FAU Davie staff member to teach class at national campus rec conference

Christina Ustiak will teach “Piloxing’s Knockout.”

Celina DeCastro, Contributing Writer
February 14, 2017

Exercise? Getting active in the community? After the Super Bowl? Yuck. The National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association, NIRSA, doesn’t think so.

The nonprofit membership association provides resources and education for advancing campus recreation, sport and wellness by providing educational development opportunities.

Christina Ustiak, the coordinator of Campus Life at the Florida Atlantic Davie campus, will be teaching a class at the 68th annual NIRSA conference and Campus Rec and Wellness Expo on Feb. 23 in National Harbor, Maryland.

Ustiak will also be joined by other professional staff members from FAU’s Boca campus recreation at the conference.

According to the NIRSA annual conference webpage, nearly 3,000 members across the globe will come together to learn, discover and share ideas and perspectives to bring forth a healthy community within colleges and universities.

“I was a program assistant doing my internship at the FIU recreation center and they recommended me to go [to the conference],” said Ustiak.  

Ustiak will be teaching “Piloxing’s Knockout” at the conference on Feb. 23 from 6:30-7:15 a.m.

“Piloxing Knockout is a Pilates, boxing plyometric class … You test your athleticism, you have your boxing high intensity round, then they bring it back down with a Pilates-based plyometric round,” said Ustiak.

Ustiak also teaches Zumba and Ultimate Abs at FAU in Davie, as well as other fitness classes outside of FAU.

She said Zumba and other physical fitness classes have turned her life around since she first attended a Zumba class.

“If somebody asked me in 2012 if I were to be a fitness instructor, I would have told them no, she said. “I’ve lost about, give or take a hundred pounds.”

Ustiak has 13 certifications of physical fitness classes and is currently becoming certified in two more courses.  

“[Fitness] hasn’t always been a passion but once I got more involved with it, it became a passion,” said Ustiak.

Classes are free for students interested in participating in the Zumba, Ultimate Abs and other group fitness classes located at the Davie campus. See below for times and locations.

Photo courtesy of the Davie department of Campus Recreation.

Celina DeCastro is a contributing writer with the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet her @DeCa_Celina.