LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s clear to see Abbas Sattar-Shamsabadi loves his job. He has served as the PE and health teacher at Atkinson Elementary School since January, a position the school hadn’t had in 15 years.

“I was excited since they had not had a program for that long, that there were no bad habits that they were taught before, so I could come in from the ground up and teach them the right way,” Sattar-Shamsabadi said.

What You Need To Know

  • Atkinson Elementary School went without a PE program for 15 years

  • A partnership with UofL and a gift from Pepsi allowed Atkinson to reinstate the PE program

  • The grant will pay for Sattar-Shamsabadi’s position for the next three years

Through a partnership with UofL’s College of Education and Human Development and a $160,000 gift from the Pepsi Stronger Together Initiative, the gym that once served as just another storage closet is now back open for business.

Atkinson Elementary students outside school playing with parachute. (Spectrum News 1/Erin Wilson)

“Since we didn’t have very much equipment here to begin with, I’m starting from the ground up,” Sattar-Shamsabadi said. “So I’m buying things like scooter boards and jump ropes, and getting some yoga mats for the students as well, so it’s a lot of preparing and planning.”

Sattar-Shamsabadi has already seen the influence the class has had on his nearly 300 students in the few short months he has been at Atkinson.

“From the first time that I actually stepped in and taught the students, there was a shift in the kids’ behavior, excitement,” Sattar-Shamsabadi said. “When they saw the gym, their eyes got wide open because, like I said, it was just a bunch of chairs and desks pushed in there and it was never used.”

The impact goes deeper than just the smile on the students’ faces. It’ll improve both physical and mental health.

“PE is greatly important for your mental health because it helps to lower all types of mental illnesses, depression and anxiety, so being able to get out and to run and to play will help with all of those,” Sattar-Shamsabadi said.

The grant awarded by Pepsi pays for Sattar-Shamsabadi’s position for the next three years, where he will continue to work with UofL on a variety of research studies regarding mental health, academics and behavior improvements since the addition of the PE program at Atkinson.