{"id":2346,"date":"2012-05-03T09:46:58","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T14:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=2346"},"modified":"2015-11-12T08:02:11","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T14:02:11","slug":"john-hawkins-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/john-hawkins-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"He\u2019s headed for a career in motion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
John Hawkins Jr.<\/dt>\n
BS Health Sciences, Kinesiology<\/dd>\n
Hometown: Racine, Wis.<\/dd>\n
It\u2019s a Fact: He\u2019s into world history when he\u2019s not reading books on cycling and triathlon training.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Last semester, John Hawkins experienced a personal connection with his education in kinesiology. As he held his infant daughter upright, the first-time father observed how she worked to get control of her body.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was taking a motor development course then,\u201d he remembers. \u201cFrom that, I learned some ways\u00a0to \u2018trick\u2019 my baby into doing things. For example, I took a toy and put it down by her feet to see how she moved and balanced her body in order to get to it. It gave me a unique outlook on what I was learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawkins has been accepted into a UWM doctoral program in physical therapy. It is the perfect profession for a man who prefers a life in motion.<\/p>\n

It will be intense, he says, but he likes it that way. In fact, he\u2019s interested in rehabilitation for people who have suffered traumatic brain injury, or for patients recovering from stroke or organ donation.<\/p>\n

The former guitar frontman for a heavy-metal band, Hawkins contemplated training as a motorcycle technician when touring with the band ended. But that required a move to Arizona, where Harley-Davidson operates the program. Hawkins had just met a wonderful woman so he stayed in the area, they married and he enrolled at Gateway Technical College to study nursing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to have something going on,\u201d he says about choosing a career six years after high school. \u201cI noticed things were getting stagnant and I felt like I needed to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long, though, before he took his wife\u2019s suggestion and looked into UWM. Not 100 percent sold on nursing, he took stock of what he was reading in his spare time. \u201cBefore I started college, I had a collection of books on topics that interested me,\u201d he says, \u201cand most of the books had to do with body movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

He followed his interest, switching to kinesiology\u2013and UWM.<\/p>\n

The College of Health Sciences faculty, in particular, impressed Hawkins. On the recommendation of two professors, Ann Swartz and Scott Strath, he applied to the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) and spent the summer before fall semester doing some reading to prepare for work with Strath.<\/p>\n

In the Physical Activity & Health Research laboratory, he monitored the energy consumed by volunteers as they performed tasks like folding laundry or doing dishes. Hawkins also took measurements designed to gauge the energy used during the transition time from one task to another. \u201cThe question is: \u2018How many calories are used during the times you\u2019re not working at a steady pace, but still moving about?\u2019\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

The experience gave him the chance to learn and to operate equipment that professionals use in the field, as well as physically apply the knowledge in a health-related setting.<\/p>\n

Now energized to start his graduate studies, Hawkins says, in addition to a career as a professional physical therapist, he would also consider the option of teaching in academia. That option was inspired by faculty he met while getting his bachelor\u2019s degree. \u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s hard,\u201d he says, \u201cbut they make it look easy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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