While some SRU students have little time to spend outdoors, others have outdoor classes built into their schedules.
Cash Cummings is a junior studying park and resource management at SRU. They are a transfer student who came to SRU because they heard about the program.
“I’d always been interested in the outdoors, and I realized if I could work in the outdoors, I would love that,” Cummings said.
One thing that is unique about park and resource management majors is that some classes are held outside.
Cummings is taking a course called Outdoor Leadership. In this class, students learn outdoor skills through hands-on instruction.
“We have a bunch of equipment brought out to teach us the basics of camping and different outdoor skills,” Cummings said. “And then we apply those skills during class.”
In this class, students also have the opportunity to camp outside at the Ski Lodge for an assignment.
Park and resource management majors often travel off campus on “field trips” to neighboring parks such as Moraine State Park and Presque Isle State Park. These typically happen over weekends.
Cummings discussed how they learned about bird-banding at Presque Isle State Park.
Bird-banding is the process of catching birds and attaching a band to them before releasing them. This is used to identify and study bird species.
Cummings also discussed how, for one of their required courses, park and resource management students got their hunter’s education certificate. Then, they went to a shooting range and shot clay pigeons.
A project Cummings is working on is at Goddard State Park and involves counting macroinvertebrates in the streams. The data Cummings collects goes to Goddard State Park and helps the park keep the streams healthy.
“They can actually use that information we’re collecting,” Cummings said. “And that’s really cool because what we’re doing is actually making a direct impact, even just in class.”
Park and resource management majors are required to take a practicum and an internship.
To complete this requirement, Cummings traveled to Acadia National Park, located in Maine, to work for the roads and trails maintenance division of the National Park Service.
“There are a lot of opportunities like that, where they provided housing and a living stipend,” Cummings said. “And you just get to work in the park and start your day on the top of a mountain, and see the ocean every day.”
Cummings’ trip was funded by the Student Conservation Association (SCA).
“It’s really beautiful. I’m so glad I got to work there, it was incredible,” Cummings said.
Cummings also minors in biology and hopes to use that knowledge to pursue a conservation job in a park.
“I’d love to work in preserving what we have and giving back to the land that we get to enjoy,” Cummings said. “I don’t know exactly where I want to go, but with everything I’m learning in this major, it feels like wherever I want to end up, I can end up.”
Cummings said they believe a common misconception about park and resource management majors is that it is the “Boy Scout major”. They believe many people think the major is simply playing outside and going camping.
“There is a lot more to it than just playing outside,” Cummings said. “There are a lot of technical things that we go into, and a lot of the skills can be applied to a broad range of things.”
Cummings advises anyone considering studying park and resource management to have an open mind, since the field offers a variety of career paths.
“I believe that there is so much importance in caring for the land and the Earth, that no matter what stands in my way, I know I’m doing what I want to, and I know I’m working for a cause I truly believe in,” Cummings said.
