There are about 190 CSULB students majoring in recreation and leisure studies, each of whom is required to log at least 400 hours of internship experience in order to graduate.
“We are definitely not guaranteed an internship, so when I got accepted into mine it was like a huge weight lifted from my shoulders,” Joanna Montoya, a senior recreation and leisure studies major said.
Montoya said that the 1,000 hours she had spent working for the city helped her feel prepared for her internship, and that she had developed the connections she needed to secure her position through working with other professional organizations. Her chosen internship is going to be a semester of 40 hour work weeks for no pay.
Students in the Recreation and Leisure program at California State University, Long Beach will be able to continue interning for the city of Long Beach.
The city of Long Beach approved an agreement last week between CSULB and the Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine to create internships for students at PRM facilities. George Chapjian, the Director of PRM sent a letter to the council, urging them to approve the agreement.
“PRM will benefit from the proposed agreement, as the student interns will be providing labor and services at no cost in exchange for the learning experience,” Chapjian wrote.
Bob Livingstone, the superintendent of Contract Operations for PRM, said that internships typically have students working at the El Dorado Community Center to assist staff members and provide services to senior members of the community.
While PRM decides where students can apply for internships and what those students are asked to do while on the job, CSULB is responsible for everything else: any applicable paychecks, insurance, and worker’s benefits, according to Chapjian’s letter.
“Parks and Recreation is essentially providing the facilities for hosting internships, whereas the school is defining the terms of those internships,” Livingstone said.
An additional 70 students are part of related minors.
“What we normally do is have a five year affiliation agreement [with PRM],” said Joanne Conley, the internship coordinator and Lecturer for the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies. “The agreement can be terminated by either party at any time, but we promote their particular locations as sites for our students to solicit interviews.”
Conley said that recreation and leisure students must complete all of their major course requirements and 1000 hours of career-related work before they can apply for the internships they need to graduate. Internships are the culmination of a student’s education. Students go on to apply for positions in management, resource management, nonprofit community services like the YMCA, state parks, national parks and even corporate recreation facilities.
Some students choose to specialize in recreation therapy, which requires 560 hours of internship work rather than the usual 400. They go on to work at clinics, hospitals and community-based therapy programs to help rehabilitate the aging, disabled and the injured.
Although they are required to complete internships in order to graduate, recreation and leisure students must apply competitively to the internships they need.
“When people ask me what a recreation major is, I like to say ‘Your recreation is our business,” Conley said.
