Professional Interview Experience

For this interview, like several of you, I interviewed Lane Jeppesen who is the executive director of a recreation center out in Mesa and is also heavily involved with Arizona Disabled Sports. What I admired most about this interview and the facilities was Lane herself. She has managed and operated this entire recreation facility as the only full-time staff member for a long time and she has tons of responsibilities. I admire her courage and work ethic to take on so many tasks and to do all of the work that is asked of her with great joy. No matter what we talked about she always had a smile on her face and shows her passion for the job that she is doing. Here is an excerpt from my paper:

At this facility, Lane has a vast spectrum of responsibilities in order to upkeep the facility and programs that are offered that go along with the Arizona Disabled Sports organization that she also is heavily involved with. Lane’s main duties include but are not limited to: sponsorship and fundraising, marketing, managing the recreation center, planning and implementing events, and creating public awareness of the facility and the various programs that are offered. Despite having all of these duties Lane has been able to successfully serve the various clients that come to the recreation center. The center serves anyone who has either a mental disability or physical impairment no matter what their age. Clients that participate in some of the various programs are as young as six and even as old as 93.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their interview experience and learned as much about the vast spectrum of therapeutic recreation as I did.

Resources Awareness

Since I am a RTM major that is looking to work at a youth camp, I searched for therapeutic recreation camps that offer programs and services to their guests. The organization that I found was called Alabama's Special Camp for Children and Adults. There website is http://campascca.org/.

ASCCA offers a wide variety of outdoor activities for both youth and adults to participate in while they are in an inclusive environment. These various outdoor activities offer fun and challenge to bring both joy and empowerment to the guests at the camp. ASCCA offers weekend and week long camp programs for their guests so that they can participate in these activities while also incorporating various educational aspects. The camp just recently updated their website so there was not a lot of detailed information, but it is definitely an organization that peaks my interest because of the incorporation of outdoor activities with the educational fundamentals so that these children and even adults can feel a sense of accomplishment while having fun.

Tenet Discussion

The tenet that I felt resonated most with me was number four. The tenet states, "The actualization tendency motivates clients toward health promotion. Thereapeutic recreation specialists engage in mutual participation with clients motivated by the actualization tendency but move toward giving more and more control to clients as they become healthier." That is a long mouthful of a tenet, but to me it resonates with the idea that as a professional you can motivate the people that you are interacting with in order to get them to realize their own personal potential with the various activtity. I think that this one resonates so soundly with me because it allows for people to learn to do these activities on their own and give them confidence in something that is important to them and that they are in control of to give them a healthier outlook on life. Within the youth camp industry this idea can be used not only with people with various disabilities, but also with the young youth who feel that they aren't good at anything. When you teach them how to do an activity and motivate them on how to do it, they will be encouraged and learn how they can succeed in the activity and be mentally happier after they discover this new found talent and skill.