Erica Yoon for The New York Times
Rainy-day practices are the worst, especially in the cold. As she leads her rowing team, Sebastiana Lopez feels the rain pelting her face, soaking her clothes and working its way into her bones. Her fingers go numb.
Yet Lopez, 17, a high school senior, calls this the best thing she has ever done for herself.
As an eighth grader, she had signed up for this test of toughness at Row New York, a nonprofit that teaches city students how to row and gives them academic support and college counseling.