Core Competencies
The PRTM program at North Carolina State University gave me the skills and knowledge I need to be a better leader in the field.
Foundations of Recreation
Course Description
Exploration of the conceptual foundations of leisure, recreation, sport, play, and work, the history of ideas in the
field, and the relationships of these ideas to contemporary professional and social problems.
Learning Objectives:
1. Explain the implications of the profession’s historical foundation on contemporary professional and
social problems.
2. Describe the conceptual frameworks associated with leisure, recreation, tourism, and sport.
3. Describe the theoretical foundations associated with leisure, recreation, tourism, and sport.
4. Discuss the various contemporary trends and issues in leisure, recreation, tourism, and sport.
5. Appreciate the importance of leisure and recreation in our lives.
6. Exhibit good communication and writing skills, and sound methods of thinking and analysis.
Reflection: It makes sense that Foundations is your first course. Dr. Lee struck the right balance between making sure students from all types of backgrounds got a good start in the program, and pushing us to open our minds about the meaning of and possibilities for parks and recreation as a field of study as well as practice. I found myself talking to my friends nonstop about things like the definition of wilderness and how culture defines deviant leisure. I really enjoyed the idea of surveying the field.
Advanced Fiscal Management
Course Description:
This course is intended to provide students with advanced concepts of financial management as applied to the
unique industries of parks, recreation, tourism, and sport management. Emphasis will be placed on
understanding how the receipt, disbursement, and utilization of funds can foster sustainability within these
types of organizations. Additionally, this course will focus on developing the skills necessary to apply ethical
financial analysis principles through financial risk management.
Learning Objectives:
• Learn advanced financial theories as related to parks, recreation, tourism, and sport management
organizations
• Apply analytical techniques and principles of budgeting to enable sustainability
• Discuss and apply current financial practices as they relate to the generation, consumption, and
disbursement of funds
• Discuss and apply ethical financial analysis to the current economic situations within parks, recreation,
tourism, and sport management organizations
Reflection: I came into this class with gusto because I believe financial literacy is so critically important to everyone's personal and professional lives. The most exciting piece of this class for me were the discussions in classes themselves, and the ability to transfer our skills and knowledge into a business plan. I thought the discussions in this class were just as important as the readings and coursework. That's because our cohort was able to share so many real world examples of the good, the bad and the ugly, and Dr. Shaw was able to provide a high level view into how the concepts we were learning about could apply.
Data Management and Evaluation
Course Description:
This course is intended to provide professional masters students with an introduction to fundamental data
analytic procedures and techniques used in program evaluation in parks, recreation, sport, and tourism settings.
The course places emphasis on the rationale for using specific data management and analysis procedures and
interpretation of results for decision making.
Learning Objectives :
1. Describe the logic behind and steps involved in program evaluation.
2. Describe the importance of data in evaluation and explain how data can be used in evaluation.
3. Formulate meaningful evaluation objectives to guide data collection and analysis.
4. Conduct basic descriptive and inferential statistical procedures as a part of program evaluation.
5. Choose appropriate methods of displaying data analysis results.
6. Use appropriate terminology to interpret and communicate results from data analysis.
Reflection: This was by far the class I struggled with the most. While I love what data can do (story telling, exposing patterns, providing facts) I don't love organizing data. The class started off well, with attention to really taking the creation of SMART objective seriously in order to have compelling and accurate evaluation results. From there classes seemed to get disorganized at times, on top of that the Zoom technology did not work well for those of us with small/laptop screens- getting trained on pivot tables and creating T-tests and not being able to see exactly what someone was doing was difficult. While I appreciate the desire for us to be able to organize and manipulate our own data, I think the exercises would have worked better if we used consistent and standard data throughout the class.
The PRTM program at North Carolina State University gave me the skills and knowledge I need to be a better leader in the field.
GIS and Spatial Analysis
Course Description:
Spatial reasoning and GIS are increasingly important tools for evaluation and research in many fields of study,
including parks, recreation, tourism and sport (PRTS). This course is intended to provide masters-level students
with the opportunity to increase their ability of spatial reasoning and develop basic skills of handling, evaluating
and analyzing spatial data in common geographic information systems (GIS) platforms. Through this experience
students would be able to enhance understanding of conceptual foundations of PRTS fields from the spatial
perspective, to make more informed spatial decisions in planning and management of PRTS resources and
services, and to be intelligent users of spatial data and GIS tools for research and evaluation.
Learning Objectives:
1. Define geographic information science, GIS and GPS and articulate their relevance to the PRTS fields.
2. Describe and explain the basic concepts and typology of spatial reasoning and spatial analysis
3. Identify spatial data sources and acquire data relevant to the field of PRTS
4. Collect and integrate spatial data from various data sources (field collection, Internet, etc.)
5. Perform basic operations in GIS (ArcGIS), digital earth software (Google Earth) and widely accessible GPS
units (Garmin).
6. Formulate meaningful spatial questions and implement a conceptual model to solve the questions in the
GIS environment
7. Communicate spatial analysis results effectively with peers via different media
Reflection: The last time I had real GIS training was almost 15 years ago, so having this class was a great benefit to me. I love the power of GIS to analyze and this class connected the dots for me on different ways it can be used in our field of study. There were some frustrations in this class, mostly surrounding being able to use the software remotely through the lab, and leveling up my dusty skills. Margaret Van Bakergem, the TA, met with more than once, and she helped me through it.
Organizational Behavior and Leadership
Course Description:
This course will focus on the organization and administration of public, private and not-for-profit sport, park,
tourism and recreation (SPTR) agencies. The primary unit of analysis in this class is the SPTR organization and the
environment in which it operates. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the structural, human, political, and
cultural factors that impact organizational efficiency and effectiveness – specifically focusing on these
environments.
Learning Objectives:
• Exhibit an understanding of the environment in which sport, park, tourism and recreation (SPTR)
organizations operate.
• Identify and describe key principles related to effective administrative practice, such as planning,
resource acquisition, positioning, and personnel & volunteer leadership.
• Demonstrate knowledge and application of relevant theory, research, and practice related to key
aspects of organizational behavior in SPTR organizations.
• Recognize organizational behavior challenges and demonstrate intervention techniques used for
recruiting and managing staff and employees.
• Demonstrate the ability to evaluate critical factors contributing to organizational leadership in SPTR
organizations.
Reflection: This was an amazing opportunity to set aside one's feelings about leadership issues in an organization and gain deep knowledge and analytical tools in which to conceptualize what may really be going on. Being able to work at the intersection of theory, research and practice in organizational leadership increased my own abilities to be a better team member, team leader, and change agent within my own organization.
Strategic Marketing Management
Course Description:
This course examines the theoretical underpinnings and practical applications of marketing and promotion
strategies for recreation, participant sport, and spectator sport. Covers key marketing concepts and strategies
using case studies. There is significant discussion on marketing activation and leveraging strategies and
developing a marketing plan.
Learning Objectives:
• Define and apply key sport/rec. marketing concepts
• Understand the theories that underline sport/rec. marketing processes
• Understand how to create and apply a sport/rec. marketing plan
• Evaluate sport/rec. marketing strategies and tactics
• Identify future trends and challenges in marketing and how they can associate with current
• Sport/rec. marketing practices
Reflection: The most enjoyable part of this class for me was learning the role of marketing and the theories behind different marketing tactics. I also enjoyed the psychological component around considering consumer behavior. We had to think critically about our own organizations, and challenge our own assumptions about what does and doesn't work. This class was top three in value to me, professionally.
Risk Management
Course Description:
Risk Management for parks, recreation, tourism, and sport organizations with an emphasis on ethical managerial strategies. Students will learn how legal concepts relate to specific managerial functions and how a knowledge of law and its impact on functions of recreation environments can help build a more efficient and successful operation that better serves the needs of its constituents and protects its ability to provide products and services. Students will also learn how effective strategies for risk management in parks, recreation, tourism and sport organizations can facilitate active-healthy lifestyles and sustainable communities.
Learning Objectives
• Summarize principals of risk management within the context of basic management functions such as governance, human resource management, and organizational operations. • Identify and describe policies and practices for managing program and service risks. Emphasis on employee selection & qualifications, supervision issues, training considerations, safety and security, EEO, OSHA, discrimination, fair labor standards, working conditions) • Discussion how effective strategies for risk management in parks, recreation, tourism and sport organizations can facilitate active-healthy lifestyles and sustainable communities. • Critically evaluate the risks inherent in a selected parks, recreation, sport or tourism operations and discuss strategies for managing risks issues, appropriate documentation. • Advanced analysis of policies and practices for managing recreation facility, built environments, trails & open space risks such as maintenance/inspection issues, OSHA guidelines and compliance, and contract negotiation and management.
Reflection: In this class we learned and applied a comprehensive process to identify, evaluate, and then address the risks we face in our organizations. There was so much more that goes into risk management than I was aware of, this class absolutely filled a gap in my training and knowledge. While I was originally disappointed that Dr. Kanters wouldn't be teaching the class, Dr. Troy Carlton leaned in and gave us all the help we needed. The readings and exercises were well tuned to allowing us to ultimately creating our own risk management plan.