'Be open to learning. Be open to being wrong and changing your mind'
Q: What is your education and background?
A: The majority of my 35-year professional career has been spent working in almost every capacity in the health and fitness industry in Ontario and B.C. My experience spans from being a group exercise instructor and personal trainer to managing a commercial fitness centre serving over 5,000 members. During that time my singular focus was engaging more people to participate in physical activity. This mission ultimately led to me completing a Master's of Applied Health Science in Behaviour Change at Brock University.
Q: What is your area of interest?
A: My primary area of interest is centred around physical activity participation. I am interested in facilitating the uptake and maintenance of physical activity behaviours for improved health, with a special focus on creating equity between the genders on access to physical activity and sport. Beyond that, all things pertaining to the promotion of greater physical and mental health is important to me.
Q: When did you know you had found your discipline?
A: Although I wasn鈥檛 active in sports growing up, I started teaching group exercise classes when I was in high school and soon realized that the group exercise class environment was the gateway to lifetime participation in physical activity that individuals who were not 鈥渟porty鈥 could access. It wasn鈥檛 until this experience that I realized that I too could be successful with exercise and this inspired me to help others feel successful too.
Q: Why did you choose to work at 大发快三平台?
A: 大发快三平台 has an excellent reputation as an educational institution and their Human Kinetics/Kinesiology Program is one of the best in the province. The centralization of the program on the Penticton campus fosters a cohesive connection between the students and faculty that enhances the program and its outcomes. it is also a dynamic program that is continually adapting to better serve the ever-evolving health and fitness industry.
Q: What do you like most about the work you do?
A: Hands down, the teaching. I love connecting with the students and stoking their passion to create the much-needed changes in sport, fitness and policy required to foster more physical activity participation and greater health in our society.
Q: Favourite teaching experience?
A: Although this isn鈥檛 a teaching experience per se, it is an experience that I have only because I teach. Hands down, my favourite day of the teaching year is graduation day. The Human Kinetics program is unique in that we teach multiple courses per semester to the same cohort of students. This allows us to really connect with our students as we watch them grow and evolve over the two to three years that they are with us. It is rewarding to watch the stress of the past few years be replaced with their pride in themselves and their families鈥 love and support for them. It truly does take a village and I feel blessed to be a part of theirs.
Q: Who gave you the best advice you ever received?
A: Many