Teaching with Empathy

Do you remember life before skydiving? Do you remember the ideals and values you held close and never wavered from? If you’re like Nicole Richards, AKA Giggles, you not only remember, but practice those ideals and values with you in the sport of skydiving. Not sure who she is? Just look for the ball of joy and giggles bringing light to everyone around her as she bounces down the hall, through the hanger and into the airplane with a student by her side.

If a person were to peek at Nicole’s resume prior to skydiving, they might think she was on track to teach in a college or professional setting on sensitive topics many of us run away from. Luckily for the sport of skydiving, we’ve been blessed with not only her presence, but her experience, knowledge, tenacity and strength. Those sensitive topics in which she’s a subject matter expert in are Psychology, Communications, Human Sexuality, Gender Communications, Intercultural Communications, and Public speaking. They are just some of the areas she’s deeply studied and taught in her pre-skydiving life. As Nicole has planted roots in skydiving, her ideals, values and passion for such has also been strengthened and spread not just locally, but at high level USPA (our national organization) Board of Directors meetings.

Nicole grew up in the Detroit area, calling Ypsilanti her home town. Her collegiate career consisted of an Associates of Arts from Washtenaw Community College, a Bachelors in Human Sexuality in Psychology at Eastern Michigan University, and a Masters in Communication at Eastern Michigan University. During her studies and for 6 years after, she taught Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, Intercultural Communications, and Gender Communications.

“Tricked” into her first skydive in 2012, Nicole was invited to her first tandem at Skydive Tecumseh where she arrived thinking she would only spectate. ”I thought I was just coming to hang out,” she thought. However, “I had no idea I was coming to do a skydive! I had always wanted to, it had been on my bucket list, and I skipped my way to the plane!” Once she landed, the videographer walks up and asks, “Nicole, what did you think!?” She replied, “That was fu**ing awesome!”

She continued, “I just couldn’t stop thinking about it! For me it was the most calm, peaceful thing I felt to just fall through the sky. – i was very meditative.” Nicole was already practicing yoga, meditation, and other spiritual practices to be at peace, so when asked how this compared she explained, “I was instantly there, in this calm focused mindset. [Skydiving] was unlike anything I had ever experienced at that point and I instantly inspired to become an athlete.”

Since Nicole had been practicing mindfulness through yoga, meditation, and various other practices, she was well prepared for that skydive. She also saw first hand the importance of such practices and how they could be applied to the sport. When asked how she sees yoga playing into skydiving she explained, “The first part is body awareness, so much of skydiving is body awareness. Everything we do is symmetrical and translates directly to skydiving.” Yoga and meditation taught her the benefits of deep breathing and mindfulness.

In 2016, Nicole had saved up enough to put herself through AFF. She was motivated and saved enough money that she was able to purchase her own equipment before she even graduated! Three years after graduating, with enough jumps and experience, she earned her instructional rating and began utilizing her 14 years of academeics and prior teaching experience to help others earn their A license. Because she loves spending time with individuals new to the sport, she also took the next step and earned her Tandem instructor rating!

We asked her, what’s the secret to helping students get through their toughest jumps? She replied, “Mindfulness and visualization is a huge factor of skydiving. There are different areas with different students that I try to instill mindfulness – weather it’s taking calming breaths before we get out of the airplane, or being mindful myself in critiquing areas in which a student needs improvement.”

Nicole also uses positive reinforcement for everyone, especially for those struggling to believe in themselves, to “instill that belief in themselves, we’ve given you all the tools to succeed, now all you have to do is believe in yourself.”

Q&A with Nicole Richards

Q: Are there any memories from the year that you reflect on?
A: There’s been a couple of times in the AFP room this summer, – specifically a picture Josh Rueck took – of a student who rode the plane up and decided not to jump. So we rode the plane down. She wanted to jump, but she just got to the door in the different environment from being in the plane and having to look down really scared her.

So she was in here and wouldn’t take her gear off, she was like ‘I’m going to do this, if I take the gear off, I won’t do it.’ I was eating my salad, came in and sat next to her and was like ‘hey girl, what’s going on?’ Super casual, she told me what was going on and I gave her my shpeel, ‘you’re given all the tools to succeed.’ I had her talk me through it; what does this [pointing to a part of the equipment] do, what does this [pointing to a picture] do? She answered everything correctly. Then we started talking about the fear, and circled back to how building the confidence minimizes the fear. That was one of my most proud moments of that season.

Q: What have you noticed in the AFP student room?
A: I think I’ve definitely influenced the room. Mostly language and how we approach people on an individual basis, meeting needs based on them. At one point, it was me, three female students and Instructor Dan. He got to see what it was like to be the ‘other’ in the room, and was like ‘cool, this is actually really cool!’ Even without gender, some are more scared or timid or afraid to ask questions. The sport does bring a lot of the ‘send it, let’s go attitude.

Q: Where did your ability to have and show empathy for others come from?
A: I can remember at a very young age feeling very strongly for other people, like the emotions that others were feeling, feeling those as a kid. So as I got older, I think that’s something that drew me to psychology and wanting to be a therapist or counselor at one point. I’ve always wanted to help, but I never envisioned teaching skydiving in that way. I realized that after getting my coach rating, starting to learn that I could help, I could empathize with students to help them progress, be calm, and happier. I think why I have the nickname I do is that I’m always trying to spread happiness. I just want people to be happy and enjoy life. I think that’s something unique I get to do in skydiving now. Bringing in empathy in an empowering way.

Q: It’s a difficult sport to navigate solo, so who have you looked up to along the way? 
A: Angie Aragon for sure, I would not have gotten to this point if it wasn’t for one conversation I had with Angie in 2018. Skydive Chicago’s GM, Anthony Ebel is another positive influence. Just seeing how he runs everything, safety is such a high standard, and how he communicates with everyone. I hadn’t seen that level of calm, confident communication actually leading. He’s someone who is really leading the way for the team and safety.

Q: What about your future and the work life balance you’ve found?
A: It’s hard, especially when it’s mid summer season and we’re working long days. Continuing with yoga teacher training is a huge personal goal for myself. I think it helps me as a person just to have a deeper understanding of those principles and different spiritual practices. I do believe its a piece I can continue to develop to be calmer, more mindful, more focused, mentally stronger, because there are those voices that still creep in and say ‘you can’t do this, you’re not going to be good at this.’ Angie really helped me in the tandem course saying that, ‘those voices are always going to be there, but when you’re in the air, that’s you flying, your doing.’

Q: What do you enjoy in the off season?
A: I’m looking forward to traveling. I’m also hoping to do some focused canopy coaching and just see more of the world from the sky again. I’m looking forward to seeing something other than cornfields! The last two winters I’ve started to learn how to paraglide too. I have a mini wing, I’ve gone kiting and soaring on the dunes, which has been really cool to learn, scary because it’s just like being a student again. There are days I sit waiting for the perfect winds. I also love kayaking, really anything water related.

Nicole’s dedication to making the sport a more inclusive goes beyond Skydive Chicago. In the summer of 2022, Nicole studied all of the national organization – the United States Parachute Association – USPA manuals putting in 100’s of hours working on an initiative with USPA Nationals Director, Melissa Nelson. The initiative was initially called JEDI, which is Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion – but quickly shifted to address sexual assault and harassment. “The goal of the initiative is accountability, higher standards of professionalism, support for the membership, and a structure for the values statement.”

Nicole has encountered such behavior both first and second hand in and out of the sport. It’s one reason she’s been active in SIS events, and continues to offer support in our sport. “It really just comes down to being a good person and skydiving can be so inclusive, but because there isn’t accountability to these issues, I think it gives people the feeling that its accepted to be rude, say whatever you want, or have no filter without realizing you put people at a disadvantage when you say inappropriate comments. I think that’s something we do great here at Skydive Chicago because I can see it in the AFP room all the time: there’s more women, more people of color, ethnicities, genders, and sexual identities.”

Nicole’s heart is warmed when she sees her graduated skydiving students organizing their own jumps, giving each other gear checks prior to boarding an aircraft, and reminding others to get up at 10k for gear checks. She’s excited by the fact that she’s able to teach the next generation of skydivers. “Realizing that we’ve introduced them to the sport, that I had the privilege to have taught them things that they’ll go on to teach other people and getting that foundation at Skydive Chicago.”

Nicole has learned an incredible amount of the sport, earned many ratings, and immersed herself in the culture. We are so thankful to not only have people like Nicole in our sport advocating for everyone, but to have her be a part of Skydive Chicago, helping us lead the way by setting the example. 

“I hope that just by being here myself as a small queer women, that I hope just by showing up and being that person that other people can see and think, I can do this too.”

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