Maybe you took a camp counsellor job and loved it, or supervised a program at your recreation centre, or helped run a sports team, or taught swimming lessons. Did you know that you were doing something important for your community, and that it was something you could make a career out of? To build a better community, you can start by making people happy and active, and that’s what a career in recreation and leisure is all about.
Recreation and Leisure Services at Centennial College focuses on this idea: Developing healthy communities and improving their quality of life through events, programming and services devoted to wellness and culture. Centennial's program, started in 1967, is highly regarded and produces award-winning grads. The program has a strong focus on real-world experience and fieldwork, and it's a career with a wide variety of job prospects.
It's about the people
A community is nothing without the people in it, and that’s why an important part your recreation and leisure studies will be the people you meet along the way. At Centennial, the classroom itself is a diverse crowd, a mixture of young and old with different backgrounds, so you won’t feel out of place. As a part of this, the recreation and leisure program has you do a lot of group work, which is important, because once you get out into the field and start working in this profession, almost everything you do is team work. Meanwhile, the program is also staffed with working professionals, and gaining that experience from them assists you in assembling knowledge that you can continue to use in your career.
The Sandy Foster Scholarship
One example of how the college gives students experience involves also giving back to them. Each Sandy Foster Scholarship is worth $1,000, and two of them are awarded to second-year students in Recreation and Leisure Services annually. What’s unique about the scholarship is its student-funded approach that ties into the program’s practical learning.
Here’s how it works: As part of a large project, recreation and leisure students form groups and throw fundraising events. Students have to come up with an event that will attract at least 100 people and raise $1,000 after expenses. The students of the program are responsible for every aspect of the event, including a feasibility report, a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis, fundraising plans, staffing and work plans, marketing and sponsorship plans and a critical path. In the past, these events have included bowling, a dog walk, reunions for graduates of the program, celebrations for the Mexican Day of the Dead, a skating event, Halloween parties, poker and even simple pub nights. The money raised goes into the scholarship fund, then straight back to the students each year.
It’s also about getting out there
One of the most important parts of Centennial's Recreation and Leisure program is its field placements, which take students beyond the classroom and into actual workplaces delivering recreational programming. Placements help you to build really strong connections with others in the field. As a student, you have the flexibility to choose your own placements and tailor your own practical learning opportunities, so you can research your ideal career, whether you want to, for example, be placed in a non-profit, municipal or private sector. Through work placements, you have a chance to build that network up and make a name for yourself before you graduate.
Where you can go
While there’s a broad variety of recreation and leisure careers you can get into, if you’re just looking locally, the Town of Ajax and the City of Markham both have municipal community recreation departments that are heavily staffed by Centennial College grads, so there’s a direct connection from education to career right there. Because the college established the program in the 1960s when the career field was in its infancy, you’ll find Centennial grads working in everything from boys and girls clubs, YMCAs, independent standalone community centres and childcare centres, among many other places. No matter where you go, though, you’ll be building a better community by using fun recreation and leisure activities to bring people together, and make them happy and healthy.
Written By: Anthony Geremia