About half the students that complete the Johnson's class go on to teach yoga themselves within a year. Some students, like senior Natalie Wessel, an international affairs and pre-medicine major, lead their own yoga classes at the Health and Wellness Center.
Wessel began studying yoga in high school, but didn't take her first class in the practice until her freshman year at GW. Wessel took the instructor course in the spring 2004 semester and was a yoga instructor at the Health and Wellness Center by the following fall.
"(Yoga) has been really life-changing for me. It's been my part-time job and I'm probably going to continue doing it after I graduate. I'm even thinking about teaching full time," Wessel said. "It is something I love doing and I get to get paid for something I love to do."
The students who take Johnson's course cover a wide variety of majors and ages. Daniel McNeely, a third-year GW law student, practiced yoga for about four years before taking the Yoga Instructor Course this semester.
"I wanted to deepen my practice of yoga in case this law degree doesn't work out," he said jokingly. McNeely said he got into yoga as an undergraduate at Butler University in Indiana, and found it a natural form of exercise for him. "I've always been flexible. (Yoga is) relaxing and toning. It's a different type of fitness."
Wessel began studying yoga in high school, but didn't take her first class in the practice until her freshman year at GW. Wessel took the instructor course in the spring 2004 semester and was a yoga instructor at the Health and Wellness Center by the following fall.
"(Yoga) has been really life-changing for me. It's been my part-time job and I'm probably going to continue doing it after I graduate. I'm even thinking about teaching full time," Wessel said. "It is something I love doing and I get to get paid for something I love to do."
The students who take Johnson's course cover a wide variety of majors and ages. Daniel McNeely, a third-year GW law student, practiced yoga for about four years before taking the Yoga Instructor Course this semester.
"I wanted to deepen my practice of yoga in case this law degree doesn't work out," he said jokingly. McNeely said he got into yoga as an undergraduate at Butler University in Indiana, and found it a natural form of exercise for him. "I've always been flexible. (Yoga is) relaxing and toning. It's a different type of fitness."
