records are made to be broken. Communities are made to be strengthened.

"My mom has always said you’ve been given these gifts and talents to use them for the betterment of others. You don’t have them just for you."

Kailia Utley

Bringing Swimming to Everyone

Co-founded by Beth Scruggs and Dotty Sutter in 2003, the Nashville Dolphins bring the physical, mental and emotional benefits of swimming to the special needs community, regardless of age, ability or financial circumstances.

While drowning is one of the leading causes of death among all children, studies indicate an even greater risk for children with special needs—children with a dual autism and Down syndrome diagnosis, for instance, are at twice the risk. Dolphins programming directly addresses this critical health issue through lessons for beginners of all ages.

But beyond the meaningfully utilitarian goals of the “learn to swim” classes, the organization opens up new avenues for development for individuals who might otherwise be shut out. With the Dolphins, they progress through intermediary levels of instruction. They can join the organization’s swim team, practicing multiple times each week and competing in local, regional and national events, including the Special Olympics.

Now numbering more than 300 across all levels, participants reap the same benefits of camaraderie and competition that make sports an important tool for all people.

A Lifelong Calling for Service

Utley began volunteering with the Dolphins when she was a freshman, literally following in the footsteps of teammates—she would catch a ride back to her dorm from senior Tonner DeBeer when they stayed after practice to volunteer. She’ll soon graduate with a special education minor, in addition to degrees in classical and Mediterranean studies and medicine, health and society. But rather than something acquired at Vanderbilt, her interest in helping the special needs community long predated her time in Nashville.

A Southern California native, Utley attended the renowned Mater Dei High School, which has produced more professional athletes than many universities. She won a high school state swimming title and graduated as class salutatorian. Amid Utley’s earned success and accolades, her mom, a former collegiate swimmer, and dad, a former collegiate track and field athlete, stressed the importance of service to their four children (two older brothers played collegiate football). Giving back was a regular part of family life.

“My mom has always said you’ve been given these gifts and talents to use them for the betterment of others,” Utley said. “You don’t have them just for you. You have them to be able to master some of these skills so that you can make someone’s day a little bit better.”

In high school, Utley volunteered for several years with Rising Above Disabilities, a California non-profit that hosts summer “RAD Camp” for children and adults with developmental disabilities. Each camper is paired with a counselor, one-on-one, in an immersive week-long partnership.

Utley was just 16 years old when, after going through the program’s extensive training regimen for counselors, she was paired with a 20-year-old woman with cerebral palsy. Utley and her “buddy,” as camp nomenclature goes, were together all the time. The weight of responsibility brought her almost to tears at one point, afraid her buddy’s irritation was proof she was doing something wrong. But what she experienced—the reality of helping another person as opposed to the Hollywood version—also inspired her.

“You forget how lucky you are to just be able to get up and go to the bathroom, wash your hands or say what you want to say without having to really struggle to be understood,” Utley explained. “I fell in love with trying to make their day a little bit easier. Because so many of them approach life with innocence and bliss. They absolutely love the chance that they have to live. I appreciated that so much. They don’t care what people think. They’re not going to skirt around things. If they have a thought, they’re going to tell you, whether it’s good or bad.

“They’ll humble you, and it’s the best thing ever.”

Strengthening the 615

Vanderbilt has been Utley’s launch pad to the world. With the swim team, she traveled to New Zealand, studying the country’s ecology and experiencing its natural wonders. She swam offseason laps in the Mediterranean Sea while an undergraduate research assistant for an archaeological project led by Associate Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Studies Joseph L. Rife. After graduating, she’ll spend next year in London as part of London Global University’s master’s program in bioarchaeological and forensic anthropology.

And yet, for all of that, she chose to spend her final undergraduate summer in Nashville, interning with the Dolphins. A volunteer instructor every semester she’s been at Vanderbilt, she was still in and around pools for much of the summer internship. She led classes and took participants to local pools for “swimathons” to compete and raise money for the organization. But the internship also introduced her to the essential, if not glamorous, office work that allows a small operation to exist. Along with Executive Director Brenda Vroon, the group’s only full-time staffer, she dove into planning, fundraising and bookkeeping or researching and preparing presentations on topics like water safety.

In the process, Utley also gained a deeper appreciation for the Dolphins’ never-ending search for pool time. In particular, losing four regular slots at one local pool spurred her to think about ways Vanderbilt might be able to assist. With the Aquatics Center at the David Williams II Recreation and Wellness Center and a varsity team full of accomplished swimmers and potential instructors and lifeguards, a match seemed possible.

As her internship ended and her senior year began, Utley continued working with Vroon and Vanderbilt’s Will Jordan, director of swimming and aquatics operations. Like seeds in the ground, good intentions need considerable time, care and effort to grow into anything more than the potential for something meaningful. While it helped that Utley was already a qualified lifeguard at the Rec Center, there were numerous logistical details to consider and iron out.

As her final semester began after the turn of the year, the Dolphins were able to begin using the Rec Center pool at no cost to the organization.

“They could see how important this was and how it really could change a lot of lives,” Utley said. “They wanted to implement it. I am super grateful for them for focusing on that and allowing that to inspire us to push through some of the challenges. Because otherwise we would not have been able to start it this semester, and it’s been absolutely amazing.”

She would love an active role in continuing the program. Her dream scenario, after completing the master’s program abroad, is to attend Belmont’s medical school. Its service learning curriculum, in which students work with a local non-profit throughout their studies, matches her long-term aspirations to keep service central in her life. Returning to Nashville would bring her back to the Dolphins. But as her abundant degrees and diverse interests suggest, any number of paths may await in life. She hopes that the collaboration between the Dolphins, the Rec Center and Vanderbilt swimming endures regardless.

“I have teammates who really want to see it continue, which I think will help push it forward,” Utley said. “I’m really hoping that it’ll be something that our Vanderbilt swimmers continue to do just because it’s so impactful for the swimmers in the community. I’m hoping that my teammates love it as much as I do, they just bring such light to these kids’ days. And I feel like they’re learning a lot, too. I think it helps them just reground themselves and have gratitude for the ability to swim.”

More than a Degree

At one point during her Vanderbilt studies, Utley read and reviewed a monograph on disabilities in the ancient world—from depictions in the art and literature of the period to the ways people with disabilities were pushed to the fringes of society.

The existence of programs like the RAD Camps and the Nashville Dolphins, not to mention Vanderbilt’s undergraduate program in special education in which Utley minors, hopefully augurs better for our own legacy.

“I think we’re at a place now that’s obviously significantly better than the ancient world,” Utley allowed with a chuckle. “But I think there’s always room for improvement.”

Improvement that starts with individuals choosing to build a better community.

It won’t be easy, and it may take years, but someone will eventually break the records Utley set swimming for the Commodores. No one will take away the good she did for Nashville’s special needs community through the simple act of getting people into the pool.