It takes a strong foundation to build a village. Judy Shenk (Sargent\u201965), creator of Gymnastics Village, a fitness and training center in Amherst, New Hampshire, traces her solid foundation in physical education to her female professors at BU.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had some extraordinary women teaching me,\u201d says Judy. \u201cI feel strongly that I got the most fabulous education you can have at BU. In my career, I\u2019ve taught infants to senior citizens, and my education at Sargent gave me a solid grounding in the mechanics of the human body and how the body moves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judy\u2019s connection to Sargent spans generations: she\u2019s the daughter of Ruth M. Kitzmiller (Sargent\u201930) and the mother of Gretchen Shenk Weiser (Sargent\u201991), a physical therapist specializing in early intervention in Georgetown, Indiana.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother always talked about Dr. Sargent and his philosophy of health and wellness,\u201d says Judy. \u201cI think his belief in a healthy mind and healthy body was the foundation of a Sargent education\u2014and is to the present day. Mom lived the life she preached. When she died , just shy of 105, she was still swimming once a week.\u201d<\/p>\n
That concentration on mind and body shaped her curriculum at Sargent, she says. Courses in anatomy, human physiology, and kinesiology\u2014and even time spent in the cadaver lab\u2014complemented extracurricular activities in the gym and on the field.<\/p>\n
Still, despite the rigorous classes and phys-ed focus, , Shenk recalls a time when \u201cwomen weren\u2019t allowed to do a lot of things athletically and professionally. We couldn\u2019t compete in intercollegiate sports, and some of the sports, like basketball, were modified into a watered-down version for females. This was way before Title IX. It was a different world.\u201d<\/p>\n
That world was about to change\u2014particularly in the field of gymnastics.<\/p>\n
After graduating from BU, Judy spent several years living in Maryland with her husband, Chris Shenk, and teaching at the YMCA in Howard County, where she instructed people of various ages in various sports.<\/p>\n
After Chris took a job in Boston in the early 1970s, the family moved to Amherst, New Hampshire. There she opened a movement and gymnastics program for young children, renting out a preschool in the afternoons when it wasn\u2019t in session. The program evolved slowly but steadily.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen a wonderful thing happened: the Montreal Summer Olympics in 1976,\u201d says Judy. \u201cAfter people fell in love with Nadia Com\u0103neci, the sport exploded. Before the Olympics, I had 80 kids in my gymnastics program. After, I had 350. We had to look for bigger and bigger spaces.\u201d Today, Village Gymnastics is still going strong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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