Health and Wellness Promotion. Health promotion is the process of improving people’s understanding, attitudes, and conduct regarding individual and community health. Professionals in health promotion teach elementary or secondary school, or they work in community health agencies. SWT health promotion graduates work in education, emergency medical services, senior citizens programming, worksite wellness programs, Public Health Departments, Volunteer Health Organizations, and various other fields. The Bachelor of Health and Wellness Promotion provides a major in health and wellness promotion with secondary certification, or with elementary certification, or a non-teaching major with a specialization in community health promotion.

 

Exercise and Sports Science. The Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Science prepares students for careers as teachers in elementary and secondary schools and as athletic coaches. Students may choose either secondary or all-level (elementary and secondary) certification. Graduates with teacher certification work in elementary and secondary schools in Texas and elsewhere.

 

Athletic Training. Athletic training concerns all aspects of the athletes’ health and safety. Athletic trainers help prevent injuries and provide immediate treatment and rehabilitation for injured athletes as directed by a team physician.

 

The Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Science degree with a major in athletic training prepares students for the State of Texas Athletic Trainers’ License and the National Athletic Trainer’s Association Board of Certification’s examination. A secondary teaching certificate is also available. Although most graduates work in secondary schools, many trainers find positions with colleges and universities, professional sport teams, and sport medicine clinics. Athletic training has a limited enrollment; therefore, students desiring to be considered for admittance should obtain an application from the department.

 

The BESS degree with a major in Athletic Training has an additional emphasis in Pre-Physical Therapy for those students desiring to prepare for graduate school in physical therapy, physician's assistant, occupational therapy, and other allied health professions.

 

Health and Fitness Management. The health and fitness management program is available under the BESS degree and prepares students to direct fitness enterprises and wellness or health awareness programs in commercial, corporate, and institutional settings. Areas of study include fitness programming, stress management, smoking cessation, diet/nutrition, health-risk appraisal, and employee assistance. The curriculum also allows students to acquire the academic and clinical prerequisites needed to earn professional certification. Graduates work as fitness leaders, exercise testing technicians, cardiac rehabilitation specialists, or corrective therapists. Others are employed as salespersons, administrators, and managers of sports or fitness facilities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the next five years, the Department of HPER expects to see continued increases of student majors in Health Education, Physical Education, and Recreation. During the last four years, there has been a 15% overall fall enrollment increase. Furthermore, during the past academic year our HPER program has had a 7% increase in students taking classes without any new faculty added to our program. This has put a tremendous burden on HPER faculty who were forced to increase their class capacities to accommodate the increased enrollments (See Table II below).

 

In addition to significant increases in undergraduate majors, there has been a marked increase in student taking the required Personal Fitness and Wellness (PFW) activity classes. Since FY2000, we have had an additional 800 students taking PFW classes without an appreciable increase in the number of graduate assistants and faculty. This influx of students is destined to decline beginning with 2008 as the new 120 SCH requirements become official policy. We expect our PFW enrollment to decline but not a full fifty per cent with the drop of one of our required activities.