Are you considering going back to school to fulfill your desire to help others? There are many different degrees that allow you to work with people in a helping manner. Specifically, a kinesiology degree gives you a background in athletics, both administratively and applied. With a kinesiology degree, you can work a variety of professional roles.
Occupational therapist
Occupational therapists are very important for rehabilitation, especially after an injury or surgery. One of the things that a kinesiology degree prepares you for is how exercise can be used to improve a condition. Exercise is important following an injury. It allows the person to strength the surrounding muscles to prevent reinjury. It also helps patients get back on their feet after they have been forced to sit or lay in a hospital bed for many months, caused the muscles of the body to weaken.
Athletic trainer
Do you have a strong enjoyment of sports? Are you familiar with the challenges that athletes face, both on the court and off the court? An athletic trainer is tasked with working with athletes. They create individual plans to improve sporting skill levels. They also work on improving an athlete after they have suffered an injury. The diagnostic part is another area of an athletic trainer and having a kinesiology degree can help with identifying common sports related injuries.
Dance and movement therapist
The art of dance can be especially therapeutic. It gets you out of your mind and into your body, focusing instead on the movements that you are making. Some therapists use kinesiology to promote healing emotionally. Although this route often requires an advanced degree, such as a communications degree or a master?s degree in counseling, the kinesiology degree background is also needed. About 6% of all college grads majored in psychology. Psychology gives you a good foundation for working with people, in a variety of settings.
Exercise researcher
Are you interested in completing research? An exercise researcher is involved in conducting experiments to test just how important exercise is to the human body. The primary day of an exercise researcher involves planning and conducting a series of tests. These tests aim to find out things like how much exercise is needed for energy, how much exercise is needed for weight loss, and which exercises are ideal for emotional wellbeing. A kinesiology degree, even a bachelor?s degree, is helpful in applying how the body works and functions to these research projects.
It is never too late to return to school
It does not matter if a kinesiology degree is a newer idea, it is never too late to return to school. When you return to school for a degree, you are increasing your chances at a better career and a better salary. In fact, in a 2012 Pew Research report, workers with at least a bachelor?s degree had median annual earnings of $45,500, well over the medians for people with only some college ($30,000), or a high school diploma ($28,000). The specific degree is not as important as having the degree itself.
Approximately 83% of all college attendees say earning their degree has paid off. There are many adult education degrees that you can pursue, with a kinesiology degree being just one of them. A kinesiology degree opens up many career doors for you to choose from including an occupational and rehabilitation therapist, a sports athletic trainer, an exercise researcher, and a dance and movement therapist. During your kinesiology courses, you will be exposed to a variety of careers that you can do upon completion of the degree.