Watershape University: Defining Aquatic Excellence at Every Turn
Watershape University (WU) is a leading provider of quality instruction -- live and online -- targeting the business of watershaping with design, engineering, and construction programs for students of all levels in the pool, spa, aquatics, and outdoor living sectors. WU supports and promotes the use of recreational and decorative water through accredited education and fosters a greater understanding of the benefits and value of aquatic activities and lifestyle.
Although founded in August 2019 by David J. Peterson and William T. Drakeley, WU is defined by decades of teaching and professional practice among staff, faculty, and volunteers engaged in its educational and credentialing programs. WU encourages personal development through membership in the elite International Watershape Institute (IWI), providing principled leadership, a supportive culture and altruism to benefit the industry and society.
Our multi-pronged approach includes third-party accredited education designed to provide a credentialed path for career advancement through WU; financial support from manufacturers/suppliers through corporate engagement; coaching and outreach through the IWI.
WU acquired WaterShapes.com (formerly WaterShapes Magazine) in Spring 2020 as a trusted, digital resource for the industry, professional community, and consumers of all things aquatic. WU has also established on ongoing strategic alliance with Wallace “J” Nichols, author of the best-selling book “Blue Mind.” With J, WU established the Live Blue Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to “getting people near, in, on and under water – for life.”
We believe that principled leadership, honesty and integrity, a supportive culture, and altruism will result in personal growth and professional gain for the entire industry and consuming public. We mean to see pools and other types of watershapes recognized as the gateway to the world of water, and WU considered the leading educational authority on how best to design, build, service and sell manmade bodies of water.
The work we do at WU has widespread benefits. Our constituents include: our credentialed students; their companies, employees and subcontractors; our faculty and coaches; corporations engaged as WU associates, colleagues and partners; the entire professional watershapes community; consumers, and all of humankind.
WU is founded on the premise that an educated “team” of professionals is the best setting for collective and individual success. To borrow an iconic phrase “of the people, by the people, for the people” – that is WU. We are an ever-growing, and evergreen TEAM of individuals and companies working together to ensure the long-term prosperity of the aquatics industry through an educated workforce and an educated world on the benefits of an aquatic lifestyle.
Principled universities long survive their founders. That is the expectation with WU – a living and breathing entity that will thrive long into the future, based on values and principles that have always and will forever endure.
WU is devoted to promulgating the highest possible standards for design, engineering and construction, including those maintained and promoted by ASA for proper and reliable mixing and placement of shotcrete.
To view the full profile in Shotcrete Magazine, click here.