The study of leisure and recreation itself is a relatively new field of study. With the furthering of positive psychology, it was found that recreation and leisure has a significant effect on our lives, and thus was born Recreation Management.
My uncle also was a recreation management major at BYU, however the field was significantly different than it is now. When he was attending school a couple decades ago, recreation management was a field that strictly fed into parks and rec jobs. My uncle decided on this major, because he wanted to be a park ranger. The focus was mostly on enjoying the outdoors, and being safe while doing so.
Nowadays, my major feeds into several different jobs including hospitality, therapeutic recreation, event planning, theme park management, and many others. The major is mostly about helping others to enjoy and benefit from their leisure time. There are now 3 tracks in the major at BYU: event planning (my track), youth and community development (closest to my uncle's track), and therepeutic recreation.
As information on the positive effects that appropriate recreation can have on the lives of stressed Americans and really everyone else, recreation management began encompassing more and more subdivisions that play a role in one's leisure time.
It's nteresting how something we think of as so narrow a field can give so many options.
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