When he was in the first grade, Michael Baldino wanted to be a doctor. By fourth grade, he wanted to be a marine biologist. Then he aspired to be a park ranger and an environmental engineer. Now, he finds himself as a graduate assistant of Adventure Recreation at Cleveland State University and studying special needs education.
During his freshman year at Rutgers University, Baldino tried to get involved at the large university. A friend of his had a brother who worked for a student volunteer-based campus recreation event staff group. It was the group’s responsibility to plan special events for the entire university.
Baldino and his friend helped the student staff set up for Special Friends Day, an event that brought in 100 children with special needs and partnered them up with students for a day. “From that night, I joined that group, ended up being an e-board member of that group and then, my senior year, we tried to rebrand and revamp the group because we were losing funding for it,” said Baldino. That year, he also became a student trip facilitator and manager of the rock wall.
“I had this epiphany moment my senior year that I was spending the majority of my time working for campus rec, mostly in a volunteer position between the student group and the outdoor position. I never even thought of it as being work or being a chore,” explained Baldino. “So I had this epiphany that this is what I want to do, this is my passion.”
The fall semester of his senior year at Rutgers University, Baldino was offered a full-time professional staff position in their outdoor recreation program. Upon graduating, he took the job. Baldino held the position for a year before deciding to pursue a master’s degree at Cleveland State University, where he works as a graduate assistant of Adventure Recreation.
“Coming back to school after taking a year off, I had to re-learn how to do the academic side of things. At the same time, having that year of working a full-time job, Monday through Friday, working the 40 hours a week, kind of got me in that routine of managing your time,” said Baldino.
But he didn’t want to “pigeon-hole” himself in a campus recreation position, though he admits he would be content working in campus recreation after his graduate program.
After his two-year program is over, Baldino hopes to travel the country and explore various outdoor jobs. His dream career, however, would be to work in outdoor recreation therapy for kids with special needs.
Baldino admits he would not be able to combine his two passions without taking the initial interest in campus recreation as a freshman. “I think coming from a school that didn’t have graduate assistants and now being at a school that has them in most areas of the building, one thing that’s huge is you really provide an opportunity for those grad students to be better prepared to become full-time staff members. Especially in the higher education world, making the jump,” said Baldino. “I did it at Rutgers last year… It’s tough to separate yourself and truly be a supervisor.”
And though he’s already had one year of professional staff experience in the realm of campus recreation, Baldino said he is continuously learning from the staff at Cleveland State, who also treat him as a professional staff member.
