Employee Well-Being Specialist at the Mayo Clinic
Ali McDowell graduated from Concordia in 2019 with an MS degree in Exercise Science. She now works at the Mayo Clinic as an Employee Well-Being Specialist. As a personal trainer, some of her main responsibilities in her role are to support Mayo Clinic employees with their personal health journey by teaching classes and writing personalized programs. McDowell emphasizes the importance of her role as she helps support the health of the Clinic’s staff, so they can best support the health of their patients.
After running her own training business for years, McDowell realized she wanted to shift the trajectory of her career and knew a Master’s degree would help her get there. She was drawn to CSP because they offered her desired program with a flexible schedule and excellent faculty.
McDowell highlights CSP’s faculty as one of her favorite things about her time at CSP. “Mostly the professors and their expertise in different areas. There are professors from many different areas in different positions so picking their brains on what they do and what they enjoy is very helpful in finding what you might like to do.”
When asked to share a piece of advice for other CSP students, McDowell says, “Do your best to research future careers you are looking into. See if you can talk to individuals in those fields. Ask them how they enjoy their job or what they dislike about it. See if you can shadow in those areas. Knowing what you are getting yourself into is half the battle and then making sure you are setting yourself up to succeed is the other half.”