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Utah's Foremost Platform for Undergraduate Research Presentation
2021 Abstracts

Differing Benefits of Outdoor Recreation for Underrepresented Youth

Presenter: Joelle Whitney, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Applied Sociology and Criminal Justice
Authors: MacKenzie Davis
Faculty Advisor: Robert Oxley, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Sociology
Institution: Dixie State University

Outdoor leadership programs have generally been aimed at providing attendees with an experience of learning new skills, experiencing new activities, and the possibility of building comratory. The Outdoor Leadership Academy, also known as OLA, has taken outdoor leadership to a new level and has aimed to open these opportunities to those who may not have been able to participate in them before; underprivileged youth. OLA offers a large variety of activities to the youth attending their camps, in hopes to teach them how to become community leaders and mentors to their peers. A few of the offered activities are kayaking, camping, hiking, river rafting, forest bathing, sailing, and hiking through water. The Institute for Social Research (ISR) at Dixie State University aims to collaborate with OLA for a 2020-2021 Quality of Life Initiative study. In this study, the ISR will use a combination of literary review, surveys, observation, and secondary research of comparable programs to assess if OLA is meeting its goal in helping underprivileged youth, and if the activities are actually benefiting the youth. Once the benefits have been established, the ISR will also evaluate how different activities may benefit some groups more than others, and share this information with OLA for use in future planning and their efforts in inclusivity and growth.