Community Health and Wellness
As a Community Health and Wellness major at Hastings College, you’ll develop health and wellness-related knowledge, beliefs and behaviors that promote individual and community well-being. You’ll help make us all healthier and better connected!
Promoting healty lifestyles
You’ll gain the skills to promote healthy lifestyles to people of all ages and abilities and enhance everyone’s quality of life. You’ll develop a strong understanding of health and fitness, and build your critical thinking and communication skills that help you thrive.
Hands-on opportunities provide real-world experiences in a variety of settings, building confidence in your abilities to design, implement and manage all kinds of health and wellness programs. You’ll graduate with the skills to land a job and build a career in in everything from schools to public health organizations to worksites to nonprofit health organizations and more. You’ll change lives!
Nationally Recognized Program
The National Strength and Conditioning Association approved Hastings College for its Education Recognition Program. Hastings College offers courses that will prepare you for certification exams and careers in the field. One of these certifications is the certified strength and conditioning specialist that is considered the gold standard in the field and will expand your employment opportunities.
Go further with a Hastings education
Thanks to our small class sizes (most have fewer than 20 students!), and a student-to-faculty ratio of 13:1, you’ll work closely with faculty and your advisor to complete your degree in four years. In fact, most students who graduate from Hastings do so in four years!
Our block-style semester structure means you’ll take just one or two classes at a time — which really lets you focus more intently on each class. It also lets faculty devote more time to every student because they’re only teaching one or two classes in a block!
Create your future
See for yourself how we tailor your education to your talents and your goals. Schedule a visit and we’ll demonstrate how Hastings will inspire you to reach your potential, or if you’re a high school senior, apply today.
Graduate with experience
With internship opportunities at numerous local and regional businesses and organizations, you’ll build a network to jumpstart your career. Add in faculty and alumni connections, internship opportunities and work on campus, plus contacts within SHAPE Nebraska (Society of Health and Physical Education) and other professional associations, and you’ll have a post-graduation leg up.
At every step in your path, you’ll appreciate the stepping stones of teaching, counseling, inspiring, supporting and guiding from our engaged faculty. It’s an experience that’s true to Hastings College, and you won’t find it anywhere else.
Your experience matters
Maximize scholarships — Yes, you’ll get an academic scholarship. But you’ll also get a “plus one” scholarship from the group, team or area you’re part of. It’s a great way to help pay for school — but also to find your people.
We’ve thought a lot about the ways students learn and built a four-year plan to help you navigate it all. From finding your place and in Year 1, to showing the world you’re ready for what’s next four years later.
Your transition from college to a career begins your first semester. Every class, internship, research study and activity adds up. We love to celebrate all the ways you shine — your experience matters!
Get involved beyond the Community Health and Wellness classroom
- Alpha Chi (Academic Honor Society)
- P.E. Club
In addition to Alpha Chi and P.E. Club, there’s always something to do at Hastings. Student clubs, service learning, Greek life, recreation and more make Hastings College a great campus for student life.
Find scholarships for Community Health and Wellness majors
Your high school achievements can both fuel and fund your success at Hastings. We offer a range of generous and renewable academic scholarships based on your GPA. Then there’s “plus one” scholarships — an additional scholarship for participating in anything from athletics to the arts to media.
It all adds up to making Hastings an great choice for you and your family.
Connect Online
Faculty
Matthew Beeler
Assistant Professor of Exercise Science
Casey Molifua
Senior Lecturer of Physical Education & Human Performance
Rebecca Hamik
Assistant Professor of Physical Education & Human Performance and Chair of the Department
Casey Krolikowski
Assistant Professor of Exercise Science
Success in Community Health and Wellness
Interested in biomechanics, Hastings College senior Alec Fichter spent the summer interning at the Pitching Lab, a biomechanics lab at the University of Nebraska Omaha, where he worked directly with...
Life is not always a straight path from point A to point B. For senior exercise science major Alyse Anderson, that path was anything other than direct. Anderson transferred to...
Hastings College senior Brett Simonsen of Sutton, Nebraska, interned over the summer at Hastings Physical Therapy & Sports Rehab (PTSR) — but this wasn’t his first experience there, as he...
Hali Hansen came to Hastings College with bright lights in her eyes, hoping to be a college soccer star. While injuries got in the way of that dream, she flipped...
The Hastings College Physical Education and Human Performance Department is filled with a diverse group of talented students — and Helena Jorgenson from Gothenburg, Nebraska, is one such student. A...
For as long as she’s lived, she’s played every sport. So it was no surprise that Ally Ginkens ‘20 would leave her hometown of Mullen, Nebraska, to go on and...
On Monday mornings at 5:00 a.m. most people are fast asleep, getting their last few hours of rest before starting another week of work. Human Performance coaches, however, are not...
After Hastings College MAT student Cole Fisher ‘19 landed an internship with the University of Minnesota athletic staff in February, he thought he’d observe coaches, work with athletes and get...
After turning in his last test for the exercise science program at Hastings College, Shae McMaster ‘15 said he remembers being so excited. He had put himself through college and...