Are you interested in studying Exercise Science and Health Promotion? Here's an inside look at being in the major!
In your first semester of being in the Health and Exercise Science Department, you start off with biology and a few core requirements of the school. When you declare the major after your first semester, you’ll have two to three classes of exercise science a semester. Sometimes you'll even have more, depending on what is being offered!
There are two tracks you can chose from in the major: sport science or health and wellness. I am on the health and wellness track which calls for a few business classes, public speaking, and psychology.
On the sport science track, there are a few more exercise science courses, along with chemistry. The track you choose completely depends on what career goal you have!
Many of us in the major decide to minor in psychology. Psychology pairs with learning about the body, because working on injuries, a lot of it can come from a mental aspect. To learn about the mind really helps to give a boost in the major.
Our major is a tight-knit one. I love how close my junior class is in the major because we all study together, help each other, and make memories together.
Many courses have guest speakers come in to teach us about what they do in their careers. For example, in our nutrition class, two childhood obesity specialists came in to show us cases and explain what they do in their day-to-day. In our aging class, a senior citizen came in and spoke about all of her injuries and what she does for physical therapy.
Every adjunct professor is specific to that course which is amazing. For the skeletal muscle adaption class, our strength and conditioning trainer on campus teaches us and for our personal training class, we have a full-time personal trainer teach it.
The real-life experiences that are taught and shared within the classroom is something like no other major! We have our own lab that we perform many Vo2 Max tests, body composition tests, heart rate, blood pressure, and many others.
In our senior year, we complete 370 hours in internship settings which gives us hands-on experience with clients/patients. Our major is catered so specifically to set us up for any career path we may want. Anything from sport performance, physical therapist, occupational therapist, personal trainer, strength and conditioning coach and many, many more!
By: Lily Vanderslice ('23)