MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Dear Parents,

Thank you so much for reaching out to ISR Northshore and for your interest in ISR Lessons. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to share about my personal journey and the passion that drives me to teach these life-saving skills.

My path to ISR began with my own experience as a mother. As parents, our ultimate responsibility is to protect and care for our children, and that deep desire for their safety led me to discover ISR.

While our pond and fountain in the yard were beautiful, they also became a source of worry when our son, Chandler, was born. Despite all the traditional safety measures we had in place around pools and bodies of water, I realized that drownings continued to happen far too often. It became clear to me that the best way to truly protect him was to equip him with the skills to survive in the worst-case scenario.

When Chandler was an infant, I started searching for swimming lessons. By Fall 2017, most traditional programs had already concluded for the year. I contacted every swimming program I could find from Mandeville to Baton Rouge, even as far as Houma, willing to drive up to two hours one way to ensure our son was safe around water. However, I quickly realized that this wouldn’t be feasible with an infant.

With no survival swimming programs available in over a 100-mile range, I enrolled Chandler in "Mommy and Me" swimming lessons. While it was wonderful to enjoy those moments in the water together, I began to feel that these classes were more about acclimating children to water for fun, rather than preparing them to respect and respond to it in an emergency. I feared that if Chandler were ever in a water-related emergency, he wouldn’t have the necessary skills to rescue himself.

In 2018, I was devastated to learn of two families in our community who tragically lost their children to drowning. This loss was a pivotal moment for me, and I realized there was a critical need for ISR in our area. After much prayer and reflection, God guided me to the opportunity to become the very first ISR instructor on the Northshore and Southshore.

From 2018 to 2020, I traveled daily across the Northshore and Southshore—serving families in Hammond, Ponchatoula, Covington, Mandeville, Lacombe, Slidell, Metairie, and New Orleans. I taught in public pools, fitness centers, and private residential pools, though at times I faced challenges when access to certain facilities was lost.

In 2020, I felt led to bring the program to my own home, and since then, families have traveled from near and far—sometimes up to an hour and a half away—because they recognize the importance of ISR lessons.

Through this journey, I’ve learned that ISR is a child-centered program focused on empowering children and educating parents. Becoming a certified instructor allowed me to combine my passions for education and child safety into a meaningful and fulfilling career.

There’s nothing more rewarding than watching a child who is initially apprehensive about lessons grow in confidence, especially when they learn to roll over and float independently for the first time.

It’s truly humbling to hear families share how relieved they feel knowing their child has gained these essential self-rescue skills. The stories of children using those skills to survive a traumatic or potentially life-threatening water incident are some of the most deeply moving and impactful moments.

My mission within the ISR program is to empower children with the one layer of protection they can control—the ability to perform the ISR self-rescue technique. This, combined with our parent education and the swim-float-swim method, provides a foundation of life-saving skills both in and out of the water.

I hope to see a day when "Not One More Child Drowns" becomes a reality in our community, where every child has access to ISR lessons and is equipped with the survival skills that could save their life.

I firmly believe that every child who steps into my pool has a chance—a chance at life.

I look forward to connecting with you further and hope to see your child benefit from the life-saving ISR program.

Thank you again for contacting ISR Northshore.

Warm regards,

Jennifer Laurent
Certified ISR Instructor
Owner and Founder of ISR Northshore