Jonah spend the first years of his life in New York playing soccer and lacrosse. He also loved to snowboard in his leisure time. Next was baseball and football but in high school he turned to rowing which was by far the hardest sport he had done. The family moved to San Diego in Jonah graduated from Torrey Pines High School and moved on to UC Berkeley. He chose not to row on the college team but enjoyed running in the hills around Berkeley and riding his bike in the canyons in San Diego. After his first semester at Cal he returned home for the holidays. On December 20, 2017 while working out with former teammates at the San Diego Rowing Club he dove off a seawall, hit his head on the bottom and broke his neck at the C4-6 level resulting in quadriplegia. He spent eight months in rehabilitation at Craig Hospital where he met SWM scholarship recipients Austin Brotman and Andrew Ouellette. He returned home to San Diego where he took a few courses at Mira Costa CC before returning to Cal to complete his degree.

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