A couple of years ago, when Holly Hesse, of Bend, was working as a certified personal trainer, she didn’t feel as prepared as she should be for the job. She really didn’t want to leave Bend to beef up her education. She has family and a good life here.

But then, in the fall of 2011, Oregon State University-Cascades Campus launched its exercise and sport science program and she jumped on the opportunity.

“After three classes at OSU, I had felt like I’d learned more than I did during the (personal trainer) certification process,” Hesse said. “As I got involved, I decided to become a physical therapist. It struck my interest.”

She found a new direction. Hesse, 26, plans to have her bachelor’s degree in exercise and sports science finished in 2014, after which she will leave town for a few years for graduate school in physical therapy, she said.

“I probably would have stuck with (a job in personal) training if this wasn’t an option,” she said. “This really pulled me into a career, and made it possible.”

She’s one of many people seizing a new educational opportunity here. Exercise and sports science has quickly become one of the fastest-growing programs at OSU-Cascades.

It’s filling a growing niche in the national workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says exercise and fitness positions are anticipated to expand. And there’s growing expectations about the level of education of such professionals. For several years, accredited education and certification programs for health and fitness professionals have been on the rise across the country, according to the American College of Sports Medicine’s seventh annual fitness trends survey. For 2013, the presence of educated, certified and experienced fitness professionals are the top fitness-industry trend.

The exercise and sports science bachelor’s degree, according to Christine Pollard, the program leader and an instructor, prepares graduates to work in cardiac rehabilitation, as health and wellness directors or corporate fitness center leaders. If the students hope to own their own facility, they can take business classes as supplemental courses, Pollard said.

The degree also prepares students for graduate school in fields such as physical therapy or occupational therapy, or to become physician assistants or go to medical school. More than half of the students say that’s the direction they plan to go, said Pollard.

“It’s an excellent means to get there,” said Pollard, who came from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles to build the OSU-Cascades program. “It’s the sciences — anatomy and physiology and biomechanics. There’s real rigor to this program. Chemistry and physics are part of the core courses.”

“We started the program because there was a lot of student interest in the major,” said Jane Reynolds, director of enrollment for OSU-Cascades. It has become one of the fastest growing programs at OSU-Cascades. Last fall, there were 11 OSU-Cascades students taking classes in the program, said Reynolds. This fall, there are 61, 41 of whom took upper level classes at OSU-Cascades. The rest are taking classes through COCC.

Julie Downing, who leads COCC’s two-year exercise science program, said her program had been growing in the years leading up to the creation of OSU-Cascades’, building demand for it. The number of students majoring in exercise science at COCC grew from 71 in 2008-09 to 117 in 2011-12, Downing said. She lobbied to bring a bachelor’s level program to Bend, and worked to make COCC’s classes compatible with OSU’s. Downing and Pollard work together to keep the two programs seamless. Students admitted to OSU-Cascades take freshman- and sophomore-level classes at COCC and their junior- and senior-level classes through OSU-Cascades.

“We have had our exercise science students here forever who have wanted to continue here. They always had to move to get a bachelor’s,” she said. Some of the COCC students found work with their two-year degrees, she said. “Now they can get a better job because they can get a bachelor’s degree here,” Downing said.

Jobs in exercise science are growing nationally, Downing said.

“Baby boomers are demanding that they have avenues, resources to be fit and healthy.”