My So-Called Off Campus Life: Jessica Pozzuoli

Merges her life on campus with her life off-campus as yoga instructor.

Jessica Pozzuoli first came to Purchase as an administrative assistant in the School of the Arts in 2016. Last March, she became business manager at the Neuberger Museum of Art. It’s there she’s found the opportunity to share her love of yoga with the Purchase community.

Pozzuoli first discovered yoga years ago when her back pain became intolerable. She bought a three-pack of VHS videos and practiced every day for thirty days. “After years of back pain I was pain free and thus began this journey.”

She felt a connection to yoga and the Sanskrit names of the postures. Her growing interest left her with more questions than answers, however so she enrolled in a 200-hour yoga teacher training program to learn more, not necessarily to teach. “There I discovered that the more I learned, the more questions I had and even to this day, my learning is not complete.” Although not her original intent, she began teaching soon after and now she’s teaching the teachers, conducting her own 200-hour teacher training program.

Bringing Yoga to Purchase

After teaching for almost nine years, she says that without a doubt the number one complaint she hears from yoga students is, “I wish I started this sooner.” She took that to heart. “I wanted to give our students the chance to start now and provide them the tools to have a lifelong practice.”

As an adjunct faculty member, she teaches a Vinyasa Yoga class that incorporates a modified version of the content she uses in her 200-hour training program. And it’s not just about practicing poses, it’s also about building community. The word yoga itself means to join together or form a union. “The students are learning to value each other and appreciate differences; to step outside of themselves to make real connections. I hope this experience will help them succeed in all aspects of their work and relationships and that through yoga, they may live a long and healthy life.”

All Are Welcome: Yoga in the Neuberger

Staff and faculty have a chance to experience Pozzuoli’s yoga class in an exquisite location—inside the Neuberger Museum of Art’s massive Theatre Gallery surrounded by the contemplative paintings Threnody by artist Cleve Gray, commissioned for the Museum’s opening in 1974.

Pozzuoli believes Threnody embodies the focus of the program. “Cleve Gray created a space that he envisioned as a place to meditate,” she says. Gray writes, “I have hoped that the students of the College at Purchase, whose minds (like those of all students) are crammed with imposed knowledge, could enter this room and possess themselves of their own thoughts, could react to the paintings as an environment for meditation, where there could be both influx and efflux.”

Pozzuoli will be teaching Vinyasa classes on three Wednesday evenings this semester. In addition, Janelle Berger, a Purchase resident and Yin Yoga teacher, will be leading Sound Bath healing sessions on three Wednesdays at 12:30pm. All are welcome to attend.