It’s your average day. Everything is going just fine until, to your utter shock and horror, you find yourself naked in front of your English class. Is this some sort of bad dream or a lucrative career?

For a handful of NIU students, being naked in front of a class is not a nightmare, but a steady paycheck.

Every semester, the NIU art department hires students and DeKalb residents as nude models for their Life Drawing classes, ARTS 200, ARTS 201 and ARTS 300.

“It can be hard to find models,” said Cheryl Fuller, secretary for the fine art studio and the person in charge of hiring models. “It seems there are more inquiries for the fall session than for the spring; however, that may in part be due to the drop in enrollment from fall to spring.”

While the art department does generally put out flyers or make announcements when they are hiring, students are encouraged to apply any time.

“I originally decided to become a nude model because I have a friend who goes to ISU who did it and he said it was the best job he ever had,” said Daniel Joda, a sophomore physical therapy major. “He had recommended that I go to my art department and see if they needed models, so I did.”

The requirements for the position are simple: an open schedule, an open mind and the ability to sit still for long periods of time.

“Although I don’t have a cut-and-dry interview process, I will have an ‘impromptu chat’ with each interested person and get a feel for who they are and why they are interested, while at the same time impressing upon them that this is a real job, therefore they’re asked to show the same respect as any other line of work,” Fuller said. “I would say the single most important factor that a model would need to understand is they are frequently asked to hold long poses.”

The idea of being in front of a classroom of strangers, or even acquaintances, in nothing but your birthday suit may be a mortifying one at first, but Joda asserts all of the students he has sat for are very professional about the situation.

“It’s not as strange as you would think,” he said. “It’s actually really cool to see drawings of yourself, to see other people’s perception of you; I think it’s a cool experience.”

Modeling for friends or acquaintances can add an interesting dynamic to a modeling session. Sometimes modeling for friendly faces can take the edge off the awkwardness.

“My first session ever, a really great friend/ex-girlfriend of mine was in the class,” Joda said. “It actually put me at way more ease and was a positive experience for me. I had another one of my friends in my class, a member of my rugby team, we both thought it was hilarious; it definitely makes the situation less awkward for me. I run into people I have modeled for a good amount. It’s not awkward for me, I don’t know about them, though.”