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Let's Get Physical Lori Benson ’92 leads a fitness crusade in NYC's public schools

—Jeanne Ricci

Jump in! That’s Lori Benson’s message to New York City Public School students. As director of the Office of Fitness and Physical Education, she encourages programs that teach kids fitness for life. IT'S YOUR AVERAGE TUESDAY NIGHT at Crunch fitness club on 13th Street in Manhattan: Dance music blares as mostly under-40 urbanites enter and exit the gym. A few stop in the purple-and-red painted lobby to buy vitamin-infused water or an energy bar before working out. A smiling, energetic woman in a black warm-up suit and red hair pulled back into a ponytail bounds through the front door. “Hi, I’m Lori,” she tells me, and I follow her into the belly of the building, past exposed brick and metal beams, up two narrow staircases, and into a room with more than 30 stationary bicycles. “Welcome to the ride!” she says as she straps on a sleek high-tech microphone, similar to the ones used by pop stars. People are already cycling furiously, eager to expend as many calories as possible. After joking with a few regulars, Lori turns on rap music and warms up the class from a bike at the front of the room. “Nobody knows the words to this song? I don’t buy it!” she teases, cycling to the beat. Soon she is telling us to increase the tension on our machines. The serious workout begins. Lori Benson ’92 isn’t your ordinary fitness instructor: She’s also the director of fitness and physical education for the 1,400-plus public schools that cater to 1.1 million students in the city of New York—and she has her work cut out for her. Following the city’s fiscal crisis of 1975, fitness instruction and physical education weren’t coordinated centrally; students’ exposure to physical education was limited and inconsistent. Spurred by national headlines decrying American obesity rates, the New York Department of Education conducted a study of their elementary students in May 2003. Researchers concluded that nearly half of K-5 students were overweight or obese, and nearly one-fifth of kindergarten students entering the system were already obese. The correlation between obesity and significant childhood and adult health problems, including heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, is well known. To address this public health risk, the Department of Education reintroduced an Office of Fitness and Physical Education in the summer of 2003. Lori Benson was hired as director. “Our goal is to turn kids on to a lifetime physical activity,” says Benson. “We want students to take responsibility for their own fitness, to get interested in moving, to find their niche early on so they can continue leading active lives.” Benson knows about being an unathletic urban kid. She attended PS236, IS78, and Midwood High School—all in Brooklyn. “UMass was the only time I spent outside of New York,” she laughs. A self-described “chubby kid,” she always got picked last for team sports. That’s a prime reason why the programs Benson has devised are health related rather than sport related. “The underlying philosophy is inclusive—empowering students to understand exercise and incorporate it into their lifestyle.” One such program is C.H.A.M.P.S. (Coordinated, Healthy, Active, Motivated, Positive Students) Middle School Sports and Fitness League, which is available in more than 40 city schools. Regardless of athletic ability, students in C.H.A.M.P.S. participate in a wide variety of physical activities before or after school, including traditional sports such as basketball and tennis; non-traditional sports such as team handball, fencing, and crew; and fitness activities, such as yoga, capoeira (a Brazilian martial art) dance, tai chi, and aerobics. “C.H.A.M.P.S. is more like a club,” says Benson. “We want to entice students to become interested in an activity that they can continue through high school and even college.” Kids who participate in C.H.A.M.P.S. before daily classes begin can have breakfast at school. Benson didn’t study physical education at UMass Amherst; she received a Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration. “I was very excited about package design at the time,” she says, so she created her own major, combining visual communications, design arts, graphic design, communications, and marketing. Benson gradually became more interested in exercise, realizing it could help her with her body image. “Now there are very few days that go by that I’m not physical—when I’m not, it throws my whole day off.” She taught aerobics in the dorms and at a local gym, and began giving swimming instruction. When she landed back in New York in 1992, she discovered all the things she did on the side equaled a career and she became a movement teacher at a public school in Brooklyn. That morphed into a teaching position, which led Benson to pursue a master’s in physical education from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. After eight years of teaching, she was named district coordinator for 17 elementary and middle schools in Harlem, then deputy director of interscholastic sports for the public school athletic league. “I know what the teachers are dealing with on a daily basis and feel like I can support them at that level,” she says. Benson, who still lives in Brooklyn, believes UMass Amherst prepared her for her career, even if it didn’t turn out to be in package design. “I feel like my educational career has truly enabled me to be more effective in my current role, to have a collective vision, and to help shift the culture,” says Benson. “I’ve come full circle.” As the wheels of Benson’s stationary bike spin round at a dizzying speed, there’s no doubt she means what she says. To read more about C.H.A.M.P.S. visit: http://www.nycenet.edu/Offices/TeachLearn/OfficeCurriculumProfessionalDevelopment/FitnessEducation/CHAMPS/default.htm

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