Earlier this spring, senior Iris Burns-Trahanovsky announced her verbal commitment to the admissions process at Dartmouth College for diving for the class of 2030. Her signing day with her club will be in mid-to-late December. 

Originally doing swimming and gymnastics up to age eight, Burns-Trahanovsky was recommended to try diving by someone at a swimming shop, and has dived ever since. In the past, she competed on the one-meter and three-meter springboards, but recently has been solely competing on the one meter. Burns-Trahanovsky competes in both high school-level competitions, as well as club events, where she consistently places amongst the top divers in her events. While McCallum doesn’t have an official diving team, she has been a part of the swim team since her freshman year, and is the only one to compete in the diving events. 

“High school diving is only one meter, so there are none of the other events,” she said. “It’s really different, and usually the scoring is nicer in high school, they’re more lenient.” 

Burns-Trahanovsky swims for her club at the University of Texas pools and has been on the same team for over 10 years. One of her favorite parts about remaining on the same team this long has been the bond she has been able to create with her teammates.

“We are all super close,” she said. “We’ve all been diving for so long and see each other every day, so we are all really good friends.” 

Following a rigorous practice schedule, Burns-Trahanovsky leaves straight from school to her club practice every weeknight from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.. The season for her club team requires practicing all year round, with meets beginning in December, and qualifiers and nationals happening in August. 

Unlike other athletes who have always known they wanted to pursue diving at the collegiate level, there was never a striking moment in Burns-Trahanovsky’s mind where she knew she wanted to pursue diving post-high school, but more of a slow realization that it was something she was interested in.

“As I was diving and getting better, I was seeing everyone else on the team that was older than me, committing to college, and so at some point I realized this is something that I want to do,” she said. 

In the NCAA, Division 1 universities and collegiate sports programs can’t talk to athletes until June 15th after their sophomore year, which is when Burns-Trahanovsky began to send emails to coaches and began to receive some back. 

“I didn’t plan ahead enough, so I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in college,” she said. “So I didn’t even reach out to Dartmouth at the beginning, I was just going through the bigger diving schools.”

After considering what she wanted to pursue academically over the summer, and deciding she wanted to go the pre-med route, she reached out to a couple of schools where the biology programs stood out to her. 

Starting in September of 2024, she was given the opportunity to take official visits at some of the schools she was interested in, and took her Dartmouth visit in January of 2025, after which she received an offer. 

One of the key reasons that led Burns-Trahanovsky to accept Dartmouth’s offer was the atmosphere and welcomeness she felt on her visit, and her interactions with the coach.

“I loved everything about the school, honestly,” she said. “The team, the coach was super nice, and one of my old teammates goes there and she loves it.” 

At the end, she was between Columbia and Dartmouth, and ultimately liked the smaller school and hometown atmosphere that Dartmouth had, noting it felt more personal. Burns-Trahanovsky said the recruitment process for diving works differently from other sports, since diving is a small group of people, where everyone in their recruiting class knows each other. 

“I made it to nationals last year, and I think a lot of the college coaches are looking at those kids,” she said. 

Burns-Trahanovsky has loved the community that diving has given her, alongside some of her most memorable moments and people.

“I love this sport, I love diving,” she said. “All of the friends I’ve made, they’re definitely my closest friends, even the people I see at meets.” 

A teammate of Burns-Trahanovsky, Alexandra Jiampetro, and a class of 2029 Harvard diving commit, was not just a teammate, but a close friend to Burns-Trahanovsky for the last seven years.

“Iris is my best friend, but honestly, she feels more like family, like the sister I chose,” Jiampetro said. “I see her almost every day during the school year, and spend even more time with her during the summer.” 

Jiampetro was a help to Burns-Trahanovsky throughout the commitment process, as she was older and went through it first. 

“I tried to help her however I could, whether it was sharing what I learned, sharing some emails/texts I wrote to coaches, or just talking through the stressful parts,” she said. “We had a lot of the same schools in mind so it felt like we were dreaming side by side for a while.”

One thing Jiampetro said that sets Burns-Trahanovsky apart from others, is her determination. 

“She shows up every day with the drive to improve and the mental strength to bounce back from tough days,” she said. “It’s something I really admire about her.” 

A part of the fine arts program, Burns-Trahanovsky is a visual arts major, and always knew she was going to attend McCallum.

“I’ve always liked art since I was a little kid, so that was my plan,” she said. 

Senior Anna Robinson met Burns-Trahanovsky her freshman year, when they were in the same English class. Robinson is also a visual arts major, and they have had several art classes together over the years. 

Similarly to Jiampetro, Robinson describes Burns-Trahanovsky as a very focused and dedicated person.

“Iris is very determined, and puts a lot of effort into everything she does,” Robinson said. “She’s always very helpful and kind whenever I need help with something art related.” 

While Robinson doesn’t dive with Burns-Trahanovsky, she hears all about it. 

“I follow her Instagram account that has all her diving videos, and I’m always super impressed with everything she does,” she said. “And I get really excited whenever MacJournalism posts about her, and I’m like that’s my friend!” 

Throughout her recruitment process, Burns-Trahanovsky shared with Robinson the schools that she was interested in and how it was coming along. 

“She would tell me about being invited to all of these different colleges, and how excited she was about Dartmouth,” Robinson said. “I was so interested in the complex process that comes with athletics and college recruitment because I’m not in any athletics.”

Burns-Trahanovsky isn’t set on diving after college, but is open to the prospect.

“I’m open to it, but I’m not sure it’s what I want to do,’ she said. “I want to go to medical school and become a doctor.”