Bouvé College of Health Sciences

The Bouvé College of Health Sciences contains 4 undergraduate programs and over 34 graduate programs within its 3 schools: Health Professions, Nursing, and Pharmacy. According to Bouve's own learning outcomes, graduates of the program apply knowledge of the basic sciences, understand and analyze the US healthcare system, apply research methods and analytic strategies, communicate health information effectively and appropriately, appreciate the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in population health, and utilize global perspectives. The mission statement as a College of Health Sciences is to represent the center of excellence in health professional education, research, and service, and emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of today's team approach to healthcare.[2] The structure of the college fosters cross-disciplinary interaction among faculty and students, encourages innovation in the education of both entry level and advanced practice health professionals, and recognizes the autonomy of each profession. The Bouvé College partners with health care delivery systems and the community to give students and faculty access to practice sites that prepare graduates to meet the health care needs of their urban neighbors and society.[3]

The college has an accelerated Bachelor/Graduate Degree Program which includes a PlusOne Bachelor's/Master's degree program. This allows students to accelerate the process of completing their master's degree by implementing graduate credit courses, which contribute to both the undergraduate and graduate degree. The accelerated program includes the following programs: BS in Health Science & MPH (Master of Public Health Science), PharmD (Doctor of Pharmacy) & MPH, and BS in Psychology & MS in Applied Behavior Analysis.[4]

Bouvé has a variety of research opportunities to give students a chance to actively participate in the field, labs, and clinical settings starting from as early as their first year. Presently, the college has nine research labs, including a robot and gait assisted rehab lab, neuro-physical therapy lab, and cancer survivor-ship center. Bouvé research ranges from studies at the cellular level to the global systems that impact health across communities. The Arnold S. Goldstein Simulation Laboratory is intended for students to apply immersive, hands-on experiential training across all disciplines. Using video capture technology, simulation bays, debriefing rooms, and high-tech patient simulators, students translate theoretical concepts to real skills, working with ‘patients’ or actors.[5]

Based on US News college rankings from 2018 to 2019, Bouvé College of Health Sciences was ranked #20 in Best Physician Assistant Programs, #33 in Best Pharmacy Schools, #40 in Best Physical Therapy Schools, and #50 in Best Nursing Schools within the Graduate Level Schools.[6]

Carmen Sceppa is currently the dean of the Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University. Sceppa, who has served as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs since 2018, is a physician and scientist, having published more than 75 scholarly articles focused largely on healthy aging.[7]

There are approximately 4,000 students, 220 faculty and staff, and 40,000 alumni in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences.[1] In accordance with Northeastern University's emphasis on globally minded students, more than 380 Bouvé students had global learning experiences in 32 countries in 2017.[8]

The Boston School of Physical Education was founded with the stated intention of training young women in the principles of self-comportment and as a platform for advocacy of the importance of physical education for societal well-being.[11] The development of physiotherapy curriculum, which revolved around the study of Biology and Anatomy in their earliest forms, expanded the scope of the school. Leaders and students promoted the school's offerings through common publication venues and regional mailing campaigns. Open to students from surrounding colleges and universities as well as the general public, demonstrations gave physical therapy students the opportunity to practice treatment interventions and physical education students to practice the teaching of sports or games.

When the Boston School of Physical Education first opened their doors, the school only granted a diploma in physical education. With students returning from service as reconstruction aides in WWI, physiotherapy courses quickly became an optional component of many school curriculums, including at Boston School of Physical Education. Although physiotherapy did not become a separate course of study until the 1950s, students increasingly enrolled at Bouvé-Boston because of its reputation as a leader in the movement to professionalize the discipline. In the 1960s, Bouvé-Boston implemented another new major in recreation education, which trained students to guide people of all ages through relaxing and creative leisure-time activities. Throughout all periods of curricular expansion over time, Bouvé has continued to maintain high enrollment standards.

The Boston School of Physical Education and its successors adopted a holistic approach to the teaching of physical education and physical therapy. All curricular components functioned as an integrated unit just as students were expected to exemplify a balanced character and the highest attainments of their profession. The school also prioritized professional experience during enrollment at Boston School and its successors. In the case of physical education students, teaching in local grade schools provided the opportunity to test the principles taught in their classroom education.

The seven founders of the Boston School of Physical Education were a close-knit group of friends. Bessie Barnes and Miriam Tobey graduated as members of the first class from the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics in 1893. Mary Florence Stratton earned her diploma in 1900, and Caroline Baxter, Marjorie Bouvé, Marguerite Sanderson, and Grace Shepardson followed in 1903. Upon graduation, six accepted teaching positions in the Boston area. Marguerite Sanderson became a physiotherapy aide at a local medical gymnasium. Bouvé, Stratton, and Sanderson primarily developed the Boston School of Physical Education from idea to reality. All served as trustee-managers, and Sanderson became President of the School in 1913.[10]

A Massachusetts native, Director of the Bouvé-Boston School of Physical Education Marjorie Bouvé received a diploma from the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics and a BS in Education from Boston University. Bouvé taught at Bradford Academy, Smith College, and in the Boston public schools before joining the development team behind the Boston School of Physical Education. She served as Director of three institutions for over thirty-five years, participated in numerous national organizations devoted to advancing physical education, and presided over the Eastern District Association of the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation.

Ruth Page Sweet, a graduated member of the Boston School of Physical Education class of 1919, went on to become a physical educator. Ruth's qualities helped her to recruit students for the Bouvé program by looking not just in the Boston area, but expanding to the New York Metropolitan area as well.[12] Ruth returned to the school in 1929. She served as Director of the Bouvé-Boston School for 12 years. To recognize Ruth's achievements, a student dormitory was named in her honor at the Boston School of Physical Education.

The Boston-Bouvé College had its own building on the Northeastern University campus. Additionally, Northeastern provided additional facilities such as the Warren Center, a camping area wholly owned and operated by the University, a natatorium, new handball courts, and the Mugar Life Sciences building. These met the needs of both physical education and physical therapy programs. Students assumed many leadership responsibilities throughout the history of Bouvé. From forming their own government to organizing special activities, they helped to determine the school's standards and identity. Participating in interschool activities, volunteering at local community centers, and even wearing the school uniform projected a self-assured, amiable attitude for potential students and donors. The collective independence and sense of purpose of the student body crafted Bouvé into an institution that appealed to the brightest young minds in the fields of physical therapy, physical education, and recreation.[10]

Bouvé rules and regulations covered all aspects of student life, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. From academic honesty to health regimens and dress, the honor code attempted to form students into upright, well-mannered, self-motivated individuals. Many of the restrictions applied to student housing; until Ruth Page Sweet Hall opened in 1958, the majority of students lived in houses administered by house mothers. Rules changed slowly over time, but the underlying principles of decorum remained. Additionally, the School advocated the highest standards of healthy living, including eight hours of sleep, six glasses of water, and thirty minutes of daily exercise.[10]

Clothing shaped group identity as much as the other recreational activities and rituals at Bouvé. Before mass-produced clothing became common, students ordered custom fit outfits from local tailors, which ensured uniformity in cut and color. A catalog from the store of Gertrude Gibson Robinson, a graduate of the Boston School of Physical Education, appealed to potential shoppers through comfort and practical concerns. Each successive generation of students bemoaned the uniform requirement. Whether complaining about lack of choice or the restrictions placed upon movement, these frequent yet light-hearted jests became a school tradition in themselves.

The first student government formed in 1919 as the brainchild of a camp conversation. Students petitioned Marjorie Bouvé, and she agreed. The girls applied the same dedication and intensity to self-government as they did to their coursework and camp activities. Students administered the honor code, planned many of the school functions, promoted school community, and bridged the gap between classmates and the administration. To ensure continuity, the president and vice president of each senior class wrote a report covering both practical and abstract matters for the incoming officers. The Monomettes, students who had completed their two years at camp, returned to advise younger students and act in a semi-administrative capacity alongside teachers. They served as mediators for campers and instructors, resolving concerns about uniforms, time for lights-out, and locations for smoking. Government officers also initiated a ritual of their own, the transfer of a long silver chain from the current to the rising president.[10]

Bouvé students in the early twentieth century inherited the traditions of the school's founders, most notably singing as a leisure activity. Each member of the entering class received a songbook at the beginning of the year, and song leaders encouraged the classes to learn a variety of pieces. The alma mater and ceremonial songs cultivated a sense of school-wide unity while Blue and White team songs instilled a sense of pride. Classes passed a corpus of school songs to the successive generations. New students also contributed to the canon. Silly or serious, devoted to the school or to its founders, each song reflected the emphasis placed upon tradition and holistic education. Through singing, students united to pay tribute to their history.[10]

At the school's founding, Bouvé teams competed against teams from the Sargent School and the Posse-Nissen School, the two other institutions of physical education in Boston. The intramural, Blue-White competition, however, comprised most of the athletic competitions for the BSPE student body. Athletic and scholastic events, as well as demonstrations of school spirit all, fell under the Blue-White divide. The teams vied for achievement points throughout the year, but the competition was not designed to forge a bitter rivalry between the opponents. Rather, heated battles in the classroom or on the field allowed fellow students to display their skill against each other. Song and ceremony shaped the Blue-White competitions. Team song leaders demonstrated their spirit with team cheers, most often composed by members of the team as new versions of familiar chants. The winner of the yearlong competition received a silver candlestick engraved with the date and name of the victor. The team had the honor of displaying the candlestick with a candle of their respective color. The annual event infused an attitude of continuous competition into Bouvé culture.[10]

From the first day of the academic year, extracurricular activities injected a dose of levity into rigorous courses of study. Student government oversaw orientation week activities, which included picnics and meetings between Big and Little Sisters. As girls began arriving from across the country, orientation week became an important period of acclimation and a rite of passage into new school culture. Although Bouvé remained a single-sex school until its merger with Northeastern University, men were allowed to attend school-sponsored dances and parties. In particular, theater, swim, and dance performances filled the Parents’ Weekend and Class Day programs.[10]

Bouvé alumni remembered their days at school with great fondness. Those from the early years particularly carried a strong sense of having broken new ground for women in higher education. When Dean Emerita Catherine Allen began collecting the school's history, many alumni answered her call to share a “flavor of the times.” Students and staff from the early years responded with special vigor. Their reminisces portray life at Bouvé in the early twentieth century as a whirl of activity, a period when women navigated between the gender norms of older generations and the free-spirited independence of the modern woman. Differences in opinion often arose between faculty and students, but pride in the school's achievements united these groups.[10]