Students gather outside of Foxtail Coffee Co. on campus for International Peace Day in a guided yoga session led by UCF Professor Shiva Jahani on Sept. 21.
Courtesy of Shiva Jahani
Flexibility — the term that has guided UCF Professor Dr. Shiva Jahani throughout her life.
From the physical pliability she’s cultivated through practicing yoga to her multiple college degrees and relentless pursuit of knowledge, Jahani is always striving to expand her skillset.
Since arriving at UCF in 2014, Jahani has taught various classes, including revenue management and data analytics, while also completing statistical analyses for UCF’s Computing and Statistical Technology Laboratory in Education.
However, she has found the most fulfillment in teaching yoga with her students, helping thousands of students de-stress through her practices of yoga, meditation, Pilates and different breathing techniques.
However, for Jahani, one story stands above them all.
One of Jahani’s students, junior film major Maximillian Moitoza, had been attending her classes and finding them to have a very positive impact on his life.
“Yoga is a really wonderful space where you get to engage all three: the body, the mind and the spirit,” Moitoza said. “And you are making yourself aware of tension you didn’t know you even had and then releasing that tension.”
Moitoza said that he views Jahani’s yoga sessions as a “community” where he can throw all worries and stress to the side and find a “sense of grounded peace.”
Thanks to Jahani’s “open-door policy” for her yoga classes, students are encouraged to attend sessions even after their enrollment ends. Jahani also allows students to bring their friends.
After attending multiple sessions, Moitoza asked his roommate to go with him.
Moitoza’s roommate struggled with ADHD and could “never feel grounded.” After multiple failed attempts to convince his roommate to join him for a session, Moitoza finally made a breakthrough.
His roommate attended the three-hour class, and by the end, he was left in shock.
“For three hours, he was sitting, and he was grounded,” Jahani said. “And then in the end, he came and was crying, and said ‘I never thought it would cross my mind that yoga was something that would help me to feel grounded.’”
Multiple semesters later, Moitoza still takes advantage of Jahani’s open-door policy, attending classes when he can.
He says the classes are a way for him to escape from what the day has thrown at him up to that point, but above all, he enjoys interacting with Jahani.
“Jahani, she’s just such a, she’s a well of knowledge, but also such a kind person,” Moitoza said. “I love interacting with her. Really, it makes my day better, even if we talk for five minutes.”
Jahani describes herself as a lifelong learner, on a constant search for new knowledge to obtain.
Despite already achieving her doctorate, two master’s degrees and two additional graduate certificates, Jahani knows that she can’t be complacent.
“I think one thing, being an immigrant, that I found out is that I need to work harder, you feel not safe and not secure if you only do one thing here [America] because there is always job insecurity for people like us,” Jahani said.
Jahani was born in Kermān, Iran and lived there until moving to Malaysia in 2006. She attended the University of Science in Malaysia, earning her PhD in organizational behavior with a focus on knowledge management and sharing.
Upon graduation, Jahani undertook her postdoctoral assignment in the United States.
Jahani served as an international conflict resolution advisor, drawing on experience she had gathered through global experiences while traveling the world.
Additionally, she collaborated with the Institute for Simulation and Training to develop research-based projects for incident command.
Immediately, she was challenged.
Jahani was gifted an immigration grant, which gave her a bit of financial freedom upon her initial arrival in the states.
However, grant funding was cut it 2012, leaving Jahani searching for answers.
“And then all of a sudden, the grant money and funding, everything changed,” Jahani said. “They were not funding those grants anymore. So, I was struggling because I didn’t know where to go because there was no money.”
Jahani, relying on her flexibility and skillset, found a second job, creating soft research pieces and teaching immigrants from all over the world, including Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan and Armenia on their transition into the U.S.
Working alongside and mentoring these people allowed Jahani to share her main passion — yoga. Jahani started practicing yoga frequently in college, as she cited its usefulness in relieving her stress.
She received her teaching certifications for yoga in Malaysia, but was unable to teach a class in the U.S. until receiving her official credentials.
Still, she didn’t let that stop her — she used yoga to empower her mentees anyway, offering free teaching to her peers.
“I sat and observed them, and they were so stressed and with the grant writing and money and everything. And I told them, you know, I’m willing to just offer that practice [yoga], and they loved it.”
After receiving great feedback from her peers, Jahani decided to get her official U.S. certifications while continuing to teach her mentees in her spare time.
Jahani completed her postdoctoral assignment in 2014, but she wanted to continue to teach. She was hired by UCF as a graduate faculty scholar.
UCF took notice of Jahani’s yoga expertise during the hiring process and offered her the additional classes.
Jahani, of course, accepted.
Jahani recommends practicing yoga to everyone and implores students to at least give it a try.
Sophomore aerospace engineering major Jonathan Thomas decided to take yoga as an elective this semester, despite not knowing much about the practice.
Thomas said his academic schedule can be very demanding, but yoga has helped provide him with a sense of “balance,” allowing Thomas to learn more about his individual needs in the process.
“I’m able to relax and I’m able to improve my breathing and stretching, which has helped to keep my mind off the very rigorous classes I’ve been taking,” Thomas said. “And since aerospace engineering is a continuous thing, learning yoga has helped me understand a little bit more about myself.”