The Young Professional 1 - Arizona Parks and Recreation Association

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An Anaheim Reflectionby Jennifer UpahLast October I was able to attend the NRPA NationalConference in Anaheim, California. This was anincredible conference full of educational sessions,meetings, and networking. Along with receivingfunding to attend the national conference, you alsohave the opportunity to be paired up with a mentor,who is a profession from the field and active withNRPA. The Young Professional Fellowship gaveme an opportunity to network with my assignedmentor Becky Benna who is the Executive Directorat Five Rivers Metro Parks in Dayton, Ohio. She isa wonderful resource that I feel fortunate to havebeen paired up with for the conference. The mentoropportunities NRPA allow for create a meaningfulopportunity for professionals to connect whilephysically in the same location.My week started with the Young Professional Meetand Greet Breakfast on Tuesday morning October 16.At this breakfast, I was able to visit with other youngprofessionals I have met through the network alongwith meeting Becky for the first time. This breakfasthas been a great way to start the conference off bymeeting other young professionals. From breakfastI attended the general session. I truly enjoyed thekeynote speaker, Lowell Catlett and volunteered atthe Career Center once the Expo Hall opened andtoured the hall after my volunteer hour. For lunch,I met with a faculty member from North CarolinaState University, Karla Henderson. She was assignedto me through the “Take a Student/YoungProfessional to Lunch” program. I love thisprogram and feel so privileged to be able tomeet seasoned professionals in the field andhave time to socialize with them one-on-one.In the afternoon, I attended a few educationalsessions including “Obesity Bites: Lessons froma small town in Mississippi” I was particularlyinterested in this session as I am doing researchrelated t increasing physical activity. So havingthe opportunity to learn what an agency isdoing to assist with providing opportunitiesto become physically active is a great learningexperience. Then I attended the LeisureResearch Symposium George Butler Lecture,“Social Justice and Leisure: The Usefulnessand Uselessness of Research.” This was a veryinteresting account of how a lawyer was able to uselaws to assist people with equal access to parks in LosAngeles. I also attended the financial meeting in theafternoon with the NRPA board members. Followingthe afternoon sessions, I attended the openingreception at Disney and I really enjoyed the eventoverall. I have never been to this Disney theme parkso having it scheduled as part of the opening receptionis a great opportunity to see the park with other NRPAmembers without missing out on anything related tothe conference.Wednesday, October 17 I started my day by attendingthe Leisure Research Symposium: Physical Activity1 and volunteered again at the Career Center withinthe Expo hall. I had a long lunch meeting with Becky,and then attended the Young Professional Meetingin the afternoon. It was an amazing meeting withapproximately 80 young professionals and students atthe meeting. I also reported on the recent Visit a ParkDay event in which we had 8 registered participantsalong with several unreported events that we foundthrough a Google search. Wednesday evening Iattended the Leisure Research Symposium: PosterSession prior to the Best of the Best Ceremony. Theposter session was full of interesting research studies.I had particularly enjoyed a study about couples thatparticipated in outdoor winter skills over the course ofa few days. The researcher had taken time to explainin detail a few of skills and how the couples workedthrough them along with the follow up meetingconversations. This was a small study with 6 couplesand had interesting perceptions and interactionsPage 15 | The Young Professional
etween the couples. The Best of the Best Ceremonywas short but nice and the MC for the event was veryentertaining. Following the ceremony we attended thesmall reception including appetizers which was also anice gesture.I started Thursday, October 18 off by attending theLRS: Leisure Behavior II session and learned aboutresearch related to gambling and dog parks, both werevery interesting studies and brought up interestingpoints I had not thought about, especially the researchabout dog parks related to citizens taking ownershipof a space that had previously been seen as a nuisancebefore it was a dog park, then citizens fighting overpark space for pets verses kids. After lunch I attendedthe National Forum Meeting. This was my first timeat this meeting. This meeting provides an opportunityfor other leaders with in each network to share whatis currently going on in the network. So it is an eyeopening learning experience to hear about eachnetwork. This meeting also focused on some of theissues with NRPA connects so the board memberscould start to make it more user-friendly. In the endthe meeting ended with a board member starting asmall committee to try to resolve some of the issueswith access to NRPA connect and Mary stating shewould make a few webinars and possibly a Youtubevideo on how to best utilize NRPA connect to sharewith members in hopes to get more people utilizingthis resource. In the evening, I attended the YoungProfessionals Social at a local bar. It was a great way toend the busy week and chat with a few new colleaguesand friends.Jennifer Upah is a TeachingAssistant Professor and Directorof Internships in the Parks,Recreation &Tourism programat the University of Missouri.upahj@missouri.eduCALL FOR PAPERSCALL FOR PAPERSThe Young ProfessionalThe Young Professional is currently acceptingsubmissions for publication.The Young Professional is a biannual publicationdigitally distributed by the Young ProfessionalNetwork of the National Recreation and ParkAssociation.“The YP” as it has become known, publishes current,original, and stimulating articles related to parks,recreation, leisure, sports, and associated professionalareas. Articles range from opinion pieces, researchbriefs, case studies, best practices, creative pieces, andgeneral necessary information (among others) foryoung professionals and students.For more information or to submit an article forconsideration, please contact the editor atmichael.bradley@eku.edu.To learn more about The Young Professional Networkfollow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/YoungProf_NRPA or Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/nrpastudentyoungprofessionals/.Natural EnvironmentNatural environment publishes timely, innovative,and provocative articles relevant to its internationalaudience, representing research from all field ofAquatic living resources; environmental biosafetyresearch; environmental and development economics;environmental practice.For more information please contact ne@sciknow.orgor visit http://www.sciknow.org/journals/show/id/ne.Page 16 | The Young Professional
Page 1 and 2: The Young ProfessionalIssue 1, Volu
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Page 10 and 11: Visit a Park Dayby Chris Lucas & Je
Page 12 and 13: that receive no government funding
Page 14 and 15: AGENCY HIGHLIGHTFACILITYQuillian Re
Page 18 and 19: Dear Steven, Advice NeededA new par
Page 20 and 21: Procrastination!by Tatiana Chalkido
Page 22 and 23: The method to our madness: As the S
Page 24 and 25: Staying passionateon and off the jo
Page 26 and 27: AGENCY HIGHLIGHTFACILITIESEast Recr
Page 28 and 29: she and her company were the right
Page 30 and 31: supervising full time staff who run

The Young Professional 1 - Arizona Parks and Recreation Association

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