Each semester, Citizen Schools California hosts apprenticeships, 10-week long hands-on projects led by passionate volunteers who teach students topics ranging from cooking to coding. This semester, we are excited to offer Qigong and Taiji as an apprenticeship at Renaissance Academy at Mathson, taught by Citizen Teacher Jerriline Martinez from Cisco, with support from Teaching Fellow Renee Lemieux. Read what Jerriline had to say about her experience as a Citizen Teacher:

Why did you decide to be a Citizen Teacher with us?

My initial motivation was simply to teach Qigong and Taiji to any willing audience. My own experience is that this practice and the principals it is based on can be transformative. I am compelled to continue my practice and share it with others. I was inspired to teach to the middle schoolers after attending the Citizen Schools informational session offered at my workplace. Learning about Citizen Schools’ mission and the impact it has on childrens’ lives, meeting the dedicated individual running the program, I felt it would be a privilege to participate and to have the chance to impact these young students’ lives in a positive way.

What made you passionate about teaching Qigong and Taiji to middle schoolers? 

Taiji/Qigong practice offer us life skills to look after and manage our own well-being. Taiji is an internal martial art where skills are developed to feel and manage the internal workings of our mind, spirit, body, energy  and emotions. To protect yourself or defeat an opponent in a martial context, you must have command of your own being first and foremost. One of the most basic principles is to align to nature and what is natural. Qigong and Taiji offer us skills to weed through the complications of modern life, find and nurture our most natural self. While we can, and thousands before us have, devoted a lifetime to this practice, it also offers practical, simple exercises and techniques for well-being that can be readily applied in day to day life.  My deepest hope for the students is that they come to know they can affect their own well-being and that they are able to internalize key basic principles and techniques.

What have been your biggest takeaways so far?  

My biggest realizations are that: 1) young minds and bodies are growing and have tremendous, unabated energy, and 2) the students are eager to learn even though their abundance of energy and growing minds lead them easily to distraction.

What has been your biggest challenge in teaching?  

My first challenge is keeping and directing their attention. The practice requires individual exploration of the self through movement and breath, but we have to start with some direction and focus. Most important is to create an environment for them to have their own experience of their mind, body, and emotions, rather than to just do as instructed. 

What are you most looking forward to during the end of semester WOW? 

I will be looking to see what of the teachings the students have actually internalized. More than knowledge, I hope they will have gained the experience of knowing, rooted in experience of doing and feeling. I hope they can perform the entire 24 posture form, but more importantly I hope to see what each has internalized that can carry through their lifetime.