MA in Sport Psychology

The MA in Sport Psychology program at JFK University is the only such program in California to be housed within a graduate school of professional psychology. It is designed for students who want to work as consultants with athletes, coaches, communities and school groups on performance enhancement and life skills development. The MA program in Sport Psychology provides practicing coaches, trainers or athletes with the necessary skills to enhance their own performance and programs.

The Integrated Training Model of the core MA in Sport Psychology curriculum encompasses key competencies in performance enhancement, counseling skills and sport science. These core competencies will prepare students for certification by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), which is the only sport, exercise and health psychology organization in North America that offers sport psychology certification to its members.

Fieldwork

Our MA in Sport Psychology has the most dynamic, hands-on internship program in the U.S. The program is designed to maximize the opportunity for students to apply their classroom learning in the field. JFKU students complete a total of four internships during the MA program (totaling a minimum of 682 hours).

The first two internships take place in the LEAP (Life Enhancement through Athletic & Academic Participation) program. These internships allow students to experience first hand how sport psychology can positively impact young people's lives. In the first part of the LEAP internship, students run supervised week-long, sport-specific camp with high school athletes and a week long challenge camp in a residential facility for incarcerated young men. In their second LEAP internship, JFK University students use their new sport psychology skills to help youth on high school sports teams to improve their performance in sports, school and life. They conduct workshops for coaches and parents and also meet one-on-one with their clients.

For the other two sport psychology internships, students can select from a number of internship sites available around the Bay Area. Recently, students have interned with: a potential 2008 Beijing Olympian on the Stanford University gymnastics team; the Santa Clara University crew team; members of the Club 50 (a unique gym for individuals aged 50+); the nationally recognized Girls Inc.; a group home for at-risk adolescent girls; and the highly successful De LaSalle High School football program. This year we will provide an additional advanced training opportunity for our students through a recent collaboration with the IMG Tennis Academy in Florida.

We continue to expand the types of sport psychology consulting internships to ensure that our students have opportunities to work with a diverse range of athletes, sports and skill levels.

By participating in the wide variety of practical, hands-on learning experiences, graduates are prepared for a broad range of career opportunities, including:

consulting with university, elite, and professional athletes
working with children and sports through schools or community organizations
teaching and writing
coaching
sports medicine