Call it perfect timing.
Karisa Kuipers came to NIU to pursue a master’s degree in Kinesiology and Physical Education with a specialization in Sport and Exercise Psychology.
By the time she finished in May 2019, the department was close to debuting a Ph.D. program – and when that launched three months later, Kuipers was its first student.
Last month, she became its first graduate.
“The Ph.D. kind of felt like the next natural step,” says Kuipers, who has remained in Anderson Hall this fall as an instructor.
“I had a great time collaborating with Dr. Jacobs during my master’s program,” she adds, “and knowing that the Ph.D. program would offer an even greater opportunity to collaborate and build on the research foundation but also the projects foundation, was really exciting. I loved the people I was working with and the work I was getting to do.”
NIU’s 60-semester-hour Ph.D. in Kinesiology and Physical Education integrates all of the department’s academic disciplines to provide a strong base in research and teaching that prepares doctoral candidates for faculty careers.
Program requirements are flexible to best complement the backgrounds and professional goals of individual students, allowing them significant input, in consultation with their doctoral advisors and committees, into the selection of specific courses for their programs of study.
Most also can teach within their areas of specialization.
Steve Howell, chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, is proud of the degree’s innovative approach as well as its growth: Four students are currently enrolled.
Discussions among faculty began and continued under former chairs Chad McEvoy and Todd Gilson, both of whom shepherded those talks into fruition.
“As faculty, we noticed there was a lack of the sort of preparation of your traditional Ph.D. programs that prepare future faculty members for life as an academic in a school like NIU, where there’s an equal balance of teaching, research and service,” Howell says.
“We thought we could create a boutique kind of Ph.D. program that touched on all three of those pillars,” he adds. “The vision was for it to be a very small, hands-on program where students have high-level touch points with their faculty, their doctoral advisor and to have that one-on-one mentoring that that oftentimes isn’t necessarily seen in your traditional Ph.D. programs.”
Howell counts himself among those newly minted assistant professors who come to work uncertain about their responsibilities.
“I know that when I first started, I didn’t really understand what a service requirement was. I didn’t understand what shared governance was. I didn’t understand the curricular process, and I think that all would potentially have been beneficial as I started my academic journey,” he says.
“Giving students a better understanding of that will certainly benefit them down the line, whether they go on to a different university or even in their interview process,” he adds. “We just want to position these students to have those three pillars of experiences and to do some timely and impactful research, making them as well rounded as we can when they leave our program and represent it forward.”
AMONG THE FOUR STUDENTS following in the footsteps of Kuipers are Gabrielle Bennett, now in her second year of the program, along with newcomers Grace Louis, Bethany Rohl and Vitor Siqueira.
Bennett, who grew up near Philadelphia in Winslow, N.J., completed her bachelor’s degree in Massachusetts and her master’s in California
Landing in DeKalb for the final leg is a dream come true, she says.
“I’ve always said, from a young age, that I wanted to be a doctor. I don’t how, where or why that kept coming up, but I remember telling my dad, ‘I’m going to be a doctor one day,’ ” Bennett says. “When I was a Cal State Fullerton, I did a lot of research, and so I knew I wanted to go down the faculty route. I just didn’t exactly know how it was going to shape into what it is now.”
Her “now” includes teaching KNPE 111- Sport: Culture and Society, serving on the College of Education’s Equity Committee, sitting on departmental search committees and attending and presenting at national and international conferences.
She also works with Project FLEX, a sport-focused program for youth incarcerated in Illinois Juvenile Justice facilities launched by KNPE faculty Jenn Jacobs and Zach Wahl-Alexander. NIU’s team of visitors lead structured physical activity behind the walls of the prisons while also helping to prepare the young inmates to lead more productive lives upon their eventual release.
“I met Dr. Wahl-Alexander through the social media platform Instagram, and he offered me an opportunity to work as a graduate assistant with Project FLEX,” says Bennett, who is also an NIU Carter G. Woodson Fellowship recipient. “I believe in Project FLEX because of the vision of Dr. Wahl and Dr. Jacobs: They created an outlet that works! Youth get to be youth and just enjoy sports!”
FLEX’s goals reflect and correlate with her research interests.
“Psychology is very interesting to me, and my research agenda is at the intersection of sport, race, equity and working with incarcerated youth demographics,” Bennett says.
“It’s like Critical Race Theory: How do we positively develop youth while simultaneously being inclusive of all youth and sport? And what does that look like on a policy level? What does that look like for juvenile justice facilities and for higher education institutions?”
LOUIS CAME TO NIU to play soccer.
“I love sports,” says the Cincinnati native. “I love to play them, I love to watch them, I love to be around them and I love to support others in their pursuit of them. I love so many sports, and I love the opportunities that they provide us to connect to one another and contribute to something larger than ourselves.”
Her eligibility with the Huskies spanned six years: She red-shirted for injury one season, took a COVID season and even ran track in her final year, “an awesome and unexpected opportunity.”
The extended period allowed her to complete her master’s degree in Kinesiology and Physical Education with a specialization in sport and exercise psychology. She also holds an NIU bachelor’s degree in Health and Human Sciences with an emphasis in pre-physical therapy.
“I first thought that I wanted to be a physical therapist who works with athletes but then I started to figure out that I really love psychology,” says Louis, who is teaching yoga and sport sociology.
“In my time as an undergraduate, my favorite classes were ones that talked about psychology and mental health or how the brain functions as a result of psychological problems,” she adds. “Sport psychology is an opportunity for me to pursue two things that I am very passionate about while also being able to stay involved in sports.”
Pursuing the Ph.D. provides career options that align with her long-term goals, which are open to teaching in higher education, working at the NCAA and conducting research.
Her interests lie in the mental health of student-athletes, including depression and anxiety, programs and services available, gaps in support and how to overcome barriers to adequate resources.
“Research is a powerful way to better understand the world and, specifically, in my field of sport psychology,” Louis says. “Last year, I started a project about the adequacy and effectiveness of mental health resources in college athletics, and that is a place that I would like to start my research as a doc student.”
ROHL, FROM THE CHICAGO suburbs, brings a foundation in athletic training.
The Huskie alumna earned her NIU bachelor’s degree in that discipline before going to on to complete a post-professional master’s degree.
She has been practicing clinically for the past decade, spending the last six years at West Chicago High School. Before that, she served at a small high school near Traverse City, Mich., and worked a graduate assistantship in Virginia.
“I really wanted to work as an athletic trainer, and I felt like academia was always an option for me to return to, but my professors I had coming through my undergrad also had a lot of clinical experience, and I felt that was a definitely a benefit,” Rohl says. “That’s just how I want to approach it.”
Returning to Anderson Hall – “Just the best fit for me,” she says – was made more attractive by her ability to teach classes within the M.S. in Athletic Training program.
“In terms of looking at teaching opportunities and research opportunities, I was looking at a couple different programs … and that wasn’t an option everywhere,” she says. “Some of them were going to be more general teaching responsibilities or teaching in a clinical doctorate in athletic training. My end goal is to teach in an athletic training master’s program.”
Her homecoming also reunites her with Bill Pitney, who she studied under originally, as well as newer professors Nick Grahovec and Tyler Wood, who she’s interacted with professionally.
While in the program, Rohl plans to conduct research into psychosocial support systems for athletic trainers in secondary schools.
“There’s definitely a gap in the research and a gap in the resources currently in the athletic training landscape,” she says.
“A lot of the psychosocial supports are geared toward the collegiate athletic trainer. They have a much larger database and resource pool, whereas those in the secondary schools have a lot fewer resources,” she adds. “But we also still have athletes who have mental health concerns, and as athletic trainers, we have a unique perspective and a unique relationship with those athletes where we’re a good person to help facilitate further care.”
SIQUEIRA, WHO HAILS FROM São Paulo, Brazil, found his way to DeKalb through compatriot Emerson Sebastião.
While completing his master’s degree at the University of São Paulo, he contacted Sebastião at the recommendation of his advisor there. In 2019, Siqueira traveled to DeKalb for a five-month stay in Anderson Hall.
“I was here to analyze my data and have some more understanding of what I should do next and what I could do with my data,” Siqueira says.
“After my defense, I was thinking I should come back because it was an amazing experience,” he adds. “Emerson just came into my life and said, ‘OK, I can help you. Come here. We will see what we can do. You don’t need to panic. Let’s just go from the beginning.’ He started to help me and guide me, and it was incredible because he’s an awesome person.”
He is clear in his goal from the Ph.D.
“I’m really fascinated by the research setting because you can do research for your whole life and maybe not have some impact in society, so I would prefer to be a professor and researcher because it’s better for me and for society in general,” he says. “My interest in general is muscular physiology and how the aging process starts to create problems for older adults because, in general, after 50 or 60 years old and older, they have losses of muscle mass and strength.”
KUIPERS EXPECTS THAT the current students will enjoy their time and appreciate the preparation.
“I thought it was as fantastic as promised. I feel like I know how to move forward in research. I got a lot of great teaching experience,” Kuipers says. “I had a lot of opportunities to try out service as well – service to the community and service to NIU.”
Doing so reinforced her specialization on sport for social change through work with the after-school boxing program for girls at Clinton Rosette Middle School, the Engage Global trips to Sri Lanka and Belize and her behind-the-scenes role helping to coordinate the Teaching Personal Social and Responsibility conferences.
Those opportunities also help to inform her dissertation on promoting personal and social responsibility in higher education.
“I wrote a conceptual paper about why college students need to grow in personal and social responsibility,” she says. “I did an interview study with some other faculty, a case study exploring that how they’re seeking to do that in their kinesiology-related classes, and then I did a self-study about what my process has been prioritizing that in my classes.”
For now, she “can’t shake NIU,” she says, “which is a good thing.”
Working as an instructor allows her to “put into practice what I talked about in my dissertation,” she says, while continuing her involvement in the Physical Activity and Life Skills (PALS) Group and hoping to expand its reach.
Coming next? Kuipers is keeping her mind open.
“I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but I definitely envision myself in the higher education realm. I love teaching and I’m really passionate about it,” she says, “but I also have grown a lot in my research interest of, ‘How can I help other faculty, instructors and especially graduate assistants to grow in their teaching ability and be able to make their impact extend beyond their class by teaching life skills in their academic classes?’ ”
Boosting the preparation of GAs is paying the favor forward, she says.
“I feel like I came out with a well-rounded experience, and I had a fantastic relationship with Dr. Jacobs as well, just getting the mentoring and coaching that I needed. She knew exactly how to push me to grow but also set me up for success and in collaboration with other people in the department, like Dr. Wright and others,” Kuipers says.
“I just felt very well supported and like I grew a lot in my three years. Probably the only thing that would have made it better is having so pals to do it with, but that was part of being the explorer in the program.”
