Mission

The mission of the Tourism Recreation and Adventure Leadership (TRAL) program at OSU-Cascades is to develop competent leaders, facilitators, and managers of outdoor adventure, recreation and tourism experiences who have internationally recognized knowledge, skills, and dispositions that enable them to make effective decisions and provide safe experiences in complex and dynamic environments.

Vision

The TRAL program is a leader in outdoor adventure and tourism education. We are known for a quality, challenging, academically rigorous, and practically-applicable 4-year degree program that helps students gain competency in the outdoor adventure, recreation and tourism sectors. We attract high-quality students from local, regional, national, and international locations, based on our reputation as a leading program in the West. Our students embrace the challenge of sustainability in all that they do.

Learning Goals

As a graduate of the Tourism, Recreation and Adventure Leadership program, you will:

A: Explain the importance of tourism, recreation, and leadership in natural settings for achieving societal goals, such as community development, human health and quality of life, and sustainable use of natural resources.

B: Identify, analyze, and apply the best available information on science, management practices, and public preferences to address contemporary tourism, recreation, and outdoor leadership opportunities and issues in natural settings. In the process:

  1. appropriately apply relevant disciplinary theories;
  2. demonstrate critical thinking and reasoning;
  3. explain issues and outcomes across experiential, economic, biophysical, and social dimensions;
  4. access, analyze, and apply relevant data; and
  5. locate and use expertise and resources provided by resource specialists from different organizations and constituencies.

C: Make nature-based tourism, recreation, and outdoor leadership decisions within applicable laws, policies, and regulations, and across cultural and geographical contexts.

D: Communicate effectively to a variety of audiences in appropriate formats.

E: Work effectively and professionally in groups, both as leaders and followers.

F: Understand principles and methods for successful supervision of employees and/or volunteers.