by Erika Thornsberry | Jan 31, 2013 | News Slider, Sports
Most people make a New Year Resolution to lose weight. For the month of January, 26 Lipscomb students and faculty members have been a part of a group participating in Lipscomb’s version of the hit television show “The Biggest Loser.” The ‘Biggest Loser’ participants have gone to the Student Activity Center not only to lose weight and learn how to diet, but also to discover the real meaning of getting healthy. Matthew Abplanalp, the assistant director for the SAC, and Nicholas Mortensen, the head trainer/wellness grad assistant, talked about how this program works. “There are a total of three teams, one being a faculty/staff team, and the other two teams made up of students. We split the teams up based on who they requested to be with,” Abplanalp said. The schedule is very simple with Monday and Wednesday as the boot camp style, Tuesday as the challenge day, Thursday as group’s chapel day and Friday as the fun night. Mortenson is charge of the boot camp days, and Abplanalp is doing the fun Fridays. Mark McGee is the Media Relations Director for athletics and a teacher at Lipscomb. As a participant in “The Biggest Loser”, he jokingly said, “I’m still waiting on those so called “fun” days. It’s funny how I will be walking into my office, and people notice that I’m limping a little because I’m so sore.” He then continued to tell about some of the activities they participate in. “One of Tuesday challenge days was to run, jog, or walk starting from the SAC desk to Trader Joes (which is in Green Hills) and back.” Mortensen...
by Emily Snell | Dec 17, 2012 | Sports
For Emily Harris, director of campus recreation, physical activity and good nutrition aren’t just her job. They’re a vital part of her lifestyle. Harris, who has Type 1 diabetes, thyroiditis and a chronic kidney disease, said her health struggles contribute to her passion for helping college students achieve wellness. “My own personal battles with my own health makes me passionate for teaching people how to be healthy,” she said. “With the chronic diseases that I have — which most people don’t even know that I have — I understand how hard it is to balance your health. Some people it’s a choice; some people it’s not. And if you have the choice to prevent it, by all means, prevent that from happening.” Harris is a 2007 Lipscomb graduate, who competed four years on the university tennis team, before accepting a job opening here in fall 2008. When Harris began working at Lipscomb, there was only an intramurals program. Harris said during her interview for the position, she presented a comprehensive approach to campus recreation. “I basically presented a whole model for Lipscomb that would be a comprehensive program that would meet more students’ needs than just sport,” she explained. “There would be this whole component of being active in body, mind and spirit. We still encompass that whole approach of spiritual, physical, mental, emotional training.” In addition to her campus recreation duties, Harris runs the Lipscomb University Racquet Club with her husband Andrew, who coaches the university men’s and women’s tennis teams.Harris said the two first met while both were competing on Lipscomb’s tennis team during the undergraduate education...
by Crystal Davis | Oct 10, 2012 | News Slider
The Student Activities Center has been revving up the activity schedule for this fall with a Personal Training Crash Course. The SAC is offering free training sessions to 12 students this month. Personal training sessions for students are usually $20 per session, but Emily Harris, director of campus recreation said Lipscomb wanted to offer a special financial deal for students. “Any place you go in Nashville, it’s $50 to $80 dollars an hour. I mean it’s a steal,” Harris said about what Lipscomb is offering. “Even though $20 is a good deal, it’s still $20, and that’s hard for a college student to come up with.” “We wanted them to have that benefit of reaching their personal goals and experiencing personal training while in college,” Harris said, stressing the importance of students knowing how to take care of themselves now so they can maintain proper health as they age. “Thirty years down the road you might be like ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve gained 30 pounds. I need to lose weight! I don’t know what to do!’ Since you’ve experienced personal training in college, you won’t be freaked out to hire a personal trainer.” “You’ll remember, ‘Oh I’ve experienced that in college. It’s not what I thought it would be,’” Harris said. “It’s not like ‘The Biggest Loser’ on TV where they’re screaming at you and yelling. It’s like literally a life coach to help you reach the goals that you have.” Training sessions for participating students consist of two 30-minute workouts per week for four weeks. The certified trainers pair students with a workout partner, or if students have...
by Cory Woodroof | Aug 21, 2012 | Opinion
Lipscomb has more than 400 faculty members, each with an area of expertise and life experiences that shape what they bring to the classroom. While we at Lumination believe that Lipscomb’s entire faculty provides something special for our campus and its students, we’ve created a list of a few people who we believe would be especially beneficial for students to know during their time at the college. Tenielle Buchanan Mrs. Buchanan is the associate dean of students for intercultural development and the staff adviser for Kappa Iota Theta, the multicultural student organization on campus. She also serves as adjunct professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism and the LU seminar series. tenielle.buchanan@lipscomb.edu Campus Ministry team Jason Parker, Keela Evans, Caroline Morris and Jake Burton are all a part of the Campus Ministry team, who help coordinate chapel and serve as spiritual mentors for students. If you ever have any chapel credit issues, they are the ones to contact. Jake Burton also heads ‘The Joshua Project’ – a mentoring program on campus. jake.burton@lipscomb.edu keela.evans@lipscomb.edu jason.parker@lipscomb.edu caroline.morris@lipscomb.edu Emily Harris Mrs. Harris is the director of campus recreation. At the Student Activity Center, students can get a workout in, play a game of basketball and even take a class with a trained expert. Mrs. Harris is the person to contact for any information about fitness and wellness on campus. To find out more about Mrs. Harris, read our feature story from this summer. emily.harris@lipscomb.edu Teresa Williams Mrs. Williams is the director of student advocacy here on campus. Her job is to serve as a mediator...
by Hunter Patterson | Sep 30, 2011 | News Slider
With health week being this last week, Lipscomb students and the Campus Rec staff are getting fitter than ever. That is not all that the men and women in the SAC have planned for this semester, though. “Campus Rec has three different entities; wellness, intramurals and outdoor adventure,” said Director of Campus Recreation, Emily Harris. “Those three programs have been branded going into the year and we have a grad assistant that is an expert in the field.” Harris said that they already have several trips planned for this semester, including white water rafting and horseback riding in October. While those will cost students a bit of cash, the other trips such as hiking or camping will be free. One of the graduate assistants is also organizing a running club. Right now, Dominique Jacoy is training students three mornings a week in preparation for a 5K this fall. Right now, members of the club are readying themselves for a fundraiser to get uniforms for the run. Next spring, Jacoy’s goal is for the club to run a half-marathon. With the improvements in the SAC, Campus Rec is seeing rapid growth in all their programs. “We now have weight room supervisors that are there from 3-8 on Monday thru Friday, Harris said. “They are there for safety and to help the students better their workout capacity or their fitness level. They’re also there to show students how to use the equipment.” One big change that Harris and her staff made was changing the cost of group fitness classes. They didn’t just change – now, classes like zumba, hip-hop and spinning...
