Work with people with disabilities and special needs adapting leisure and recreation, participating in therapy sessions, doing exercises and sports, and practice life skills while receiving credit. Imagine working at a camp for children with disabilities in Ireland supporting the children to engage in activities and an empowering camp experience, or assisting with exercises or wheelchair mobility in a hospital therapy clinic in South Africa.

Make a global impact on others while completing your fieldwork placement and studying abroad. Expand your horizons to new types of leisure, recreation, adaptive equipment and cultural interventions to expand your recreational therapy techniques and ideas.

Recreational Therapy Programs

Academic Advice

Internships

Department Contact

Resources for Advisors

Academic Advice

• The earliest you can go abroad is the summer of your first year.
• Students may fulfill General Education Foundation and Issues requirements abroad
• Be sure to explore both GVSU and provider options by browsing the Program Suggestions above. Students are not limited to GVSU study abroad programs.
• There are several opportunities to intern and or volunteer while abroad.
• RTX 390 Fieldwork in Recreational Therapy can be fulfilled through international experience for students admitted to the recreational therapy program. This fieldwork experience takes place between during the summer between year 1 and year 2 in the program. 
• In the fall of your first year in the program make sure to indicate to the Recreational Therapy Placement Coordinator that you are interested in completing your fieldwork abroad. The Coordinator may be able to assist with identifying possible sites, but it is ultimately the student’s responsibility to secure their placement location.
• Department input required for approval of RTX 390 abroad.
• Fieldwork placements must be completed during the summer between your first and second year of the program and must meet the requirements for such placements including a minimum of 300 hours of involvement over a minimum of 8 weeks.
• The Recreational Therapy program may provide information about opportunities abroad, it is ultimately up to the student to secure their own international placement
• Study abroad fieldwork placement proposals will be reviewed on a case by case basis by the program faculty.

To determine the GVSU course equivalencies for courses taken abroad, please visit our Course Approval page. 

Once you have selected a program, schedule a meeting with your academic advisor to discuss your plans.

Dawn DeVries

[email protected]

106 Finkelstein Hall