University of Pennsylvania

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University of Pennsylvania   
Department of Recreation
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Executive Summary

Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania is one of the largest private educational institutions in the U.S.  It serves over 25,000 students and employs over 4,300 faculty staff. 

On-Site Needs

The Department of Recreation wanted to expand its health and fitness offerings so that they would reach a broader range of populations.  Furthermore, it wanted to augment its fitness programs to include exercise prescription, fee-based personal fitness training, wellness and fitness lectures, group fitness programming, continuing education and worksite health promotion offerings.  To be able to offer these services, the Department of Recreation needed a diverse and qualified personnel team.

Aquila Solutions

Aquila worked with the Department of Recreation to create a distinctive work force by keeping, certifying and re-educating its existing work force through Aquila's continuing education and development department.  It further merged this work force with Aquila’s degreed and nationally certified exercise specialists, group fitness instructors and personal fitness trainers.   

Aquila developed standardized operational procedures that encompassed daily management of three fitness centers, 45 fitness attendants, personal fitness trainers, group fitness instructors and 46 group fitness classes weekly.  By creating in-house marketing and educational materials to promote all aspects of the program, Aquila kept control of the information process.  This control further reduced the development costs and increased the effectiveness of those materials.

Further, Aquila created group fitness programming with classes offered in Spinning®, cardiovascular and muscle conditioning, mind and body classes, martial arts and flexibility instruction.  In addition, it created wellness and fitness educational seminars, workshops, courses and support groups to expand on the program.

Client Benefits

With a carefully selected outside work force, The Department of Recreation was able to improve its health and fitness programming and move to newer offerings that required specialized staff expertise.

“Our experience working with Aquila was a great pleasure.  The Recreation Department sought to identify a team that could meet our diverse demands in providing a quality fitness program to the vast university community.  I found Aquila to be attentive to our requests.  Aquila provided a progressive program format as well as staff that prioritized customer satisfaction,” said Paula King, Assistant Recreation Director of University of Pennsylvania.  “If you are looking for an operation that is enthusiastic about the health and fitness industry, I believe Aquila is a class act.”

“In the past 2 months, Aquila has proven its dedication to the fitness industry.  Aquila has provided the Department of Recreation with nationally certified staff of group exercise instructors and personal fitness trainers as well as a full continuing education calendar,” said Jennifer Kaina, Recreation Assistant/ Fitness & Wellness of University of Pennsylvania.  “Through the Department’s day-to-day operations, the Aquila staff has not only been knowledgeable to a wide range of recreational users and populations, but has been committed to the schedules and philosophies of the University of Pennsylvania.”

Cost Minimization

The University of Pennsylvania yielded savings of over 30 percent when compared to industry standards through:

• Reduced operational and recruitment costs in streamlining staffing operations to Aquila.

• Increased profitability of personal fitness training services.

• Reduced student fitness educational costs through Aquila’s Education and Development   Department.

• Reduced marketing and advertising costs through Aquila’s internal marketing solutions.

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