The Personal Fitness Trainer program was approved as a two-year diploma in 2012. Eleven members of the inaugural diploma intake graduated in 2014 and eight of them crossed the stage at Mount Royal University’s Convocation on November 7, 2014.

“We are so proud of our first Personal Fitness Trainer Diploma graduates. This is truly a special moment for the entire MRU community and a time to for our graduates to celebrate their hard-earned achievements. They should feel confident that they are venturing into the health and fitness industry with an abundance of skills and competencies to make a positive difference in the lives of others. Congratulations!” says Community and Health Studies Program Director Christina White-Prosser.

Graduate Ron Luciuk talks about how the program fits his values and beliefs about health. “My mother inspired me to always be physically active. I grew up aspiring to maintain my health through this natural method and in doing so I excelled at whatever I did. I always believed that the health benefits of physical activity outperformed the perceived benefits of modern western medicine. As careers were limited in fitness at the time, I chose a career as a pharmacist and thought that I could change this ideal and switch my values to the accepted medical one. I unsuccessfully tried to do that for 25 years. I eventually returned to my former conviction that fitness was vital to health and happiness and entered the PFT program at MRU in 2012. Over the next two years my passion for fitness as a means to enhance health was reignited along with an appreciation of how natural nutrition can provide everything the body needs to optimize itself. I graduated from MRU with a Diploma focusing on health care that emphasizes staying well through physical activity and nutrition versus one that repairs health problems. The PFT program restored my core belief that the best way to health is through exercise and nutrition and prepared me to carry that forward to others.”

MRU’s well-respected Personal Fitness Trainer Diploma is a comprehensive program of 22 courses, including lab time and practicum, preparing students to work one-on-one with clients providing safe and effective exercise programs. The curriculum was designed to meet the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology – Certified Personal Trainer (CSEP-CPT). The program was originally introduced as a certificate in the late 1990s.

Graduates of other full-time Continuing Education programs also crossed the stage at Mount Royal University’s Convocation ceremony.