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Feb. 20, 2007 — The University of Central Florida will begin offering this summer a new master’s degree program in clinical and lifestyle sciences, approved last month by Provost Terry Hickey. The new program will be offered as a track in the Master of Science in Health Sciences program.
Students in the new program will gain a thorough understanding of the pivotal role of exercise and nutrition in maintaining health and preventing chronic diseases, including heart disease and diabetes. They will learn how to translate these concepts into programs that promote a healthy lifestyle, as well as develop skills to participate in research on strategies to establish and maintain healthy lifestyles.
"I imagine it will be of interest to a growing number of students in health sciences,” said Diane Jacobs, chair and professor in the Department of Health Professions.
The new program consists of 38 credit hours, with course work in clinical and applied physiology, nutrition and clinical research methodology. Students may select a thesis or non-thesis option.
“It’s a program that’s well-grounded in the health sciences, but its application will be to the study of contemporary lifestyles,” Jacobs explained.
Jacobs anticipates there will opportunities for the program’s faculty and students to collaborate with UCF’s newly established Center for Lifestyle Medicine and College of Medicine and the Orlando branch of the Burnham Institute of Biomedical Sciences.
Graduates of the program will be eligible to take exams for certifications as an exercise specialist or a registered clinical exercise physiologist. They will likely find employment in these positions and others in settings such as lifestyle medicine centers, industries, government agencies, private practices and public relations offices.
Jacobs said her department developed the program in response to a report, “Healthy People 2010,” published in 2000 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that documented the need for promoting healthy lifestyles.
-- Karen Guin
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Clinical and Lifestyle Sciences Track, UCF Graduate Catalog description
For further information about the program, contact Professor Ted Angelopoulos at tangelop@mail.ucf.edu or
407-823-0364.
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