There is a renewed focus on preventative healthcare, fitness, and healthy living habits because the healthier someone is, the less money they’ll spend on healthcare. This idea has opened numerous career options and opportunities. Our Health and Wellness degree will prepare you to work in a variety of healthcare fields like:

  • Corporations or institutions
  • Healthcare providers
  • Community/social services agencies
  • Creating your own business as a provider or consultant

You’ll learn that the value of good health is much more than the absence of disease.

Faculty chair Dr. Kent De Spain offers his view of the value of the Health and Wellness bachelor’s degree:

HEALTH AND WELLNESS MAJOR
General Education Requirements (21 cr)

  • GNED-3210 Experience and Expression (3)
  • GNED-3250 Modes and Methods of Learning (3)
  • GNED-3310 Literary Analysis and Argumentation (3)
  • GNED-3350 Culture, Conflict, and Social Research (3)
  • GNED-3450 Foundations of Civilization (3)
  • GNED-3510 Ecology, Technology, and Society (3)
  • GNED-3550 Leadership (3)

Major Requirements (33 cr)

  • HWL-4000 Economics, Politics & Access in Healthcare (3)
  • HWL-4010 Integration of Healthcare Modalities (3)
  • HWL-4020 History of Healthcare and Medical Ethics (3)
  • HWL-4030 Health and Nutrition Within the Family (3)
  • HWL-4040 Gender and Multicultural Issues in Health Care (3)
  • HWL-4050 Exercise and Fitness Across the Lifespan (3)
  • HWL-4060 Health Behaviors and Society (3)
  • HSA-4200 Human Services Systems and Grants (3)
  • MGT-3680 Accounting and Budgeting (3)
  • PRO-4970 Senior Project (3)

One elective:

  • HDV-4190 Dying as a Stage of Life (3)
  • HDV-3900 Caring for the Aging (3)
  • HDV-4140 Behavioral Physiology (3)
  • HDV-4150 Psychology of Women (3)
  • MGT-4880 Strategic Marketing for NonProfits (3)
  • SOS-4220 Environmental Health (3)

 

GNED-3210 Experience and Expression

Students discover the uniqueness of each human life by reading, comparing and comparing life stories about transformative experiences. They learn to write in their own voice from their own life experience employing rhetorical modes such as narration, description, example, comparison and contrast, process analysis, classification, cause and effect, and argument and persuasion. Students develop a new view of the world, of themselves, and of their interconnectedness to others.

GNED-3250 Modes & Methods of Learning

This course shows ways to identify and apply diverse modes of learning to achieve ends such as acquiring knowledge of self and world, solving problems, producing works of art, or engaging in public speaking. Students learn to distinguish facts from values, intuition from logic, imagination from objective  representation, beliefs from arguments, synthesis from analysis, and qualitative from quantitative reasoning. They practice selfawareness and employ evidence and logic as foundations of inquiry.

GNED-3310 Literary Analysis & Argument

Students travel the world in literature to explore ideas, passions, and the lives of people in other times and places. Discussions focus on viewpoints and aims of characters, narrative techniques, cultural contexts, and intentionality in reading and writing. Students refine their ability to read closely and critically and to analyze literary texts using a variety of academic approaches. They learn both how to construct analytical arguments about literary themes and how this skill can be transferred to other professional situations. Prerequisite: GNED-3210.

GNED-3350 Culture, Conflict & Social Research

Introduces students to the historic and cultural origins of contemporary conflicts and the attitudes and institutions that perpetuate them. They learn methods of research that can effectively address the issues and questions that arise in conflict situations. Students learn how to pose productive questions, formulate hypotheses, design logical and effective research strategies, address issues of reliability and validity, and observe ethical protocols. They each conduct and compose a modest research project and make an oral presentation according to professional standards. Prerequisite: GNED-3250.

GNED-3450 Foundations of Civilization

This course focuses on understanding differences between cultures and civilizations, including how both evolve from specific environmental conditions, and are shaped to address local challenges. This course examines the religious, economic, and political systems in such foundational zones as ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, India and China, and Greece and Rome.

GNED-3510 Ecology, Technology & Society

This course explores the interdependency of natural and social systems, the factors that contribute to the evolution and disappearance of species, and the human impact on natural environments by factors such as overpopulation, pollution, war, and excess consumption. It also examines more sustainable initiatives in waste management, and agricultural production, the use of alternative energies and technologies, and policy efforts to both conserve natural resources and ecosystems and build more sustainable communities.

GNED-3550 Leadership

 The course explores the concept of Leadership as science, as art, and as service. In the process of studying cases of successful and failed leadership the course requires students to reflect on how to make their lives meaningful and productive through the cultivation and exercise of leadership skills. They learn how to employ creative means to achieve constructive ends and how, in the process, to serve with integrity as they draw upon the capacities of diverse human resources and deploy the skills of community building.

HWL4000 Economics, Politics, & Access in Healthcare

This course investigates the tripartite relationship between Medicine, Government and Business. Topics for investigation include the privatization of health care delivery, HMOs and government regulation of health care financing and delivery, employer and employee funded health care, publicly funded health care initiatives such as Medicare, Medicaid, and indigent care, and the political economy of nationalized health care system.

HWL4010 Integration of Healthcare Modalities

This course introduces students to emerging methods of holistic medicine, and combinations of health and wellness practices. This course will investigate ways in which ‘alternative’ treatments and natural therapies such as massage therapy, yoga, reflexology, meditation, homeopathic medicines, herbal remedies, etc. can work in conjunction with, or in place of, traditional Western medical treatments. This course also includes ways of rethinking health care professions and relationships between various treatment providers and treatment recipients.

HWL4020 History of Healthcare & Medical Ethics

This course introduces students to healing practices that have endured from ancient to modern times in both the Eastern and Western traditions. The course surveys ancient beginnings of institutionalized medical practice, important historical divisions of medicine and resulting models of ethical reasoning in response to moral dilemmas in medical practices today. It involves such topics as: patient rights, end of life decisions, uses of genetic screening and the availability and distribution of health services.

HWL4030 Health and Nutrition Within the Family

Health and Nutrition Within the Family — This course examines human growth and development through the life cycle, from prenatal nutrition through old age, within the family system. It involves the study of the interrelationship between eating habits and lifestyle and their implications for long term health and wellness. Among the issues covered will be:  preventative care; infant and elder care; cardiovascular health; stress; substance abuse; and eating and behavioral disorders.  In addition, this course will explore current trends in processing and marketing foods and other important socioeconomic, cultural and life cycle factors that effect human growth and development.

HWL4040 Gender & Multicultural Issues in Healthcare

This course will examine ways in which gender and culture affect healthcare and approaches to medicine. In particular we will explore gender role expectations, the rise of the “women’s health” movement, ethnomedicine, and the psychology of health. The course also explores various ways in which individuals, households, larger groups of people and various medical systems and practitioners attempt to define, interpret and create health, as well as problems that arise from perceptions of difference.

HWL4050 Exercise and Fitness Across the Lifespan

Exercise and Fitness Across the Lifespan — This course is designed to familiarize students with the benefits of regular exercise and with the specific exercise and fitness needs of children, adolescents, adults, seniors, and the disabled. Students will study some basic concepts of Exercise Physiology as well as gaining a general understanding of the role of exercise and fitness in preventing disease and physical issues throughout all stages of human development. They will also participate in a range of exercise experiences and create an original exercise regiment for a target population.

HWL4060 Health Behaviors & Society

This course is designed to familiarize students with lifestyle choices that affect health and wellness, the way those choices affect others in society, and the way that institutions and governments work to influence those choices. The course will look at health behaviors such as smoking, alcohol use, drug use, obesity, sexual activity, recreational practices, and others, and at programs designed to promote healthy choices.

HSA-4200 Human Services Systems and Grants

This course explores the broad range of human services available in most large communities and the social policy context in which these services are delivered and funded. Topics include the ways in which services are delivered, the interconnections among the various agencies and organizations providing services and how to access these services including the writing of grants. Students have the opportunity to investigate services that are of particular interest to them as well as develop a philanthropy project. In this course, the student develops skills useful in conducting library research on and writing about topics in human development and human services and writing about topics in these fields. It emphasizes the preparation of grant applications in human services settings.

MGT-3680 Accounting and Budgeting

 This course introduces the students to fundamental principles underlying the accounting function as it relates to the management of organizations. Students develop an accounting model, starting with simple concepts, and build toward a system overview by taking a practical approach to the subject. This course also examines the basic concepts and issues underlying budget planning as well as the relationships of budgeting, planning, accounting, and information systems to organizational goals, program objectives, and performance measures.

PRO-4970 Senior Project

 In this seminar, each student develops and carries out a project relevant to professional goals. The project generally involves background study or research, planning, implementation, evaluation, and preparation of a written report. Instructor permission required.

HDV-4190 Dying as a Stage of Life

 This course explores personal death awareness and acceptance, looks at the issues facing dying persons and their families, evaluates the potential for growth at this ending phase of life, examines death through a number of cultural and religious understandings, studies the dynamics of grief, and practices skills for caring for the grieving.

HDV-3900 Caring for the Aging

Scientific and technological extension of the human life span becomes a factor impacting many lives. With the human experience as central focus this class will explore the medical, sociological, spiritual, psychological and financial perspective of this significant phenomenon. Students also explore other cultures’ care of their elders.

HDV-4140 Behavioral Physiology

This course reviews major anatomical structures and physiological systems affecting human behavior cognition and emotion. Emphasis is on normal and abnormal functioning of the brain. Topics such as left/right hemisphere differences, the physiology of chemical dependency and brain disorders are examined in depth.

HDV-4150 Psychology of Women

This course covers women’s psychological development, moral development, and feminist critique of adult development theories.

MGT-4880 Strategic Marketing for NonProfits

Marketing is the business function which links a society’s needs and its pattern of organizational response, has become critically important to not-for-profit organizations seeking to survive and prosper in increasingly competitive environments. Students learn the principles of strategic marketing, including marketing research, segmentation, targeting, and positioning, and how to apply these principles.

SOS-4220 Environmental Health

 This course focuses on understanding public health in relation to environmental factors such as air pollution, water pollution, and solid and hazardous waste disposal. It also addresses public health concerns raised by risks due to food supplies in a global marketplace, the spread of infectious diseases, and the apparatuses necessary to deliver health care services to poor and under-serviced populations.