Students in SCC’s Yoga Teacher Training Program Develop Strength, Flexibility – and New Career Paths
Scottsdale, AZ (September 2, 2009) – Walking into one of SCC’s yoga classes is like walking into another world -- where pressures, responsibilities, and deadlines are a figment of one’s imagination. Shoes - and the day’s stresses - are quietly left at the door.
Yet anyone who practices asana--the physical practice of yoga, will agree that yoga is hard work. It is physically demanding, requires concentration, and often pushes practitioners to the limits of their flexibility.
So how can a practice that embodies such physicality, precision and mental concentration make a classroom of yoga students so… chill?
“Asana makes you strong and opens up channels of communication so that we’re more alive inside,” said Carlyn Sikes, SCC’s Yoga Program Director. “The Iyengar style uses the physical practice as a way to go inward, it keeps the mind focused. We’re absorbed and we get in touch with our inner self.”
In an economy where many downsized workers are seeing their job search as an opportunity to switch careers, SCC’s Yoga Teacher Training program is going strong. For the students who have taken yoga classes with Sikes and her colleagues, deciding to trade in the high stress job for a profession that provides more long-term vitality and well being has been, for many, an easy choice to make.
Christie Petersen decided two years ago to make the switch to yoga.
“Before I started in the Yoga program at SCC, I worked in the real estate industry in property management and land development,” she said. “Although it was a good living, I was never completely happy and I experienced a lot of stress and anxiety over things I really had no control over. I had taken a yoga class years ago at SCC and remembered how good it made me feel. I then found the teacher training program and knew immediately it was what I was meant to do.”
SCC’s Yoga program began in 2002 as an accredited, professional program of study, preparing students for careers as yoga instructors. SCC’s yoga classes are closely monitored by certified, degreed instructors, and the program is registered with Yoga Alliance, a professional organization that maintains industry standards for yoga teacher training programs.
Students can choose from three certificate pathways in the program: the 200-hour Certificate of Completion (CCL), the 500-hour Certificate -- which requires public teaching and more coursework than the 200-hour option, and an Occupational Certificate in Yoga Instruction.
Graduates can present their Certificate to the Yoga Alliance and receive their official credentials as a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT)—a valuable asset for new grads when beginning their career as an instructor.
“I had no idea when I started the program that I would learn so much,” said Petersen. “I was not familiar with the philosophy behind a true yoga practice, and I realize now that I will forever be a student.”
SCC’s curriculum includes asana classes each semester, as well as courses that help students deepen their practice on multiple levels.
Yoga philosophy, therapeutics, human anatomy/physiology, and the art of teaching yoga allow students to explore the history and traditions of Yoga beyond its physical practice, as well as postural alignment principles, movement sequencing, observation techniques, use of voice, meditation techniques and lesson planning.
Carlyn Sikes, the program's director, has been practicing Yoga for 17 years. She takes great pride in SCC’s program, which is based on the Iyengar tradition of Hatha yoga, founded by B.K.S. Iyengar of India, one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world who, at the age of 91, has been practicing yoga for over 75 years.
“Every class was different,” she said about her early experiences with Iyengar Yoga. “There is never a time that you’re not practicing – it’s ongoing learning.”
Sikes grew up in Colorado where she originally studied to be a dancer. Her mother, one of the first master’s-level professional dancers in the country at the time, had inspired Sikes and her sister to dance at an early age. At the age of six, they enrolled in ballet class.
“I was a lump in a leotard,” she recalls with a chuckle.
Very early on she studied dance under Barbara Driscoll. When her family moved to Colorado, she studied with Jane Borg. She admired that her mother was a dancer, and by her senior year in high school, Sikes was absorbed in the art.
In 1977, after watching Martha Graham on a television program, Sikes decided to study modern dance.
“I love to move” – loved the study and performance, but not the choreography,” she recalled.
As it turned out, it was the science behind the movement – the kinesiology – that she found most interesting about dance, and later yoga.
Following in her mother’s footsteps, she then decided to earn her MFA degree in dance. Out of graduate school, she taught dance and aerobics at Mesa Community College for several years. It was at MCC that she was encouraged to pursue her studies in the Iyengar system by Yoga instructor Sandy Deneiui.
“I really got into it,” she said. “There was something about yoga that helped me at that time. I had a great feeling when I came out of class. I found a freedom – the best teachers give you a hint of that.
Over the years Sikes has gained insight from many senior Iyengar teachers including her mentor Manouso Manos, the senior most Iyengar teacher in the country, as well as Craig Kurtz and Dean Lerner. She frequently participates in Yoga intensives and workshops, and shares what she learns with her students.
Debbie Buffington has been on the receiving end of Sikes’ ongoing learning and sharing.
A chef restaurant owner in Chicago for the past 20 years, Buffington recently retired and moved to Scottsdale. Armed with a degree in hotel restaurant management from the University of Illinois and another from the French Pastry School in Chicago, her reason for joining SCC’s yoga program was more about personal healing and spiritual insight.
“I joined the yoga program originally in order to de-stress and increase my flexibility after so many years of strenuous physical exertion in the restaurant business,” she said. “The Iyengar style of yoga asana teaches the imp ortance of alignment and awareness.”
Buffington, who has been in the SCC program for six months and plans to earn her 500-hour certificate by 2010, credits Sikes with taking a personal interest in each of her students and developing a far greater understanding of yoga as a physical discipline and a spiritual journey than she had ever experienced before.
“Even though I started yoga five years ago, practicing three to four days a week, it was clear within the first week at SCC that I knew nothing of yoga,” she said. “My previous teachers, for whatever reason, were unable to provide the direction and insight that Ms. Sikes has imparted in this short period of time.”
In addition to SCC’s asana classes, Buffington found Tanya Fischer’s Yoga Philosophy classes to be a great benefit in learning about the path of Yoga beyond the physical practice.
“I came for the exercise and I stayed for the enlightenment!” she said of Fischer's classes. “I was totally unaware of the spiritual depth involved in Yoga’s Eight Limb Path. I enrolled in all three philosophy classes last semester, and although I was overwhelmed with information, I was intoxicated with hope and purpose.”
To learn more about SCC’s Yoga Teacher Training Program, visit www.scottsdalecc.edu/yoga.
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Scottsdale Community College offers over 1,500 academic and non-credit classes each semester. Located on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the campus is known for its serene atmosphere and beautiful plant and wildlife. With nearly 12,000 students, Scottsdale Community College is proud to offer high-quality, affordable programs in small class settings. From Motion Picture/Television Production and Culinary Arts to Nursing and American Indian Studies, students have a wide variety of programs from which to earn credits for university transfer, launch their careers, train for new ones, or pursue a special interest. The SCC Business Institute offers customized programs to meet the needs of local business. Scottsdale Community College is one of the ten Maricopa Community Colleges.
To learn about the many academic programs at Scottsdale Community College, call us at (480) 423-6000 or visit our website at www.scottsdalecc.edu.
Media contact:
Denise Kronsteiner
(480) 423-6567
denise.kronsteiner@sccmail.maricopa.edu
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