Why I Want To Be A Kinesiologist?

Athletics have been a big part of my life. I have been on local teams for softball, volleyball, basketball, and track. I have been part of both state volleyball and basketball teams, and finished fourth in javelin at state level. As an athlete, I have encountered my share of injuries. Other than the usual pulls and sprains, I have had a stress fracture in my foot. This injury limited my playing time during basketball season. Local doctors, chiropractors, and sports specialists rehabilitated me with knowledge and caring personalities. My injury healed with the help of these health professionals in no time and I was back on the court! They allowed me to achieve my goals in athletics. This is why am I pursuing a degree in Health and Human
performance and the two choices I find the most interesting are: Exercise Science and Kinesiology.
Involvement in sports is only one aspect for my passion for pursuing a degree in Health and Human Performance. I have also attended a MedStart camp and have an immense passion for helping people. I truly believe this would be an excellent career choice for me. I have had a wonderful life here in Central Montana and enjoy the down-to-earth personality my community has taught me. I would love to have the chance to study here and return to this area and make a living helping others. This is why I feel that Exercise Science or the Kinesiology options would be the best because I could still work with people as well as athletics; Two of the things I am most passionate about.
According to the United States National Library of Medicine, exercise science is the study of human movement and the associated responses and adaptations. Exercise science majors are exposed to a range of available activities. Depending upon one’s areas of interest, an exercise science major might study: how to develop and lead exercise programs for diverse populations, how organ systems work at the cellular level,and how to improve biochemical efficiency in tasks of everyday living. This career allows many options in terms of jobs that are available as well as the location to where employers are hiring.
With an undergraduate degree and no experience, a starting salary of $18,000 to $30,000 per year is a good estimate. There may be some factors that can affect the salary though. For example, if you obtain certification or one or more advanced degrees, then one could expect a better paycheck. Another impact on salary may be geographical location. If I was to choose between a job in Lewistown, Montana, and Billings, Montana, the best choice would be Billings because of the population and the need for medical graduates. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, kinesiology is a healthcare process that studies the human anatomy and the analysis of the human body movement.
Kinesiologists help individuals cope with physical injuries and also work towards preventing disorders that disrupt movement. This option would be a great idea if I chose to work with athletes who have gotten hurt and are recovering from a serious injury to reach their normal capability. However, the location aspect of the demand for kinesiologists could be a problem. If I wanted to come back closer to home, I would not make as much money as I would in Billings or a bigger city. The reason being is that the only jobs available for kinesiologists around my hometown would be athletic directors or coaches. In a bigger city one could be a physical therapist or an athletic trainer, which both make more
money. Making the decision as to what one will be doing for the rest of one’s life can be hard. For me, however, I have always been interested in the medical field. The medical field interests me because of how professional and diverse it is. Also the medical field, especially in exercise science and kinesiology, one can somewhat choose the philosophy that they feel is most appropriate for their entire career or on more of a patient to patient basis. The philosophy that one may choose to use when practicing their career also has to go along with the code of ethics, however. This may be difficult do to one’s own beliefs and feelings toward a certain subject. The Code of Ethics for the Health Education Profession are a set of heath ideals that health professionals are recommend to follow.
A group of advanced health professionals bring together the most shared values and suggestions to revise the Code of Ethics to keep up with the changing times. I like that the Code of Ethics is changed throughout time because it would not make sense to be using the same Code of Ethics from the 1800’s due to the progressive amounts of research being produced and the different options of education one can choose from. The most important part of the updated Code of Ethics to me is from the first article and it explains the importance of the community to the health profession. This is so important to me because I feel like I would not be doing my job if I wasn’t satisfying my patient or if I wasn’t trying to better the health of a certain population, which will hopefully lead to a bigger
population. Overall, the health field is a major part of my future career as well as the present one. I want to be able to make a person get back to their original self or keep them as healthy as ever. I feel like I am obligated to further my education to help others further theirs. The biggest decision that I have to decide on right now is which option I should take; kinesiology or exercise science. Though I may not know this as of right now, I do know that I will be working with people who enjoy getting medical help from others as well as with people who enjoy sports as much as I do and are concerned about either staying healthy or getting back to their normal selves.