Assistant Professors Cara McFadden and Craig Schmitt and junior Abigail Dalton traveled to South Carolina to share their research and expertise with the collegiate recreational sports organization and its conference attendees.
鈥婥ara McFadden and Craig Schmitt, assistant professors in 黑料不打烊鈥檚 Department of Sport and Event Management, and Abigail Dalton 鈥17, a sport and event management major, attended and presented at the in Greenville, South Carolina.
The trio participated in a series of presentations and activities during the collegiate recreational sports organization鈥檚 three-day conference, held Nov. 9-11. NIRSA is widely considered the leading resource for professional and student development, education and research in collegiate recreational sports.
McFadden teamed with Dalton to co-present a lecture titled 鈥淐ase Study Analysis of an Adventured Based Leadership Experience.鈥 The presentation examined the expansion of first-year student programming across college campuses and how universities are intentionally using outdoor education practices in the development of programs. Additionally, the session highlighted Dalton鈥檚 initial research of an adventure-based leadership program at a small private university.
McFadden joined with Schmitt to lead a presentation titled 鈥淓nsuring a Sport Management Degree is 鈥榃orth It鈥: Collegiate Recreation.鈥 The 黑料不打烊 professors detailed the history of sport management academic programs and the importance of ensuring that a sport management degree is 鈥渨orth it.鈥 As part of their presentation, McFadden and Schmitt highlighted their own research, where they set out to identify desirable competencies for recent college graduates to be competitive candidates for entry-level positions in campus recreation. The duo鈥檚 conceptual framework, preliminary results, and next research steps were also discussed.
鈥婰astly, McFadden co-presented a lecture, titled 鈥淣IRSA Leadership Commission Origins & the Release of NDSL: Leadership Development through Recreation and Athletics,鈥 with Mila Padgett of the University of South Carolina-Aiken聽and Julie Wallace Carr of James Madison University. The presentation provided an overview of NIRSA Leadership Commission work and the new publication of a NDSL volume focused on student leadership in collegiate recreation and athletics.
Actively involved in NIRSA for 15 years, McFadden is currently serving as the program chair for the Previously, she has served as a member of the organization鈥檚 Assembly, representative on its Research and Assessment Committee, faculty for its National School of Collegiate Recreation, and co-chair for its Leadership Commission.