By PHILIP WINTERSTEIN, Staff Reporter.
Delta College offers various courses that many students may not catch at first glance when searching for classes for their next semester. Nonetheless, over the years, one of these classes has been growing more popular as the amount of students on the waitlist has reached double digits on a regular basis.
Joseph Rivet, the adjunct faculty member, who teaches Fencing I, joined Delta College seven years ago with the interest of the sport. Rivet had taken Fencing courses at Michigan State University before joining Delta as a faculty member.
“I took the fencing course back when I was a student and I’m teaching it now, so it’s been around for a while,” he said.
Lifelong Wellness Activity 122, otherwise known as Fencing I, was created to teach interested students about the sport and techniques of fencing. The class has a limit of 18 students and like many other semesters, Rivet explained, there were more who are on the waitlist within the first week of the winter semester.
As it is described in its online registration page found on MyDelta under, Fencing I “Introduces foil fencing, its basic fundamentals, techniques, rules, and safety measures.” Rivet further explained what he wants the students to learn from it.
“[Fencing I] is for anyone interested in fencing and its sport,” he said. “It provides them opportunities to learn good fencing skills and how to compete. It’s also something that improves their agility.”
With the course becoming more popular among the students of Delta, fencing has a variety of fans that say that the course should go further.
Michael Klingenberg, who took fencing in the fall semester of 2014, shared his experience with Rivet’s course which, he said, may be his favorite class so far at Delta College that he has taken.
“[Fencing I] was a great class and I would recommend it all the way,” Klingenberg said. “We learned all sorts of things from stances, to names of the equipment and its parts, to practice drills, to even the history of fencing. It’s an athletic sport, but you don’t have to be athletic to do well, so there are all kinds of people in the class and all of them love it. The only sad part is that there’s no Fencing II offered here.”
Rivet stated that most of his students desired a part two to the course.
“The problem with that is I am a part-time faculty member and we have only a limited amount of supplies to use for the course.”
Nonetheless, provided the time and resources, he said that a continuation of the course would be interesting.
Rivet explained that despite the competitive nature of fencing and the pursuit of improving one’s agility throughout the course, it is a class that is for everyone.
“Anyone interested in fencing can do it,” he said. “No matter what age, gender, size, etc. anyone can do it.”
For more information, visit the Fitness Center or contact Joseph Rivet at josephrivet@delta.edu.
