New York, N.Y.— John Jay College of Criminal Justice Distinguished Professor, Dr.
Jane Katz is still going strong. The distinguished professor, who has been a part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system for 50 years now, most recently won a pair of prestigious honors. She won the 2010 Distinguished Faculty Award and received a Friends of CUNY award from the City University of New York Athletic Conference.
Dr. Katz has been synonymous with CUNY after starting her time in the system as a student at The City College of New York, before spending the next 25 years as a professor at Bronx Community College. And for the past 21 years, Katz has been serving at John Jay. She came aboard in 1989 as the College's first ever aquatics instructor when the pool on campus opened its doors that year.
She graduated from New York City's own Seward Park High School in 1959, before enrolling at CCNY that fall. She pioneered CCNY's first ever sport for women when she helped assemble a synchronized swimming performance team.
“Before I got there, there were no sports for women, they had nothing,” said Katz. “Women in sports have evolved so much through the years. There are many females out there who love to compete but didn't have a platform to perform on.”
This was just the beginning for Katz. After graduating from CCNY in 1964, Katz traveled to Japan to perform as part of a performance team in the 1964 summer Olympics.
Synchronized swimming was not an Olympic sport yet, and didn't become one until twenty years later, but Katz' pioneering playing a crucial factor for the opportunities that came to past years later.
Upon returning to the United States later that summer, Katz was hired to help establish an aquatics program at Bronx Community College (BCC) and stayed there for 25 years. There, once again, Katz was critical in establishing swim programs for women. She developed another synchronized swimming team that performed at various venues. Katz also recalled a time in 1965 when she took over forty-five young women on a bus ride to perform in Canada.
By the mid seventies, Katz had made her mark in the aquatics world. She became the first female in the history of CCNY to be inducted in the CCNY athletics Hall of Fame when she was inducted in 1976.
Upon Katz's arrival at John Jay, she established a swimming club team in 1995 which made the transition to NCAA Division III varsity level in 2001.
She has been inducted into several Hall of Fames, including the Metropolitan Swimming Hall of Fame and the International Swimming Hall of Fame. She has also earned countless awards for her commitment and dedication to swimming. In 2008, Katz was honored with the very prestigious Liberty Medal for her outstanding work to the reentry program, a program for troubled youth.
At sixty-seven years old, Katz is still as active as can be. She still competes on a regular basis. And not a day goes by where Katz does not flash her energetic smile. To this day, she is extremely energetic and enthusiastic about teaching the basics of swimming to people of all ages.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the City University of New York system as a whole has been extremely fortunate to have Dr.
Jane Katz a part of it.
