Immersive Learning: RST Faculty Guide Students Out of the Classroom and into the Real World
By JONATHAN KING
Renata Endres is taking her belief in an applied teaching approach on the road—on Route 66, to be precise.
“I believe the most effective way to bridge the gap between the classroom and industry application is to experience concepts firsthand outside the classroom,” said Endres, teaching assistant professor of Recreation, Sport and Tourism who teaches RST 185: Get Your Kicks on Route 66.
That is why Endres and fellow RST faculty members design and lead innovative educational practicums that immerse students in experiential learning environments.
These courses have become very popular among students, but RST faculty continue to pioneer new trails out of the classroom to foster rich educational experiences.
One example is Endres’ new Route 66 course, co-designed with Mike Raycraft, an RST clinical associate professor. In this course, students visit sites along the historic Route 66 corridor to deepen their understanding of heritage tourism; agritourism; and recreation, sport and tourism management.
“Whether pursuing careers in these fields or something entirely different, the range of firsthand experience illustrates how the development of technical skills we learn in the classroom must be coupled with soft skills to achieve professional success,” Endres said.
Agrotourism is something of a specialty for Endres, who helps students apply classroom knowledge to real-world challenges, such as how fluctuating crop prices may prompt farmers to adopt agritourism to diversify revenue. She additionally takes her expertise into RST 290: Experiencing Agritourism with RST faculty members Laura Payne and Nick Pitas, as well as RST 199: Recreation, Sport and Tourism Economics in Croatia.
“My most memorable part of the Route 66 experience was being able to travel along the mother road with friends, classmates, co-workers and some of my favorite professors in RST,” said Riley Joyce, a student in Endres’ course. “It was really beneficial to see how Route 66 has impacted both Illinois and St. Louis over the years in both tourism and agrotourism worlds.”
Assistant Professor Sharon Zou is another RST faculty member whose educational innovations are bridging the gap between the classroom and the real world. Zou co-teaches an innovative community-based learning course, Place Making and Rural Tourism in China, in tandem with Wei (Windy) Zhao from the School of Architecture and Molly Briggs from the School of Art and Design. The course is supported by the university’s Transdisciplinary Global South Community-Based Learning Program Development Grant to facilitate interdisciplinary global service learning for Illinois students.
For this new interdisciplinary course, Zou and RST students joined architecture students and art and design students for a learning opportunity in rural China. In February 2025, students and faculty traveled to Xihu Village in Jiangxi Province, China, to co-design a locally rooted, sustainable tourism development plan for the people of Xihu who wanted support to strategically plan and develop a place-making and tourism initiative.
For the course, students benefited from immersion in local culture. They visited an ancestral celebration during Lunar New Year, took a scenic hike on the historical Hui Merchant Route for tea trading, toured a tea factory, visited the historical village of Chengkan, listened to a talk by an architect specialized in rural tourism development, met with a village head and representative from local rural revitalization company and took a tour to see the company’s current efforts in tourism infrastructure development.
To develop their tourism model, students met with community stakeholders to conduct asset mapping and a market analysis of the community. They asked questions such as: What do you want for your village? What are the local sources of historical and cultural pride? How can we help you preserve your cultural pride while developing a sustainable tourism plan? What infrastructure is there to support tourists? What form of economic distribution will benefit community well-being?
That feedback will help students co-design a sustainable tourism development plan for the village. RST students gained knowledge of how rural communities can leverage tourism to achieve economic, socio-cultural and environmental sustainability. Students worked directly with local stakeholders and gained valuable skills in asset mapping, competitor analysis, market analysis, community visioning, tourist experience development and destination branding.
Additionally, architecture students worked on design proposals that challenged common “revitalization” methods, and art and design students developed wayfinding plans and memory-making designs to include cultural, historical and phenomenological village features.
“We wanted to understand the desires of the community to help them design a sustainable tourism model that showcases the cultural pride and natural beauty of their village while also contributing to the community’s well-being,” Zou said. This project emphasizes an equitable partnership to provide firsthand, practical, interdisciplinary education for Illinois students and simultaneously facilitate a locally rooted vision that will preserve and share the village’s heritage.
“Our RST out-of-the-classroom experience is different from your typical study abroad program,” Zou said. “We’re going to put you to work, and ideally, it will be a transformative experience that students can leverage for their professional careers and social competencies.”
When Zou isn’t teaching hands-on learning in rural China, she also works with Richard Proffer from Illinois Extension and RST students to develop a sustainable tourism plan for Elmwood, Illinois, a town that is known for being the artistic origin of the famous Illinois alma mater sculpture. Beyond these two tourism practicums, Zou studies recreation and tourism consumer insights to inform sustainable funding models for public land and parks in the U.S., with a particular focus on national parks such as Indiana Dunes National Park and the greater Yellowstone ecosystem which includes private, state and federal lands.
RST experiential learning trips go beyond academics: they teach students independence, adaptability, resilience, confidence and cultural awareness. While navigating a new environment, students will learn to coexist with diverse groups, develop strong communication skills and gain invaluable social and intercultural competencies.
“Prospective students should join one of these experiential courses to gain practical, hands-on knowledge and build valuable industry connections,” Endres said. “Networking with experts in the field provides a competitive edge in their career development. And socially, these classes provide students an opportunity for a shared bonding experience that can’t be duplicated in the classroom.”