The Online Reflector

Staying fit, keeping healthy and even finding higher employability are promises of the new Healthy Diploma, a program recently implemented by the Kinesology Department. 

The Healthy Diploma is a 15 credit hour concentration offered for freshman and sophomore students, and it’s the first of its kind in the United States. Kinesiology Chair Lisa Hicks founded the program because of her concern of the rising obesity rates in the United States.

“This idea began about three or four years ago when a lot of emphasis was put on decreasing obesity in secondary education, but not a lot of emphasis was on higher education,” she said.

The requirements address the 10 leading health indicators, which are raising public health concerns in the U.S. In today’s unsteady economic situation, employers are looking for healthy workers demonstrating positive health behaviors and habits,  according to Hicks.

“There are no other programs like this to give students an opportunity to prove they are healthy to themselves and also to employers,” she said.

The U.S. spends more money on health care than any other industrialized nation, and 90 percent of all health care costs are defined as preventable illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control. UIndy is the only college offering this type of diploma to students, which will help them receive recognition in the competing job world.

Kinesiology Associate Adjunct Professor Mindy Mayol helped Hicks implement the program and emphasized that it’s open to all students of all majors, and that it’s also very doable.

“It just might push the Healthy Diploma student to get the job over another graduate,” Mayol said.

This one-of-a-kind program is trademarked so it would be impossible to take the same idea and confuse employers. The program provides individual consultation with a wellness coach, support for a healthy lifestyle, certification and distinction at graduation.

Any major can receive this diploma, but it involves several requirements in the kinesology department (listed in the chart to the right). “When students are educated about positive health behaviors, you’re going to leave college sustaining those habits,” Mayol said.

The Healthy Diploma offers physical activity electives only to their students, yields increased employability and grants honor cords at commencement. The benefits of this diploma include: increased academic productivity, employment productivity, decreased health care costs, promotes social responsibility, improved retention and school satisfaction, school success, physical benefits and even a higher grade point average, according to its creators.

“We wanted to provide students the opportunity to lead a healthy lifestyle and also to distinguish our students from others to make them more employable,” Hicks said.

Six different professors and various athletics coaches teach the kinesiology classes required.  The deadline to enroll is Nov. 20 by 4:30 p.m., by which students must submit an application explaining what the Healthy Diploma will do for them.  Enrollment is being limited to 60 to 70 students this year. Students wishing to apply should contact Townsend Schnabel, Kinesology administrative assistant at schnabelt@uindy.edu, or call (317) 788-3481.

By Haley Vannarsdall | Staff Writer