Students enrolled at Illinois Wesleyan this fall will have additional academic options as the liberal arts university adds majors in nutrition and physical education to its offerings.
The nutrition major will be housed in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. In a news release, associate dean Lindsey Kellar said the program prepares students for careers in dietetics, community nutrition, food service management, health coaching, sports nutrition and research.
“A greater public awareness of the importance of nutrition related to holistic well-being — along with the increase in chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease — has contributed to the increased demand for nutrition professionals,” she said.
The physical education major is designed for K-12 teacher preparation. School of Education Studies dean Leah Nillas said the major is likely to aid in student-athlete recruitment.
“By integrating courses in public health, nutrition and wellness promotion, students develop a comprehensive understanding of health across different cultural contexts,” Nillas said in a statement. “This broader perspective shifts the focus from traditional physical activity instruction to promoting lifelong wellness.”
A new concentration in Quantum Science and Technology [QST] will be delivered by the Physics department, becoming one of few Midwestern schools offering quantum science at the undergraduate level.
Physics chair Narendra Jaggi said QST courses were initially offered on a trial basis to assess student interest and available resources, with introductory courses quickly filling to capacity.
“We see this program as a prime example of the deep and broad learning that defines a liberal arts education,” Jaggi said. “It offers interdisciplinary training and encourages strong student-faculty collaboration — an approach that has already propelled our physics majors, and students in our Optics & Photonics concentration, into leadership roles in both academia and industry.”
Illinois plays an outsized role in quantum physics scholarship. Argonne National Laboratory in Lamont was appointed to lead the national quantum center by the U.S. Department of Energy. Fermilab, in Batavia, is the leading particle physics laboratory in the United States.
