of South Florida in Tampa.
Jenn Velie
Gosch coordinates and plans USF’s 28 off-campus
trips per semester, and he is excited about bringing
students into the outdoors. “Florida is the Madagascar of outdoor recreation,” he said, adding that
kayaking through the Everglades is an experience
that can’t be replicated anywhere else. “These are
unique opportunities only available in Florida,” he
said.
Jim Rennie Leadership Award
He first became passionate about outdoor education
while working at a summer camp. In a ropes course,
“I could see the group dynamic change with my
help,” he said. Then,
he attended one
of AORE’s career
roundtables. There,
he saw people with
outdoors-focused
careers in the military, with outfitters,
and in other roles.
“And my eyes literally opened at that
moment—I thought,
‘This could be my
job,’” he said.
Now, at USF, he works in partnership with other
university departments to offer students innovative
programming, including bringing adaptive paddling
classes to their pool. The program has also expanded
its trip offerings, which now include an international
trip: to Iceland.
Gosch served as the student representative on the
AORE Board of Directors for the 2014 year. “That
was a very rewarding experience, learning from
professionals and actively engaging in a pretty big
restructuring of AORE by finishing up our Governance Review and Strategic Pillars,” he said. He has
worked hard behind the scenes to strengthen AORE:
He immersed himself in AORE’s membership drive,
researching different programs and using a calling
tree, with a team of volunteers making calls. He has
also been elected as the incoming Student Development Committee Co-Chair.
Gosch said he appreciates AORE because it
“provides an amazing network for professional
development and for benchmarking your program.”
He said that, through AORE’s network, he has both
learned from and fielded questions from other members about how to improve their programs.
The Jim Rennie Leadership Award recognizes contributions to AORE that go far beyond the ordinary and
that have had a significant and lasting impact on the
association and its mission. The award also recognizes professional work or leadership of unusual
significance in the field of outdoor recreation and
education.
Jenn Velie, who received the 2014 award, has given
to AORE in numerous ways, including as a student member, committee
member, then as the
Student Representative on
the Board of Directors,
and then as a Board of
Directors member. She has
also represented AORE
at national conventions
and trade shows. She has
had a hand in student
development, conference
development, association
strategic planning and
navigating governance changes, working with the
awards committee, and working with vendors.
Velie has seen that keeping AORE running takes a lot
of work from many people behind the scenes, so she
encourages members to get more involved whenever
they can, even if it’s just for a small project.
Her career has taken her from student leader at the
University of Central Florida, to Graduate Assistant
at Georgia Southern University, to Program Director
at Georgia Southern University for 3 years, to a
recruiting firm in Florida.
She noted that in the world of campus recreation,
the outdoor group is often the “redheaded stepchild,” and she appreciates AORE for the support it
gives these outdoor programs. “I’ve seen tremendous
growth in the organization,” she said, including
hiring an executive director and increasing AORE’s
recognition in Washington, D.C. She is excited about
“the presence in D.C. that the association has,”
noting that the executive director is now “at the same
table as many key players.”
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