by Michelle Mullen<\/p>\n
Lehman College is expanding its graduate offerings with a Ph.D. program in human performance and fitness, making it the only public institution in New York City to offer a doctorate in an exercise-related discipline.<\/p>\n
The program, housed in Lehman College\u2019s Department of Exercise Sciences and Recreation, is also the first Ph.D. program to be based directly at the Bronx college. Previous doctoral programs involving Lehman were administered through the CUNY Graduate Center, according to Bradley Schoenfeld, the program\u2019s director.<\/p>\n
Lehman College President Fernando Delgado said this addition has been years in the making. The program proposal went through several levels of review at Lehman College and the City University of New York, or CUNY, before receiving approval from the CUNY\u2019s Board of Trustees. New degree programs can take 18 months to two years to move through the process as officials review academics, staffing, finances, competition and potential demand, according to Delgado.<\/p>\n
Not only is the new Ph.D. the first program of its kind at a public university in the city, but its emphasis also sets it apart from many other exercise-related doctoral programs in the region, Schoenfeld said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe focus on human performance, where most of the other programs, certainly anywhere in this region, are focusing on clinical outcomes, health-related outcomes,\u201d Schoenfeld said. <\/p>\n
Instead, Lehman\u2019s program focuses on improving how people perform physically, rather than primarily treating disease or other clinical conditions.<\/p>\n
The program looks at healthy individuals and how exercise, training and other interventions can improve performance and quality of life, Schoenfeld said. <\/p>\n
Doctoral students are paired with faculty members based on their research interests. Schoenfeld said his students focus largely on muscle strength and growth, while another faculty member has a greater focus on aerobic exercise.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal at this point is to train the next generation of scholars on how to integrate the scientific method in becoming researchers and educators in human performance and fitness,\u201d Schoenfeld said.<\/p>\n
The program generally takes four to five years to complete, according to the school. Students take two to three courses per semester while spending at least 15 to 20 hours each week conducting research in a laboratory, Schoenfeld said.<\/p>\n
The doctorate also builds on Lehman College\u2019s existing master\u2019s program in human performance and fitness. Doctoral students can help mentor master\u2019s degree students as they conduct research and complete their theses, creating what Schoenfeld described as a stronger research environment across both programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just really helps to build a thriving lab,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a real boon to our program, and yeah, I\u2019ve gotten terrific feedback from the students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although many students pursuing a Ph.D. plan to become professors or researchers, Schoenfeld said graduates could also find work in sports science, strength and conditioning, corporate fitness and military research.<\/p>\n
Sports scientists, for example, can use data and statistical analysis to develop training programs and help teams make decisions about players, he said<\/p>\n
For Delgado, the program also creates an opportunity to expand Lehman\u2019s reach beyond the students it traditionally serves.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mandate will always be to serve the borough and the city,\u201d Delgado said, adding that bringing students from other parts of the country and abroad can strengthen the experience for local students as well.<\/p>\n
A classroom made up of students with different geographic and cultural backgrounds, he said, can introduce perspectives that might not otherwise emerge in discussions or research.<\/p>\n
The program could also benefit Lehman and the Bronx by strengthening the college\u2019s research capacity, Schoenfeld said. Doctoral students add researchers to laboratories, work alongside master\u2019s students and can ultimately help produce research with applications in athletics, fitness and human health.<\/p>\n
Producing those highly trained graduates, Delgado said, also allows Lehman to become a source of faculty and practitioners for institutions and organizations that need advanced expertise in exercise science.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hopefully going to look to do more research as an institution overall, a research-based institution, and I believe that our program is going to help drive that, facilitate that.\u201d Schoenfeld said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tLehman College,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Ph.D. in human performance and fitness,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t human performance,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t fitness,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t exercise science,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t graduate programs,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Bronx,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t CUNY,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t City University of New York,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Fernando Delgado,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Bradley Schoenfeld,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Department of Exercise Sciences and Recreation,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t doctoral program,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Ph.D. program,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t exercise research,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t sports science,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t strength and conditioning,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t fitness research,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t human health,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Lehman College graduate programs,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Bronx higher education\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Michelle Mullen Lehman College is expanding its graduate offerings with a Ph.D. program in human performance and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[129424,128,129434,24379,2397,129425,129426,129428,129421,129423,13530,129431,129422,129432,129420,24449,129433,9,24,63,129419,129427,129429,129430,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-345569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bradley-schoenfeld","tag-bronx","tag-bronx-higher-education","tag-city-university-of-new-york","tag-cuny","tag-department-of-exercise-sciences-and-recreation","tag-doctoral-program","tag-exercise-research","tag-exercise-science","tag-fernando-delgado","tag-fitness","tag-fitness-research","tag-graduate-programs","tag-human-health","tag-human-performance","tag-lehman-college","tag-lehman-college-graduate-programs","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-ph-d-in-human-performance-and-fitness","tag-ph-d-program","tag-sports-science","tag-strength-and-conditioning","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}