Exercise Science: A Unique Discipline Comes of Age

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Today, alumnus Phillip Sparling (MED ’76, EDD ’79) will be guest-blogging about his experience as an exercise science major at UGA in the 1970s. 

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Phillip Sparling (MED ’76, EDD ’79)

To her dying day, my mother never fully understood what I did for a living.

She knew, of course, that I was a college professor. It was my field of study she was unable to explain to cousins and acquaintances. The questioning looks: what the heck is exercise science? Today, some 20 years after her death, my academic discipline is no longer unknown, although its scope and significance still remain fuzzy to some, on campus and off.

With apologies to Paul Simon, I’m still crazy about exercise science after all these years. With an undergraduate degree in the liberal arts from Duke, I pursued graduate training in exercise physiology at the University of Georgia in the Division of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (HPERD) in the mid-1970s. My career spanned the coming of age for exercise science. It wasn’t a straight-forward progression for me or the field. New trails were blazed as a new field took shape.

Relative to the venerable sciences of biology, chemistry and physics, exercise science is one of the newer kids on the block. It has grown from infancy to full maturity within a few short decades and is now one of the most popular majors on campuses nationwide. Similar to the rise of computer science, the development and application of technology have been central to the growth of exercise science. For example, tools and techniques from molecular biology, neuroscience and biomedical engineering are used to answer our research questions.

Questions span the continuum from the effects of complex high-intensity conditioning programs for top athletes to the effects of simply increasing daily walking on quality of life and reduction of chronic disease risk in sedentary adults. Exercise science is the theory-based, evidence led study of human movement. It comprises many emphasis areas, most notably exercise physiology, biomechanics, motor control and exercise psychology. Like the fields of medicine or psychology, exercise science is both broad and deep, with many specialties and subspecialties.

The roots of exercise science in academe can be traced to 1861 when Edward Hitchcock, Jr., M.D. initiated a program of gymnastics and physical training at Amherst College. The aim was to maintain health and relieve the strain associated with “academic courses.” A tenet of the college experience was mens sana in corpore sano (a sound mind in a healthy body). Over the next several decades, the Amherst model was widely replicated across the country and physical education became part of the general education curriculum at most colleges.

Following World War II, the boom in federal research funding and expansion of doctoral programs ushered in a golden age of scientific inquiry. By the 1950s and through the 1960s, a new breed of physical education faculty, led by scientists like Franklin Henry at UC Berkeley, advocated for an increased focus on rigorous research. Their contention was straightforward: physical education faculty should be systematically investigating the effects of exercise to advance the knowledge base, just as colleagues in the life sciences studied the nature of their respective disciplines. This set the course for what would become exercise science.

In the current taxonomy of academic fields, exercise science is a major branch of kinesiology, similar to the relationship of zoology to biology or biochemistry to chemistry. The discipline of kinesiology refers to the study of human movement in the broadest sense. In addition to exercise science (and its many specialties), other prominent branches (majors, tracks) are athletic training, physical education (teacher education), and sports management. The University of Georgia’s Department of Kinesiology is ranked among the best in the country.

Future financial security is not a given though. Kiplinger recently rated exercise science as among the “worst careers”, along with animal science, horticulture and music. This assessment was based solely on projected salaries following graduation. In making a career choice, reconciling passion versus salary is always difficult. Interestingly, some graduate students in exercise science have undergraduate degrees in engineering and business; many were well paid but dissatisfied with the day-to-day grind.

The world in 2015 is designed for sitting – our lives are dominated by cars, chairs, and screens – yet humans are wired to move. The positive impact of daily physical activity on growth and development in children and overall health and well-being in adults is undeniable. An increasingly important challenge is how to translate national guidelines into behavior change (physicalactivityplan.org). How do we better enable children, adults, families and communities to become more physically active?

Preparing professionals for careers in exercise science has never been more relevant or timely. No other aspect of our lifestyle has a more potent impact on our capacity to thrive than exercise. If my mother were alive today, I think she’d agree and understand my fervor as an exercise scientist.

And I trust that many of you – friends and alumni of the University of Georgia, folks from all walks of life – do as well.

Phillip B. Sparling is an alumnus of the University of Georgia, Professor Emeritus at Georgia Tech, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology. He presented the 1st Distinguished Alumni Lecture in the Department of Kinesiology in October 2015. This essay is based on a viewpoint he published in the February 2016 issue of JOPERD.

Interview with The Washington Post’s Alex Laughlin (AB ’14) + Julia Carpenter (ABJ ’13, AB ’13)

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The University of Georgia sends its graduates to a number of major metropolitan cities, including Washington, D.C. Two recent graduates, Alex Laughlin (AB ’14) and Julia Carpenter (ABJ ’13, AB ’13), now work for the Washington Post, one of America’s premier newspapers. Digital Specialist Jamie Lewis (AB ’12, AB ’12) recently interviewed Alex and Julia to learn about their paths to D.C.

Tell me a bit about your positions at the Washington Post. 

Alex: I’m a social media producer. Half the day I run the main social accounts (Facebook and Twitter), and the other half of the day I spend working on emerging platforms for the Post like Instagram, Snapchat and List.

Julia: I’m an embedded social media editor. That means I work on the audience engagement team, but instead of focusing on the main accounts and the entire newsroom like Alex does, I’m narrowing my focus to two things: our features department, and our Tumblr presence. Our embed program (we’re still hiring for two gigs — in local and world — so tell your friends!) just launched this past fall. Before I started as an embed, I was a digital producer on the social media team. I worked on some wonderful projects, like our voicemails Tumblr This Year I Learned (y’all should call in!) and user-generated content and new platforms (just a year ago, that meant things like Snapchat, messaging apps and Tumblr — isn’t that weird?).

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Alex Laughlin (AB ’14), social media producer at the Washington Post  

What pushed you to move to D.C. after graduation?

Alex: I had always been interested in moving to DC because it’s a major city, but not as massive as New York. I fell in love with it when I interned here in the summer of 2013, and then I moved here after graduation when I got a job at a small political magazine.

Julia: I was interviewing for two jobs at the same time — one was in D.C., and the other in New York. I’d interned in New York (twice!) and I’d lived there (twice!), so I decided to do the thing I hadn’t done before. I wanted to explore a new city, and I wanted to do journalism — the gig at The Post was the perfect opportunity to do both.

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Julia Carpenter (ABJ ’13, AB ’13), embedded social media editor at the Washington Post 

How did your time at UGA prepare you for the professional world? Any particular professors, classes or organizations that affected you?

Alex: I was a women’s studies major, and the greatest preparation I got in the classroom for the “real” world was the ability to think critically about the systems around me and also know how to form an airtight argument and advocate for myself. The majority of my practical journalism experience came from my time at the Red & Black, where I was a reporter and then an editor (before our notorious walk-out in 2013!). I was also a member of a Panhellenic sorority, where I learned how to make small talk.

Julia: I was a total Red & Black junkie. I tried pretty much every job in that newsroom, and the friends I made there are now my strongest professional connections (and my dearest confidantes). I also can’t say enough how my double major — in magazine journalism and in English — and my Honors Program thesis work with Dr. Elizabeth Davis prepared me to think critically about new media storytelling. My thesis research was, seriously, just reading hundreds of characters worth of Twitter fiction — total dream, and something I bring up in work convos more often than is probably polite.

What advice would you give to a student interested in working on the digital side of journalism?

Alex: Make friends with the most ambitious people you know. Learn a lot about something that isn’t journalism. Always have a side project going — whether it’s an internship, a club leadership position, or a job. Trade them out each semester, and then take your last semester off. Don’t be scared to go to meetings for clubs you want to join — even if the people seem really cool and intimidating! They aren’t that cool, I promise.

Julia: Intern like a crazy person.

You’ve both got some pretty fun projects aside from your jobs at The Post – tell me about them!

Alex: I host and produce The Ladycast, which is a podcast where I interview cool women about their lives and their careers. I also have a YouTube series called “Side Hustle” with Femsplain.

Julia: I love side hustles! I have way too many open Google docs of projects yet to see the light. Otherwise, I run two newsletters: A Woman to Know and Drunk Poetry Circle. A Woman to Know is a daily missive about a woman from history, politics, art, science, you name it. I’ve written about Caresse Crosby, the inventor of the bra; Hazel Scott, a pioneering jazz musician; Tsuneko Sasamoto, a 90-year-old (still working!) photographer; the list goes on.

My friend (and fellow UGA alum!) Maura Friedman and I run Drunk Poetry Circle, a place for all happy hour poems to live (and also, sometimes, to die). We think everyone is capable of wonderful, moving, sad, hilarious poems — sometimes you just need a discount cocktail or two to stoke the creative flame. We ask people to submit the best of their work to us, and every week we send out a newsletter featuring the best (or funniest) verses.

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Alex (left) and Julia (right) with Lindsey Rogers Cook (ABJ ’14), fellow Bulldog and Washington, D.C., resident 

What has been your biggest accomplishment since leaving UGA?

Alex: My biggest accomplishment is probably launching my podcast!

Julia: I’m proudest of This Year I Learned. I worked on it with one of my most favorite creative collaborators, Masuma Ahuja, and the whole thing — every message, the wave of responses — is just magic magic magic.

Best memory from your time at UGA?

Alex: Some of my favorite memories include walking from the SLC to North Campus in the fall, debating in my women’s studies classes, studying at Walker’s, and Take Back the Night with WSSO!

Julia: I have too many to pick one. Athens is one of those places I think about all the time — like whenever I have a bad day, or a good day, the first thing I think is “what’s happening in Athens right now?” Strolling up to Jackson Street Books after class in Park Hall. Ringing the Chapel Bell with my best friend on his graduation eve, after a night out at Blue Sky and Allgood. Studying at Walker’s with dirty chais. The thunder of “Touchdown, Georgia!” that echoed every Saturday. Walking down Bloomfield Street at night, surrounded by porches and twinkly lights. The apple and cheese sandwich at Marti’s. Staying late at The Red & Black and then walking home to my own (first!) apartment, where I lived next door to my bestest friends, where I could hear the crack of baseball bats practicing throughout September.

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Alumni Spotlight: Shimat V. Joseph (MS ’06, PHD ’10)

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In 2012, Shimat Joseph was given the position of Integrated Pest Management Adviser from the University of California. In this job, Shimat has dealt with the task of working with local growers to combat pests, specifically the cabbage maggot. In the last few years though, he has focused on finding alternative approaches for combatting these pests and restoring the future of agriculture for the state of California.

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Shimat Joseph (MS ’06, PHD ’10)

Growing up in India, Shimat loved gardening, and chose to study agriculture in college. What began as a love for agriculture and gardening back home eventually led Shimat to study the field of entomology. In 2002, Shimat travelled halfway around the world to pursue a Master’s degree in entomology from the University of Georgia.

His past research areas have focused on turf control and pest management to deal with the hemlock woolly adelgid.

Congratulations on all of your success Shimat, and good luck with your future endeavors!

Read more about Shimat Joseph.

Double Dawg Maxine Burton honored with her own flower

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Whenever you go out to look for flowers that can add a pop of color to your home or garden this spring, be sure to keep your eye out for the “Maxine” Dianthus, named after alumna and founder of burton + BURTON, Maxine Burton (BSED ’72, MED ’78).

In European culture, queens and heads of state have had flowers named after them in their honor. Because of this esteemed tradition, the International Floriculture Exposition (IFE) has only awarded 6 people, including Maxine, with their own flower.

With the help of her family, Maxine and her husband founded their company, burton + BURTON, in 1982. Today, it has grown into one of the largest distributors of balloons and coordinating gifts in the world and has helped the floral industry to flourish as well.

The “Maxine” Dianthus is a fun, solid pink colored dianthus, making it the perfect fit for a bright, go-getter who has dedicated 33 years to the balloon, hard goods, and décor industry.

The award was presented to her at this past year’s International Floriculture Exposition in Chicago. The award was kept a secret in order to surprise her at the exposition.

In light of receiving the award, Burton said, “To be recognized by people with whom I have so much history and so much respect is an incredible honor, not just for me, but for our entire burton + BURTON family.”

Congratulations Maxine on this outstanding honor!

Alumna Spotlight: Dr. Kimberly Osborne (PHD ’06)

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Digital Specialist Jamie Lewis (AB ’12, AB ’12) recently interviewed alumna Dr. Kim Osborne (PHD ’06). Osborne is a professor at Purdue University and was named the inaugural C-SPAN Endowed Chair at Purdue’s Brian Lamb School of Communications.

You were named to the C-SPAN Endowed Chair at the Brian Lamb School of Communications at Purdue. Can you tell me a little bit about that position? 

The C-SPAN Chair is a new position at Purdue in 2015-2016, and I am honored to be selected as the inaugural recipient of this prestigious endowment. It is a terrific fit for me because of my background in both public affairs and communication, which are areas central to C-SPAN’s mission. As a scholar, my academic expertise includes cultural studies, program planning, power/hegemony and media literacy.

Before I started at Purdue, I worked for two Cabinet-level federal agencies, in domestic and international roles, and I also have more than two decades of experience with corporations, nonprofits, top PR agencies, and media outlets worldwide helping to shape public opinion and public policy. At Purdue, I speak and teach, I serve on national boards, and I mentor the next generation of public affairs and strategic communications practitioners. It is rewarding to help guide young people whose skill set will impact decision making – from the U.S. Congress to statehouses to corporations nationwide.

Your resume boasts a variety of accomplishments. What are some accomplishments of which you are most proud? 

It seems like I have lived many lifetimes in one, and this has made my life interesting. Professionally, my recent assignment as the Chief Strategic Communications Advisor to the Afghan National Security Forces made me proud. I was the U.S. Department of Defense’s top civilian communications advisor to Afghanistan’s defense ministries in Kabul. In addition to my day-to-day duties mentoring senior leaders in the Afghan Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior, I was tasked with “fixing” the “broken” communications function in the Afghan National Army. (Did I mention that I had never worked in a war zone before?) My plan provided recommendations for major organizational improvements, identified training needs and remediation, and proposed more proactive and strategic messaging focused on the end of Operation Enduring Freedom, the upcoming presidential elections, and other major high-stakes, high-visibility endeavors.

Additionally, I guided senior military personnel in the development of the first strategic communications plan for the Afghan National Army, and I led efforts by ISAF’s Ministerial Engagement Team and the U.S. Defense Department’s Ministerial Advisory Group. For my part, the Afghan National Army’s Director of Strategic Communications called me “the best advisor I ever had … in spite of being a woman.”

Personally, I have done a lot of things that make me proud. One of them is saying yes when a woman asked me if I believed in her dreams. She approached me at a speaking engagement in Los Angeles, and she told me she wanted to start a leadership development program to send young adults to Ethiopia to do service work. She asked if I thought she could do it and if I would give her advice. Today, she is the executive director of a start-up nonprofit organization called Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship. In the first year, EDF sent five young people from the Ethiopian diaspora – including one UGA graduate — to Addis Ababa for six months where they worked with community partners to build capacity in sub-Saharan Africa. In a recent meeting, Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs asked if EDF could expand their program and model to other western nations and bring even more help to Ethiopia. I am officially the organization’s “strategic advisor,” but I am always introduced as the “person who said yes.”

You earned your Ph.D. in adult education at UGA. What attracted you to UGA? Do any particular memories of your time in Athens stand out? 

After I executed the public launch of Kelly Educational Staffing, which became the fastest-growing, most profitable business unit in (Fortune 500 professional services supplier) Kelly Services’ history, I’d become tired of Michigan’s winter weather. UGA’s Office of Public Affairs offered me a job in which I would help elevate the institution’s profile in the national media, and I did not hesitate to move south. In the decade that I worked and studied at UGA, I have more fond memories than I can recount in this space. Academically, I am grateful for the opportunity to study with several of the most esteemed scholars in the field of adult education and to have graduated from the top program in the discipline. Professionally, I enjoyed starting the Amazing Student feature on UGA’s website with my colleague, Janet Beckley, because I got to learn about and showcase so many talented Dawgs. I also enjoyed working as the first coordinator of the joint program between UGA’s Office of External Affairs, the Office of the President, and the Athletic Association where we featured UGA’s top teaching, research and service faculty on the field during home football games – which helps remind the Bulldog Nation that there is a university attached to its football team!

If you could give one piece of advice to UGA students as they prepare for internships and graduation, what would it be?

Be bold. Dare to dream. Take chances. Live the life you wish for. Think outside the box. Color outside the lines. Blaze new trails. I think back to when I was graduating from college, and I want to take that 22-year-old version of myself and hug her. I want to tell her to worry less and risk more. I want to tell her it will turn out to be more amazing than she can imagine. I want to tell her not to be so concerned about what other people think. And I want to assure her that it’s okay if you don’t know what you want to be when you grow up. Try one thing, and when it’s time to try something else, then do that. You only have all the answers when you look back at your life, never when you look ahead. It blows my mind to think about what a pivotal and transformational time this is in human history. What incredible opportunities we have to influence the course of events-for ourselves, for other people, for societies and for humankind! Do something positive. Inspire others. Make the world a better place.

Alumna Spotlight: Mariah Domenech (BSED ’15)

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The UGA Alumni Association welcomes Mariah Domenech (BSED ’15) as today’s guest blogger. Mariah is a Georgia Fund scholarship recipient who studied abroad this past fall in Spain. The Georgia Fund is the annual giving program to support academic and alumni initiatives at UGA. Georgia Fund gifts enrich the lives and experiences of students, faculty and alumni, wherever they are engaged in advancing the University’s mission – on campus, around the state or abroad. For Mariah, this trip would not have been possible without generous support from alumni and friends.

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“Teaching in Spain was a life changing experience. Being completely submerged in such a different culture was nerve-wracking. I wasn’t sure what mannerisms were appropriate or how to ask for things without coming off as rude; it took a lot of observing my surroundings in order to find out the proper way to interact with others. It also took a lot of me asking my host family a ton of questions whenever I didn’t know or understand something. The school system is so different from what I am used to in the United States. The teachers were more affectionate and open with their students; there was more physical interaction than what I was used to. Seeing new, beautiful landscapes and interacting with new people and gaining such an amazing experience is something I may have never been able to experience if it was not for the OIE – Alumni Association Study Abroad Fellowship. I am beyond thankful for receiving this scholarship that made it possible for me to study abroad in Spain.”

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In December, Mariah graduated from UGA with a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree from the College of Education. To learn more about Mariah’s study abroad experience, click here.

UGA alumni named to Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2016 30 Under 30

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The Atlanta Business Chronicle has released its second annual 30 Under 30 Who’s Who list. This list of young professionals focuses on the generation of millennials rather than one specific industry. The following UGA alumni were named to the 2016 list of exceptional leaders making a difference in the metro Atlanta area.

Greg Davis (MBA ’15), Director of sales and marketing, Davis Broadcasting Inc.

Nicole Goldsmith (BBA ’10), Associate, CBRE Inc.

Nick D. Hendricks (BBA ’09), Group benefits consultant and strategist, The Benefit Co.

Turner Levison (BBA ’12), CEO, Commissiontrac

Ellis C. Liu (AB ’10), Associate, Gordon & Rees Scully Mansukhani

Sierra Rae Moore (ABJ ’13), Digital marketing manager, InnoVergent GovSense

Eric Spett (BBA ’10), CEO, Terminus

Michael Tucker (AB ’09), Principal, Scotland Wright Associates

Chris Turner (MA ’10), Founder and CEO, Tenrocket

Congratulations to our alumni on this impressive accomplishment! For more information about the honorees, click here.

2016 TEDxUGA

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Join the University of Georgia for the fourth annual TEDxUGA on Friday, March 18.

TEDxUGA 2016: Illuminate will bring UGA’s brightest minds into the spotlight to share their stories, experiences, and ideas worth spreading. Today’s ideas will illuminate tomorrow’s possibilities. The faculty, staff, student and alumni presenters of TEDxUGA 2016 know that all it takes is a single spark. Several alumni will present at this year’s event:

  • Phillip (AB ’06, ABJ ’06) and Eileen Blume – international award-winning, socially conscious photographers and owners of Blume Photography Studios, a 2016 Bulldog 100 business. The pair will be TEDxUGA’s first duo presenters.
  • Marc Gorlin (ABJ ’95) – owner of Kabbage, Inc. and the 2015 No. 1 Bulldog 100 business, Roadie.
  • Melaney Cook-Smith (BBA ’89) – founder of Books for Keeps, a grassroots effort to provide books to those children that might otherwise have none and a 2016 Bulldog 100 business.
  • Reese Hoffa (BSED ’02) – represents the United States as an Olympic shot putter in London, Athens, and Beijing. He won the bronze medal in 2012 and is currently training for the 2016 Olympics.

Registration opens tomorrow, February 11, at 8:00 a.m. to all UGA alumni, students, faculty and staff.

Alumnus Spotlight: Peter Conlon (BBA ’75)

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One of the biggest attractions to the Atlanta music scene is its annual music festival, Music Midtown. From mainstream pop artists to rising rock bands, Music Midtown offers the crowds that gather performances from a wide variety of artists. For Peter Conlon (BBA ’75), one of two founders of the festival and president of Peter Conlon Presents, this was the overall goal: to create an event fit for attendees of all music tastes and genres.

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Conlon graduated from Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in international business in 1975. During his four years as an undergraduate student, he was a member of University Union where he first began booking rock concerts that featured artists such as Jethro Tull and the Allman Brothers. He attended law school for a short period of time after graduation, but then took a risk and dropped out to work as an intern for the Carter presidential campaign, a risk that ended up paying off through a victory.

Peter continued to work for Jimmy Carter throughout his presidential term. His position required that he help set up benefit concerts for the president. In 1982, Conlon partnered with Alex Cooley to begin his career in the music industry.

 

After working many years booking concerts, the pair founded Music Midtown in 1994, inspired by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. After having to pull the plug on the event in 2005 due to low sales, the festival was reintroduced in 2011 and now takes up several stages across Piedmont Park, hosts more than 30 different artists, and attracts attendees from all over the nation. Moreover, since the festival’s relaunch, it has generated $50 million for the local economy each year.

Congratulations to Peter and best wishes for the continued success of Music Midtown!

Alumna Spotlight: Devin Clower (BFA ’08)

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Anyone familiar with downtown Athens and its eclectic variety of shops is surely familiar with Frontier. Since opening nearly 20 years ago, the store has connected local artists with community members by providing a venue for them to showcase and sell their work.

UGA alumna Devin Clower (BFA ’08) took ownership of the store three years ago. Her background in interior design helped her with the introduction of custom framing and redesigning the store layout.

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The store’s motto, “All for the heart and home,” is reflected in the unique gifts that you can find at the store. Devin has worked hard to fulfill the motto, and through her leadership, the store has grown into a local favorite.

Congratulations on your hard work, Devin!