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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate student and practitioner differences in perceptions and expectations of undergraduate internships in recreation. An on-line survey that examined the role of the internship, skills that interns should have, and perceptions of what internship agencies should provide was completed by 363 leisure service practitioners from community, campus, and commercial recreation as well as 194 recreation students from ten universities. One-way ANOVA and t-test comparisons indicated that students and practitioners differed significantly in the majority of the items on the survey. Practitioners believed that students should be stronger in developing, leading, and budgeting programs, while students felt that internship agencies should be willing to hire interns full-time and should provide greater assistance in job placement. Practitioners had different perceptions and expectations depending on what sector of the field they were employed. However, students specializing in different areas of recreation had similar expectations of internships.
