Bridging the gap between what is learned in the classroom and applied to real life theory is recent graduate and exercise science major, Ginger Lambert. A non-traditional student, Lambert spent the last semester of her senior year combining her love of physical fitness with a new found interest in brain health.
With fitness as an integral part of her life, Lambert is a dedicated triathlete whose active lifestyle includes running 5k’s, marathons, and Olympic distance triathlons.
Hoping to similarly increase her mental health rigor, Lambert recently used her exercise science education to work out another part of her body, her brain, through daily poetry memorization.
“As we age it is important to change up our routines and challenge ourselves,” said Lambert, adding that poetry memorization helps to keep the mind active and healthy.
Currently, she has memorized over 24 poems by famous poets including Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost and T.S. Eliot, and has used her memorizing experience to conducts regular workshops on Poetic Methods of Memorization at local libraries and senior centers.
“When you memorize a poem you really take it in and it becomes part of you,” she said.
In addition to her teaching workshops, Lambert’s work was also published in the March edition of Vermont Maturity magazine. The article, titled “Some Very Good Reasons to Memorize Poetry,” described the many benefits of learning a poem by heart, such as improved brain health, memory, self-confidence and focus.
Lambert says returning to academics helped her to discover the relationship between a healthy body and sound mind, the topic of her senior thesis.
“One of the most rewarding things I have done in the last couple of years was return to college as an adult learner,” she said, “Returning to school has inspired and taught me much about reinventing myself.”