(12/13/02 4:54am)
IU has responded to America's growing interest in physical fitness by creating a new major. The fitness specialist undergraduate program, offered through the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, has had a successful first semester.\nWith an initial enrollment of 80 students, John Shea, the kinesiology department chairman, said he sees a bright future for the program. \n"We developed this program to fill a huge need because fitness is the fastest growing industry in this country," Shea said. "We are attracting students interested in the commercial side of fitness who want to go into the community to work with normally healthy people who want to get in shape or stay in shape." \nThe program focuses on working with special populations, people Shea classifies as the aging or the sick. The 4-year fitness specialist program includes general education classes, off-campus field trips and an internship.\nBy offering courses such as "Leadership and Program Design for Special Populations," the program covers all aspects of fitness and health. \nSenior Derek Trambaugh said he switched to the new major from exercise science.\n"I waited 4 years to take courses like these," Trambaugh said. "Applying what is learned in class is better than just learning the theories. These are the most useful classes I've taken." \nThe variety of courses offered, and the growing demand for people specializing in fitness, provides students with multiple career choices. Students who graduate as fitness specialists can plan careers as personal trainers, health facility owners or rehabilitation specialists. \nMichelle Miller, a clinical lecturer for the kinesiology department, began creating the program over a year ago. Miller said the program was born out of a necessity and emphasized the comprehensive nature of the program. She added that most fitness specialist programs focus on the ideas behind health, wellness and fitness. IU's new program helps prepare students by combining these ideas with hands-on experience. \nRecent focus on high rates of obesity has sparked new interest in exercise and wellness. \n"The Surgeon General has recently described obesity as an epidemic and this, combined with the President's initiative has really increased the need for exercise specialists," Shea said.\nThe program at IU stands apart from other universities because it promotes working with special populations. Through learning to work with elderly or ill people, students gain greater experience that will help prepare them for the future. \n"For the most part, the rewards are not always monetary," Miller said. "It's a calling."\nShea and Miller agree that the creation of the fitness specialist major demonstrates how the HPER department prepares its students for changing societal trends. The program includes a curriculum on working with the aging and the ill, students learn how to work with many different types of people. \n"This is definitely a service-oriented field," Miller said. \nAlready growing after its first semester at IU, the fitness specialist major promises to provide students with a comprehensive learning experience.\n"The emphasis on special populations will bring the program international prominence," Shea said.
(10/15/02 7:11pm)
Filmmaking methods are constantly changing, and keeping up with increasing technology requires dedication and talent. Robert Benedetti, renowned film producer and IU alum, said he believes that films create much more than momentary entertainment. \nThe Department of Theatre and Drama has invited Benedetti to speak on the use of digital technology in film and Hollywood ethics. He will speak in the Ruth N. Halls Theatre at 5 p.m. tonight. \n"He will help to de-mythologize Hollywood," said Dale McFadden, head of the acting and directing program in the theatre department. \nDuring his post-graduate education at IU, Benedetti laid a solid foundation for his career in film. Benedetti honed his acting skills as a member of the first season of the Indiana Theatre Company, which inspired him to begin directing at regional theatres. While in Indiana, he met his wife, Joan, who received her bachelor's degree in theater and her master's degree in library science. \nEven after leaving IU, Benedetti continued to be a part of the education system. Over the course of 35 years, he held multiple teaching positions, including a position at the Yale Drama School. But he did not teach consistently for these 35 years.\n"One reason why I left teaching was because I noticed that vitality has evaporated from college campuses since the 1960s," he said. \nBut today he sees that liberalist energy returning to students and thus he has continued to speak at universities nation-wide. By also conducting theatre workshops, Benedetti is able to continue sharing his knowledge with students. \nBenedetti strives to use his films as another means of teaching. Because of his films' strong social content, many are made for cable television, where more issue-driven work can be shown. "Miss Evers' Boys," shown on HBO, dealt with the United States Government's 1932 Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments; a group of test subjects were allowed to die when a cure for the disease had been developed. \nBenedetti said these sorts of films create heightened social awareness. \n"I have always worked on films with issues of social interaction," he said, "to try to make a better world." \n"The Actor at Work," now in its eighth edition, was written by Benedetti and is used as a standard text for teaching acting. In addition to speaking twice at IU, he will also lead two seminars for the Theatre Department. The first is a question and answer discussion on the topic of the current state of the theatre, and the second will be a workshop on acting for the camera. \nJohn Kinzer, the director of audience development for the theatre department, believes that the workshop will be especially beneficial, because IU does not have a program that trains students for film acting.\nEach year, the IU Theater Department, brings in different speakers funded by the Collins Memorial Lecture Series. Benedetti was chosen in part because of his studies at IU, but mostly because of his long and rewarding career.\n"He has been able to successfully transition himself from a career in theatre to one in film," McFadden said, "and that is a rare phenomenon."\nHis films have proved successful, as Benedetti has won several awards. The two that he said he is most proud of -- the Peabody Award and the Humanitas Prize -- both won for producing "A Lesson Before Dying." "Miss Evers' Boys" was nominated for 12 Emmys and won 5. \n"Good films are still being made," he said, "but they need to have devotion, or celebrity backing."\nAlthough it is important to Benedetti that his films be recognized for their social value, he said his greatest accomplishments are his relationships with his students. Educating is something that Benedetti said he will never give up, whether he is lecturing at a university, conducting a student workshop or looking through the lens of a camera. \n"I never really want to stop teaching," he said.