B.S. in Recreation Administration

Recreation administration is the process that mobilizes an organization's resources human and material to accomplish goals to benefit the leisure time of the community served. Students considering this multidisciplinary field will receive a broad-based educational experience. Responsibilities of a recreation administrator often include: budgeting, trend forecasting, personnel and facility management, programming, employee training, risk management and marketing. Additionally, public recreation administrators can have involvement with city councils and planning boards, advocating programs related to community recreation as well as open space and facilities. Organized recreation services carry the stigma of being only fun-and-games operations, concerned chiefly with providing programs of sports, games and hobbies. In reality, administrators are often responsible for much more. They oversee the operations of entire departments and agencies within private, non-profit and public recreation sectors. As a professional in recreation administration, the driving force of a successful career is focusing on making a difference in the lives of the people, customers and clients will serve as a leisure service educator. Within this discipline, students will be part of a profession promoting life satisfaction, fitness, health and wellness, psychological wellbeing, quality of life, creativity and cultural heritage. If they like working with people of all ages, promoting healthy lifestyles and possess a burning desire to serve others - a career in recreation administration is for them. Students develop appropriate professional capabilities and attitudes required for work in a variety of settings. They learn to advise customers as well as organize, plan, budget and manage both leisure services and recreation/park resources. Another emerging characterizing of graduates is the ability to use technology to enhance the provision of leisure services. Field work is offered to the students in various recreation and resource settings, and students serve full-time internships with public recreation agencies, private/commercial recreation businesses, hotels/resorts, therapeutic programs or parks/natural resource-related agencies.