Sarah Jensen builds Bethel community through 11 years of yoga classes

Sarah Jensen has spent 11 years at Bethel University’s Wellness Center turning yoga sculpt into more than a workout. In a two-floor, 11,000-square-foot space in the heart of campus, she has given students, staff, faculty and alumni a steady place for movement, rest and encouragement, and the class has become part of the school’s daily rhythm.

The setting matters. Bethel describes the Wellness Center as a Christ-centered space built to support wellbeing together, with programming that aims at body, mind and spirit. Its class schedule stretches from yoga to HIIT and is built for every fitness level, which helps explain why Jensen’s class has held its place for so long. It welcomes experienced regulars, first-timers arriving with roommates or teammates, and students who show up alone looking for a first group fitness experience.

Jensen’s path to the front of the room ran through several different callings. She studied elementary education, then spent 12 years teaching in public schools before she began teaching yoga out of her home. After that, she built Hemma Ceramics and Design, adding a creative practice that fit alongside her teaching. Bethel’s elementary education program is designed to prepare students for Minnesota teacher licensure through a four-year course of study, a background that fits the way Jensen now teaches with patience, structure and a clear sense of community.

Inside the class itself, the format is broad enough to keep athletes coming back. Jensen blends strength work, stretching, breathwork and stillness, and that mix has made the class a regular meeting point for Bethel’s club hockey players. They use the sessions to strengthen smaller muscle groups, hips, core and flexibility, all of which complement the demands of their sport. Bethel’s club sports program frames those teams as opportunities for leadership, involvement, competition and fitness, and Men’s Club Hockey says its players compete during college while glorifying God through conduct and play.

Chris Oliver ’24 is one of the students whose experience shows what the class has become: practical training, yes, but also a social anchor. That is the larger story of Jensen’s 11 years at Bethel. The mats keep coming out, the room keeps filling up, and a class that could have been just another fitness option has settled into campus life as a dependable place to belong.