By: Steven Erbacher
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas now has a class catered toward women on campus. Starting in mid-September and lasting through October, the eight-week course focuses on self-defense on Thursday nights.
Audrey Timmerman is a senior at the university. She was introduced to Krav Maga, an Islamic defense practice when she was 12 years old. She uses her certification in this to teach this self-defense class.
“There’s a lot of dangerous things that can happen on campus, just in the real world when you haven’t experienced it yet,” she said.
This is the third semester Timmerman will be teaching this class, one that was important for her to teach. She approached the Pat Walker Health Center’s Director of Wellness Dr. Ed Mink with the course idea.
“She (Timmerman) came to us and said ‘If there was ever an opportunity for me to share my passion and my skillset with other women, I would love to do that,’” said Dr. Mink.
Haley Scott is a freshman biology major on campus and she is motivated to make sure she can be safe.
“To not become a statistic. Not become another woman that got murdered, raped, kidnapped. Be someone who got out of the situation,” she said.
Scott, as well as many women, wants to feel more secure in her surroundings. She says she’s scared to go out alone around campus. Timmerman wants women to know that these lessons will not only help with the present, they can help with the future too.
“I hope that at the end of it, they feel more confident and less scared and that they feel like they can go do whatever they were wanting to do,” said Timmerman. “And that they’re just more prepared to handle any situation they walk into.”
This specific self-defense class is for women only. The Pat Walker Health center does offer other co-ed self-defense classes.
The class costs $30 for students and $40 for faculty. Women can sign up for this course at the front desk of the Pat Walker Health Center.