A Common Ground

[lead]It all started with a high five.[/lead]

Chloe Shevlin ‘18 never saw herself as the type of person who exercised. Growing up, she knew the importance of health but did not enjoy or make time for it.

That all changed when she arrived at NC State for her freshman year. From Columbus, Ohio, she felt out of place, yearning for an environment to call her own. Waiting for something to happen, she remembered one part of her father’s daily routine–getting up early to go work out. As a form of stress relief and a way to get the day started, Mr. Shevlin would wake at 5 a.m. to be at the YMCA at 5:30.

On a Tuesday morning, before classes began, Chloe decided to try her father’s routine. She took a morning madness boot camp class at Wellness and Recreation. Not knowing what to expect, she fell in love with the wellness aspect and the sense of community from attending the class.

From that day forward, Chloe never missed another 6 a.m. morning madness boot camp class. After one high-five from a fellow participant, she finally found her support system.

Chloe expanded her horizons and discovered other group fitness classes, including cycling. Hesitant to take the class at first, it is now her favorite. This also led her to register for Cycle for Survival, an event to raise money and awareness for rare cancers, with her 6 a.m. “family.”

Chloe loved the environment at Wellness and Recreation so much that she chose to work as a fitness and facilities assistant. In her junior year, she worked up the courage to ask her supervisor, Leigha Krick, to be a group fitness instructor.

Leigha’s response was “when can you start?”

As someone who struggled with self-confidence and body image, Chloe did not think that she fit the mold of a typical group fitness instructor. She did not look like other people she thought used the gym. She remembers the feeling of teaching for the first time and the impact it had on her. She had found her calling.

After learning in the spring of 2016 that her father was diagnosed with bladder cancer, being part of the Cycle for Survival event meant more.

She accepting a leadership position with Wellness and Recreation as a fitness program assistant the following fall. As part of her responsibilities, Chloe was tasked with coordinating the annual Cycle for Survival event. In her first year coordinating the event, she raised more than $2,800 for rare cancer research.

This year, Chloe helped raise $4,500 in support of Cycle for Survival. Collaborating with local fitness studios such as Flywheel and Cycle Barre, the ride was at capacity with 32 participants. It was truly a community effort.

[pullquote cite=”Chloe Shevlin ’18” color=”wolfpackred” align=”alignright”]I want everyone to walk into the studio and when they leave, I want them to feel a little bit stronger than when they walked in today.[/pullquote]

Her efforts to inspire physical activity can be seen every day. When not teaching classes, she recruits students on-campus to take group fitness classes and to learn more about Wellness and Recreation. From walking into the weight rooms and striking conversation with students to take a group fitness class or informing classmates about upcoming events, Chloe hopes to share her wellness journey with others.

Because of her efforts, Chloe was awarded the John F. Miller award as the top student employee at Wellness and Recreation.

“I want to help people find that sense of belonging, as much or little as they want. Bringing people into the Wellness and Recreation community has always been really important to me,” said Shevlin.

“Chloe seeks to engage a broad audience through positive movement experiences. [Her] commitment to promoting diversity shines through in fitness and her eagerness to create programming that is accessible to everybody, allowing every single individual to leave her classes feeling successful and with a smile,” wrote Leigha Krick, when nominating Chloe for the award.

Chloe graduated in May 2018 and now works at Duke University hospital to work on process improvement initiatives in a hospital, as well as finding a gym to continue teaching group fitness.