Senior Exercise Science Major Selected for Healthy People Penn State Expo

Quick Facts

Shantelle Igiozee was invited to participate in two days of activities Oct. 18-19 with the university’s Healthy People Penn State Research Conference and Expo.

The program is sponsored by its College of Health and Human Development and School of Nursing to encourage juniors/seniors from traditionally underrepresented groups with solid records of academic achievement to pursue graduate school.

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Shantelle Igiozee

ROCK HILL, S.C. - Shantelle Igiozee, a senior exercise science major from Columbia, S.C., is one of 25 students nationally chosen to participate in Healthy People Penn State.

She was invited to participate in two days of activities Oct. 18-19 with the university’s Healthy People Penn State Research Conference and Expo.

The program is sponsored by its College of Health and Human Development and School of Nursing to encourage juniors/seniors from traditionally underrepresented groups with solid records of academic achievement to pursue graduate school. Penn State’s mission is to improve the health of individuals and communities, as mandated in the nation’s Healthy People 2020.

The conference will feature one-on-one and group sessions with current graduate students and professors, presentations from graduate students engaged in cutting-edge research, visits with professors and to research laboratories and departments, and advisory sessions on applying to graduate programs.

Igiozee will also hear about the goals of Healthy People 2020, as well as modern-day threats to health, and current research conducted in the College of Health and Human Development and the School of Nursing.

Igiozee spent her summer at Winthrop as a McNair Scholar exploring the potential effects of “food deserts” with the aid of her mentor, Janet Wojcik, an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Education, Sport and Human Performance.

As Igiozee explained her research, “food deserts” are locations one or more miles from a main retailer, such as Wal-Mart. She assessed multiple main retailers along with “fringe retailers,” or smaller companies such as convenience stores, on price, availability and quality, discovering that lower socioeconomic areas are more likely to become food deserts because of proximity to main retailers. In the future, she is exploring the effects these environments could have on obesity rates.

Her goal is to earn a Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) with a strong emphasis on nutrition and to become a certified personal trainer. She has completed ROTC officer training in order to be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the National Guard upon graduation.

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