jdredmon@mavs.coloradomesa.edu

According to CMU’s recent enrollment, the Kinesiology Department is among the most popular majors. The department offers five majors, a Bachelor of Science Athletic Training and Exercise Science, a Bachelor of Arts which shares time with the education department for prospective K-12  teachers, and the two most popular ones, Sport Management and Fitness and Health Promotion, for those who want to focus on a less science orientated Kinesiology major. The department’s rapid growth in the last few years is attributed to its variety of options.

Heading the department for the last 10 years is Dr. Jill Cordova, who before teaching, worked as an Adapted Physical Education Specialist for 10 years specializing with disabled individuals. She has seen, firsthand, the immense change that not only the college has gone through, but the Kinesiology Department as well.

“I think 19 years ago we were sort of seen primarily as a P.E. degree. It was one major. I think it was actually called Selective Studies it wasn’t even its own major,” Cordova said. “So we’ve evolved a lot from that to offer some really solid majors, and solid career choices. I think that’s what has made us more popular; we’re getting more and more majors and better and better students.”

Mark Cramer is a senior majoring in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Exercise Science at Mesa and has come to be seen in high regard within the department. He has spent his time as an intern at the Monfort Family Human Performance Lab in the Mav Center and in work study. He said that many of the core classes are about learning why fitness is important and how you can use the information with the general population in a practical sense. To help students gain experience in this application, numerous hours are required for students in the department, and it can be extensive.

“It’s required for, I believe, 60 hours of practicum experience. Basically, it’s an observation that you set up somewhere in town in a field that you might be interested in,” Cramer said. “It’s information to help you get an idea of what you might like to do, but the big goal of the practicum is to hopefully lead into an internship afterwords, where instead of just observing you actually do the work.”

In addition to internships already available, there are six paid internships that the Colorado Rockies’ farm team, the Grand Junction Rockies, have offered to students.

Cramer’s experiences within Kinesiology helped peak his interest in the wide range of possibilities the major allows for him to explore. He currently is filling out applications for graduate school to continue with his ultimate goal of being an educator. If things go according to plan, students like Cramer will no longer have to apply elsewhere for graduate school. Dr. Cordova expressed plans for a possible graduate’s degree at Mesa within the next few years. The department has come a long way from not being a major to consistently being among the top enrollments each year.