K-State offers a four-year curriculum in park management and conservation. All students are required to take a core of courses deemed central to the outdoor recreation profession.
The park management curriculum prepares young people to manage the resource where outdoor recreation takes place including the soil, water, flora, fauna and human visitors. A broad array of course work including wildlife management, history, entomology and other social and natural sciences equip the individual for this resource management task.
Society faces a future of making potentially infinite demands upon finite natural resources. Appropriate management of America’s natural and recreation resources will require the best efforts of dedicated, trained professional managers. A basic objective of recreation resource managers is to provide essential goods and services while maintaining the highest environmental standards. A primary focus of recreation and park professionals is the supply of quality leisure opportunities that lead to an enhanced “quality of life.”
Career choices for the park management professional include a wide array of governmental and non-governmental options. The majority of graduates pursue employment as program specialists and unit managers at municipal and recreation agencies; state park, wildlife and natural resource departments, and land management agencies of the federal government such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service. Others choose to work for outdoor and environmentally based associations and organizations. A few utilize the entrepreneurial training to operate their own enterprises.
