Monday through Friday, students, faculty and community members can come participate in a brief 15-minute exercise at 11 a.m.

Rajio Taiso is a Japanese workout led by international students. Rajio Taiso means “radio exercise.” This workout can be done to music that can either be streamed or played on a radio station. This exercise is done early in the morning around 6 a.m. in some parts of Japan, smaller parts of China and small parts of Taiwan. Rain or shine, people are out in front of the International House on Washburn’s campus every morning.

Sangyoub Park, an associate professor of sociology, supervises the students that lead the morning exercises.

“It’s kind of learning different culture that we want to support international students. We have about 250 international students. So this is an easy way to show our support to international student policy, which I didn’t expect. But, somehow, we are creating a little community. You see people every day, okay, so kind of get to know each other,” Park said.

This last week, the group has spanned anywhere from 12 to 19 people participating. One of the regulars is Blake Klinkner, a professor of law here at Washburn.

“It’s just good health because these days everybody sits at their computer desk all day. And it’s not good for your body. It’s not good for your joints, your aches. So it’s nice to be able to have an opportunity to exercise, especially in a nice group where you get to know people, but it’s nice to have that regular exercise even for only 15 minutes. Because otherwise we sit at our desks all day, so it’s nice to enjoy the air,” Klinker said.

Two students typically run the daily exercise in front of the group. The program will run until the first of November and they hope to offer this opportunity the following year. The students leading Rajio Taiso hope to get one thousand signatures from the community, faculty and students so they can continue as a group next fall semester.

Edited by Adam White, Shelby Hanson, Jessica Galvin