The University of North Georgia's health and physical education teacher education program is moving to the Gainesville Campus in spring 2019.
Future cohorts will spend a minimum of two semesters on the Gainesville Campus before finishing off their degree with a semester of student teaching.
Warren Caputo, assistant professor of kinesiology who will lead the program, said the move will help student retention because many students live close to the Gainesville Campus.
He expects the Bachelor of Science in kinesiology with a concentration in teacher certification program to form stronger partnerships in Hall and Gwinnett counties. Plus, the number of field experience sites to place teacher candidates for student teaching and internships will increase. Gwinnett has about 180,000 students in its school system, while Hall County has almost 27,000 and Gainesville has about 8,000.
"We felt that we could serve our students better from this campus," Caputo said.
Daniel Ramirez, a junior who has been accepted into the program for spring 2019, is one of those students. The teacher candidate from Winder said having his major offered on the Gainesville Campus instead of Dahlonega was a major draw.
"I can finish it out here," Ramirez said. "It's a huge relief."
