We offer majors in outdoor adventure leadership and therapeutic recreation. Both offer you an opportunity to blend your interest in helping people live a healthy, satisfying, independent, and productive life with strategies that focus on recreation, leisure, or the outdoors. You will have opportunities for hands-on practice with real clients to nurture the importance of leisure in a sustainable and health lifestyle. Our educational philosophy emphasizes collaborative partnerships and interdisciplinary work with other disciplines such as speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. We will also strongly encourage you to dive more deeply into your research interests and give back to the community through service. As a graduate, you will be able to practice and function in a leadership position independently in a competent, ethical, and inclusive manner.
Welcome to the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies
Outdoor Adventure Leadership B.S. and Therapeutic Recreation B.S. - Final entry term: Fall 2021
Students currently enrolled in these majors will be supported through completion of their degree. (For degree requirements, please refer to the Ithaca College catalog for the year in which you declared the major.)
Outdoor Adventure Leadership
For people interested in outdoor leadership, ecotourism, outdoor education, camp management, natural resource management, environmental interpretation, youth-at-risk programs, and the adventure education and travel industry.
Become a visionary outdoor educational leader prepared to be an agent of change in the world, whether in a wilderness context or another industry. Sharpen your program administration, problem solving, leadership, wilderness literacy, and recreational land use skills. Graduate job-ready and confident in your skills.
Therapeutic Recreation
For people interested in using leisure activities to work hands-on with clients to enhance people's physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being.
Train in our fully accredited program. Work directly with clients using evidence-based leisure techniques to enhance people's physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being. Benefit from low faculty-to-student ratios. Graduate job-ready and confident in your skills.
Unique Experiences Outside of the Classroom
Be Educated at a "Best of the Best" Institution
Maximize value by completing your undergraduate studies at a "Best of the Best" institution, awarded to the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the 2018 National Recreation and Parks Association Conference.
Accreditation
Ithaca College’s Recreation and Leisure Studies Program is accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Parks, Recreation, Tourism and Related Professions (COAPRT). COAPRT accredits baccalaureate programs in parks, recreation, tourism, sport management, event management, therapeutic recreation, and leisure studies offered at regionally accredited institutions within the United States and its territories, and at nationally accredited institutions in Canada and Mexico. Review the program assessment reports below for more information.
Please watch this important video regarding degree and accreditation mills. According to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), "Degree mills and accreditation mills mislead and harm. In the United States, degrees and certificates from mills may not be acknowledged by other institutions when students seek to transfer or go to graduate school. Employers may not acknowledge degrees and certificates from degree mills when providing tuition assistance for continuing education. “Accreditation” from an accreditation mill can mislead students and the public about the quality of an institution. In the presence of degree mills and accreditation mills, students may spend a good deal of money and receive neither an education nor a useable credential." Read more on CHEA's website.
Recreation and Leisure Studies Program Assessment Reports:
Questions?
RLS Department Office
G40 Hill Center
Ithaca College
953 Danby Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
Fax (607) 274-1943