On Monday afternoon, with the music signaling the end of the day, sophomore Ava Stepan rushes through the halls, running to catch the 22 bus South on Clark street. A few minutes later she jumps out as the bus stops at Clark and North Ave, right by the Latin School of Chicago, and, perpetually late, hustles to the changing room, where she slides into a neon orange swimsuit — the color of Latin.

At Latin, Stepan gets ready to jump into the pool to practice with the rest of the Latin boys’ swim team. “I really liked volleyball at Parker, but that’s in the fall, which is when the girls’ season is for swim sports, so my only option was to swim for the Latin boys’ team, which ended up being fine,” Stepan said. “It’s an interesting experience.”

Standing 5’8”, Stepan looks the part of a serious athlete. Lean and put together, she models current fashion trends, wearing black leggings and Stan Smiths.

After attending Near North Montessori School through eighth grade, Stepan started attending Parker freshman year. She says her roots in Montessori are a large part of her character today. “I think the independence from Montessori school has really shaped me as a person,” Stepan said. “We had these things called flex Fridays every Friday, where you would just go out in the city and do whatever. But now, at Parker, everyone is so surprised I know how to use CTA. I know how to get around the city, which is kind of unusual for Parker.”

Self-proclaimed best friend of Stepan, sophomore Caroline Conforti raves about Stepan’s courage. “I think swimming on Latin’s boys’ team is something that really shows her personality,” Conforti said. “That’s who she is — since she loves swimming so much, she’s willing to swim with a bunch of boys at the competing school.”

Swimming with an all male team is not always easy for Stepan. “On the first day, I was really intimidated because I don’t really know any of the Latin boys, and they’re mostly all older than me,” Stepan said, referencing the juniors and seniors on the team. “It’s fun being competitive with them because most of them think they can’t be beat by a girl, so I like when I’m faster than them. They’ll say things like, ‘Oh, you’re good at competition,’ and I’m just like, ‘Would you say that to a boy? Probably not.’”

Stepan has been swimming since she was about three or four. “Swimming kind of runs in my blood,” Stepan said. “My parents met at a swimming pool when they were seven. They led completely different lives — my dad went to Parker and had a good lifestyle, but my mom was from a poorer neighborhood and was sharing a bedroom with five sisters, so they came from very different walks of life — and it’s just weird that they ended up at a swimming pool. My great grandmother was in the Olympics, and my two second cousins got into Princeton and somewhere else for their swimming times. And another cousin swam the English Channel. I was never pressured into swimming, it’s just something I came upon, and it really stuck with me, but it’s really in my blood.”

Stepan’s grandmother, Mary Louise Stepan, now 82, competed as a 17-year-old for the United States at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. She received a bronze medal as a member of the third-place U.S. team in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.

Stepan’s ability to continue swimming was uncertain when she was applying to high school. After getting into Latin, Parker, and Northside College Prep, Stepan quickly ruled out Northside as the wrong fit, and then had to make the choice between Latin and Parker. “I was pretty set on Parker,” Stepan said. “But swimming was a big thing for me because if I went to Latin I would probably swim on their girls’ team, and not play volleyball. Overall, I just liked Parker’s environment a lot more. Latin was a lot more college-oriented. Their social environment is very weird, and everyone is very competitive. But at Parker, it’s more like you’ll find your place.”

Stepan’s mother, Susan Stepan, is glad Ava chose Parker. “Because she loves learning, and she loves meeting lots of different people, Parker was the right choice for her,” Susan said. “Swimming at Latin would have really limited her life because when you swim competitively, it’s kind of all you do. At Parker, she’s able to be on the softball and volleyball team and have a really good balance.” With some newfound interests, Ava is currently not planning on swimming in college.

Although Ava’s not spending all her time swimming, that is not to say that she has a lot of free time on her hands. Along with three varsity sports (volleyball, swimming, and softball), Stepan also serves as a Middle School Model UN capitan, does MIT Launch club, writes for “The Weekly,” and is the social media website coordinator for Tampon Tuesday, a club that fundraises for feminine hygiene products for underprivileged women.

For someone who does so much, people in Stepan’s life still notice her dedication to her individual activities. “She puts her heart into everything she does, and she always does everything 100 percent,” Conforti said. “What’s sometimes hard is that she’s so busy, and she really wants to please everybody, so a lot of times it will seem like we only hang out a little bit. But she always makes an effort to be there.”

In the balancing act that is her life, Stepan knows that swimming will always be there. “When I hate everything else, sometimes I just want to swim,” Stepan said. “It’s like gravity pulling me.”