Kean’s new minor: Yoga!
By Emily Robles | Published by November 6, 2019
Education, Psychology, and Communications are just some of the academic programs Kean University is known for. There are even various other minors students can take on such as African Studies, Environmental Justice and Women and Gender studies. The list of minors students can take an interest in is expanding and starting in the new spring semester. Students now have the opportunity to minor in yoga.
Along with creating the yoga certification program, Professor Tara Lynn Bogota from the school of Health and Human Performance within the College of Education also initiated the start of the yoga minor.
“Yoga changed my life. I want students to understand that yoga is a lifestyle. It’s not an exercise where you twist your body into a pretzel,” says Bogota. “It teaches us how to live in harmony with our surroundings and to work with one another not against.”
Professor Bogota has been teaching at Kean for two years but has been teaching yoga for 15 years.
The yoga minor is an 18 credit program and just as in the certification program, students can earn their Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) title. The classes students will have to take for the minor include: EXSC 2023 Yoga II, EXSC 3023 Foundations of Yoga, EXSC 3024 Yoga Teacher Training and Methodology and EXSC 3025 Yoga Teacher Practicum. Students will also have the option of choosing certain electives such as: Holistic Health, Wellness, Eastern Religions, Positive Psychology, Human Anatomy, and Physiology and Kinesiology.
“Students should minor in yoga if they are curious about themselves and their place in the world,” says Bogota. “They should minor if they want to develop or deepen their own practice and if they want to share the vast benefits with others.”
When asked what can students do with a yoga minor after they graduate, Professor Bogota gave a plethora of options.
“Yoga instructors have a wide range of job options both part-time and full-time. In addition to entrepreneurial opportunities, certified yoga instructors are employed in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, health and fitness clubs, yoga and Pilates studios, country clubs, resorts, universities, public and private schools, hotels, therapeutic recreation settings, and private homes.”
The yoga minor can help many majors as well. Some majors that Professor Bogota thinks could benefit from this minor include Athletic Training, Physical Therapy, Therapeutic Recreation, Exercise Science, Nursing and even Business.
“Yoga is everywhere,” says Bogota. “My mission since I started here at Kean has been to share yoga with as many people possible. I am a firm believer in the power of the community. It’s exciting to see where it will take us!”
Professor Bogota also runs free weekly community yoga classes. They take place on Fridays in the Library common, room 116 from 12:00-12:45 pm and encourage students to participate.