Just 20 years ago, hardly anyone asked whether a college education was worth the financial cost. It was a given that, if you desired gainful, lucrative employment, rather than grunt-level wages in the service or labor industries, you’d graduate high school and head off to university. Tuition was costly, but with grants, scholarships, help from family and perhaps a part-time job, for many, paying for higher education was generally manageable. Upon obtaining your degree, that embossed piece of paper served as a first-class ticket to white-collar town. Employers were impressed by your educational commitment and success, and your résumé was automatically moved to the top of the pile.
Today, it’s a matter of course that anyone seeking employment in a position that pays decent wages will have at least a bachelor’s degree. The major is often of little consequence — coursework in practically any discipline, supported by on-the-job experience and internships, will get your foot in the door, but may not set you apart from other applicants. A master’s degree, doctorate, entrenched connections or years of experience are now the gold standard for hiring managers.
An increasing share of those individuals who are contemplating the collegiate track are doubly challenged by rising tuition prices. According to the Project on Student Loan Debt, seven in 10 college seniors graduating in 2013 did so carrying almost $30,000 in debt each. Those who go on to attend graduate school may incur even greater financial burdens, which can take decades to pay off. Observations like these beg the question: Is today’s college degree worth it? Furthermore, for those in the park and recreation profession, will pursuing a degree in this field make any discernable impact on hiring managers? Do these programs still have relevance in preparing the next generation of park and recreation professionals?
Robert Ashcraft, Ph.D., executive director of Arizona State University’s (ASU) Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation, associate professor at ASU’s School of Community Resources and Development, and chair of NRPA’s Board of Directors, lends some insight, saying, “There is no question that expenses to pursue higher education have escalated, resulting in some individuals questioning whether the costs are worth the reward any longer for earning a degree. Confounding the view is the extent to which professional degrees for specific fields are being devalued in favor of virtually any general degree as employers seek to hire talent. Such a debate is not unique to parks and recreation…. What all employers desire, and this is certainly true of park and recreation agencies, is for employees to demonstrate strong oral and written communication skills, show an ability to work effectively in teams and exhibit cross-cultural competence, among other ‘soft’ skills. If a park and recreation degree program can demonstrate results in producing graduates who have competencies in both the specific field of practice along with the more general skills applicable to any field, then I’d say that’s a powerful argument for relevance that would capture the attention of any park and recreation hiring manager.”
We know the realm of parks and recreation is expanding, as it has for more than half a century. A recent study by Georgetown University found those students who majored in parks and recreation ranked among the lowest in unemployment, at just 5.2 percent. Urban planners, as they go about creating livable spaces for a growing population, know parks have a positive effect on everything from property values to resident health outcomes, business attraction and retention. As this field continues to gain relevance, it’s fair to ask: How do we define today’s field of parks and recreation, and what do we need to do to make sure professionals are prepared to tackle the myriad questions that face us now and into the future?
A Many-Faceted Role
“Public parks and recreation is perhaps the most complicated government service there is,” says Mickey Fearn, professor of practice at North Carolina State University’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management Department. “It does everything that every other government agency does. [Park and recreation professionals] are problemsolvers, but we’re blind to our potential. We should be the primary public agency to affect the fabric of American society.”
Indeed, over the years park and recreation agencies have taken on the tasks of facilitating summer feeding programs; implementing activities for seniors, afterschool time and day care; hosting various entertainment events like concerts and movies; and still more. In so doing, park and recreation professionals often partner with other essential services like fire and police, and are routinely called upon to justify their department’s existence to the lawmakers and bureaucrats who hold the purse strings.
It takes a well-rounded, competent and confident individual to tackle the ever-widening scope of responsibility in the park and recreation field, and therefore, a comprehensive, malleable and quick-responding educational system to train them. The sticking point these days, according to several practitioners and academics interviewed for this article, is how best to address the educational and experiential needs of the up-and-coming park and recreation professional. And, additionally, what happens if we allow the market — or recalcitrant educators who are loathe to adjust their subject matter to fit today’s world — to drive course offerings, rather than what might be most important for young people to find success?
Getting at the Core
The journey begins freshman year. “[Students] need to get to a core understanding [of the field] on the undergraduate level,” says Christian Moore, director at Cathedral Oaks Worship and Retreat Center in Weimar, Texas, and NRPA’s 2013–2014 Young Professionals Network chair. “This includes the basics, the foundation of the profession, and for the most part we have that.” Accredited collegiate programs typically require students to take a certain number of core credits, no matter the larger discipline. These might include written communication, social and behavioral science, literature and quantitative reasoning. “You have so many courses that are required no matter the major, so [students] get a good breadth of knowledge in general,” says Brooke Burk, Ph.D., assistant professor at SUNY-Cortland’s Department of Recreation, Parks and Leisure Services. “But to prepare [students] for a specific area, they need coursework that is tailored. A lot of our programs do a really great job making sure students have this well-rounded experience, then they can major in fields that are of most interest to them.”
And that’s exactly what seems to be happening. Students who find their way to a park and recreation major — many of whom are so-called “discovery majors,” starting their college career in different disciplines before learning of park and recreation degree programs — often become enamored of one specialty or another and devote the majority of their studies to that area. Popular programs of late include sports management, special events, and even tourism or hospitality. “There’s always a core general recreation education that goes on in those [majors], but the more you begin to specialize in a track within your degree program, the more deficiency you’re going to find or feel if you can’t find that niche job,” Moore says.
Dan Dustin, Ph.D., professor at the University of Utah’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, characterizes the educational landscape of parks and recreation as “fragmented,” and in light of this, senses more changes to come. “The field is no longer centered on public parks and recreation per se,” he says. “Rather, there is a growing proliferation of subspecializations…. Students tend to identify with their subspecializations and not the general field of parks and recreation. My sense is that undergraduate professional preparation programs are doing OK — they are stable — but graduate programs focused on leisure studies are shrinking. I wonder what will hold the field together down the road.”
When conducting interviews for the Parks and Recreation Department in Parma, New York, Director Tom Venniro weighs education versus experience very carefully. “We just hired a recreation supervisor in April of 2014 — we had more than 30 applicants, and we brought in about 10 for interviews,” he says. “Looking at the applications, the main contributing factor was experience — anything related to [the park and recreation field] is what I wanted to see. I knew I wanted someone who could come in and do the job.” Venniro did see a number of applicants with park and recreation majors or minors, but, “the person we hired worked for five years part-time at another local recreation department. That experience, to me, set her apart already in that you really can’t get that just from school. She was a ready fit to go on and succeed in the profession. That’s not to say the others weren’t also capable of success, but you had the sense they needed a little more experience,” he says.
Regardless of what particular job for which a graduate might be angling, Ashcraft says demonstrating a range of talents and abilities is of paramount importance. Accordingly, the best university programs should recognize this necessity by emphasizing core competencies and nimbly reacting to the demands of the employment landscape. “The field of parks and recreation increasingly demands professionals who are ‘boundary spanners’ and who draw from a variety of disciplines and fields of study in order to be successful,” he says. “The great park and recreation degree programs, at undergraduate and graduate levels, acknowledge the need to have a curriculum that reflects the reality of today’s environment in which agencies operate, and they prepare students who can adroitly move between specializations and generalizations within their field.”
Who is Responsible?
These days, deciding whether to go to college is as much a financial decision as one’s career path. When contemplating higher education, today’s student needs to be as savvy, forward-thinking and proactive about their choice of institution and course of study as possible. Of course, for a 17- or 18-year-old, this can be a tall order, but Burk says flexibility can help in a situation where it’s just not possible to have all the answers. “You have to be willing to ask questions and know that maybe [a particular major] isn’t right for you, and you may switch things up two or three times before you find that out,” she says. “Being actively engaged in your education is paramount. Knowing what you want to do right away, or thinking you do, can be a detriment if you find you don’t fully enjoy it. Being open, knowing who and when to ask questions, is going to be more to your benefit than knowing exactly what you want to do and simply going about it.”
Burk, Venniro and Moore strongly encourage students to get as much experience in the field as possible, which can help with choosing the right major in undergraduate and graduate work. “I know when I talk to parents at open houses, their first question is, ‘What’s the career market like? Is there growth potential? What will my child make once they graduate, and will they be done in four years?’” Burk continues. “Our field is fantastic — there are all kinds of summer jobs, internships, etc. Students can get that experience that will be essential in deciding whether to go further into academic training or into the field.”
But what of the academics themselves? They, too, must have a responsibility to tailor and morph their course offerings to best prepare their students for employment. This, however, is where the current state of affairs can seem quite sticky. Professors are under a certain amount of pressure to keep their classes full in order to obtain adequate funding for their programs and schools, and that can often mean offering what’s popular, versus what is needed. “Enrollment pressures are real at most colleges and universities, so it is not unusual that economic reward systems favor classes that are in high demand,” says Ashcraft. “However, most colleges and universities take seriously their responsibility to educate students across a range of curriculum topics deemed essential for success in a chosen field. Such offerings are not always driven by so-called ‘popular’ classes. There is also recognition that experiential learning is essential, and so service-learning courses, internships and other out-of-classroom offerings are incorporated into programs that serve students and the field well.”
If Ashcraft’s perspective is indeed well-represented among other academics, and most any professor will take seriously her obligation to prepare a student well for the future, it can be assumed that goal would be present no matter the discipline. Again, we are faced with the question, are programmatic offerings centered just on parks and recreation even necessary? When many practitioners today are saddled with crafting budgeting proposals, planning and other fiduciary responsibilities, does today’s student even need to worry about history and theory in the field of parks and recreation? Dustin thinks perhaps not, saying, “While I think it is important to get a strong philosophical foundation in parks, recreation and leisure to understand the relevance of the field to the larger culture, I don’t think it is a necessary condition to succeed in the field. What is important is intelligence, drive and dedication to the field’s ideals as well as a public-service mentality. That kind of mindset can come from almost any student in any major.”
This is a stark contrast to Fearn’s position, which laments a lack of focus on the philosophical underpinnings of the park and recreation industry and how that history can inform today’s landscape. “There are two things missing [in parks and recreation education today] — one is around those philosophical foundations that inform our profession, and I don’t think [students are] getting that,” he says. “They’re also not getting the administrative/finance side, but there’s yet another issue: America is the most complex country on the planet. It combines freedom, choice, diversity — this makes American society a difficult society to live in, unless somebody is teaching students about the emerging complexity of our communities and how we approach that. My feeling is until park and recreation people understand their value and importance of preparing communities to deal with these things, we’ll continue to be described as a non-essential service. Students aren’t prepared to deal with that kind of complexity.”
Experience in the real world may help prepare students to address the needs of diverse communities, as can continuing educational and networking opportunities outside the traditional college setting. NRPA offers several accredited courses and certifications year-round, plus extensive networking and information-sharing opportunities through NRPA Connect. The association also hosts an annual conference each year, a huge educational and networking event designed to bring the latest and most effective strategies to park and recreation professionals. At this year’s annual conference, attendees will find interactive educational sessions in the Learning Playground and Learning Labs, expanded Speed Sessions, and a fresh look at how to support, facilitate and communicate park and recreation research.
Opportunities like these may be just the ticket for the cash-strapped young professional, who may also be lacking in experience. “It’s on [students] to take their assignments more seriously and [take advantage of] networking,” Burk says. “[Students] often say, ‘I should work on networking, going to conferences, etc.’ [Those experiences impact] their ability to learn more about what’s going on in the field, put on better events and meet needs of the community.”
It Takes a Village
There is no quick, one-size-fits-all solution to the challenges facing the field of parks and recreation today. Students face myriad options of how to go about structuring their undergraduate and postgraduate careers. Professors must juggle the pressures of keeping their classrooms full with the desire to provide top-notch education to the next generation of park and recreation professionals. Those out in the field serving communities day in, day out, must adopt an attitude of continuous learning. And, perhaps most important, organizations like NRPA must serve as the third support in the academic-practitioner-advocate triangle. As the premier organization for park and recreation professionals, NRPA is uniquely positioned to advocate for its constituents, disseminate important research and provide tools for growth, including continuing education, certification and networking opportunities.
Meanwhile, those eyeballing a career in the field will face a kaleidoscope of possibilities, which is likely to shift and change more than once as they navigate the hallowed halls of academia. Still, says Dustin, there is comfort in knowing the desire to relax, have fun, be fit and build community will remain an essential part of this field with unlimited growth potential, even as we attempt to address today’s identity crisis. “Curricula in parks and recreation in higher education will likely remain at the margin, because we live in a culture that remains work-centered, not leisure-centered, even as the evidence suggests leisure will play a larger role in our lives in the future,” he says. “Essentially, those of us dedicated to parks, recreation and leisure are ahead of our time.”
Samantha Bartram is the Associate Editor of Parks & Recreation Magazine.