Points of Pride

Our programs provide a springboard for students who seek to gain deep understanding of how people live and learn, from the very young to the very old — to help them lead happy, healthy, productive, and meaningful lives.

• Due to student’s heightened interest in the science and technology of living and learning — and the increasing relevancy of our programs in today’s ever-changing society, enrollment in the college’s programs has grown by 19.4 percent to 3,926 students.
• Minority enrollment in the College of Human Sciences has climbed 54.9 percent since 2005. Nearly one quarter (22 percent) of all minority graduate students at Iowa State are enrolled in College of Human Sciences programs, which facilitate crucial, cross-campus dialogues on diversity and social justice issues.
• Iowa State’s Dietetics Internship program, already the largest in the country, is also the first in the nation to offer an international component with interns allowed the option to perform a portion of their work at the University of Ghana in that African country.
• The College of Human Sciences student teams place high in international competitions, including second place finishes by both the Food Product Development team and the Food Product Knowledge team in the competitions of the Institute of Food Technologists Student Association, in 2009.
• Teacher education alumna Sarah Brown Wessling was named 2010 National Teacher of the Year, as announced by U.S. President Barack Obama.

The college is home to programs that are highly ranked among peers, nationally and globally:

• The higher education program in educational leadership and policy studies is ranked among the nine best in public colleges and universities, by U.S. News and World Report magazine.
• The education graduate program as a whole was ranked 65th among 279 public institutions, by U.S. News and World Report.
• The hospitality management program is counted among the top 15 in the world by the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research.
• The kinesiology program is ranked among the top 20 in the nation by the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical education.
• National ranking systems do not exist for  a number of other programs in the college that are highly regarded for their rigor, including programs in food science and human nutrition as well as apparel, merchandising, and design.

Programs are led by top-notch faculty, who make world-changing discoveries, such as:

• Barbara Dougherty, an education professor who formulated an effective approach to teaching children math from a measurement perspective.
• Kinesiology professor Rick Sharp, who helped test and design revolutionary swimsuit that helped Michael Phelps earn eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, where 94 percent of the gold medal-winning swimmers wore the suit.
• Byron Brehm-Stecher, assistant professor in food science and human nutrition, who developed a quicker, more convenient test for salmonella. Using next-generation DNA sequencing techniques, investigators can now spot contaminated products in three-or-four hours rather than one-to-seven days.
• Suzanne Hendrich, university professor in food science and human nutrition, who discovered that ingesting flaxseed can decrease high cholesterol and significantly reduce the risk of heart attack, hear disease, and stroke.
• Kouider Mokhtari, professor of literacy education in curriculum and instruction, and colleagues, who discovered that today’s college students are not only spending more time using the internet, but are also spending considerably more time reading than they did 10 years ago.
• Frankie Santos Laanan and Soko Starobin, faculty in educational leadership and policy studies, and colleagues who found that women who receive postsecondary career and technical education are still being short-changed in their career earnings when compared with male counterparts.

The College of Human Sciences is widely recognized for effective outreach that leads to healthier citizens, more effective educators, a high-tech workforce, and thriving communities. A sampling of our multifaceted success stories:

• The Strengthening Families program, designed by Extension specialists in the College of Human Sciences, has been ranked as the world’s most effective system for decreasing the onset of drugs and alcohol problems in youth, by Oxford Brookes University researchers who studied 6000 intervention programs.
• Aldine Schools in Houston, Texas received the world’s largest education award, the $1 million Broad Prize for Urban Education, for improving student achievement in a low-income, inner-city environment — and the district is thanking Iowa State teacher education graduates for making it happen.
• The Community College Policy Center serves as a critical, research-based resource for decision-makers in Washington, D.C.
• The UCEA Center for Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education is the nation’s foremost center dedicated to the technology needs of school leaders.
• The Nutrition and Wellness Research Center improves human well-being through study of dietary intake, physical activity, and social and lifestyle behaviors, with a three-pronged focus on translational research, obesity-related research, and community health-related research.
• The college provides leadership for improving quality of life around the globe with partners in countries such as Turkey, China, and Indonesia.

With more than 38,000 living alumni, we offer a superb network of prominent leaders who are advancing health and well-being, education and human development, science and technology, communities, and entrepreneurship. Our alumni also mentor young graduates to help them grow as professionals and shape their own adventures in improving people’s lives.