Page 22 - AASP Summer 2014 Newsletter

“If You Build It, They Will Come” – The

Development of an Undergraduate Program

Duncan Simpson, Ph.D., CC-AASP, Barry University

Council. We completed our own local West Virginia University (Morgantown,

market research and collected data from WV) have both seen considerable growth

223 participants, which demonstrated in recent years. Sarah Castillo Ph.D.,

there was indeed an interest in such a CC-AASP (Sport Psychology Program

program. We then looked more broadly to Coordinator at NU) stated she has seen

the recent growth of student membership their program grow from approximately

within the Association for Applied Sport 50 students two years ago to over 150
Duncan SIMPSON

Psychology (AASP), and used that data as students currently. Similarly, Jack C.

an indicator of student interest in the ield. Watson II, Ph.D., CC-AASP and Damien

At the time this article was written AASP Clement, Ph. D., CC-AASP, stated their

When building something new, you had 668 student members, yet this number program has grown from 30 students in

often have to convince others of your grew from 506 in 2010 to 764 in 2013, an 2001 to 378 total students in the UG program

vision. Creating an image of a viable increase of 258 members in three years. (pre-majors, n = 185 and majors, n = 193)

undergraduate program in our ield is not Similarly, the number of students at the today. We would like to thank these faculty

an easy task; therefore, I hope this article AASP annual conferences has grown in members who were incredibly supportive

about the development of the Bachelor of the past few years from 277 (Salt Lake City, and helpful in developing our program.

Science degree in Sport, Exercise, and 2009) to 354 (New Orleans, 2013).
The above data was crucial in convincing

Performance Psychology (SEPP) at Barry our Undergraduate Council that there

University in Miami, Florida may help and is a growing market for undergraduate
Lastly, we looked at other programs to

perhaps inspire others to follow-suit.
programs in the ield of Sport, Exercise,
understand where our program would it
and Performance Psychology. (SEPP).
on a national scale. Barry University is

Establishing NEED for the Undergraduate the only undergraduate degree program

Program
of its kind in Florida, and at the time of The Curriculum

development, we could only ind seven
The irst step in developing our new Despite demonstrating that we are part of
higher educational institutions in the U.S.
program was to establish if there was a a growing ield, we still had to convince

that had similar undergraduate major
“need” for an undergraduate degree in faculty from other departments of the
programs.
SEPP at Barry University. To answer this need for a program that does not qualify a

question, we researched and presented a Two of the largest undergraduate programs graduate to attain any speciic employment.

number of arguments to our Undergraduate
at National University (San Diego, CA) and
While the argument of employability

AASP Newsletter // Summer 2014 // “If You Build It, They Will Come” – The Development of an Undergraduate Program

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