Ready for You! Health Wellness and Physical Education Department

The Health Wellness and Physical Education Department stands out on campus as it is located in one of Washington Adventist University’s newest buildings! This department is like none other and holds a strong foundation for its three-degree programs: Bachelor’s in Fitness and Sports Science, Health Science, and Health Fitness Management. These degree programs offer a plethora of careers that can take an aspiring student to far places. We sat down with the chair of the HWPE department, Dr. Denise Hinds, to get further information on these programs and their benefits.

The first program we discussed was the Health Fitness Management Degree. Students who do this degree have options to run a fitness facility or own one if they’d like. Not only can they work with a fitness facility, but they also have the opportunity to run any type of public health program in a hospital setting or a county setting. They can be health educators, health managers, or program planners, developing community health programs to create, implement, and evaluate. 

We continued to the Health Science Degree, which was primarily designed for students who wanted to focus on any pre-professional programs. These programs include but are not limited to pre-medicine, pre-physical therapy, pre-dentistry, and occupational therapy. Generally, the degree caters to anyone who needs a strong science background to get into a specific graduate program or school. But it doesn’t stop there; this degree can be implemented into many different areas based on the job perspective and area of focus in the health field. Given this current pandemic, there is a crucial need in public health for research statistics, data collection, and health information technology. This degree can provide a solid foundation for undergraduates to go into any of those fields and more. 

Then lastly, we dove into Fitness and Sports Science. Students are typically interested in becoming coaches, personal trainers, leaders for youth fitness programs, or leaders for youth sports programs when it comes to this degree. This program is excellent to use as a major to prepare for grad school. For example, one might complete this degree and go on to get a master’s in exercise science. 

The summaries above only scratch the surface of the possibilities with these three programs! We hope that this breakdown of the HWPE Department degrees sheds some light on what is in store for the semesters to come. The Health Wellness and Physical Education Department is Ready For You! Excitement is in the air to see the students come back to campus, and we hope one of the HWPE programs can fit into the educational purpose God has in store for them.

Learn more about this department and more: HERE

This is…Washington Adventist University!

Dr. Denise Hinds

Dr. Hinds obtained her Doctor of Public Health degree in preventive care and Master of Public Health in maternal and child health. Her dissertation focused on the effects of breastfeeding and lifestyle on long-term maternal weight change. Her areas of interest include preventive health, maternal and child health, health disparities, African American health, reproductive health, and community-based health promotion.