Ms. Westerholm teaches biology in the freshmen academy. She is certified through Illinois State University to teach biology, chemistry, and physics, but her passion is in biology. Next to teaching, Ms.Westerholm is part of the Large SIP Numeracy Team, which supports the Math Team by judging the math meets. Somehow, she finds time to participate in one of the hardest fitness training programs called CrossFit. Westerholm began CrossFit training simply because she wanted to try something new. She was previously an aerobics instructor at L.A. fitness for four years and was looking for a change. “I walked into my first class at CrossFit and was immediately hooked. I never looked back,” she stated.

CrossFit is a training philosophy that coaches people of all shapes and sizes to improve their physical well-being and cardiovascular fitness in a hardcore yet accepting and encouraging environment. “My favorite aspect of CrossFit is the atmosphere at the gym. Every single person is encouraging and cheers one another on. Every CrossFit athlete is there to better themselves while simultaneously helping those around them to better their lives as well,” Westerholm said. While CrossFit isn’t entirely time-consuming, with each group session running about an hour, diehards like Ms. Westerholm will hit up their box as much as six times a week. “School always comes first,” Westerholm admitted. “Luckily, they have classes at CrossFit as early as 5:30am and as late as 7:30pm. Because of this, I am able to CrossFit 6 days a week.”

Despite the intense training and long hours from school and other activities, Ms. Westerholm has gained experiences and lessons from CrossFit that will last a lifetime. “I love the friendships and the inspiration I have gained from CrossFit… it has taught me perseverance and dedication. When I’m overloaded with labs to grade, tests to write, PowerPoints to create, etc. I remind myself that this is nothing compared to what I endure at CrossFit,” she concluded.