Leslie D. Smith is a freshman who goes to class like everyone else, studies like everyone else, hangs out with her friends like everyone else and generally leads a normal college life.

Looking at this petite, sweet-faced girl, one would never guess that she is someone the average person would not want to pick a fight with.

Smith is an instructor at a self-defense seminar being sponsored by various campus organizations, such as the Multicultural Action Group, the Union Drive Association’s education/diversity committee, Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, the boxing club and Kappa Kappa Psi fraternity. The seminar is being held at tonight at 8:15 in Chessman Lounge of Helser Hall.

Smith is a first-degree black belt in USA shudokan karate and a sixth-degree green sash in Tai-Wei Kusodo kung-fu.

“My father owns a karate school, so ever since I was little, I learned the different moves,” she said. “He’s had the school for about eight years and I have taught classes in it for about six years. I was training before he opened the school, and I have been training and teaching since then.”

The objective of the class is to teach people, especially women, different moves they can use to defend themselves.

“For example, on a college campus, only 10 percent of rape victims actually fight back, and in 90 percent of the cases, the man is unarmed. So the class is designed to help women be aware of their own self-worth and confidence and fight back,” said Dee Mitchell, senior in computer engineering.

Mitchell, vice president of MCAG, is a second-degree black belt in kenpo karate and has also trained in southern-style kung fu, win chung and tae kwon do.

Others helping out with the seminar are Bill Sears and Olusegun Coker. Sears, senior in computer engineering, is affiliated with Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma fraternities. He is a black belt in tae-kwon do and has been training in southern-style kung fu.

Coker, senior in zoology, also has a first-degree black belt in tae kwon do and has been training in hapkido.

This diverse knowledge in the various martial arts will be an advantage to the women who attend this seminar, Smith said.

“The women who come to this will benefit greatly because you get the advantage of the different styles of the arts,” she said. “One person will know certain grabs and styles that another would never think of.”

Coker said they plan to teach basic moves from every art.

And students do not have to be as fit as their instructors to learn how to fight back when it counts.

“Physical shape and gender have nothing to do with it,” Smith said. “If you have a good instructor, you can learn anything.”

The instructors said the seminar will not teach people every martial art move, but it will teach people, whether weak or strong, big or small, how to use their bodies to defend themselves when it counts.

“It’s not that they’re taking a specific style,” Smith said. “They are learning how to defend themselves on the street.”

The instructors said participants of the seminar can be assured that they will walk away with hands-on experience. Smith said participants will practice and perform martial art techniques on demonstrators.

“I want women to first see what it’s like to hit a man in the flesh, so that they can at least let go of some of their inhibitions,” Smith said.

Besides the physical advantages of their extensive training in the martial arts, the four instructors said they benefit the most from the self-discipline they’ve obtained.

“As a student, you are taught a lot of self-discipline and self-control. That’s one of the first things you are taught,” Mitchell said.

Sears agreed.

“It’s all about what you know, not what rank you are,” he said. “You never stop learning.”

Besides teaching self-defense, the class was organized to promote other objectives as well.

“To coordinate with Veishea’s theme, ‘Time for Change,’ we decided to name the program ‘Fight for Change’ as a step in the fight against violence,” said Shannon Sandholm, vice-president of the UDA Senate education/diversity committee.

“We’d like to show [ISU President Martin Jischke] and Thomas Hill, [vice president for student affairs,] that we are taking action in making this year’s Veishea celebration better and safer for students,” she said.

Sandholm also has personal motives for being enthusiastic about the seminar.

“Being attacked is scary,” she said. “I know from experience. I’m just glad I was prepared and confident to handle the situation.”

Smith encourages everyone to attend the seminar. She said the program is filled with techniques, tips and discussion about preventing and assessing violence.

There will also be prizes given away at the seminar for the organization or residence hall house with the highest attendance.