Slippery Elm Biking –
Location: Bowling Green, OH
Date: September 7
Cost:
$10.00 – BGSU Students
$15.00 – BGSU Faculty/Staff/Alumni
$20.00 – Community Members
Night Hike –
Location: Toledo Area
Date: September 16
Cost:
$15.00 – BGSU Students
$20.00 – BGSU Faculty/Staff/Alumni
$25.00 – Community Members
Red River Gorge Climbing – Location: Slade, KY
Date: September 18-20
Cost:
$75 – BGSU Student
$95 – BGSU Faculty/Staff/Alumni
$115 – Community Member
Canoe/Kayak –
Location: Toledo Area
Date: September 26
Cost:
$15.00 – BGSU Student
$20.00 – BGSU Faculty/Staff/Alumni
$25.00 – Community Member
Moonlit Canoeing –
Location: Maumee River
Date: September 29
Cost:
$15.00 – BGSU Students
$20.00 – BGSU Faculty/Staff/Alumni
$25.00 – Community Members
Register in person: Perry Field House Register online: rectrac.bgsu.edu
Are you looking for a good resume builder but also could use some extra cash in your pocket? If so, working for the Department of Recreation and Wellness may be the right choice for you.
According to the BGSU Career Center, there are more than 4,300 students that work on-campus. The Department of Recreation and Wellness offers opportunities to students that are looking for a job on campus. RecWell employs between 200 and 300 of these students to work at the Student Recreation Center (SRC), the Ice Arena (IA), Perry Field House (PFH), and Forrest Creason Golf Course.
Working for RecWell can be beneficial for students because there is a chance to grow and advance within the department. Employees are rewarded with Rec Bucks when they go above-and-beyond their call of duty and there is a Student of the Month award given out monthly to the department’s hardest workers.
Student employment jobs are put into a category that signifies their rank within the department. Jobs can range from Level 1 to Level 4. Level 1 positions are the entry level jobs, and the highest positions with the most responsibility are put into Level 4.
If you’re just starting a job with RecWell, Level 1 is where most employees will begin. Some of the jobs included are: PFH Attendant, SRC Floor Attendant, and IA Skate Shop Attendant, among others.
Andrew Clair, an employee at the SRC, has made the most of his time working with RecWell.
“It’s been a great place to work,” explained Clair. “I’ve met a lot of cool people and I really enjoy what I do. I started the job this summer and I’ve already learned so much in my short time here [with RecWell].”
Those who perform exceptionally well on the job can receive a promotion to Level 2, which includes managerial positions throughout all departments within RecWell. Level 3 positions include managers of the SRC and PFH among others. Supervisor positions, the highest position a student employee can hold, are categorized in Level 4.
Each level holds more responsibility than the next and at the same time offers more of a reward. Not only will holding a higher position within the department teach you more about working in a fast-paced environment, you will also earn more money for your work.
“This [job] will look great on my resume,” said Clair. “It doesn’t hurt to add as much experience you can in any department on campus and I think working at the Recreation Center will only help me in the future when I start my career. For students who have no work experience, I recommend trying to find a job with RecWell.”
If a practicum, internship, or graduate assistantship is what you need, RecWell offers excellent opportunities as well.
BGSU Outdoor Program Gives Back with Eco-Friendly Programs
The University’s Outdoor Program (OP) offers a variety of outdoor activities and trips to enthusiastic outdoor participants such as white water rafting, rock climbing trips, hiking trips and kayaking workshops. In addition to its multitude of adventurous outings, the OP strives for sustainability by engaging staff and participants in Eco-friendly practices through its sustainability and Green programming. The OP’s Eco-friendly programs include Leave No Trace (LNT) Education, Green Initiative Partnerships and Environmental Service Events.
In fact, according to Jerome Gabriel, director of the OP, the Outdoor Program has always practiced green initiatives since the program’s start in 1999, he said.
“The most significant of which is the use of the Leave No Trace principles of outdoor sustainability,” said Gabriel. “There principles have been a foundation of how the program interacts with the environment and are taught to all participants regardless of the type of trip that they are participating in.”
According to the OP’s website, Leave No Trace Education is designed to educate “outdoor enthusiasts” about the ways in which they impact the environment during outdoor recreational activities as well as the techniques they can use to reduce their impact on the environment.
The program is administered by two trained and certified Leave No Trace Master Educators as well as 10 Trainers. The Master Educators and Trainers administer over 20 awareness workshops, multiple trainer courses and one Master Educator course. The addition for the LNT Trainer and Master Educator courses give the courses validity and certification to the knowledge gained by all participants of the program, Gabriel said.
During the program trainers and Master Educators learn various techniques which are applied during a weekend or an entire week spent in the back country, Gabriel said. During their stay in the wilderness, trainers and Master Educators practice building mound fires, grey watering, dismantling man-made structures and cleaning up heavy trafficked areas, he said.
The second way in which the OP strives for eco-friendly practices is through Green initiative partnerships. The OP has partnered with the BGSU Sustainability Office and the BGSU Student Green Initiative Fund. Together, the OP and BGSU Sustainability Office offer annual events such as the ECO-fair and Earth Week displays.
This partnership began when BGSU Sustainability Coordinator, Dr. Nicholas Hennessy, became a trip leader for the OP’s Freshman Wilderness Experience program which is run by Gabriel. After finishing his fourth year as a trip leader last August, Hennessy and Jerome discussed the importance of sustainability and green initiatives in the OP’s various programs and as a result of these discussions, the partnership between the two programs was born.
“[The partnership] began because I have a huge interest in outdoor programs and my job/life is sustainability,” said Hennessy. “And I think Jerome has a huge interest in sustainability and his job/life is outdoor programs. So, it was a great partnership. Sustainability is becoming huge on college campuses and it is literally a part of appreciating and respecting the outdoors and the environment.”
Also, the OP’s partnership with the BGSU Student Green Initiative Fund has resulted in new Eco-friendly courses which may be included in future educational programming within the University. In fact, according to Hennessy, a course has already been included as a UNIV course.
Lastly, the OP organizes annual environmental service events to commemorate Earth Day. These events allow “outdoor enthusiasts” to give back to the land through trail maintenance, and invasive species removal. All in all, the OP’s Earth Day commemorating events have resulted in nearly 100 hours of annual volunteer service to the local community.
For more information about how to get involved with the Outdoor Program’s sustainability and Green programming, please contact Jerome Gabriel, OP director, via email at jeromeg@bgsu.edu or phone at 419.372.2146. Also, please use the following links for information about other on-campus, Green programming such as Friday Night Lights, Green Tailgating and the Orange Bike Program.
A climber adjusts his footing before ascending further up the wall.
Class with the ACC Climbers
Last week, I decided to attend an Adrenaline Climbing Club (ACC) class and snap some pictures. These classes were designed to mentally, socially and physically develop youth climbers, ages eight and up, and to refine and enhance their climbing skills. During this session, climbers practiced tying figure eight knots, proper stalling, footing and hand placement, and climbing using a belay.
Allison Henderson, mother to climber Paul, 12, said that besides climbing’s obvious health benefits, the class is simply fun and very informative for aspiring climbers. She said the ACC provides students with technical knowledge that other climbing organization’s require but do not teach.
ACC assistant climbing instructor, Eric Peterson, has been an outdoors man for several years and instructing climbing classes enables him to share his passion for the sport with others. Climbing, he said, is more of lifestyle that teaches self-control and knowledge of one’s physical self by challenging climbers mentally and physically.
“The ACC gives youths a chance to be active and learn about a sport that is not readily accessible in this part of the country,” said Peterson. “By joining the ACC these students get to try something pretty cool and learn some amazing skills that they would not normally be exposed to in a standard, school, physical education program.”
The class began at 4:00 p.m. sharp and the eager climbers anxiously changed into the proper climbing footwear. Peterson began class with a demonstration on how to tie a figure eight knot. According to Peterson, this knot paired with the strength of the climbing ropes could easily lift a truck up a mountainside. Afterwards, climbers practiced the tying the figure eight while Peterson supervised and corrected any mistakes.
The class’s second stage provided students with a fun, climbing activity. Peterson began to ask the class which game they would prefer to play, however, his question was almost immediately interrupted by excited climbers yelling, “the Penny Game!” Obviously, Peterson could not argue with their adamant requests and he sent the climbers behind a wall as he hid a penny in the crevices of the rock wall grips. Once the penny was hidden, climbers were summoned from behind the wall to search for the hidden coin. When the game was over, students were permitted to free climb without the use of belays as long as they stayed below the long, red line dividing the rock wall.
Goodwin and Peterson give students a lesson on proper climbing techniques when using belays.
Afterwards, climbing manager, Lillian Goodwin, 22, joined Peterson to demonstrate proper procedures for belay climbing. Goodwin then volunteered herself to ascend the wall as Peterson guided her from the ground. To end the demonstration, the instructors switched positions and Goodwin guided Peterson’s ascent.
Goodwin has been a climbing instructor for nearly two and a half years and has been climbing for seven. She is very passionate about climbing because it combines exercise, discipline and problem solving into a single activity she said. In terms of youths climbing in ACC classes, she said the sooner the better.
“The ACC is able to get children excitred about climbing at an early age which helps them learn healthy exercise habits and a fun new skill,” said Goodwin. “By beginning to climb at a younger age there is definitely an advantage as opposed to someone who starts at 20. Children tend to have a better strength to weight ratio, so once they obtain the muscle memory and technique, they get strong fairly quickly. “
Those interested in enrolling their children into the Adrenaline Climbing Club must mail their completed application to the BGSU Outdoor Program office at Bowling Green State University Recreation and Wellness Outdoor Program 104, Perry Field House, Bowling Green, OH, 43403.
For more information concerning registration policies, cost, session dates or class description should visit the Outdoor Program’s website. For further inquiries, please contact the program director, Jerome Gabriel, at 419.372.8044 or email him at OutdoorPro@bgsu.edu.
Are you looking for an on-campus internship or practicum for the spring semester? Look no further, Recreation and Wellness is now accepting applications for next semester from a wide variety of majors.
The internships and practicums are open to all majors including recreation and tourism, sport management, marketing and journalism.
“We base the jobs on what the academic credentials are of the student,” Lona Leck, Assistant Director of the Department of Recreation and Wellness, said.
Students can apply to the various departments within Recreation and Wellness including the Ice Arena, Intramurals and Sport Clubs, Youth and Family, advertising, Forrest Creason Golf Course, Perry Field House, Student Recreation Center and Wellness Connection.
Leck believes having interns and practicums within the department helps the staff and broadens the knowledge of the department overall.
“We want to get those new ideas from students,” Leck said. “You know what our programs are lacking more than we do.”
Leck also said the department sometimes gets lucky enough to find an intern or practicum student who they hire full-time.
Not only does interning or having a practicum with Recreation and Wellness benefit the department, but also the students.
“It’s a great experience to put on a resume,” Leck said.
Chris McDaniel, a senior Tourism and Event Planning major, interns with Recreation and Wellness and works on marketing in the Perry Field House. McDaniel said he feels he is gaining a lot of valuable knowledge that is going to help him in his future career.
Carolyn Deas, Senior Sports Management major also enjoys having her practicum at the with the Department of Recreation and Wellness.
“As a practicum student, you learn how to plan an event from the very beginning, from contract to execution,” Deas said. “And it’s rewarding to see it progress over time.”
Leck also said working with the department gives students a “taste of what the work in Recreation is really like.”
Students can only gain valuable resume-worthy experience and enjoy where they work.
We’re really laid back, but we get our work done,” Deas said. “But that doesn’t stop us from taking a few minutes out of our lunch break to fly a kite, which we’ve done.”
While there are multiple internship and practicum opportunities available within the department, students are encouraged to apply early for positions and not wait until the start of the semester.
Leck also recommends students follow the instructions on the web site.
“We’re most impressed with students who follow instructions,” Leck said.
