RECognition: Manahil Ahmed, Fitness & Wellness

Recreation's monthly series to highlight and celebrate our staff

By Shawn Cyr
Assistant Marketing Director

In her role as FitLife Program Assistant Lead, Manahil Ahmed helps manage the daily operations of Group Fitness & Yoga classes. Checking students in, making sure instructors have the items they need, adding the class offerings to the Recreation website — that sort of thing.

Her next step may very well be teaching classes herself.

Manahil, a fourth-year in Sixth College, is learning to be an instructor through Recreation’s Yoga Instructor Training Program. Practicing yoga is intrinsically linked to the reason she came to REC in the first place: to be part of a community that values movement and wellness. And how she’ll get to share that mission with others.

“Yoga helps me connect to the present moment, build resilience both physically and mentally, and practice leadership in a way that is rooted in patience and empathy,” Manahil says.

Manahil — slated graduate in 2027 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Bachelor of Arts in Literature — joined REC in 2024. Since then, aside from helping manage group classes, she has become a FitLife Program Assistant Lead for FitLife Mobile, a program that brings fitness and wellness to you.

“I help connect instructors with the organizations requesting FitLife Mobile classes,” she says. “I love supporting REC’s mission of encouraging people to stay active and connected through events like Birch Aquarium Yoga and Meet the Beach.”

Additionally, Manahil has assisted the FitLife team with Tritons Flourish, our certification programs, outreach, and Employee Wellness, says Tiffany Caddell, Fitness & Wellness Director.

"Manahil is a caring teammate who is always looking out for the best of the entire team," Caddell says. "She consistently goes above and beyond in her work and volunteers her hands and perspective anytime we need assistance with a task outside of her regular duties. She is exceptionally reliable, talented, and thoughtful in her work."

Meet the Beach — held every Welcome Week for first-year and transfer students — will always be one of Manahil’s fondest REC memories, she says.

“It’s a close tie between my first Meet the Beach — for the music, food, friends, and surfing dogs — and my first RECapalooza, where I played soccer with my coworkers in a bounce house while enjoying amazing food and community,” she says.