–<\/ins><\/a>athlete at Classical High School. He ultimately decided to combine his love of exercise and athletics with his quest to help others\u2019 health and well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI always knew I wanted to do something in the health care industry; I\u2019ve always wanted a career where I could serve the public in some way,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cI come from an athletic background; I was always interested in movement and movement sciences. Ultimately, I decided to lean toward physical therapy. My interest in sports, rehabilitation, movement sciences, along with helping people overall, I thought there\u2019s no better way to go than physical therapy, and kinesiology was a good way to start toward that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hernandez leaned into his career plan, going beyond the classroom to help prepare himself. He secured a job with campus recreation, teaching group exercise classes and serving as a personal trainer. He served several internships, including at Specialized Orthopedic in Warwick, where he got the chance to closely observe certified physical therapists work with patients and get some hands-on experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m very grateful that this major and the curriculum overall requires an internship. I feel like that\u2019s really important, not only for my enhancement of knowledge, but also to see what this looks like in the real world,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cThat was a tremendous experience. It confirmed my goal to want to pursue kinesiology and physical therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The work Hernandez has done with his advisor and research mentor, Assistant Professor Mark Hartman, further cemented his fascination with movement science, and helped propel him toward his health care goals. He has worked on multiple research projects, including one involving Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, exploring whether stimulation to the prefrontal cortex could potentially enhance study participants\u2019 feelings toward exercise, setting them on the right track to become healthier. He and Hartman have also partnered with researchers from the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences on an investigative study to determine whether joint exercise and physical activity can improve personal relationships, in addition to individual health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those studies, along with his hands-on internship experience and diversity of classes he has been exposed to, have helped inspire Hernandez to continue his work in physical therapy. He has been accepted to the äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ graduate program in physical therapy, where he will begin his work toward a doctorate degree in the fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt has been a tremendous experience here. Throughout each year, I feel like I have grown into a more mature, professional young adult,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cThe challenging course of kinesiology in itself has been great for me in terms of being able to take on challenges and succeed at a high level. There have been elements that I didn\u2019t know it got into, like the psychology of exercise and the physiology of exercise. I wasn\u2019t aware we were going to dive deep into those subjects, but it ended up being a great interest of mine. It\u2019s definitely shaped me into a different person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, Hernandez is still that young boy accompanying his parents to doctors\u2019 offices to help translate diagnoses and treatments. That experience helped him realize Hispanic and other minority communities are underrepresented in the health care industries, putting members of those communities at a disadvantage. He realized from a young age that he could combine his love of athletics with a passion for caring for others to help enact change and provide a valuable service to members of his community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am a person of color; I\u2019m Hispanic. I want to help all populations and all people, but especially those populations that might be a little disadvantaged and not get the same opportunities as others,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cI believe that on the route I\u2019m heading toward, there aren\u2019t many people pursuing that career, or in the health professions in general. Anything I can do to help my community\u2014and give people motivation and an outlook that \u2018wow, there\u2019s a person doing this who may look like me and may have the same ideas as me,\u2019\u2014was always something that I wanted to pursue. I know I\u2019m just one person, but I see it as it\u2019s one person closer toward that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 12, 2023 — When Jason Hernandez was a young boy growing up in Providence, he would frequently accompany his mother and father to doctor\u2019s and dentist\u2019s appointments, even when he wasn\u2019t the patient. Instead, he was the translator. A first-generation American, Hernandez grew up in a Spanish-speaking household after his parents, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":86138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86137"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86141,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86137\/revisions\/86141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}