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Pfeiffer University will soon offer a new minor in one of the school’s fastest growing majors.

According to Pfeiffer president Dr. Scott Bullard, speaking to the Stanly County Economic Development Commission Monday, Pfeiffer’s faculty has approved a Cancer Rehabilitation minor as part of the school’s Health and Exercise Science major.

Bullard credited Dr. Tom Darling, who joined Pfeiffer in 2020, with having helped the program grow from 39 students to 85.

“We’re very excited about his arrival,” Bullard said. “He built his own health and exercise science and human performance lab (at Oklahoma Baptist University) with the use of grants, and has helped us [connect] to an Anson County foundation that continues to pour six figures into his lab.”

Bullard said Darling is researching the effect exercise can have on a person undergoing cancer treatment.

“We’ve declared this major. We’ve enlarged our faculty. We’ve improved our lab,” Bullard said.

He said Pfeiffer will look for three to five community members in the spring to take part in a pilot program where students will work pro bono with community members.

Bullard noted 30% of the students in the Pfeiffer Center for Health Sciences building in Albemarle who were in the physican’s assistant or occupational health programs majored in their undergraduate studies in exercise science.

“It’s a quickly growing field.”