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The Northeastern Figure Skating Club is a group of passionate figure skaters who come from a wide variety of skating backgrounds and strive to continue their skating career throughout their time as an undergraduate. Skaters come from backgrounds ranging from ice dance, freestyle, and synchronized skating. The team is part of the U.S. Figure Skating (USFS) Intercollegiate Skating Program and competes at the 3 Northeast Sectional Regional Collegiate Competitions with hopes of qualifying for Intercollegiate Nationals. The team practices at Matthews Arena throughout the year, where practices are also attended by our two coaches who offer private lessons. 

Our email is nufigureskating@gmail.com, our website is nufigureskating.com, and our Instagram is @nu_figureskating. Please email us or use the “contact us” tab on our website if you are interested in more information; that’s the best way to ensure you get a quick response!
  • We decide our team based on an application process. This application looks to see how dedicated a prospective skater will be to the team,
    more so than their level or past skating experiences. The point of this application is really to learn more about our applicants and see how
    they’ll fit into our community!
  • See the “I’m currently in high school…” or “I currently attend/will be attending Northeastern…” sections to learn more about applying and joining.

NUFSC directs brand-new skaters to the Learn-to-Skate program run by Northeastern Campus Recreation. It is our hope that they can hone their skills and eventually become a full member of the team. Otherwise, NUFSC considers skaters of varying levels for acceptance, provided that they own their own skates and are past the level of Learn-to-Skate.

  • Decide if you want to apply to Northeastern! If you have any questions about Northeastern as a school, we are happy to answer them to the best of our abilities! Northeastern offers both in-person and virtual tours and information sessions.
    • Intercollegiate skating/Northeastern does not offer scholarship or recruitment to our team. We are happy to communicate with prospective students but cannot influence acceptances, scholarships etc.
  • Stay in contact with us…
    • If you visit the campus for a tour/accepted students day/orientation, send us an email so we can try to meet up with you in person and answer any more specific questions that come up. We do not allow people to practice with us, but we can work to arrange a visit to the rink.
    • If you choose Northeastern, reach out the summer before you get to school! That’s how we put people om the mailing list for our information sessions and application. This is what can ensure that you are getting all the most up-to-date information about actually joining the team when the time comes.
  • Connect with us…
    • Feel free to reach out at any time to get more information about the team and to be added to our prospective skater contact list. The best way to do this is via email.
    • We usually have a booth at Fall Fest and the Winter Activities Fair and this is a great way to meet some team members in person and get your name on our prospective skater contact list.
    • Attend our information session(s); if you are on our prospective skater contact list, you will receive information about date/time/location. We usually hold this at the beginnings of the fall semester and spring semester (if needed) before sending out the application.
  • Apply to the team!
    • Our application periods are at the beginnings of the fall and spring semester. If you’ve reached out or met us at a fair, you’ll be on the mailing list for the application and will receive it around the first few weeks of a new semester.
    • We do not accept new skaters mid-semester, so reach out before the start of the following semester to ensure you can apply during our next application period.
  • Our club is usually made up of approximately 35-40 skaters. We are limited to 30 starts per competition, so that’s why we cap the team around there. We do not want someone who wants to compete to not be able to.
  • Primarily, we are singles freestyle skaters and solo dancers, and we come from a wide variety of skating backgrounds and levels. Some people are looking to continue a competitive career in a less intense environment, while others are looking to get back into skating after being off the ice for a while. We have skaters on our team that range from Beginner to Senior freestyle and all MIF/dance levels. 
  • We have practice around four days a week at our on-campus rink (Matthews Arena). We offer both morning and evening practices because we do have to work around differing class and co-op schedules. We usually have 2 evening and 2 morning practices throughout the week. Our practices are really fun! Everybody enjoys talking, goofing off, cheering each other on during programs, helping each other with their elements, and of course actually practicing!
  • Our team does have two coaches who attend most of our practices. Julie Pondelli coaches high freestyle and moves, and Elizabeth Tirell coaches dance and low freestyle. We assign lessons to all our skaters on a monthly basis, and each member can expect about 1 lesson per week, which is assigned based on coach and skater schedules (we try to work around other commitments as best we can). Additionally, we’re lucky to have an alumnus of the team come back and work with skaters primarily on choreography and program run-troughs!
  • The club sports program at Northeastern offers us opportunities to work out with varsity trainers as a team. We have both agility and lift sessions that we use to improve our on-ice performance.
  • Apparel! Each new team member receives a club jacket and we also offer many other clothing items that members can purchase for themselves and family and friends out of pocket.
  • Outside of skating, our team participates in many social events such as apple picking, Soul Cycle and yoga classes, and team movie nights and dinners. This past season, we also went to see Adam Rippon’s book event and held a Nationals watch party! We also volunteer around Boston a few times a semester at road races and supper clubs, and participate in Relay for Life.
  • We do fundraise as a team; one of our biggest fundraisers is our annual holiday show, where our family members and friends can purchase tickets to see us perform individual and group performances! We also collaborate with restaurants, etc. around Boston to help ease dues for our members and fund even more fun events for our team!
  • We compete at the three US Figure Skating Northeastern Intercollegiate competitions each season with hopes of qualifying for the national intercollegiate championships.
  • We expect all of our skaters to be available to compete at least once a season, and strongly encourage people to compete more!
  • The amount of points up for grabs in an event is based on the number of people entered in the event so every skater is equally important to out team’s success, regardless of level.
  • Freestyle, solo pattern and free dance, and team maneuver events are offered.
  • All intercollegiate events follow the Excel series rules with the exception of the Junior and Senior championships events.
  • Intercollegiate competitions are currently all scored using the 6.0 judging system. There is talk of transitioning to IJS, but nothing concrete yet.
  • Our team’s ranking has greatly improved in the last couple seasons and we are really excited to continue to build in the coming years.
  • Our dues for the upcoming 2020-2021 season are $215 per semester, but are subject to change for subsequent seasons. You can assume they will be around this price.
  • Your dues cover all ice time, lessons, competition entry fees and travel expenses, team bonding events, and a team jacket for first time members.
  • It’s really fun! Whether it be practice, competition, our show, volunteering or fundraising events, or team bonding, our team members are always laughing together. We are truly a family!
  • It allows you to keep skating while balancing your academics. We’re really lucky to have our rink right on campus, about a 10 minute walk from most freshmen dorms, and less than a 15 minute walk from all dorms and building on campus. Our practices are in the morning and evenings, so they never conflict with classes and rarely conflict with co-op schedules.
  • You’re part of a team! While you will be competing individually and skating your programs as you do in non-intercollegiate competitions, your placement will earn you points for NUFSC. You still get your own placement, and earn an individual placement and awards, but you will also be helping our team earn points and a team placement. We also compete in team maneuver events where we have 3-7 team members perform a specific element each for our team. In this event, schools are ranked based on the team’s overall performance of the 7 elements.
  • A lot of people find intercollegiate competitions a lot less stressful and intense than their previous competition experience. It’s very lighthearted and fun, and everyone is incredibly supportive of each other! It’s a great way to make friends with your teammates and skaters from other schools, and network within the skating community.
  • Whether you are continuing a competitive career or getting back into skating, this team can adjust to your needs. While this is a serious collegiate sport, we accept skaters of all levels and people are always willing to help. Other people have had the same experiences as you and can offer advice!

EXECUTIVE

BOARD

Julia Choi

President

choi.jul@northeastern.edu

Annabel Devault

VP of Membership

devault.a@northeastern.edu

Sophie Horton

Treasurer

horton.so@husky.neu.edu

Ellen Smith

Events Coordinator

smith.ell@husky.neu.edu

Julia Feldman

Officer

feldman.juli@husky.neu.edu

Leah Ragosta

Officer

ragosta.l@husky.neu.edu

Emily Leung

Officer

leung.e@northeastern.edu

Hava Litvak

Officer

havanasya@gmail.com

Ashley Brown

Officer

brown.ashle@husky.neu.edu

leung.e@northeastern.edu

Ella Messner

Officer

messner.e@husky.neu.edu

brown.ashle@husky.neu.edu

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GALLERY