Rollins

Cool Classes


Explore America’s Coolest Classes

The Science and Culture of Chocolate. Economics of Piracy. Physics for Future Presidents. Even a cursory glance at the Rollins course catalog reveals that a top-ranked education doesn’t have to be boring. From Zombies, Killers, and Madman to Shakespeare’s A.R.S.E., Rollins’ imaginative professors are constantly dreaming up cool courses to keep their students locked in. Explore our ever-expanding collection of must-take Rollins College classes and go behind the scenes of some of the most interesting college courses you’ll find anywhere in the world.

Rollins Intersession 2024 classes

Learning by Doing

Each year between the fall and spring semesters, enterprising students return to campus a little early to participate in Intersession, a weeklong course dedicated to an interesting subject not typically offered during the regular semester.

A grid of students and professors at Rollins College

Set Up for Success

Hear from peer mentor Michelle Rodriguez ’24 in her own words about how the Rollins College Conference course—RCC for short—acts as a roadmap for your Rollins journey.

Rollins College English professor Jana Mathews engages students in class discussion.

Inside a Rollins Classroom

In small classes, big things happen. Through open discussion, hands-on learning, and close-knit mentorship from faculty who know your goals and dreams, you emerge as a confident critical thinker ready to make your mark.

The Rollins fox mascot dressed as a classic sheet ghost

Spooky Studies

From madmen to witches, we’re taking a look at some of the spookiest courses on offer at Rollins and how they’re challenging students to look beyond the surface of cultural ideas that have shaped societies for generations.

Students and professor gather in the Social Impact Hub to collaborate on a research project.

Cool Class: Data Visualization & Business Analytics

A trio of business students team up with community partners to provide key insights on the City of Winter Park.

Students in an independent study math course meet to collaborate on research.

Cool Class: Industrial Mathematics

Students in this independent study course experienced firsthand one of the many practical career applications of a math degree: working together to analyze data and find innovative solutions for real problems.

Students hold puppets during an online workshop.

Cool Class: Difficult Dialogues in Health Communication

Tough conversations are the most meaningful in this community engagement class that offers a lifetime of takeaways.

Students having a discussion in the Cornell Fine Arts Museum.

Cool Class: 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.

A child from Rollins’ Child Development Center reads the book helped write with a Rollins student.

Cool Class: Writing Books for & with Children

This honors course pairs students with preschoolers to explore the fine art of children’s literature—and the takeaways extend far beyond the creative process.

Cool Class: Sustainability Beyond the Classroom

Go inside this series of linked environmental studies courses to learn how Rollins students are exploring sustainability issues right at the source.

Joshua Almond and his students working to weatherproof the exterior of a tiny home class project.

Cool Class: Applied Design Solutions

Hammers in hand, Rollins students are exploring big concepts by building a tiny house.

A Pakistani chef shows some of the spices she uses during a cooking demonstration.

Cool Class: Food & Immigrant Cultures in Central Florida

This Intersession course taught Rollins students that just like there’s more to a recipe than a list of ingredients, there’s more to a population than statistics.

Rachel Walton and Claire Strom work with a student.

Cool Class: Researching American History

Rollins students explore the history of diversity and inclusion in education and at Rollins through the Pathways to Diversity grant.

Student carving a wooden relief project on tabletop.

Cool Class: The Art & Science of Cell Death

Inside the innovative Rollins course that fuses biology, technology, sculpture, and abstract thinking in unconventional ways.

Students turning residential lawns into organic micro-farms.

Cool Class: Strategies for Changemakers

This 300-level course is all about learning what it really takes to become, as Gandhi encouraged us to do, the change we want to see in the world.

Students sifting through dirt to search for artifacts.

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.

Professor Raja Singaram, Thais Cuachio with Deux Mains, and a group of students sitting outside at a table.

Cool Class: Systems & Design Thinking for Social Change

A new social entrepreneurship course takes aim at finding lasting solutions to enduring social problems.

A group of students dressed in business attire talking and networking.

Cool Class: Job Market Boot Camp

Graduating seniors don their best business attire and get intensive training on how to excel in the global workforce.

Students conduct an optics lab in a physics course.

Cool Class: Physics for Future Presidents

First-year students jump at the chance to become scientifically literate, learning how things work so they can understand why they’re important.

Group of students standing in front of a wall mural. Smartphone with photo of the mural.

Cool Class: Creating the Digital Future

This project-based course goes beyond learning HTML to examine how computer science, the web, and digital media are shaping our society.

Students in a seminar about globalization.

Cool Class: Globalization

First-year students eager to dive into college get a crash course in how the world works and how they can be a part of changing the narrative.

Economics professor and students at Downtown Credo, a local coffee shop and community partner.

Cool Class: The Global Economy

Students explore the economic relationship between the developed world and developing countries by partnering with a local direct-trade coffee shop.

Cool Class: 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.

A philosophy student sits with the kids they're tutoring.

Cool Class: Teaching Philosophy to Kids

In this cool college course, Rollins students are developing unconventional ways to help preschoolers learn critical-thinking skills.

The sports statistics seminar in progress.

Cool Class: Sports Analytics

Do statistics scare you to death? A Rollins course uses athletes as an avenue to understand complicated mathematical concepts.

Professor Phil Kozel with his back to the camera wearing a pirate shirt.

Cool Class: Mysteries and Marvels of Piracy

Examining the social and economic impacts of pirates throughout time—from Blackbeard to black-market bit streamers.

Brian Cohan ’16, Kendra Davies ’16, and Shiying Gu ’16 present to local and state officials.

Cool Class: Incarceration and Inequality

Rollins students examine how well our country actually guarantees equal justice under the law.

Students prepare gelatin during a chemistry experiment.

Cool Class: The Science of Sustenance

Edible experiments are making students rethink their relationship with food.

A group of students standing together dressed like zombies.

Cool Class: Zombies, Serial Killers, and Madmen

Getting inside the mind of a murderer isn’t for everyone. But for those who enjoy exploring the macabre, this philosophy class doesn’t disappoint.

A student wearing a cardboard hummingbird hat that she made in her Foundations in Sculpture course.

Cool Class: Foundations in Sculpture

Connecting with their inner spirit animals, first-year students take a creative, hands-on approach to learning the foundations of a time-honored art form.

Students explore physics concepts in The Science of Superheroes class.

Cool Class: The Science of Superheroes

From the Hulk to Spider-Man, a Rollins College class examines the powers of superheroes.

Students sitting in the bleachers at Medieval Times cheering.

Cool Class: Dungeons & Dragons

From The Hobbit to Medieval Times, a course explores the fact and fiction of the Middle Ages.

Virtual Tour: Outdoor Classroom

Find out what a Rollins classroom is really like by going behind the scenes of one of English professor Jana Mathews’ creative courses in the Orlando Hall outdoor classroom.

A Rollins professor leads a discussion in an outdoor classroom.

See for Yourself

Get a feel for Rollins’ unique brand of engaged learning and personalized attention through one of our virtual or in-person visit experiences.

Take a Closer Look

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