One Rollins. One Community. One Purpose.

With the support of the SURDNA and the RNR Foundations, Rollins College launched the Office of Community Engagement during the year 2001 as a way of connecting and engaging students in service, civic engagement, and activism in both our local and global communities.

We believe that:

• Transforming learning involves all members and facets of an engaged campus and expects that experience, in tandem with reflection, will lead to a deeper understanding of communities, people, and commitment in creating positive change.

• Community is a place where people love and are loved, serve and are served, celebrate and are celebrated.

• Active citizenship and the quest for knowledge is a continuous process of involvement throughout one's lifetime. Activists were once volunteers and servant leaders didn't discover their passion in one day or through one experience.

• Engaged scholarship, experiential-learning, service-learning, student programs, and immersion opportunities ignite service, involvement, responsibility and commitment in the lives of learners.

• Leadership and service are interconnected and inseparable in creating social change.

• Community partners are an essential piece in educating students for Global Citizenship and Responsible Leadership.

• Every person needs to step up and be the change they wish to see in the global community. Every person can help, every person must try---and no person should ever give up.

Office of Community Engagement's Web of Purpose

CIRCLES OF INFLUENCE

The Office of Community Engagement works in conjunction with a Vision and Steering Team and our Community Partnerships to foster global citizenship and responsible leadership.

VISION AND STEERING TEAM

The Vision and Steering Team directs and drives the vision, values, and purpose of the Office of Community Engagement. By bringing diverse voices to the table, we are immersed in exciting ideas and possibilities for reaching all aspects of the local and global community. Rollins College students, Community Engagement Faculty Fellows, staff and community members share in the vision and direction of programs, initiatives and service-learning courses.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

Our Community Partners are collaborators in education that strengthen and transform learning in the lives of our students and community members. Community Partners allow Rollins to connect and engage in purposeful and meaningful ways in our local and global community.

Office of Community Engagement, Vision Team and Community Partnerships work toward enhancing leadership, diversity and social justice through service, activism, civic engagement and social change.

1) Service Learning and Civic Engagement: We work with Rollins faculty in creating, developing and sustaining meaningful courses that promote, enhance, and empower student participation in local and global communities through service, community-based learning and reflection. These include RCC SPARC courses and multiple engaged scholarship courses grounded in service-learning, community-based learning, civic engagement theory and practice.

2) Community Service Epicenter: We strive to connect the campus community in purposeful and meaningful ways through community service, community events and need. We do this through 1:1 dialogue with Rollins community members, Engage!Weekly Newsletter, Community Agency and Service Opportunities Search Databases. Community Partners can post opportunities and students can log their community service hours through the Office of Community Engagement.

3) Student Initiatives: We provide opportunities and environments for students in the Rollins community to create, sustain and engage in various events and activities that promote volunteerism, service and involvement. These initiatives include: JUMP, Rollins Relief, Holiday Fun Fest, Relay for Life, Halloween Howl and Fern Creek Mentoring. We support and co-advise student organizations that strive to make positive impacts in our community such as LEAD, IMPACT, and various Rollins College service organizations.

4) International Service Outreach: We provide limited financial support and resources to courses and student groups interested in creating social change as global citizens. These courses include RCC Activism 101 and Global Issues in Ecuador and Habitat for Humanity Spring immersion in Puerto Rico.