ALLEGANY, N.Y. — St. Bonaventure University will offer a bachelor’s degree in health science beginning this fall.
New York state’s Education Department this week approved the university’s proposal for the new major.
In October, university faculty and administrators approved the creation of a School of Allied Health as part of its Allied Health Initiative, a comprehensive plan to create health care-related undergraduate and clinical graduate programs over the next few years.
The undergraduate health science major will serve as a feeder program for the anticipated graduate programs to be created in the School of Allied Health. Creating proposals for those programs will take place over the next two years. For now, the health science program will be housed under the School of Education.
Dr. Claire Watson, chair of the physical education and sport studies programs since 2013, is executive director of the Allied Health Initiative. Dr. Monica Thomas, director of St. Bonaventure’s highly competitive Franciscan Health Care Professions Program, is the associate director.
The bachelor’s in health science is nationally recognized as an undergraduate gateway to allied health careers by providing the prerequisite courses to pursue advanced studies in rehabilitation sciences (physical therapy and occupational therapy), physician assistant studies, exercise physiology, human performance, and public health.
The health science program offers students an interdisciplinary approach to learn about health promotion and introduce them to the health care field. The major emphasizes coursework in medical terminology, research methods, epidemiology, and nutrition.
