Professor Rider poses for a headshot outside of Jordan Hall. Rider graduated from Butler in 2018 and now teaches PE 207: Cross-Country Track and Field. Photo by Lauren Hough.
TOMMY PIERCE | STAFF REPORTER | tgpierce@butler.edu
Butler alumnus Achzionna Riding is teaching for her second spring semester as an adjunct professor in Butler’s College of Education. Riding graduated with a degree in human movement and health sciences from COE in 2018 and is teaching PE 207, Cross-Country Track and Field, a course she also taught last spring.
Riding, who was a walk-on member of the Butler track and field team from 2015-17, has stayed in the Indianapolis area since graduating. In addition to teaching at Butler, Riding is a personal trainer and instructor at FitFlexFly gym in Indianapolis, the Solidcore area manager for Indiana and Ohio and a mom.
Riding said she is happy to be back for her second year of teaching at her alma mater.
“I’m super excited,” Riding said. “Last [spring] was pretty rough because of the transition from student to faculty and COVID-19. I had to think on my toes a lot, but I’m super excited with how this year’s a lot more structured.”
Riding cites COE professor Lisa Farley as a large part of her coming back to Butler. She said Farley reached out and asked if she had ever considered teaching. Riding said even though she lived nearby, she hadn’t been back to campus since graduating and now that she is back, it feels like she never left.
Farley said Riding’s positive attitude and background in the Butler coursework makes her a good fit for the Butler faculty team.
“[Riding] has always been great at working with kids, and her personality is just bubbly, so she’s easy to be around,” Farley said. “She does a really nice job in terms of organizing the methodology of teaching. It’s one thing to know what to teach. It’s another whole thing to know how to teach it.”
Mollie Flook, a senior political science and strategic communication double major, works as a coach at Solidcore under Riding. Flook said she is excited about Riding’s job at Butler, but can’t understand how Riding makes time for all of her commitments.
“I am impressed that she can do it,” Flook said. “She’s managing three different regions and all of the studios within them, and that alone is huge. And she’s a mom and a coach at two different studios.”
Riding is not slowing down in any aspect of life. Soon, she will take on the responsibility of area manager of a third state, Michigan, at Solidcore. Riding ran her first marathon last November, is training for another one in May and has her daughter to keep her on her feet at home.
