By Aaron Kroth, Assistant Director of Aquatics at University of Texas at Austin
NIRSA is committed to advancing collegiate recreation through its support of meaningful, credible research. And over the past three years, one way the Association has been encouraging the development and dissemination of impactful, research-based knowledge to the field of collegiate recreation is by annually awarding the NIRSA Collegiate Recreation Research Grant.
NIRSA’s Research and Assessment Committee announces with great pride that the 2015-2016 grant has been awarded to Keith Howard—doctoral student in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management and full time instructor in the Department of Health and Exercise Studies at North Carolina State University—in support of his research proposal “Race, Identity, and Belonging: Examining College Students’ Preferences for Sport and Active Recreation.”
Keith will use the grant award to examine African American college students’ preferences regarding campus recreation amenities. Survey data provided by participating students at a leading university in the southeastern United States will be examined in attempt to give collegiate recreation practitioners a better understanding of the relationship between racial identity and campus recreation involvement and preferences.
The results of “Race, Identity, and Belonging: Examining College Students’ Preferences for Sport and Active Recreation” will be presented at the 2017 NIRSA Annual Conference & Recreational Sports Exposition and an article will be submitted for publication in the Recreational Sports Journal.
For more information about the NIRSA Collegiate Recreation Research Grant, contact a member of NIRSA’s Research and Assessment Committee.
