“The next time you find yourself jamming at a festival, attending a sports event, or running through a park, remember, it took Recreation and Leisure majors to put it together for you to enjoy!”
“The next time you find yourself jamming at a festival, attending a sports event, or running through a park, remember, it took Recreation and Leisure majors to put it all together for you to enjoy!” says Sophia Aronowitz.
Voted student representative by her Recreation and Leisure senior class, Sophia takes her role seriously. And rightly so. “It takes a lot of organization, dedication, and heart to succeed in our field,” she exclaims. “Our required classes, while they might have a different approach (that is, more weight is put on projects than on tests), are just as hard as any other.”
Sophia has proven her mettle. She’s on the Dean’s List, a fact that makes her feel “really proud” because as an incoming freshman she wasn’t certain she would do well. She settled in, “got comfortable with learning and put in a lot of effort.” Then, her fellow classmates voted her “Most Dependable,” and the following year as their representative. She says, “To know that my peers trust me enough to communicate their needs to our professors is really a compliment. They depend on me—I get constant phone calls on the nights before exams.” Then, her professors acknowledged her trustworthiness by inviting her to become a member of Rho Phi Lambda, the professional fraternity that honors those in Recreation and Leisure Services.
Through her classes she’s had the opportunity to help organize numerous events—the Springtime Tallahassee Parade, the Tallahassee Museum Halloween Howl, the Florida State University School after-school care program, and the end-of-the-season recital at the Trousdell Gymnastics Center. She’s excelled in her work, she believes, because she finds it to be “the most rewarding job.” After putting a great deal of effort into planning an event, she says, “it’s amazing to see your hard work come together and watch people take pleasure in your efforts.”
Currently, she is in Boston completing an internship to meet her graduation requirements. She says of her future, “I don’t yet know where I will settle, but for now I’m taking advantage of city life. Special events planners take a thought and turn it into a reality. They do everything from designing and picking a theme to calling for table linens. It’s a process in which you create timelines, attain and coordinate vendors, stimulate interest in the event, and figure out the finances, while always making sure the client is happy.”