One Department, Many Footprints
Discovering a Professional Home
Matt Styf ’12 majored in math and education before discovering a passion for exercise science in Professor John Sparks’ Kinesiology 201 class. What he loved most was the connection he could make between his passion for exercise and service. He found himself asking, “Where can I go with this? What can I do with it?” After evaluating his options, Styf chose the pre-professional track—an undergraduate program that led him to complete a doctorate in physical therapy.
Professor Kerrie Berends, who co-chairs the department with Sparks, says Kinesiology 201 is a course that introduces students to all five majors the department offers. The course focuses on developing “a sense of camaraderie and belonging” among students who pursue various disciplines, all under one department.
Styf says once he decided to switch his major, faculty advisors helped him choose the right classes to graduate on time. Berends confirms that student advising is a key focus of the department’s faculty members. “We guide them through the whole process,” she says, “from course selection to professional exam preparation to identifying and applying to the right graduate schools.”
Continued Growth
In addition to pursuing a doctorate in physical therapy, students in the pre-professional track Styf followed also become physicians’ assistants, medical doctors, veterinarians, and dentists. “Kinesiology has so many science cognates that it can lead to any doctoral program in the medical field,” explains Berends. She notes that student interest in the department’s offerings is on the rise—this past fall, 77 first-year students indicated kinesiology as their desired area of study.
Calvin’s kinesiology department also offers four other majors: Pre-K–12 health and physical education, exercise science, therapeutic recreation, and sport management. Students can also select from two minors in recreation leadership or kinesiology. Four years ago, the department introduced an online graduate program in exercise science.
Laura Nicholson Lutz ’19, MS’23 completed her master’s degree with a concentration in health and exercise rehabilitation from her home in Ethiopia, where she serves as the athletic director and teaches anatomy and physiology at an international school. “The master’s degree program exceeded my expectations,” Lutz says. “Each of the professors demonstrated a depth of knowledge and passion for the content while incorporating their own real-world experiences into each of the lessons.” The program is taught almost entirely by full-time faculty.
Outward Facing
Lutz notes that even though her degree was online, she had the freedom to pursue service and research opportunities from within her community. “The master’s degree provided me with invaluable information that I have been able to implement during volunteer opportunities at medical facilities in Ethiopia, including CURE, a surgical pediatric hospital; Droga Physiotherapy Clinic; and the Hamlin Fistula Hospital,” Lutz says.
Berends echoes Lutz’s emphasis: “Both concentrations in the master’s program require students to be out there. Whether they are serving the community or putting in their internship or observation hours, they’re engaging outside of Calvin.”
That hands-on approach extends beyond classroom requirements, too, as kinesiology students find many opportunities to serve their wider communities.
Three years ago, the department joined the School of Health to participate in its annual HEALTH camp for Grand Rapids area students ages 9–17. The camp reaches youth from diverse socio-economic and racial backgrounds, introducing them to the health professions and healthy lifestyles. Kinesiology faculty and students help lead camp participants in exercise sessions and hands-on lessons in nutrition and exercise science.
For the last few years, kinesiology students have also led the Calvin Classic Youth Fun Run.
Supporting Grand Rapids' First Responders
Graduate students find exciting opportunities to serve, too. Sparks developed a partnership with the Grand Rapids Fire Department to offer a lower back and shoulder injury prevention clinic. “A group of exercise science graduate students and I do one-hour sessions with usually 8 to 14 firefighters at a time and take them through an injury-prevention protocol,” Sparks says. The protocol includes stabilization exercises to prevent lower back injury and improve overall shoulder health. “In the last calendar year, we did 17 sessions and were able to see just about every employee of the department.”
The firefighters typically attend clinics on campus, but last year Sparks and his graduate students visited the Grand Rapids Fire Department Training Center to introduce the injury prevention protocol to 24 new recruits.
Always Innovating
The kinesiology department’s commitment to innovation is evidenced in both its grow- ing partnerships and its physical facilities.
The Western Michigan University Occupational Therapy Clinic moved into Calvin’s fieldhouse in 2023, and that gives kinesiology students the chance to intern right on campus and to get connected to WMU’s graduate program.
In November 2024, Calvin signed an agreement with Baylor University’s doctor of physical therapy program. The agreement reserves two early admission spots each year for Calvin students. “It gives students a little bit of an advantage as they start to go through the application process,” Sparks says, explaining that Calvin scholars consistently compete with students coming out of the nation’s top pre-professional programs.
“Over the last 13 years, we’ve had an 87% graduate school placement rate with our pre-PT students. We’ve placed a number of students in the top five ranked programs in the U.S.,” Sparks says.
Berends and Sparks believe one reason Calvin kinesiology students perform so well is because they have access to state-of-the-art technology on par with large universities. For example, the Exercise Science Lab recently gained an Anatomage Table (virtual dissection table), and a nutrition lab with a fully equipped kitchen is planned for fall 2025.
But they emphasize that innovations aside, the kinesiology department thrives because its students are excited about and committed to their fields of study. “We’ve had some really high-achieving, top-notch students,” Berends says.
Faith-Focused
Calvin faculty have a long history of studying and teaching the compatibility between faith and science. That the world is both ordered and intricate points to the intention and artistry of a creator God. And although the kinesiology department serves a wide variety of majors, Sparks likes to remind students of the “common thread” their interests share.
“God created our bodies with wonderful intricacies. There’s beauty contained within those intricacies and how they work to- gether as a whole. We try to point that out throughout all our classes,” Sparks says.
“We may put someone on the treadmill and look at their max VO2, their running pattern, their economy of movement. When you start to exercise, how does the body adapt and adjust? And there’s that awe that our bodies can adapt, adjust, and handle the overload while getting stronger and faster. And that’s just fascinating,” Berends marvels.
She adds, “When you actually look at the human body and the muscles, you know, it’s artwork.”