Profile Blog - Zachary Ruth

The Light in a Dark Tunnel

(The auditorium after class)

    For anyone seriously interested in Exercise Science at Bloomsburg University, the name Luke Haile should be familiar to you. Dr. Haile's dedication to learning and teaching makes him one of the best professors in Bloomsburg. He began his journey in Exercise Science at Columbia High School. He took an Anatomy and Physiology class his senior year, which at the time was very rare. His teacher cultivated a strong curiosity in him, even allowing him to work on college level research with him and helping him present their findings at a conference, only furthering his interest in Exercise Science. He then came to play soccer for Bloomsburg and got both his Bachelor’s and Masters degrees in Exercise Science, before getting his Ph.D in Pittsburgh University. He taught in Virginia for two years, then moved to Lock Haven to teach for five years, then came back to Bloomsburg where’s he has been teaching both undergraduate and graduate physiology classes for the past 8 years. Throughout his career he has done quite a bit of research and academic work, primarily in the effects of increased performance on our perception, which displays his interest in improving the lives of others. As of now he has been compiling research and data everyday for the past half decade on how performance affects our lives, with the hopes that he can distill it down into a book. Every professor has three aspects of their job; teaching, academics, and service, which Dr. Haile has proven himself as a strong participant in each. 

   Dr. Haile’s passion and desire for connection shine through his being and his style of teaching. His footsteps thunder through the hall before he opens the door and happily greets the class. When he boots up his presentation and displays it on the screen, he takes a remote, tests it, and steps down off the stage and joins his students in the aisles, and people slowly start migrating their attention towards him. His appearance adds to his ability to take control of the room, with a tall athletic

(Dr. Haile's Faculty Profile Photo)

build and light auburn hair cut short and neat, he looks like a professional athlete, which only adds credibility to what he teaches. His talking style sounds almost like a one-sided conversation, full of somewhat related tangents, but uses metaphor and simile to create a better understanding of his topics and to connect with his students. When explaining how learning pathways benefit from BDNF, he said: “When that pathway has been- you know, is now a well paved highway, as opposed to a crappy back road that says no winter maintenance, right?”, making it obvious that he is not afraid to curse, and uses humor to try to better connect with his audience. As he paces up, down and across the aisles, his head and eyes are fixated on the floor until he stops and looks up at all the people around him, all the while making heavy use of gesticulation to emphasize every word he speaks. He speaks often in rhetorical questions which sometimes works against him whenever he asks a real question to the class and is met with silence and dull expressions. His confident posture and somewhat laid-back demeanor make him very approachable, and his voice is kind and clear, making it hard for people to not understand anything he says. When he teaches his passion and curiosity take the lime-light. Dr. Haile admits: "I constantly want to be learning myself and I'm always learning something on my own, and a lot of times its related to what I teach, it's not always related to what I teach... I think when I'm able to harness that and boil some of my new knowledge down into the essence of what the student can understand and apply to what they want to do, then it is a gift." Dr. Haile's boundless curiosity and passion for teaching and sharing that knowledge while connecting with his students makes him a very strong educator.


   Those who have taken Dr. Hailes intro class notice pretty quickly that he uses a unique style of inviting dozens of professional speakers every chance he gets, sometimes even two in a day. He recounts from his college experience: "When I came in it was, I don't know, it was very prescribed, and even then, I didn't learn a lot about what else there was to do... Even when I was a professor, I really had no idea what occupational therapy was, I didn't know how you became a chiropractor, even going through getting a Ph.D. and teaching in a program (I) still really knew nothing about these things, nor did I know about all these other areas that you could get into with Exercise Science. With the intro class, my goal is to make sure that every student in that class knows of every possibility that you can get to from this academic path... how do you know where you're going if you don't even know it exists?" He built his class off of his experiences in hopes that he can guide people to a path they can thrive in and enjoy. His vast network of professional speakers consists of alumni, friends, past associates, and representatives of programs the school has ties to, all from his innate ability to connect with people. His intro class is a culmination of his strengths and experience to help give people the best start they can in the field of Exercise Science.


   In a world where people often disappoint us and everything seems a little bleaker, Dr. Haile should give us hope. He works to provide as best he can for his students, he works on his experiments, researches and writes with other Exercise Scientists to increase our understanding of the body and still finds time to read new things everyday about how exercise can improve our lives. He's even working on his own book on top of all that, a true feat of passion. His dedication to learning and improving the lives of others makes him one of the great educators of our time, and what makes him special demonstrates that there are still great people in the world who care about helping others with all their being.