Episode 5 - Fitness and Wellness Center

[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to Kendall Speaks podcast. I am Dr. Brian Stewart, Miami Dade College Kendall campus President. Today Kendall speaks with Magdalena Cookie Roselle, manager of Shark Fit Recreation, and Javier Regera, senior fitness specialist. Thank you both for being here today. How are you guys doing today? [00:00:31] Speaker B: Wonderful, thank you. [00:00:32] Speaker C: Feeling good, thanks. [00:00:34] Speaker A: So let's start by maybe both of you, tell me a little bit about each of yourselves and how you got here today. And Cookie, we'll start with you, if you don't mind. [00:00:41] Speaker B: Sure, sure. My journey first started actually on on the Kendall campus at Miami Dade College as a student. I was a student here in 1984. I'm going to show a little bit of my age now and I graduated as a student with my AA in 87. I went on to Florida International University to achieve my bachelor's in Physical education, Health and wellness. As a future teacher, I did some teaching in the school system and then I had the wonderful opportunity to apply for a position as wellness coordinator in 1991. Came as a wellness coordinator, operating the wellness center, facilitating the faculty of the wellness center. And then I went back to school for my master's in exercise physiology kinesiology at Florida International University. And then from there I had one wonderful journeys and opportunities, working closely with my students, employees and my administration and developing what is now today the Shark Fit Recreation Department. I oversee all areas of the Shark Fit Recreation Department, including the Wellness Fitness Center. I oversee the, the functions and the programming of the aquatic center and our new and amazing racket sports complex where a lot of wonderful things take place in each of these areas. [00:01:53] Speaker A: So yeah, that's very popular. I have to ask, where does the cookie come from? [00:01:58] Speaker B: Sure, that's always a common question. So the cookie comes from when I was, from what my parents told me When I was 4 or 5, my sister, my brother could not call me Magdalena and I was shortened to Cookie because I think from what my sister was telling me, you're always eating cookies. And so the teachers didn't like to call me Cookie so they shortened me as Maggie. But Cookie was always for my close friends and co workers and family. [00:02:26] Speaker A: Well, I think Cookie's a cool name, so that's awesome. All right, Javier, tell me your story and your journey. How did you get to Miami Dade College Kendall campus? [00:02:34] Speaker C: Well, graduated from Terra. I been a student for about two years. I'm currently a business administration major. I started in the fall of 2022 and not too short, long after that was when I got my job at the fitness center here at Miami Dade College Kendall Campus. And it's been pretty life changing in a way where it's affected my lifestyle in the most positive way I can imagine where it helped me pick up a new hobby and passion into fitness and gym interests I didn't know I'd have until recently. And also helps with the sports background. [00:03:08] Speaker A: What sports did you play in in high school? [00:03:11] Speaker C: In high school I played volleyball, but I was pretty much of an athletic kid growing up playing soccer, basketball and football. [00:03:19] Speaker A: I've been by the fitness center several times in the summer was one thing, but boy, it's busy as we get the fall. And I'm sure we'll get into some of those questions, but I know what you mean. It's a very vibrant place there. [00:03:29] Speaker C: Yeah, a lot of positive energy though. Really nice people. You get to learn a lot of new things. That's great. [00:03:35] Speaker A: Well, it's good to meet you and glad to have you here today. So Cookie, let's go back to your role. You talked a little bit about your job, but tell me, tell me what the role of a manager is in the Health and Wellness Center. [00:03:46] Speaker B: Well, the manager encompasses all roles, you know, leading, supervising, hiring, training college students. So there's a supervising role, the manager role in providing opportunities for students and employees and community members to get engaged in wellness and fitness on campus. We, we always consider, I tell my staff, we're the heartbeat of the campus. As you know, Dr. Stewart, when you walk into the facility, you have the heart pumping music happening. And you can't help to just say, hey, I gotta jump on a treadmill or I gotta be, I gotta take part of what's happening here on campus. We're over on the corner end, the northeast end of the campus and students walk into the facility and they're like, wow, this is so cool. You know, they have great music because we rotate the music every day. One day it's Latino day music, the other day it's a hip hop, Caribbean beats. Another day is old throwback rock and roll in the 80s, 90s, 2000, throwback freestyle. So good old rock and roll, that's. [00:04:49] Speaker A: Always a good day. [00:04:50] Speaker B: It's, you know, it's appealing because we, we take it back to what a college student wants to be engaged in in recreation on campus. So we offer different, various programs to get them engaged. So, you know, as a manager, I have to be in a role. And I remember when I was a student, some of these programs didn't exist. A lot of these programs I take pride that I developed with the help of my team and our and our administration and our faculty. So as a student I say, well, what does a student really want to look for when they come as a college experience for wellness and engagement and recreation, as Javier was saying. So I kind of sit back on a role as a manager, say, what can we do better? Right? Or what can we do different from other community fitness centers? You know, what kind of flavor can we add as our Shark Fit wreck? And so as a manager, I look and I engage my team. I always, I'm real big with. I'm not. I can't do my role without my team backing me up. So my team is critical and my team is my college students that work for the Shark Fit Recreation. So I asked them, what do you guys want to do? Well, let's do this program and let's do that program. And we take that also out to the racket sports complex where we engage also a large part of our community. And so as a manager, you know, I'm up front, but I tell my staff, you all are the front line of serving our students and our employees. So, you know, that's important, the supervising role. [00:06:17] Speaker A: That's awesome. I think what I love about your space is when you walk down, you see the college students, you see our athletes, you see the community when the pool's rocking and rolling and you're right, there's a lot of things going on in the area. So that's, that's great. Javier, tell me a little bit about what programs and classes we offer in the fitness and wellness center. [00:06:36] Speaker C: So we always have something happening every day of the week. For example, we have Zumba Monday and Wednesdays from 12, 15 to 1 and Tuesday and Thursdays from 5 to 6 as well as yogas on Friday from 5 to 6 as well. [00:06:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I understand. We just had a Zumba class for United Way that was really well attended and popular. [00:06:56] Speaker C: Yeah, Zumba Mania. [00:06:57] Speaker A: Yeah, Zumba Mania. Yeah, I've never done Zumba. Maybe one day I'll try to make my way over there. What type of memberships and access options are available for our students and community? [00:07:08] Speaker B: Fitness and wellness center memberships are very affordable. Membership for, for the student, it's $10 a month, 30 for the term and a wonderful $60. Great deal for the student for the year. And that includes all the, the programming that we offer that includes a full blown assessment, exercise, consultations, engaging in any program activity we have going on with our racket sports complex. The play of tennis or pickleball or racquetball is free for students and Employees, they email us and we verify their status as a current credit or employed employee. As for that, we also open up for the community and over in our racket sports complex, it's a very, you know, comparable to other courts around the community of Kendall. And that's $5 an hour max, two hours. And we also have a portal where it's very simple to sign up for the community and they jump on that, they make their reservation and they have their court reserved. Our aquatic center is also open for students and employees. They have the membership as well. And we also have a bundle membership between the fitness and the aquatic center. So the rates are very affordable for our students and our employees. And as that's a strong usage of our high schools and also our local partnerships with FIU and University of Miami because they also use the facility. So that's another facility that we take pride in and a lot of emphasis on that facility because that's part of our recruitment and retention in our partnership with our local universities and high schools. [00:08:40] Speaker A: I think it was yesterday I saw the FIU diving team there and very impressive. And then in the evenings I see the water polo and hear the whistles and all. And that's. I think that's a cool sound for a college campus. Javier, talk a little bit about our group fitness classes and then maybe also talk a little about the equipment in the fitness center. I know there's a lot of free weights and, you know, don't hit everything but just some of the highlights, if you don't mind. [00:09:02] Speaker C: Yeah, of course. We have a room upstairs, G208. That's where all the classes that I mentioned, yoga, Zumba, take place in the afternoon. And then whenever you see a lot of those people finishing those classes, they either come into the wellness center, pick up where they left off in a way, either it's on the treadmill of free weights, loaded plates, either way. And when the fitness center, it's almost pretty much as a commercial gym, which is why I love it too. It's not too overwhelming. Pack when and you can just be comfortable with the equipment you have. You can get everything done. Nothing gets left out. Every muscle group gets hit. There's a lot of. You also have a lot of band work you can do for physical therapy. If you're any athletes coming from injury, which I can relate to that a lot. [00:09:46] Speaker A: And a lot of machines. You have some machines in there, treadmills, that stuff too, right? [00:09:52] Speaker C: Machines, treadmills, squat racks, Smith machine bench, countless dumbbells, pull up bar dips Anything you need to hit, you can hit it at that gym. [00:10:02] Speaker B: Yeah, we also have, I want to add some, we have, in both facilities we have the peloton cycles. Oh, so the peloton cycles. As manager of all the facilities, I want to make sure that we accommodate and we purchase and we provide every piece of equipment that normally you would in the large commercial facilities. You know, we have a facility, it's a little over 3,000 square feet as far as the space, but we have every piece of equipment and more some because the pelotons, for example, you're not going to find those in any other commercial gyms. A lot of people have those at home. And so as part of our membership package we provide that and that engages a person who wants to do really good, intense or good effective cardio workout. You can tap into a class in New York City, Manhattan, because it's live streamed with the instructors that are conducting the classes. Or in la, or even here in Miami, there's a peloton studio and you could tap into those classes while attending the fitness center membership. So I, I tell the students, as you know, the cycle itself is a good amount of money and then the, the classes are subscriptions where you can get this all part of your, your package of your membership. So the students love that they, they engage on the cycles and you'll see them up on the bike and they're, they're hitting their, their tempo and and then like Javier said, they'll, they'll come back and hit a yoga class to kind of stretch out a little bit and then they'll jump in the pool and they'll continue doing, you know, good range of motion and stretching. And so it's, it's an amazing facilities. [00:11:28] Speaker A: That we have certainly a full body workout. So I appreciate you guys describing that. Cookie, talk a little bit about personal training. What kind of personal training services do we have and how do individuals get involved with that? [00:11:40] Speaker B: Okay, sure. We have what we call an exercise consulting program and we start with that with a full blown assessment. Assessment. So an assessment allows for us to engage on a one on one appointment with one of our exercise specialists and they sit down with them to say, okay, tell me your goals. Do you have any limitations? Do you have any medical concerns that we need to be aware of before we start advising your exercise program? After the exercise consultation assessment is completed and we run the individual through a full blown sit down blood pressure reading, seated heart rate, we will evaluate your cardiovascular training zone. And it's again, it's a voluntarily we tell, this is our services, this is what we offer. So you're like, you know, what do I train if I go on the treadmill, how fast do I walk? Do I have to jog to get my heart rate up? So those are the benefits of cardiovascular. We, we go around the guidelines of the American Heart association and the Surgeon General of Health that we say, you know, we really want to engage at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular for heart health and for other benefits of wellness that we obtain. So we basically are not just a gym or fitness center. We kind of tied into the wellness. So as every individual, when they come through our doors or they have a sit down assessment, it's an educational consultation where we say, well, there's a reason why we recommend 30 minutes of cardio. You know, if your blood pressure is a little bit high or your heart rate's high, we want it to come down. So we move into an, a short educational conversation with our users. We educate them, why are we doing this? And it's necessary to do this. So the exercise assessment consultation is a really important piece of our engagement of our users. Plus it helps us say, okay, are you ready really to start exercising? Or maybe do we need to step back and maybe, you know, talk to the physician first, maybe the individual. So we've, we've pinpointed and we've helped many students who say, I didn't know I had hypertension, I didn't know my heart rate was over 90 when I'm sitting down. And so these are flags for us. So we bring in, that's where the wellness comes in, where we say, well, it's important to get your eight hours of sleeping and it's important to have, you know, if you need further assistance, we refer to the area if we're finding there's further assistance necessary, but single stop. So we go beyond just the fitness center and I tell my staff, don't call us the gym because the gym is on the second floor. Fitness and wellness because we go beyond many times what other gyms do not tackle because of the care that we have for our students and our employees. [00:14:18] Speaker A: Thank you for that. I think the wellness part is a very good part to stress besides just the fitness area. [00:14:23] Speaker C: If, if I may also add to, with the consultations, it's another great thing that we have because the gym, as a lot of people on college campus, they're waiting for their classes and they have time to kill and they want to experience something new such as a gym experience, it can be pretty overwhelming. It's not easy walking in there and exactly knowing what to do when everyone feel like they're already in their rhythm. So those consultations also really help when you can speak one to one with a person, get in depth of a workout routine, things you want to hear, body goals, nutrition as well. Really important. [00:14:57] Speaker B: We also add, if I can add to that, besides the one on ones, we also do faculty classroom presentations. So, you know, if a faculty member reaches out to me or a staff member or many events as we run, you know, Cookie, can you run a presentation on how to start an exercise program or the benefits of exercising, starting a cardiovascular program, or the importance of flexibility? So we're able to design and we present that to the classroom as request. [00:15:24] Speaker A: You know, I've visited with a few faculty in the last few weeks and I've only been here since June. But a lot of our faculty are saying how they see more students staying on campus. And you know, I think post Covid a lot of people realize the social aspects and I think your facilities allow that, allow students to make those connections. And so it's really great that you're doing all that. Cookie mentioned. Javier, the Racket Sports Complex. Talk a little bit more about what kind of courts are available. I know from my own experience, I get a lot of calls about community groups that want to use it, but tell us a little bit more about the things that are available there, please. [00:15:57] Speaker C: Well, the Racket Sports Complex is open for any time of racket play that you would like. We have our tennis courts, we have our racket courts as well in the back. And the expansive new sport pickleball, which we now upgraded to having 14 courts, which is enough play for anyone to come in, have a free court and enjoy the time there. [00:16:17] Speaker A: Cookie, I've had a few calls on tournaments and various things in the racquetball and pickleball area. How can people become members? You mentioned that earlier, but talk specifically about pickleball because I know that's very hot place on our campus. [00:16:29] Speaker B: It is. It's a hot place in the campus, hot place in the community, hot place in the state, the nation. Absolutely. The pickleball courts were renovated just a couple years ago. I believe it was 2021. We renovated 21 courts. So we have nine tennis courts, 14 pickleball courts and eight racquetball courts. Pickleball has become hot, hot sports. As you indicated, Dr. Stewart. Basically the again, the students and the employees, they email us and we verify their their access and making sure that they're accredited. You know, they're currently taking classes, and then the community, they rent the courts by play by point earlier. And again, we get many requests for tournaments from the community. We've possibly hosted eight to ten tournaments thus far. Hot. I mean that, because that really brings the view and the look at the campus as really reaching out and not just engaging our students and employees in activity and one of the hottest sports, but also the community providing engagement and partnerships in the community, which is very important to the college. So tournaments. In fact, we have another one coming up now in November. We have a racket sports day coming up in November where we're engaging our students and employees how to play pickleball, bringing out a dj, maybe some food trucks. So that's a pickleball pickleball day. We usually do that the same with aquatics and fitness. We'll have like a fitness membership appreciation day. We'll bring in, you know, some of our community partners, you know, to provide some tabling on fitness. And we bring in a DJ and we, you know, we pop up some balloons and just really do a great job in the marketing, which I get a great support from our media services department on the marketing to really start engaging. And we've seen that pick up quite a bit, especially in the recent two years after Covid. That corner of our campus there on Building 7000 is hot. You know, it's super engaged with a lot of students and community members, and it's a big part of what we do here at the college. So the tournaments are a big aspect and. And just providing the full umbrella of wellness to the whole community. [00:18:33] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a great point. Building ours where most of our students first engage in the Kendall campus, but then having those courts and all next to it makes a good complex. You mentioned that we have pickleball, we have tennis, and we have racquetball courts. [00:18:47] Speaker B: The racquetball courts are still part of the pickleball courts in the back. And so you could still reserve those because, you know, once you reserve it, you're going to reserve that court. However, it's been pretty strongly taken over by pickleball, so. [00:18:59] Speaker A: Oh, I know where you're talking. Back on the end there, back in. [00:19:02] Speaker B: The back of the back court. So I also wanted to add that just recently we started a student pickleball club through the student life department. And I'm proud to be an advisor for the student pickleball club. So we're seeing more and more students. I think when we just recently, when I do my reporting with numbers of engagement we're seeing about 600 students this past month of September use the courts. And previous to that, it was another 600. So every month we're seeing over, you know, 6, 700 students. And that's higher usage than the community, and that's a big number. So we're seeing. And so it's become so popular that students have engaged in starting a pickleball club for students. And I saw them during club rush and I met. I got a chance to meet them all and they said, oh, yeah. And so I said, okay, we're there for you, and we're going to engage more activities and events. [00:19:54] Speaker A: Well, I'm going to make a prediction. I predict within the next couple of years, pickleball will be a collegiate sport. And I've actually had conversations, our athletic director about that. And so we want to be one of the first in the wave of that because of the great courts you guys have, they're perfect for intercollegiate activities. I know there's good for intramurals, but I think pickleball is moving so fast. It'll be like tennis and volleyball. It'll be a sport that colleges have, and I think we're ready to go for that. Javier, talk to me about rental equipment. Do we have rental equipment for our students in the community and maybe even lessons for people trying to learn a sport? [00:20:30] Speaker C: Yes, of course. Over there at the racket sports complex are all about being friendly, having easy access for everyone to have open play. We offer equipment as is extensive to each type of racket you need, and paddles for tennis, racquetball, pickleball. We offer each of the required balls for those sports as well, and all on a easy free loan. Just finding out a custody form, that's. [00:20:55] Speaker A: A great option for students there and. [00:20:57] Speaker C: For lessons, as far as that goes, we have our community education department that partakes in beginner classes ranging from adults to young kids that get experience and learn the sports of tennis. And to engage with the community on campus, with the students and the employees, we offer events monthly. We've had workshops, such as when we opened the new courts, we had workshops for all the employees on campus to be able to warm up to pickleball as a new thing on mdc, as well as the community regularly reserving courts and the tournaments that I've been getting very lively and a lot of attention that have been running very smoothly and very fun as well. [00:21:38] Speaker A: You know, Cookie, you mentioned events and tournaments. I just learned that coming up in the month of October, this is disability support month, and we're going to have a wheelchair pickleball. Any other community events like that you want to highlight or that are they're approaching soon. [00:21:55] Speaker B: That's October 30th. That's a part of Disability Month. That's a very important. That's. We're really excited about that event because it's the first time that we're going to have that the disability department is having the wheelchair pickleball play and that's going to be incredibly super unique. Other events that we have currently right now have a big women's tennis league that uses our courts on a regular basis every morning and they also provide a pickleball course also for women's. It's a large women's league and they're very competitive in the play in South Florida. And so they do utilize our courts every morning and also on the weekends. We also have schools that utilize our courts. Other events coming up, we have Special Olympics that also are engaging in doing a pickleball tournament as well. We have also large clubs that are also using our courts for tournaments and practice Monday through Friday. So every day or every other day or a couple of times a week, I'll be getting requests from our events and rentals and we work closely with that team and providing the usage of our facility. [00:23:01] Speaker A: That's wonderful. Let's move over to the Aquatic center now and talk a little bit about that. [00:23:05] Speaker C: Oh really? Before we do move on to mention that we didn't bring up earlier when we're talking about the fitness center, we are having a special program with a fitness competition called the Strongest Shark which is coming in these coming weeks from October 15th to the 18th. We have open registration until the day of an hour before and it compromises of doing 1 RM rep maxes for the bench press and the deadlift. And it's a competition that we're going to try and make as huge loud fun as possible to engage everyone on campus for everyone to see and be a part of. Ranging from all weights. We have our lightweight classes, middle welter and heavy for men and for women's we have the light and heavyweight. [00:23:51] Speaker A: Do you have a faculty staff? One, Because I might enter the faculty. [00:23:55] Speaker C: There is no restriction on who can join. [00:23:57] Speaker A: I don't think I can compete with students anymore. Maybe I'll show up. [00:24:00] Speaker C: Give it a shot. [00:24:00] Speaker A: All right, the Aquatic Center. Now, Cookie, a little bit about it. I have to say my first time here six years ago, I showed up on the Kendall campus for HR training and walked by the pool and was just amazed. You Know the pretty water. And I'll never forget on the diving boards that day were the Royal Caribbean divers. And I just stood there in awe. My tongue fell out just watching. You know, here we have this cruises that I've been on my whole life and here they were training in our facility. So talk a little bit about aquatics and the programs available. Any swimming lessons? I'm, I've seen the places so busy in the evenings. But give us a little more specifics about the aquatic center. [00:24:41] Speaker B: Absolutely. Our students and employees have usage of the facility and we do have, as you were saying, Dr. Stewart, we do have FIU dive team utilizing our dive boards and our dive. Well, Royal Caribbean has been through. We just finished hosting a photo shoot of a commercial this past week. It was in the early mornings and the camera crew, they were super, super belated to use our facility. I met him myself and they're like, you know, we've been out here a couple years ago, some 15 years ago. We always come back to use your facility for the photo and the commercials because this is one of the most beautiful aquatic facilities in all of Dade county, if not all of lower Florida. It is the largest facility. Our aquatic facility has two pools. One is the large pool, Olympic size. It holds 500,000 tons of water. And then we have our second pool, which is known as the dive. Well, we just finished replacing brand new dive boards and right now we always are currently maintaining status of the chemicals and monitoring the levels there. So the water is pristine and clear and blue and beautiful. And in the hot summer months or fall months, as we're seeing, that's a great place to cool down on campus. [00:25:55] Speaker A: That's great. What about with the community and families? Are there any programs designed for them, maybe even in children and seniors? [00:26:03] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. Our community education department runs swim classes for kids, swim classes for adults and seniors. They also offer a competitive swim academy where they utilize the facility as well so that they do all the programming there. And we've done, you know, a lot of partnerships with that department as well. [00:26:26] Speaker A: Are there other local organizations or public schools that use our aquatic facilities? And how do they use. [00:26:32] Speaker B: Ooh, this past month, just in the month of September, we had over 10 organizations and schools, universities utilizing our facility from Terra to Palmetto Columbus, and they utilize the facility not just for their practices but for swim meets. This past week we had a large swim meet. So on our pool facility, you know, we're seeing over 100, 200 individuals from the community. And, and we, we look at those as our future Sharks utilizing our facilities. So, you know, it's. It's a memorable experience that we offer for folks in the community from different levels where they come back and they say, you know, I swam there in high school and you know, I want to. I want to go back because I want to continue swimming. But, you know, Miami Dade College offers such an amazing academic experience. We know that. The same thing was our summer camps, which we also host the summer camps in our pool as well. [00:27:22] Speaker A: The little kids, I love hearing them in there this summer talk about safety protocols and any other unique services that we might offer in the aquatic center. [00:27:31] Speaker B: Absolutely. We are certified by the department of state of Florida Health department. So every year we obtain the certification. We also require all of our lifeguards and our pool manager to be lifeguard certified by the American Red Cross. So they hold current certifications with AED CPR lifeguard certification, lead lifeguard certification. As you know, as for the pool to be pristine and beautiful, behind the scenes, there's a very large and very comprehensive pump room. So our lead lifeguard, with our pool manager together as a team, they have to make sure that all the computers all align, providing the chemicals, proper levels of chemicals and mixtures of chemicals to make sure that it provides for a safe swim with the pool chemistry. And that is important role that the lead lifeguard with some of the lifeguards trainings. We do weekly trainings for our lifeguards. We bring in our partner, which is the certifying agency of the pump room and the chemicals. So we have monthly trainings. We just finished doing a training this past month with that to make sure all of our staff are on board, making sure that the chemicals are leveled off properly, making sure the water is safe, as well as with the leadership with our pool manager. [00:28:44] Speaker A: That's very good. You talk. We started the conversation with both of you two talking about the fitness center and wellness and that kind of thing. How do these facilities contribute to the overall wellness and mental health of our students? [00:28:55] Speaker B: Do you guys believe it contributes a great amount of. As Javier was saying, it's not just the experience on campus of positivity and engaging. And we saw that you mentioned earlier, Dr. Stewart, coming out of COVID coming out of COVID to where we are now, the student gets a chance to really engage and meet other students. And we get that feedback often from students. You know, this is such a cool place to meet people. And not just meet people, but just, you know, conversate next to a treadmill, you know, what class are you taking? Oh, what teacher do you have or who do you recommend? So it's, it's a really neat place because they get a chance to get benefit at the same time for their well being and their health, but at the same time making new friends and engagement. So that's, that's really, really important in any college experience, even a place of employment. Especially now with, you know, the challenges that we have in life and, and how to de. Stress and how to manage. And when we do the presentations, we do the tours, we do high school tours, we, we bring them through the facilities, all the facilities and we get a chance to talk to our, our future incoming students from high school. We said, guys, this is, this is where you want to, you're gonna have stress, you're gonna have, you know, tasks, you. But you gotta balance it and how you balance in any college universities, you have to be engaged, you have to find. I always tell them when I also teach a wellness course, you have to have time for yourself. You gotta have at least 20, 30 minutes. Take a little time out, you know, go jump onto our hammocks on campus, do a little meditating, come to our yoga because she teaches how to meditate. Even if you don't have 30, 60 minutes, take time, 10, 15 minutes, take a little break, take a little zen me time. [00:30:39] Speaker A: It's great advice. That's wonderful advice, Javier. How can people get interested in these services and get more information and even sign up for the programs? [00:30:47] Speaker C: Well, it's pretty easy. A lot of the feedback that I've heard from the people in the gym is it's always from a friend, word of mouth that the gym is a place to be. It's super fun, it's engaging, it's very easy to get a workout in as well as we have a lot of our employees in the gym we go through, one of our duties is promoting where we go out all around campus. Just marketing the gym as well as our sports complex and the aquatic center as well. Making sure everyone knows that we're there. Because it's in a location not a lot of people are aware of being under the gym, but still just as easy access. As long as you just turn the right corner, you're able to find a really good place on campus to be at as well. And you'd be able to find all of the information mdc Edu at their website. We have pages for our racket center sports complex as well for aquatics and the fitness and wellness center. You can find all the information there. Even with the classes we have For Zumba and yoga and a lot of detailed workouts, nutrition, diets, information that you would love to just take a quick scroll through, you'll be able to find anything you do there relating to stretches, warm ups, even whole exercises you can do at home if you don't really have time to stay at the gym right now. All easy access, all the information. [00:32:04] Speaker B: During the COVID period we were obviously quarantined at home. So when we came back, a few of us came back, some of my employees, we started, we started doing videos. So we did home videos. A lot of my staff did different videos on training without equipment, how do you train? How do you stay fit, how do you stay healthy? How do we beat the quarantine? Side effects that you know, we wanted to engage with others but we couldn't. How do we stay in shape? So we did all kinds of cardio without equipment, strength training without equipment, strength training with bands, with kettles, with gallons of water, with cans of vegetable soups. So we did several segments and they're all loaded on our website. Flexibility, meditation, everything is loaded on our websites. And the neat thing about our website, it also provides the avenue and the portal where people sign up for memberships. But it's also an educational tool and it has there everything we offer from the assessments to the nutrition consultations, the fitness consultations. So every everything's there for all of our facilities from the aquatic center, racket sports and wellness and fitness centers. [00:33:09] Speaker A: You know, one of the things we're trying to do is use our signage around campus a little more effectively and maybe we should develop some sort of marketing strategy to have that on the websites and the sign marquee out front and let students know that that's available. So I'm glad you were there to tell me that. My last question for you guys, what message would you like to share with our listeners about the importance of utilizing our facilities for health and well being? Javier, we'll start with you. [00:33:34] Speaker C: As a student still currently taking classes here at Miami Dade, it's very important to be able to unwind. And college is hard, it's for everyone, it's not easy, it's pretty time consuming. And then being able to utilize such an easy access gym with a warm welcoming environment, safe knowing that you can walk in through the doors, look to the right and see the employees on the counter with a warm smile on their face, being able to willing to help you with anything you need to ease in into the gym, whether you're new so they can make the environment feel A lot more welcoming or you can be a hard time lifter and some people, a lot of time gets hard for squeezing things in on campus, which is very convenient for me. Speaking that I was able to take classes, work and improve my fitness lifestyle on the same place at the same time, which is super convenient and very grateful for. [00:34:28] Speaker A: Cookie, what, what message would you give our listeners? [00:34:31] Speaker B: Well, I'm, I'm proud that in my 33 years working at the college, I'm really proud of what I've developed there for our students. That's the fitness center and the wellness center, mostly the fitness center because that, that's been my development over the years. A student back in the day, they didn't have a facility. So that's something I take a lot of pride in in my journey here at the college. Looking back as a student says, you know what, we don't have a place. So I developed that and through the help of our support of our administration and our students support, you could see that from a facility that we have, it's jam packed. We also accommodate our seven teams in both facilities. As the saying is if you build it, they will come. So what I take back, and as I look back on my journey of my 33 years here and I walk through my facilities and the hallways and the courts and the pool, I got a little bit emotional that it takes a lot of pride in everything I've done because of the students and how they've received it and their usage. And you could see that the importance of it for any student that comes to Miami College or employees is stay healthy. Because that's the important thing we have. If we're not healthy, we can't be a successful student or an employee. And to utilize our facilities as fully because we will always be committed to our students. [00:35:55] Speaker A: Well, we appreciate your passion and not that we're competitive, although we are the campus with the athletic programs. I've been to all of our campuses and I don't think anyone can hold a candle to your facility. You know, we have a great pool at the north campus, but all of our whole process, I think you guys are to be commended and we appreciate you sharing these stories with us today. We always like to turn the, the microphone around the other way. Is there any question you'd like to ask me before we close out today? [00:36:22] Speaker B: Thank you. I'd like to ask a question. What do you foresee, Dr. Stewart, of our future in enhancing our facilities and programs for fitness, wellness and recreation? [00:36:31] Speaker A: That's a great question. And I actually do have a new sport besides the pickleball sport up my sleeve that I probably better not say too much about. But there is a collegiate sport that involves sand that I'll say it that way that I'd like to see us bring here in. In real immediate future. I'm working with our direct senior director Administration Lacoste for some. Some sand volleyball courts and I think that would be a really good opportunity to fit in your programs currently with the fitness center, but also would be a good collegiate sport. So I'm hoping that's one area and I've got a few more I better not put out there public to get in trouble on yet. Yeah, I can't let out the cats out of the bag. I don't even have this one. I shouldn't probably be mentioning that one, but I've talked to several people on campus and I'm putting together a plan because I think it's a very appropriate program for this campus and we have space and so we'll see. [00:37:26] Speaker B: Super cool. Yeah, that's awesome. And we're really excited for our new soccer complex and that's going to really. [00:37:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:32] Speaker B: Put us, put us above the platform. [00:37:35] Speaker A: Yeah. We just signed an agreement with FIFA a couple of weeks ago to bring referees for the World cup and the Captain's cup, which are back to back years. That's going to be really important. And I kind of believe also that when the World cup comes here, we may have a team or two that'll use our facility and rent it out, which gives us more opportunity to get our name out there and maybe even help recruit players too, which is. Was also be a big benefit of that. [00:38:00] Speaker B: That's wonderful. That's awesome. [00:38:01] Speaker C: A lot of big things. [00:38:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Javier, anything you like to ask me or. [00:38:05] Speaker C: Yeah. As I said, my time coming to mdc since the first month I was here, it was already life changing. Do you have the same experience as the moment you started getting affiliated and involved with the campus that your life has changed? [00:38:19] Speaker A: So I spent six years at the medical campus, which is a very different type of campus to be over. And I came here the first week of June and just the minute I walked on campus, just the personality of the campus and how awesome people's communication skills are. It's been a blessing to be here. I love the medical campus and it'll always have a special place in my heart. But you know, my degrees are in math and I played college athletics and so I think I'm a good fit here and I've been excited to meet our Honors Society students and all the different organizations we have. And it's what I love about this place is every day is a different day. You know, there's so many things to do, so many people to meet. And, you know, the Kendall campus is where it's at, in my opinion. And we've got a lot of great students and a lot of things that help change students lives. And that's what excites me every day. Well, thank you guys for the questions. Thank you for both being here today. It's been a great session. And we want to thank you for spending time with Kendyl Speaks. Also want to thank Christine Saenz, our head writer Alex Bello, our producer Paul Klein, our executive producer. Thank you for joining us today. And goodbye for now.