“Stay back!” were the words echoed in a small room located in Building J as a group of women were taught basic self-defense by Elgin Community College’s, Officer Lorie Hermesdorf.

The Women’s Empowerment Alliance (WEA) hosted a Self Defense Workshop with Officer Hermesdorf, on Oct. 17, to fundraise and donate the proceeds to the Community Crisis Center of Elgin.

“We decided to hold a self-defense workshop to tie into the observance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month,” said Gena Tiesch, president and founder of WEA.

Officer Hermesdorf is a certified RAD (Rape Aggression Defense) System instructor and led the small group through the basics of self-defense. Hermesdorf is certified to teach a twenty-hour self-defense course, as well as a three-day program to police officers and anybody interested in becoming a certified RAD System instructor.

Since Officer Hermesdorf has been at ECC – she has only done workshops. Before working at ECC, she worked full-time as an instructor trainer for the region of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Self-defense is something Hermesdorf knows very well and enjoys teaching.

“ I decided that [self-defense] is something I am passionate about, teaching women what I’ve learned and how to be assertive,” said Officer Hermesdorf.

The workshop was short and simple. With a set limited time, Hermesdorf was able to share her guidelines on self-defense and taught about six techniques.

Although the group was not taught everything, Hermesdorf did highlight and push the importance of increasing one’s reaction time and the power of your voice. Confidence in one’s intuition was increased, “Assertively telling the person to stay back if they’re approaching into your personal space and that you have the right to do that,” said Officer Hermesdorf.

Self-defense will continue to be relevant and important to many people, especially women.

“We hope that participants felt empowered and more prepared to defend themselves against a potential attack. While we hope participants never need to use the techniques taught during the workshop, we feel that women can never be too prepared,” said Tiesch.