From the Dean’s Desk

Dear College of Education Friends,

Our current student and alumni successes make us very proud. I am daily reminded that we work with incredibly bright, committed, and forward-thinking students who go on to lead the state and beyond. School superintendents, principals and teachers from the University of Idaho help to ensure that our K-12 schools have strong leadership. And the quality of our athletic trainers, dancers, recreation, exercise, and sports science majors are making a positive difference in communities across the country.

Pride in our efforts also extends beyond the accomplishments of our students and alumni. Our faculty are successfully receiving major national funding for their research, collaborating with school and community members, and working closely with current students to ensure they reach their potential. You’ll see in this issue of Envision some of the reasons for our pride in our students, alumni, and faculty members.

You’ll read about two of our students’ very different teaching intern experiences: one in a professional-technical school in Idaho, and one in South America. You’ll also read about the expansion of our rehabilitation counseling program and important research conducted by our new recreation faculty. You’ll find out about our faculty and staff who are retiring and those who are moving on to other opportunities. You’ll read about one of our alumni’s very unique challenges and teaching experiences, and what makes him so proud to be a Vandal.

In April the University of Idaho kicked off a large fundraising campaign, and we’re confident that we’ll reach our goal because of you. We are very humbled by your generosity. Those of you who are able to contribute to our work are helping us fund current students and contribute to our faculty members’ abilities to compete at national funding levels. Your continued interest in and support of our work makes what we do possible. We excel, in part, because of your generosity.

Our hope in reading Envision is that you share the same pride we feel in our current students, you – our alumni, – and our ongoing efforts to serve as Idaho’s education leaders. Together we make this goal a reality.

Sincerely,

Corinne Mantle-Bromley, Dean

The Best Prepared Recreation Professionals in the Nation

The University of Idaho has one of the best outdoor settings for earning a degree in recreation. Not only that, the program’s partnerships with the National and Idaho Recreation and Park Associations as well as community partnerships provide students opportunities to interact with professionals in the field and get hands-on learning experiences. Combine those characteristics, along with the leadership of faculty Julie Stafford Son, Susan Houge Mackenzie and Tami Goetz, and you have a dynamic program poised to graduate the bestprepared recreation professionals in the nation.

Research Projects

STEM-HAL interdisciplinary project

American youth are facing challenges in both physical health domains (e.g., obesity) and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, education achievement. The College of Education and College of Natural Resources researchers addressed both issues by piloting a weeklong study of an Adventure Learning - based GreenSTEM curriculum with Coeur d’Alene high school students. The Coeur d’Alene students visited McCall Outdoor Science School, or MOSS, for a week in March to learn about snow science and climate change through outdoor adventure learning activities. Adventure Learning programs engage students in exciting, science inquiry - based outdoor experiences and use the Internet to facilitate communication and interaction regarding those experiences. These programs have been found to motivate students and inspire meaningful collaborations and inquiries for students and teachers.

Findings will provide practical direction for future program development in Idaho schools that effectively explores the intersection of healthy outdoor activities and STEM. This project is still underway; however, preliminary data analyses indicate that students participating in the residential science school walked an average of three miles more per day while engaged in the adventure learning program. Students also reported increased engagement in science and physical activities due to the low student-teacher ratio, hands-on applied science projects, and learning new and interesting outdoor activities.

Students reported that they intended to increase physical activity upon completing of the program and to try new and different physical activities like snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and snowboarding. Teachers involved with the project also reported learning new ways to engage students in science curriculum and the desire to use outdoor learning activities in the future to engage students in science topics.

Faculty and staff working on this project include Susan Houge Mackenzie and Julie Stafford Son (REC), R. Justin Hougham and Brant Miller (C&I), and Karla Eitel and Gary Thompson (MOSS).

Improving the scholarship of adventure and outdoor recreation

Susan Houge Mackenzie has been working to improve the scholarship of adventure and outdoor recreation through a range of research projects. Recently completed projects included the use of head-mounted cameras to study optimal adventure experiences; the motivations and emotions involved in adventure; and investigations of adventure tourism in South America. These projects have resulted in high impact publications within the field of recreation in the Journal of Leisure Research, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, and Psychology of Sport & Exercise.

Susan’s current projects focus on the psychological aspects of recreational and competitive climbing, and using adventure activities to engage youth in STEM education and physical activity. She received a 2012 University of Idaho seed grant to investigate indigenous perceptions of adventure and adventure tourism with Māori (indigenous people of Aotearoa, New Zealand). This project will employ a Kaupapa Māori research paradigm to investigate Māori perceptions of adventure; values and benefits associated with adventure; and representations of Māori culture within adventure tourism. It is hoped that this project will inform University of Idaho recreation and leisure curriculum regarding indigenous perspectives of recreation. Service and outreach projects should also be strengthened as a result of this project as Susan sits on the Idaho Recreation and Tourism steering committee and the newly appointed U-Idaho International Engagement Advisory Council.

Our Recreation Professors

Julie Stafford Son, Program Director

Julie loves to teach others about the importance of recreation and parks for enhanced quality of life. She currently teaches recreation master of science graduate courses in the Movement and Leisure Sciences Program. Students’ final projects include grant proposals to enhance health through recreational activities. In the Policy Analysis & Historical Aspects of Parks and Recreation class, Julie likes to challenge her students to investigate the roots of the field and the policies that influence recreation and park resources and management.

Her Background

Julie graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a doctorate in leisure studies, and then held a faculty position at the University of Illinois for five years. Prior to that, she worked at the Center for Aging at the University of Nevada conducting programs and research with older adults. She has worked in an array of recreation and park settings with various populations including providing therapeutic recreation to children with disabilities, camp counseling, coaching youth sports, engagement on university health promotion initiatives, assisting American Indian tribal organizations in addressing recreation and health issues, rural recreation and tourism, and recreation-based health and wellness programs for older adults.

Her Interests

Julie’s background and interests on healthy active lifestyles across the lifespan have led to collaborative partnerships on solution-oriented projects with a wide array of organizations, businesses and communities. She also stays active in several professional organizations. Recently, she co-presented with a graduate student on rural active living constraints and facilitators at the National Recreation and Park Association annual meeting in Atlanta, and chaired symposia on physical activity and health at the Australian and New Zealand Association on Leisure.

She recently published two articles with colleagues from across the country on community readiness for healthy leisure in a racially diverse rural community, and on the use of strategies to continue desired leisure activities despite arthritis pain.

Tami Goetz, Instructor

Tami believes in the importance of invested field time to experience and grow as a student and recreation professional. She earned her master’s degree in recreation from the University of Idaho and her doctorate in Minnesota, then returned to the University of Idaho as a lecturer in 2009. She teaches a majority of the undergraduate courses currently offered to recreation majors, and three courses in the Movement Sciences master’s program. Many of her courses place students in the community to provide programs, lead, and serve people of all ages. This spring Tami facilitated 140 students to provide programs in surrounding communities.

Her Background

Tami has a rich perspective of the recreation program and appreciates the culture and history behind it. She was a student of Professor Mike Kinziger (retired 2009), who inspired and helped prepare hundreds of recreation professionals across the region. In fact, Kinziger led Goetz in several outdoor adventures, including mountain biking Moab, Utah trails; backpacking the Beartooth Mountains, Wyo.; paddling a variety of regional rivers; and camping under clear, starry skies in Idaho’s backcountry. As an undergraduate, Goetz found her passion for outdoor recreation while taking U-Idaho recreation classes. Tami enjoys teaching for her alma mater, and has many fantastic memories of the recreation program.

Her Interests

Tami will be leading a wilderness immersion backpacking experience in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area for recreation practicum students. She also is working with Moscow School District’s Adventure Club staff to support recreation and physical education students. Students are working with Tami to complete the study as a major assignment for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance 581 group research.

Tami plays coed hockey during the winter season, and is involved with the Ice Rink Expansion committee. She was also co-adviser of the Recreation Student Organization with Julie Stafford Son for 2011-12.

Susan Houge Mackenzie, Assistant Professor

Susan’s interest in sport and adventure activities stems from nine years of riverboard (hydrospeed) guiding in areas of New Zealand, the U.S. and Chile, and competing in the New Zealand National Women’s Soccer League.

Her Background

Susan recently moved to Idaho from New Zealand, where she worked for 10 years in the adventure tourism industry and taught a broad range of courses in Adventure Tourism Management, Outdoor Education and Adventure Recreation, and Indigenous Tourism.

She also recently provided risk management consulting to a tour operator in the Galapagos Islands and contributed to the New Zealand Ministry of Tourism’s nationwide review of the adventure tourism industry and risk management practices. Susan has served on the executive board of the New Zealand Whitewater Boarding Association and has industry experience leading Spanish language tours in New Zealand and Cuba, and developing mental skill training workshops for elite youth soccer players and multisport athletes on behalf of Sport Otago in New Zealand.

Her Interests

Susan’s research employs mixed methods, such as survey measures combined with qualitative interviews to study psychological experiences of adventure across recreational, tourism and educational settings. This line of research is grounded in the belief that engaging in outdoor physical activity is essential to health and mental well-being and can provide a profound sense of meaning and purpose to everyday life. The results of her research have been published in leisure, tourism and psychology journals.

Susan is also a faculty adviser for the women’s and men’s club soccer teams (as well as a player) and served as a faculty adviser and volunteer on the U-Idaho Alternative Spring Break service trip for students. She has organized visits from the National Outdoor Leadership School, or NOLS, that included guest lectures, student lunches/dinners, and meeting with faculty and campus recreation to promote student learning and development opportunities within the recreation field.

About our Recreation Program

A bachelor of science in recreation from the University of Idaho prepares students to lead public and private programs that are designed to encourage active lifestyles. As a graduate of the only accredited recreation program in the state and one of only three in the Pacific Northwest, students will have the credentials needed for national certification, and the expertise and training to improve the health of people of all ages.

With this nation’s increasing overweight and obese population, an active lifestyle is more crucial than ever. Students in the recreation program develop the specialized skills and knowledge to help people increase their fitness level and become healthier. They will learn to organize and schedule activities to maximize the use of facilities and monitor sites, oversee recreation activities for different age groups in a variety of settings, and direct programs that help people make good choices in using their leisure time.

With its outstanding outdoor recreation and resources, Idaho offers one of the best settings to earn a degree in recreation. The University of Idaho’s active partnerships with the National Recreation and Park Association and the Idaho Recreation and Park Association provide students the opportunity to interact with professionals in the field and learn firsthand about current practices. This hands-on approach helped the University of Idaho receive recognition by Outside Magazine as the 23rd best site in the United States to minor in outdoor recreation, the university’s most popular minor.

What Graduates Can Do

With a bachelor of science in recreation, students can pursue a career as a:

• Recreation director for cities and communities

• Director of campus recreational facilities

• Activity director for cruise ships or resorts

• Administer after-school programs

• Activity director for a senior center

Graduates may also pursue a master of science degree in movement and leisure science, which allows for joint minors in outdoor recreation leadership and sustainable tourism and leisure enterprises. This program helps students develop advanced skills, tools and the philosophy to be servant leaders in organizations related to physical activity, sports and recreation.