social innovation. The interdisciplinary degree program equips students to seek out and address societal problems in creative, systemic, and sustainable ways and prepares graduates to thrive in fields like public policy advocacy, nonprofit leadership, and community organizing. It’s a fresh example of the College’s commitment to preparing Rollins students to lead lasting change in communities in our backyard and around the world, and the latest in a long line of innovative initiatives that have placed Rollins firmly on the forefront of changemaking.
The advent of the new major prompted us to take stock of the College’s social innovation, social entrepreneurship, and community engagement credentials. From elite accreditation and exclusive designations to the superlative success of our students on the world stage, we discovered a changemaking resume that stacks up to any college in the country.
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A dozen reasons why Rollins is one of the best colleges in the country at preparing students to lead positive change in the world.
Partners in Progress
On this field study, students don’t have to move a mountain. But with the help of a Rollins graduate and an entire village, they’re helping transform one.
Groundwork for Greatness
From curating a contemporary art exhibition to organizing logistics for race day, the crop of summer 2018 internships provided Rollins students with real-world experiences that were as diverse as they were productive.
Allies in Inquiry
This past summer, students and faculty joined forces in tackling some of their fields’ toughest issues as part of Rollins’ Student-Faculty Collaborative Scholarship Program.
Fledgling Fellows
A new funded internship pilot program aimed at delivering the best in hands-on experience puts Rollins students on the front lines of tackling some of today’s most pressing issues.
Service Learning Study Abroad Undergraduate Research Conferences
Summer, Shared 2018
From life-changing international adventures and career-defining internships to National Science Foundation-funded research, Tars share their top accomplishments from summer 2018.
15 Rollins Students Selected for U.N.-backed Millennium Fellowship
The prestigious fellowship is a semester-long leadership development program that challenges students to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Rollins Announces New Social Innovation Major
This fall, the College will launch a new major in social innovation, giving Rollins students yet another way to make a difference in the world.
In Concert
A budding partnership between the Rollins music department and Full Sail is paying dividends for students from the neighboring institutions.
What It’s Like ... to Debate a Movement That’s Changing the World
Once again, the Rollins Great Debate team takes home the trophy—and after a week of listening and learning, a whole lot more.
Liberal Arts in Action
Many of our industrious students cut their winter breaks short to participate in Intersession, a weeklong course dedicated to an intriguing topic not typically covered during the regular semester.
Clinical Trials
For a decade, an intensive shadowing program at Florida Hospital has helped prepare Rollins undergrads for careers in medicine.
Better Together
Sequencing the DNA of sea stars. Exploring authenticity in religion. Examining neurons of worms to better understand them in people. These are just a few of the more than two dozen research projects that Rollins students and professors partnered on this past summer.
Study Abroad
Water Works
Science and service converge in a Rollins field study that has helped bring clean water to the Dominican Republic for more than two decades.
Course Spotlight: The Global Economy
Students explore the economic relationship between the developed world and developing countries by partnering with a local direct-trade coffee shop.
Classes
Course Spotlight: Biosphere
Students in this core environmental studies course are learning that if you want to save the world, you have to get your hands dirty.
Course Spotlight: Film as Art
Behind the scenes of the Rollins class designed to instill a wider appreciation of films by allowing students to engage with more than 50 features, shorts, and documentaries during the Florida Film Festival.
Recovering a Hidden History
Students’ award-winning website preserves stories from an African-American newspaper published more than a century ago in Winter Park.
Undergraduate Research
DeLucia Earns Goldwater Scholarship
Alyssa DeLucia ’18 has earned a Goldwater Scholarship, a prestigious award reserved for undergraduate students who intend to pursue careers in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering.
Classes
4 Reasons Why a Rollins Intersession Course is a Must-Try Winter Experience
If you only take courses during fall and spring semesters, you’re missing out.
What’s the Big Idea?
Winter Park Magazine’s Randy Noles explores the Master of Liberal Studies program at Rollins College’s Hamilton Holt School.
Classes
Course Spotlight: AfroFantastic: Black Imagination and Agency in the American Experience
A new course for first-year students culminates with an exhibition at Rollins’ Cornell Fine Arts Museum.
Real Clients, Real Rewards
Five students recently earned statewide recognition for helping local clients develop strategic communication plans.
Classes
Course Spotlight: Real World Economics
Students at Rollins are getting a head start on career success while helping local high schoolers do the same.
Service Learning
Restoration With a View
From February 27 – March 5, a group of Rollins students went on an alternative spring break Immersion to Moab, Utah, for a service learning experience of a lifetime.
Home School
For residents of Ward Hall, the successful transition to college is made easier by the art professor, former valedictorian, and outgoing toddler who live on the first floor.
Cool Class: Archaeological Field School
In a swampy, secluded section of the Charles H. Bronson State Forest—about 20 miles due east of campus—Rollins students are unearthing an ancient mystery.
Craft Commune
Rachel Simmons ’97’s printmaking studio is a hotbed of collaborative creation.
Sustainable Roots
Environmental studies professor Barry Allen has been leading field studies to Costa Rica for more than two decades, each year preparing his students to become the next leaders in conservation.
Proving Grounds
Whether it’s in the lab, on the soccer field, backstage at the theater, or atop a launch pad, internships at Rollins are hands on and up close.
What It’s Like ... to Present Research at a Professional Conference (without Leaving Campus)
Go behind the scenes of Rollins’ first-ever Latin American Studies Symposium, where college students and faculty from around the country share original research and lively discourse.
Upwardly Global
Provide clean water to people in the Caribbean. Teach English in Shanghai. Challenge your worldview in Namibia. That’s just a small sampling of the faculty-led field studies on tap for summer 2019.
Cool Class: Systems & Design Thinking for Social Change
A new social entrepreneurship course takes aim at finding lasting solutions to enduring social problems.
Rocket Man
Three straight internships at NASA have given Michael Gutensohn ’18 real-world experience that’s out of this world.