Recreational Sports Research

“Your behavior determines to some extent, the destiny of your nation and your group” - John Henrick Clarke. In this paper I will discuss and make application of the following group behavior themes covered in the Organizational Behavior Class; Leadership and followership styles, Synergistic Decision making, and Body Language as described in Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk. In additional I will discuss the insights gained through the Desert survival exercise and Strength Development Inventory (SDI) and apply those insights to my personal real-life experiences.

To meet this objective, I joined in 2010 the NAE4-HA Program Taskforce Committee on Camping and Environmental Education, attended state and national workshops on camping, and gained six seasons worth of camping experiences. The experience I gain as a member of a national taskforce enhances my knowledge of camping, of the NAE4-HA organization as well as camping and strengthens my relationship with other extension camping professionals across the nation. Workshops, presentations, and conversations with other camping professionals have aided in the productivity and value of Kanawha County Camps. A competent and supportive team of extension staff, adult volunteer leaders and teen leaders at the county level has created a quality and affordable experiential educational camping experience for youth in Kanawha

Application of leadership skills in recreation organizations is the main complaint of employers, if we assume that the appropriate leadership skills are being

After working with Peace Corps over the period of two years in high school from 2011-2013, where I initiated and facilitated two 5-day-self-empowerement leadership camps for 50 campers each to exemplify leadership skills. I mentored the campers about the goals and individual leadership skills to help them understand the process of the camp and how to identify and prevent negative peer pressure. I acted as a bridge between campers and Peace Corps Volunteers by providing both parties with cultural understanding of each other. The experience of public speaking, writing and communication skills and the connection made through this process helped me to stand out in 50 students from

Joint leisure time is an important element in promoting marital and family quality.This helps strengthen families through family recreation. Family recreation and leisure are associated with several positive outcomes in family interaction, satisfaction, and stability; stability would include an increased satisfaction with family life, improved communication, and overall family functioning. With this recreation program, parents could get to know their children

I focused on camp as an opportunity to reach out to a population I previously did not interact with. My personal goal was to benefit the people at camp rather then completely focus on my own experience and how I would grow from it. While I do feel like I accomplished this in a small way, I found that in the Camp TEAM trainings there was a lot of focus on what the recreation program individuals got out of the experience. I think how the phase benefitted should be secondary to how others benefitted. Another part of being a servant leader is affecting change in the participants I found it hard to focus on this with such a limited amount of time. One of my biggest struggles while leading was trying to balance and implement a mentor rather then friend relationship. I wanted to be able to lead my cabin’s activities eloquently and connect to the people staying there but not cross any boundaries in my leadership role. It was somewhat confusing to be told that the phase was having the camper experience along side the buddy while still trying to be a camp facilitator and lead the activity. I hope to work on my mentor friend balance in future leadership

Our field experience, canoeing/rafting in Indiana was fun and stress relieving. Overall I don’t think it changed me as a person or had any kind of impact on me, but it was genuinely pleasurable. I liked appreciating nature with friendly people. My favorite part was seeing a bald eagle in the wild for the first time. What stuck with me was the story about the little boy who went on a rafting trip. It was a depressing and shocking story but it was the kind of story that I will never forget. I think this is so important because we learned about essential safety is while enduring in outdoor

At my college, Loyola University Maryland I am a leader for Outdoor Adventure Experience (OAE), a student run organization that could be compared to the program Outward Bound. This program not only teaches outdoor skills and team building but asks participants and leaders to reflect on their lives and set goals. This aspect of OAE separates it from hiking clubs and other outdoor programs because it challenges participants to grow mentally as well enjoy the outdoors. As a leader in this program I have over 500 hours of volunteer service per year and received my Wilderness First Responder (WFR) training. I have been taught to specialize and lead trips in backpacking, whitewater kayaking, sea kayaking, rock climbing and caving. As well as being

The birth of Venture Crew 182 in Wood-Ridge last year was probably the most impactful experience I have ever had; this event was so significant, because I was the person who created the group. For quite some time, I had pondered why it was that the Boy Scouts in town were permitted to engage in more adventurous activities than us Girl Scouts. While in the midst of searching for an answer and solution to this observation, I discovered the existence of Venture Scouts; venturing is a subsidiary group of the Boy Scouts open to young men and women to promote adventure, service, exemplary character, and much more. Almost immediately, I began acquiring a consensus of the popularity this potential organization could have in our community from my peers. Witnessing the enormous amounts of demonstrated interest, I began networking with local Boy and Girl Scout leaders, students and faculty within the school system, organizations for advertising, and most importantly the Boy Scout Council of Northern New Jersey to create the Wood-Ridge Venture Crew 182. Tremendously successful, the Venture Crew began its first year with over forty members, three

For this project, I interviewed my supervisor at the Oregon Zoo Jody Van Riper. Jody is the program coordinator of the Oregon Zoo UNO (Urban Nature Overnights) program. This program is a part of a three year paid internship at the zoo, ZAP, (Zoo Animal Presenters). I graduated from the program last March, and was fortunate enough to get a staff position right after I completed the program! UNO partners with programs such as IRCO, SUN schools, and Boys & Girls clubs to take kids out on camping trips during the summer. There are many problems that arise in planning, coordinating, and executing a 24 hour camping trip for kids that will be lead by a group of teens. Often times the same problems occur over the years, and Jody uses her previous knowledge and the guess and check method to try to solve them. If one method doesn’t work she approaches the problem form a

The family structure of children living in nontraditional homes is increasing because the rate of divorce has increased. Statistics from the US Bureau of Census indicates that fifty-percent of families who were once married are now remarried or re-coupled, thirteen-hundred new stepfamilies are forming every day, one out of two marriages ends in divorce, seventy-five percent of divorced couples end up remarrying, fifty percent of the sixty million children under the age of twelve are currently living with one biological parent and that parent’s current partner. (Stepfamily Statistics, 2018).

Parents have become more afraid of car accidents, crime, creepers and diseases which have all become over-exaggerated through the media (“Why Kids Need Nature”). The lack of parental support for children to get eye level with nature and explore its’ beauty in backyards and surrounding environments is detrimental to children’s views on nature. Simple outdoor activities and time to play outside aren’t put on the daily to do list for children because the of the demanding schedule made for them (Louv, “Children's Isolation from the Natural World Is a Threat to Their Health”). Robert Louv did a ten-year study with many families to observe the amount of time children spend interacting with nature. He says in one of his articles, “Some [parents] feel [playing outside] wastes precious time. They're afraid that if they don't get the kids in Suzuki violin lessons they won't get into Harvard," The importance of success that parents place on their children in school, extracurricular activities and lessons can detrimentally suffocate the child’s schedule and prohibit them from being able to learn the best they can. The negative effect that NDD has on a child’s learning about life is significant (“Kids Need to Offset ‘screen time’ with ‘nature time’” A1). To establish basic concepts of life and learning, children need experience with the

Adventure Therapy has an almost unparalleled capacity to take people out of their everyday situations and place them in a setting where they must redefine themselves. It is this function of Adventure Therapy that makes it so meaningful for such a broad range of people. Stepping out of their characteristic roles can shed a light on their placement in their day to day lives. This can allow the therapist to focus on the “issues of trust, communication, taking risks, managing fear and anxiety, problem solving, intimacy, and interdependence versus autonomy” (Burg, 2001, p. 118). These issues will present themselves more quickly in a group setting and especially in an Adventure Therapy setting where there are more stressors. Once these issues make themselves apparent the therapist will be able to take note and try to get to work through the problems. Since this is not done in an office setting it can be made more

For any organization involved in adventure activities, integrating the programs can provide many positive results by

As a physical educator, one goal should always be to promote cooperation, trust in your peers, problem solving, tolerance for differences, and confidence. The best way to incorporate all of these traits is through adventure education activities. Adventure Education is a form of learning through adventure-centered experiences that utilizes outdoor activities to help people with their interpersonal, as well as intrapersonal relationships. Alan Ewert and R. James Sibthorp wrote about outdoor adventure education and defined it as, “A variety of teaching and learning activities and experiences usually involving a close interaction with an outdoor natural setting and containing elements of real or perceived risk in which the outcome can be influenced by the actions of the participants and circumstances.” The learning experience involves the whole person through a direct, active, and engaging curriculum. There are a variety of traits and key elements that contribute to this type of learning. Every student’s mental, physical, and emotional aspects are required for adventure education activities, and the teacher should try to make challenges gradually harder to avoid any type of discouragement in the participants because being a part of these challenges help grow and create stronger relationships with their peers which is the whole purpose of this teaching style. These challenges cannot be completed without trust, communication, decision-making, as well as problem solving due to the