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By: Jenn Grimm with contributions by Shelly Beaver, Betsy Kennedy and Lanah Stafford

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Our institution places a high value on enhancing the student learning experience through internships and other work-based learning opportunities. This dedication is underscored by 91��Ƭ��’s 2023-2028 Strategic Plan, titled “Forward-Focused: Where Innovation Meets Possibilities,” which emphasizes the value of work-based learning experiences in three separate objectives across three different areas (Academic Excellence, Corporate/Community Partnerships and Economic Development, and Student Engagement and Success). As such, we wanted to shine a spotlight on one of many academic programs at 91��Ƭ�� that has embraced the value of providing its students with a variety of work-based or experiential learning opportunities - Recreational Therapy.

Formerly housed in the Darden College of Education and Professional Studies, the Recreational Therapy (RT) program transitioned to the College of Health Sciences in summer 2023. This move has expanded the vast array of work-based learning opportunities being offered to the program’s 60 current students.

RT program faculty Senior Lecturer, Shelly Beaver, MS, CTRS and Master Lecturer, Betsy Kennedy, Ed.M., CTRS viewed the program’s move to Health Sciences as a great opportunity to revamp certain elements of the program and provide additional work-based learning opportunities. While RT students have always had the opportunity to engage in multiple high-impact practices, as evidenced by the array of courses embedded within 91��Ƭ��’s LeADERS program, the program faculty paid close attention during curriculum revisions to expanding the types of experiential learning opportunities for its students. When speaking with Ms. Beaver, she shared that the program has long emphasized the importance of practice-based learning opportunities for RT students, in which they educate students on the field’s APIED (assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation, and documentation) process. However, their transition to a Bachelor of Sciences in Health Sciences degree program helped them identify improved opportunities for students to engage in what is considered field-based experiences, such as exposure to professional organizations, conferences, and a variety of career settings. This article delves deeper into both the practice- and field-based experiences offered to 91��Ƭ�� RT students, providing them with a unique training that prepares them for professional and personal success after graduation.

One key practice-based experiential learning opportunity for RT students takes place in Betsy Kennedy’s Mighty Monarchs Youth Wheelchair Sports program, which serves children from the Hampton Roads area ages 5-18 with physical disabilities. The program is offered once a month and is held in the Student Recreation Center on Saturday mornings. During these sessions, RT students from several classes plan and implement a variety of wheelchair sports activities for the children, including tennis, basketball, and bowling. This program provides a valuable hands-on learning experience for RT students by allowing them to work directly with children with disabilities, as they also learn how to conduct a functional assessment and practice group facilitation techniques.

Another key practice-based, service-learning project in the Recreational Therapy program takes place through Shelly Beaver’s RT 470: Recreational Therapy Program Design and Implementation class, which is designated as a LeADERS Service-Learning course. The Senior Wellness Program is a 10-week community-engaged experience during which students provide recreational therapy services to older adults who reside in Norfolk’s Harbor’s Edge long-term care community. In collaboration with facility staff, students follow the APIED process to plan and implement 1:1 and small group activity-based therapeutic interventions while providing encouragement, companionship, and support. Ms. Beaver�� considers this well-established program a “pre-internship internship,” and the university has featured it previously. RT 470 is a culminating course that applies all aspects of the APIED process, while also helping students develop soft skills needed to be successful in the field.

In the last academic year Ms. Beaver facilitated another valuable service-learning project for RT students in her PRTS 450: Disability Culture in Recreational Therapy course. This course intentionally embedded both practice- and field-based learning opportunities for students. In collaboration with CSD: Cognitive Linguistic Disorders, taught by Dr. Rachel Johnson, Associate Professor of Speech-Language Pathology, students work in interprofessional teams to assess and address the social needs of residents with neurocognitive disorders using an interprofessional approach to client-centered care. For this service-learning project, faculty and students collaborated with two community partners, Beth Sholom Village and the Southern Gerontological Society, to develop a plan of care illustrating collaborative strategies for maintaining or increasing the social engagement of residents with neurocognitive disorders in long-term care settings. Building on the practical experience, teams were then exposed further to their professional fields when they presented their plans during a poster session at the Southern Gerontological Society’s 2023 annual conference in Norfolk, Virginia. This learning experience exposed students to working as members of interprofessional collaborative teams, which is standard in the healthcare industry, and provided the opportunity to present on their work at a professional conference. This project was funded by a , facilitated through the Office of Leadership & Learning, which allows instructors to request up to $1,000 per course section to support service-learning projects.

Recreational therapy faculty identified another great opportunity to provide their students with field-based learning as they developed their new RT 480W: Evidence-Based Practice and Trends in Recreational Therapy course during their summer 2023 transition to Health Sciences. Students taking this LeADERS Research/Writing-designed course are asked to write and orally deliver elevator pitches about their profession to specific audiences (e.g., a company administrator, the parent of a child with a disability). This class also required students to conduct a case study on residents, as well as write a literature review related to evidence-based practices. A culminating project within this course had students write a conference session proposal as if they are submitting it to a professional RT conference. This April, those students will further develop and deliver their presentations at the first ever 91��Ƭ�� Recreational Therapy Symposium for an audience of current students and alumni from the program.

In addition to developing a new writing-intensive course, RT 290: Professional Preparation in Recreational Therapy is another class that was developed this academic year to further expose students to the career field. Betsy Kennedy takes her students on a variety of career treks throughout the semester to tour facilities and talk with recreational therapists about their job responsibilities in various settings. The program has community partnerships with the Hampton VA Medical Center, Barry Robinson Center, St. Mary's Home, Maimonaides Healthcare of Virginia Beach, Norfolk Therapeutic Recreation Center, and Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation. Students can see firsthand how recreational therapists engage with different disability groups, as well as the great variety of practice for different RTs. The site visits also provide students with the opportunities to network with local recreational therapists, which can lead to internships and other work-based learning opportunities.

A final way in which the Recreational Therapy program has encouraged students to engage in experiential learning opportunities is by automatically enrolling all majors in 91��Ƭ��’s LeADERS program. LeADERS helps students reflect on their various work-based learning experiences via a comprehensive ePortfolio that showcases what students have learned and experienced, giving them a place to demonstrate their gains in employer-valued skills such as critical thinking, interpersonal skills, and intercultural skills. This culminating experience provides program graduates with an added distinction during commencement via their gold medals, while serving the ultimate goal of helping students highlight their unique practice- and field-based training experiences throughout their time in the program. These program outcomes promote positive learning gains, networking with potential employers, and a stronger sense of connection to the 91��Ƭ�� and Hampton Roads communities. One could say that 91��Ƭ��’s Recreational Therapy graduates leave our institution as forward-focused leaders with careers full of possibilities.