BS in Recreation and Park Management: Recreation and Park Management Concentration

ECU’s BS in recreation and park management will provide you classroom, service-learning, and internship experiences where you will work with people in a wide range of settings. You’ll learn how to plan and conduct programs, engage in marketing, supervise others, design recreation facilities, host special events, and engage in many other experiences putting recreation to work for others. Our field changes lives: We help make people happier, more fulfilled, and closer to friends and family. We also aim for a sustainable environment in all that we do.

Possible Career Opportunities

*Please note that some of these may require additional education beyond a bachelors degree

Admission Requirements

Students who want to declare a major in recreation and park management with a recreation and park management concentration need to have completed 30 s.h. of coursework at ECU or in transfer credits; possess a minimum overall GPA of 2.0; and have met with an advisor in Academic Advising Services in the College of Health and Human Performance.   

Students majoring in recreation and park management must maintain a minimum cumulative 2.0 GPA and a minimum cumulative 2.0 overall GPA in all core and restricted elective courses to remain in good standing. Majors must earn a minimum grade of C- in all required core and concentration prefix courses. If a course without the RCSC or SMGT prefix is approved as a substitution for a required core course, a minimum grade of C- must be earned. Students dropping below the required 2.0 GPA will not be allowed to enroll in any additional RCSC or SMGT prefix courses until the GPA meets the 2.0 requirement. If a student receives a grade lower than a C- in a required core course, the student may retake that course without meeting the 2.0 GPA requirements.

Program Requirements

The recreation and park management concentration has a common core, which it shares with the sport management concentration, courses specific to the concentration, and restricted electives that can include a minor or approved courses.

Required Courses

Four Year Plan

Students entering the major by their junior year can move through the major in 4 semesters, which includes 1 semester of internship. This assumes that all general education courses and some restricted electives/minor courses have been completed.

** Students are not allowed to take courses while on internship unless approved by the Recreation and Park Management program coordinator.

Students who declare after their freshman year may take core and concentration courses sooner under the direction of an HHP advisor.

Internship Requirements and Experience

Students are required to complete a minimum 12-week, 480-hour internship at an approved internship site. The department maintains a list of approved sites with contact information.

Prior to the internship, students must take RCSC 2902: Professional Seminar in Recreation and Park Management, which is taught by the internship coordinator. RCSC 2902 is the pre-requisite for RCSC 4901: Recreation and Park Management Pre-Internship Seminar, which is also taught by the recreation and park management internship coordinator. When taking RCSC 4901, students can identify and submit internships for review and approval by the internship coordinator.

While the internship offers professional experience, students are encouraged to seek out employment in the field ahead of the internship. There are many seasonal and part-time jobs that students can fulfill while in college. Students should work with faculty mentors to identify appropriate venues for work experience.

Student Opportunities and Experiences

Students majoring in Recreation and Park Management are encouraged to join the Recreation and Park Management Club (RPM Club), which is open to all majors. The RPM Club meets monthly to plan professional development opportunities, service opportunities, and special events.

The department offers RCSC 4800: Great Smoky Mountains Outdoor Field Experience each spring as a restricted elective class. This is an experiential learning course for students that examines outdoor recreation and resource management approaches and culminates in a week-long field experience at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. To prepare for this experience, students participate in weekly classes for the first half of the semester that orient them to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and The National Park Service. Students then embark on a week-long trip to the park where they stay at the Tremont Institute, which is a residential environmental education center within the park. While there, they learn about current issues facing the park and how the Park Service tries to balance the desires of visitors to the most highly visited National Park in the country with protecting the natural resources of one of the most bio-diverse regions on the planet. ECU students network and work with students and faculty from five other universities (NC State, Univ. of Missouri, Penn State, Texas A&M, and Western Illinois). Faculty from these universities and NPS personnel offer concurrent sessions, interest tracks, and evening programs designed around topics including natural resource management, environmental/historical education/interpretation, tourism and visitor management, and wildlife issues. During these sessions, students are offered the opportunity to meet park rangers, go on interpretive hikes, practice basic outdoor survival skills, and participate in park service projects. These are dynamic group sessions in a unique location that offer students the chance to learn from experts and develop a network of colleagues outside of ECU through this experience. The class has been offered since 2004 and has enrolled approximately 400 students since that time. In 2021, it was identified as one of the most “cool” or most unusual, most unique classes offered at ECU (see: https://news.ecu.edu/2021/08/25/cool-classes/). The class is quite popular with ECU students majoring in recreation and park management and is often cited as the best experience that these students had while attending ECU.

RCSC 4080 is offered annually; however, students can also take experiential courses offered as special topics classes in either recreation and park management or sport management in addition to RCSC 4080 to fulfill restricted elective credit. Some examples of experiential courses are the Superbowl Event Management Class and the NCAA Tournament Event Management Class. Other experiential courses are offered as opportunities arise.

Delivery Methods

Courses within this major mostly meet face to face with classes occasionally offered as hybrid (both face to face and online) or solely online.

Accreditation Information

The concentration in recreation and park management is accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Parks, Recreation, Tourism, and Related Professions (COAPRT). Students graduating from the recreation and park management concentration are eligible to sit for the national examination to become a certified park and recreation professional (CPRP), and thereby acquire this valuable credential for professional advancement.

ECU degree programs satisfy the professional licensure and/or certification requirements in North Carolina and prepare students to sit for these exams.  However, requirements in other states may be different.

If you are considering a degree program that may, would, could or potentially lead to a professional license and/or certification, please note that at this time ECU may or may not be able to advise whether a  program meets requirements outside of North Carolina.  Prior to enrolling in a degree program, please discuss this important topic with your program of interest.