How Teachers Became Teachers - Karen Voskanian

Karen Kazanci first took a free yoga class in college at UC Irvine. Not knowing much about yoga, she signed up for the weekly class with a friend and mostly remembers the pre-class burritos. 

“We didn’t really know what we were doing and like most things in college, we clearly didn’t take it too seriously.”

After graduation, she moved back to Southern California and tarted going to classes again to spend more time with her mom while she completed graduate school to become an elementary teacher. But it was her experience teaching in South Central LA when she found refuge and strength in her yoga practice. 

“The first year of teaching is stressful anywhere, but I was navigating extremely challenging situations I hadn’t encountered before, and yoga became an outlet for me to relax and de-stress and I always felt great the next day.” 

One of her teachers during this time encouraged her to take a teacher training program and eventually she transitioned out of the classroom and began teaching yoga to kids at a local studio. From there, she expanded her practice and has been teaching adults ever since.