Students at St. John Fisher University are taking action to learn how to defend themselves in real-world situations. Every other Thursday throughout the semester, students are taught how to properly execute the basic self-defense skills needed in a dangerous situation.
Amber Sisson, a junior pre-law and psychology major, is the student coordinator of the seminar. Sisson took a self defense class last semester, which gave her the idea to start the self-defense seminar.
“I feel like you will at least at one point in your life have a situation where you might need it [self-defense],” Sisson said. “It’s better to know and be comfortable about it before a situation like that arises.”
Dr. Kris Green, a professor in the computer science, math and physics department, is the advisor for this seminar and teaches students the basics skills for self-defense.
Green uses this seminar to teach students palm, elbow and knee strikes, as well as escapes/breakaways, defense against knife or stick, how to realize when your safety is at risk and how to avoid the situation altogether.
In the most recent meeting students were taught how to properly break free and escape from choke and wrist holds, as well as hair grabs.
During this meeting, students were asked to take on the roles of the attacker and victim. This is to ensure that students know how to protect themselves against any situation because every situation will be different Dr. Green said.
Matthew Ragonese, a senior accounting and finance major, has been a frequent attendee at these meetings. “I will attend another meeting as I realized that what we are learning has real life value and is applicable to many real world situations,” Ragonese said.
Ragonese has attended these meetings with the hopes of gaining more knowledge on how to properly defend himself from any potential dangers in the future.
These meetings require no prior experience and anyone is welcome to join.
The next meeting will be held on Dec. 5th from 7-8pm in the Golisano Academic Gateway.
