The Outdoor Recreation Consortium Experience

 
In the pictures, it looks like a group of friends having an amazing time in the mountains, hiking, enjoying nature and camp fires surrounded by breath taking views, but it’s actually the PRT 351/651 Outdoor Recreation Consortium class. This annual class that examines outdoor recreation and resource management approaches culminates in a week long field experience to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to attend the annual consortium held at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont.

The class is usually taught by Professor Erin Seekamp, but this past spring Interim Dean Dr. Myron Floyd taught the class and led the students on their treck to the mountains where they joined five other schools who also attended the consortium, including: East Carolina University, Penn State University, Texas A&M, University of Missouri-Columbia, and Western Illinois University. During the week long trip, students had the opportunity to meet park rangers, go on interpretive hikes, practice outdoor survival skills, participate in park service projects, enjoy local bluegrass music, and listen to cultural Appalachian stories around the fire.

It’s More Than  a Class

Although the trip is a culmination of everything they’ve learned in the class including park ecology, management strategies, and tourism/visitor impacts in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, for many PRTM alumni, it’s a highlight of their time at NC State.
Celia Trivette, a 2014 Parks, Recreation and Tourism Alumni,  who works as a State Park Ranger for the NC Department of Natural Resources remembers the consortium as a highlight within the PRTM program that gave her valuable skills and experiences she was able to take into her career.
Current Masters Student Daniela Agostoni who attended this past March shared this about about her experience.
“The genuine comraderie among the PRT 351/615 students was fantastic. At end of day we would all meet up in the common area to catch up and share our experiences from that day. One evening we went on a night hike together, another night we played National Park Monopoly, and the final night we stayed up late and reflected on our time at consortium.”
I don’t think you fully understand the experience until you go but students from the 2018 class created a video that gives a glimpse of what it was like.  2018 PRT Outdoor Constortium Video