The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted opportunities for internships in parks, recreation, tourism, and sports. The government mandated numerous agencies to close. Many agencies that remained open reduced staff, froze budgets, shifted programs online, and discontinued internships. The senior internship for Parks, Recreation, and Tourism…

The Recreation Management and Leadership (RML) program at Western Washington University utilizes a cohort-based model in which sequenced courses and overnight retreats work in tandem to cultivate an inclusive learning community. COVID-19 necessitated not only that we quickly move all of our courses online, but it challenged us to transition our…

Steeped in a rich history of formal connections between institutions of higher education and the citizens and communities in which they are embedded, the importance of engaging education in the community has long been recognized for its myriad of benefits to all involved including increased funding for university research, more informed practice…

This study examined the unique leadership experiences of queer women in collegiate recreation, focusing on joy as a critical aspect of their professional journey. Employing a narrative inquiry methodology, the research documented the lived experiences of queer women in executive-level roles, exploring the complex intersection of gender, sexuality,…

The Recreation Management program planning course unites students and community members to develop, plan, market, and facilitate a recreation program. In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shifted course delivery to an online platform requiring faculty and community partners to create a fully online experience. This paper highlights the changes…

Universities recognize they have a civic responsibility to engage and enrich the community in which they reside. This study looks at a community engagement project undertaken at one university that was intended to address significant recreational needs within the community while also furthering academic initiatives. As part of the appeal to…

Teaching an online course was always something I resisted. Like many of the colleagues I have talked to, I was worried that the lack of face-to-face interaction would significantly take away from the quality of the education for the students. With a class like Recreation Programming, I knew that students needed hands-on experience with running a…

This paper explores the use of podcast-style interview pedagogies (pod-agogies) as an innovate teaching method in a capstone therapeutic recreation (TR) seminar course. The purpose of the pod-agogies course component was to create meaningful connections between upper-year TR students and TR practitioners working in the field and on the frontlines…

Practitioners in the field of collegiate recreation have begun to place greater emphasis on the co-curricular learning experiences of undergraduate students who are employed in collegiate recreation departments. Institutions have implemented learning outcomes and career readiness assessments to measure student knowledge acquisition through…

It is believed that by providing university students with knowledge about people who are marginalized in society, in combination with opportunities to interact positively with them, feelings of unease and stereotypical thinking are diminished. Experiential opportunities can also support students' academic and professional development as advocates…

The Council on Accreditation of Parks, Recreation, Tourism and Related Professions (COAPRT) outlines standards for recreation programs to ensure a quality educational experience. The current case study presents findings from a youth-adult partnership in support of various COAPRT standards to assist in the development of aspiring recreation…

This article describes a modified importance-performance framework for use in evaluation of recreation-based experiential learning programs. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) provides an effective and readily applicable means of evaluating many programs, but the near universal satisfaction associated with recreation inhibits the use of IPA in…

Service learning is becoming a more utilized method of instruction in collegiate settings, and holds the potential to provide a deeper, more transferable meaning of course material for students. The purpose of this research was to examine if therapeutic recreation (TR) concentration students perceived service learning to be more personally and…

Universities are currently embracing community engagement strategies to increase opportunities for student learning in community settings such as community organizations. Experiential learning is often touted as the pedagogy underlying such experiences. We undertook a research project exploring the challenges and benefits for students and faculty…

This qualitative study addresses the need for campus-based programming that allows students to practice adaptive coping skills and increase well-being. Eight focus groups and seven individual interviews were conducted with students participating in credit-based leisure education courses to understand self-reported health-related motivations and…