Disc Golf Internship

[Vonbeezy1]

I understand engineering. But for recreation-based, or many liberal arts fields, finding a paid internship is like winning the lottery. It's not terribly realistic.

I was actually surprised when I found out there were some internhips that paid in my major (Criminal Justice). I found out an internship with the FBI was paid but highly competitive so I figured many other federal internships would pay :wall:
I did my internship with the U.S. Marshals unpaid :thmbdown:

 

[ScottyLove]

Disc golf is so far off the radar of parks and recreation management that a disc golf-centered internship would end up looking curious.

I understand your sentiment and agree in principle... but at least up here in Jefferson City, the disc golf club and the parks and recreation management communicate multiple times each week and club board members attend the park board meetings. Same for the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the City of Holts Summit.

So I'd say we are very much ON THE RADAR with our situation. We can get just about anything we need (mulch delivered, rock delivered, timber removed, grass mowed, seed put down in bare spots, use of the park brush hog, etc.) within two days of a request usually. Probably not normal, but it's a very good and healthy relationship.

Not really on the topic of internship, but that statement stood out to me...

 

[IDGC_SUPER]

If you are looking to do something with the PDGA, email [email protected] he is currently in charge of the program. The PDGA has had an intern program for about 5 years now and generally posts the information on the website every spring.

 

[IDGC_SUPER]

I would say we are very much ON the radar of the Parks and Recreation industry, multiple PDGA employees have Parks and Recreation Management degrees.

 

[ZAMson]

Parks and Recreation Management degrees.

this guy with a Drawing degree is impressed that exists

 

[Martin Dewgarita]

this guy with a Drawing degree is impressed that exists

I have one of those, and I'm actually working in my field.

My internship was at a Sumner camp leading trips. I still work at a summer camp and I lead trips and much more. You could do an internship here, dg course on site you could help me maintain and help build the back 9, or even help develop another 18 holes off site, while playing with kids the rest of the time, could maybe even help out on the disc golf trip.

 

[c_a_miller]

I was actually surprised when I found out there were some internhips that paid in my major (Criminal Justice). I found out an internship with the FBI was paid but highly competitive so I figured many other federal internships would pay :wall:
I did my internship with the U.S. Marshals unpaid :thmbdown:

Because the whole point of internships is to be paid

 

[Rockiesfan4ever]

I understand your sentiment and agree in principle... but at least up here in Jefferson City, the disc golf club and the parks and recreation management communicate multiple times each week and club board members attend the park board meetings. Same for the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the City of Holts Summit.

So I'd say we are very much ON THE RADAR with our situation. We can get just about anything we need (mulch delivered, rock delivered, timber removed, grass mowed, seed put down in bare spots, use of the park brush hog, etc.) within two days of a request usually. Probably not normal, but it's a very good and healthy relationship.

Not really on the topic of internship, but that statement stood out to me...

What would be the website for your city to see if they might have any internship opportunities?

I have one of those, and I'm actually working in my field.

My internship was at a Sumner camp leading trips. I still work at a summer camp and I lead trips and much more. You could do an internship here, dg course on site you could help me maintain and help build the back 9, or even help develop another 18 holes off site, while playing with kids the rest of the time, could maybe even help out on the disc golf trip.

What summer camp is that?

 

[Rockiesfan4ever]

I understand engineering. But for recreation-based, or many liberal arts fields, finding a paid internship is like winning the lottery. It's not terribly realistic.

Very true. And it's even worse when the focus is on something as narrow as disc golf.

(First off sorry for the double post).

Yes, I do realize it will be difficult, but it's not the only route I am pursuing. I would definitely take a paid internship, but I realize that I will probably get an unpaid one; while finding one involving disc golf will also be difficult, it's something that I would love to do.

 

[DeadEye]

While it does sound fun, unless you're going into some kind of Parks and Recreation field further in your life, I advise against it. An internship is a great way to get real world experience before jumping into your career, and should be viewed as stepping stone. An internship for the IDGC or PDGA, is not going to help much if you try to get a job with anyone other than a Parks Department, or something along those lines.

 

[Rockiesfan4ever]

While it does sound fun, unless you're going into some kind of Parks and Recreation field further in your life, I advise against it. An internship is a great way to get real world experience before jumping into your career, and should be viewed as stepping stone. An internship for the IDGC or PDGA, is not going to help much if you try to get a job with anyone other than a Parks Department, or something along those lines.

Right now I think that's what I would want to do tho. What I know right now is that I want to work with kids in sports and what better way than being involved with a rec program.

 

[Three Putt]

What would be the website for your city to see if they might have any internship opportunities?

Fun fact: I did my parks and recreation internship with the City he is talking about.

http://www.jeffcitymo.org/parks/parksandrecreation.html

My internship covered a lot of stuff; I managed the day camp at Binder Park, supervised T-ball in Riverside Park, worked on ball field maintenance in Washington Park, ran a cycling event on the Katy Trail, ran a 5/10K run out of McClung Park...you never focused on one thing, which was how it was when I was working in the field.

Even when I was running the disc golf course/leagues/tournaments/concessions at White Birch, disc golf was maybe 10% of my job. I ran aerobics classes, karate classes, volleyball leagues, kids basketball, ran the concerts in the park series, ran the annual Easter egg hunt, coordinated two huge craft shows...at any given time I had about 20 programs that were running with a couple of special events every month on top of running disc golf events. In parks and recreation, you generally don't get to specialize in one thing unless it some big dollar investment like a ball golf course or the aquatics manager in a place that has an indoor year-round swimming program. I don't think any municipal parks and recreation department would hire a "disc golf manager," at least no department I'm aware of.

But hey, if you look into Jeff City tell J.J. I said howdy. He and I were pretty good friends at Mizzou back when he had hair. There actually are five or six people at Jeff City that either were there when I did my internship or I went to Mizzou with. It doesn't surprise me that they are willing to work with the disc golf club there; there are some good people at that department. With the benefit of hindsight, it was one of the better places I had the pleasure of working.

 

[Rockiesfan4ever]

Fun fact: I did my parks and recreation internship with the City he is talking about.

http://www.jeffcitymo.org/parks/parksandrecreation.html

My internship covered a lot of stuff; I managed the day camp at Binder Park, supervised T-ball in Riverside Park, worked on ball field maintenance in Washington Park, ran a cycling event on the Katy Trail, ran a 5/10K run out of McClung Park...you never focused on one thing, which was how it was when I was working in the field.

Even when I was running the disc golf course/leagues/tournaments/concessions at White Birch, disc golf was maybe 10% of my job. I ran aerobics classes, karate classes, volleyball leagues, kids basketball, ran the concerts in the park series, ran the annual Easter egg hunt, coordinated two huge craft shows...at any given time I had about 20 programs that were running with a couple of special events every month on top of running disc golf events. In parks and recreation, you generally don't get to specialize in one thing unless it some big dollar investment like a ball golf course or the aquatics manager in a place that has an indoor year-round swimming program. I don't think any municipal parks and recreation department would hire a "disc golf manager," at least no department I'm aware of.

But hey, if you look into Jeff City tell J.J. I said howdy. He and I were pretty good friends at Mizzou back when he had hair. There actually are five or six people at Jeff City that either were there when I did my internship or I went to Mizzou with. It doesn't surprise me that they are willing to work with the disc golf club there; there are some good people at that department. With the benefit of hindsight, it was one of the better places I had the pleasure of working.

I'll definitely check that out, sounds very interesting! Fun fact, I grew up in MO and my dad worked for a bit down in Jeff City. I assumed that most P&R departments wouldn't work solely on disc golf, but I'd love to have any interaction with the game and possibly helping getting more youths involved and/or getting the word out about it more.

 

[Three Putt]

I understand your sentiment and agree in principle... but at least up here in Jefferson City, the disc golf club and the parks and recreation management communicate multiple times each week and club board members attend the park board meetings. Same for the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the City of Holts Summit.

So I'd say we are very much ON THE RADAR with our situation. We can get just about anything we need (mulch delivered, rock delivered, timber removed, grass mowed, seed put down in bare spots, use of the park brush hog, etc.) within two days of a request usually. Probably not normal, but it's a very good and healthy relationship.

Not really on the topic of internship, but that statement stood out to me...

I would say we are very much ON the radar of the Parks and Recreation industry, multiple PDGA employees have Parks and Recreation Management degrees.

I'm sure we are talking about different things.

Is disc golf on the radar in terms of courses going in? Sure. The OP wasn't talking about that, though. He was talking about an Internship on the way to getting a job. The reality for disc golf is that clubs run the events. Once the course goes in, the parks and recreation department doesn't really need someone who is a "disc golf specialist." What would they do?

What I meant by "on the radar" would be parks departments putting in pay for play courses and running a concession selling discs along with running leagues and a tournament series. Those kinds of activities would make a parks and recreation agency go out and look for someone with some disc golf expertise to be in charge. Parks departments are not doing those things, so having a lot of disc golf knowledge doesn't really make you marketable. It would be more of an oddball thing you could mention to make yourself look unique, but you better have some other areas of expertise to go with that if you want a job.

If I'm wrong and you know of a place that is actively looking for parks and recreation professional specifically with disc golf experience, let me know. I've got one Hell of a resume I can fire their way.

 

[Three Putt]

I'll definitely check that out, sounds very interesting! Fun fact, I grew up in MO and my dad worked for a bit down in Jeff City. I assumed that most P&R departments wouldn't work solely on disc golf, but I'd love to have any interaction with the game and possibly helping getting more youths involved and/or getting the word out about it more.

I'm not sure how all of the Internships work, but when I did mine I had to put together a special project. I ended up doing two; a 5/10K run and a cycling family event. I coordinated both of those events with local clubs. If you got an Internship with a department that has a course and part of the Internship was to coordinate a special event, you could put together a learn to disc golf event for kids coordinated with a local club. Something like that would be cool.

It would also look good if you showed up with an idea of what you wanted to do. I remember when I did my Internship they asked me what I wanted to do as a special project and I replied "Uhhhhhhh..." The projects I ended up doing had more to do with me being in the office when a representative of the club walked in than me really wanting to do something.

 

[Martin Dewgarita]

What summer camp is that?

YMCA Camp Pepin
Bald Eagle Disc Golf Course

 

[Nemmers]

Kramerica Industries

^^^ Well played, sir. Well played. :clap:

I guess I shouldn't be surprised this crowd didn't get it.

 

[Three Putt]

^^^ Well played, sir. Well played. :clap:

I guess I shouldn't be surprised this crowd didn't get it.

15 year-old TV shows are 15 years old. :|