22 Reasons to Give on Giving Day 2022

Provide immediate financial support. Strengthen the offerings from key campus programs. Unlock an extra $200,000-plus in essential funding for our students. When you make a gift to the College on February 22—Giving Day 2022—you support The Rollins Annual Fund, which empowers Rollins to support all of the things that make us unique—from exceptional faculty mentors and immersive hands-on learning to championship athletics and a campus that inspires creativity, community, and collaboration.

There are endless examples of how you will make a difference in the lives of our students and in the communities they touch by giving on Giving Day 2022. Here are 22 of our favorites.

1. You’ll amplify your gift’s impact. When you make a gift on Giving Day 2022, you’ll help unlock more than $200,000 in challenge gifts for The Rollins Annual Fund and help the College reach its goal of 1,000 donors. From financial aid and scholarships to the area of greatest need, you can choose to support the impact areas that mean the most to you. Join us on February 22 and make your gift go further.

Special thanks to Sandee Hill Smith ’73 ’74MBA, Susan Porcaro ’78 and Rick ’12H Goings, Ron Raccuia and ADPRO Sports, and Jeremy Lang ’68 and Lynn Stern for providing the Giving Day challenges.

2. You’ll provide students like Raul Tavarez Ramirez ’21 the freedom to find his purpose. The international relations major just landed a job coordinating trade efforts between the Dominican Republic and the European Union, a role he says perfectly matches the unique skill set in quantitative analysis and global markets that he developed at Rollins.

3. You’ll empower students like Sydney Brown ’21 to fully immerse themselves in all Rollins has to offer. From studying abroad in Namibia to interning at the Rollins Museum of Art, she grabbed every opportunity to create a meaningful life and productive career. The political science major is now serving as an account manager at Avvo, a company that connects people to legal resources and provides guidance on legal issues.

4. You’ll give students like Madhavi Mooljee ’21 the opportunity to make a career out of service. The communication major benefited greatly from the scholarships she received at Rollins, which allowed her to explore her interests and cultivate close relationships with faculty as she discovered how entrepreneurs can make a real difference in people’s lives. She was recently awarded a fellowship at Venture for America, where she’ll hone her entrepreneurial focus at one of the country’s top startups.

5. You’ll help increase the value and prestige of a Rollins degree. Alumni participation is a critical component of college rankings like U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of the nation’s best colleges and Forbes’ recognition of the No. 1 MBA in Florida. As a result, your gift on Giving Day 2022 not only supports current and future Tars, but it also enhances the prestige of your Rollins education. Want to say you earned your degree from the South’s top college or Florida’s No. 1 MBA? Join us on Giving Day 2022.

6. You’ll make it possible for students like Logo Olagoke ’23, an international student from Nigeria, to continue their education at Rollins in the face of adversity. Because of challenges presented by the pandemic, Olagoke nearly lost the opportunity to get a Rollins education. Enter area-of-greatest-need funds from The Rollins Annual Fund, and the computer science major was able to return to Rollins and go on to earn a software engineering internship at Amazon.

7. You’ll help student-athletes like Tyler Colson ’20 ’21MBA shine both on and off the field. The shortstop for the men’s varsity baseball team honed critical leadership skills while playing for the Tars while simultaneously excelling in the classroom as a business management major in the 3/2 Accelerated Management Program. The dual grad now works as the manager of Capital Markets at Marriott Vacations Worldwide providing financial and security analysis.

8. You’ll support students like Morgan Snoap ’20 as they define their career goals. The art history major had the opportunity to curate her own original exhibition of African art and textiles at the Rollins Museum of Art and is now pursuing her PhD in African art history at Boston University.

9. You’ll enable students like Zoe Milburn ’22 and Ellie Minette ’22 to uncover ancient secrets just miles from campus. The anthropology majors teamed up with anthropology professor Zack Gilmore for the past three years to catalog thousands of pre-Columbian items as part of an ambitious research project. It was the perfect hands-on preparation for the aspiring grad students who plan to study forensic anthropology and public archaeology education and outreach.

10. You’ll give students like Caroline Rosendahl ’19 ’21MBA the opportunity to find immediate success after graduation. At Crummer, the dual grad focused on sustainable enterprise development and operations while honing skills in topic modeling. She’s now a senior supply chain analyst at Darden Restaurants focused on integrated sourcing and analytics.

11. You’ll help studio art majors like Melissa Rodriguez ’21 curate a professional-level gallery show at the Rollins Museum of Art. The Senior Art Exhibition gave Rodriguez an outlet for exploring Latinx representation in film, television, and advertising while honing critical skills in curating, marketing, and logistics. She’s now working as a creative associate for Humankind Zine, which is dedicated to the exploration and celebration of what it means to be human through different mediums of art.

12. You’ll help pave the way for nontraditional students like Barbara Valdez ’21 to advance their career. At Rollins’ Hamilton Holt School, Valdez found the perfect blend of programming, personalization, and guidance as she worked toward fulfilling her longtime dream of earning a bachelor’s degree. Soon after graduating, she advanced from a manager-level position at Syneos Health to director of human resources at Kolter Solutions, a leading IT services firm.

13. You’ll empower entrepreneurs like Colin Kelly ’19 ’21MBA to fuse interests in science, technology, and business. When the marine biology major and Crummer graduate launched a startup before graduation, he was just getting started. He’s currently working with his mentor Sergie Albino ’10MBA as a technology analyst at ecoSPEARS, where he’s gaining unparalleled experience in social and environmental sustainability.

14. You’ll make it possible for students like Artis Gunn ’22 to learn by doing. In the spring of last year, Rollins faculty, staff, and students engaged in real-world research to uncover untold stories from the Great Migration for an original art installation coming to campus later this month. Created by famed British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare, the final artwork will feature a collection of 600 hardcover books bearing the name of a poet, philosopher, or historian with personal or ancestral ties to the 20th-century Great Migration.

15. You’ll help your favorite athletic team score big. With your gift on Giving Day 2022, you’ll help the team that means the most to you raise additional dollars to support everything from new equipment to traveling for competitions. This means attracting talented recruits, helping our student-athletes become stronger and better, and creating opportunities for cultural experiences.

16. You’ll empower students like Henri Balla ’22 to give back. The physics major has served Rollins as an ambassador with the Office of Admission and as a mentor for first-year international students who are acclimating to living and learning at Rollins. Through the X Club Fraternity, he has fundraised and participated in education outreach for the Tourette Association of America and Pet Rescue by Judy.

17. You’ll champion educators like Taylor Montoya ’21 as they fulfill their dream of becoming a classroom teacher. Through the Pathways to Teaching program, a unique partnership between Rollins’ Hamilton Holt School and Orange County Public Schools that creates a pipeline of licensed teachers, the former paraprofessional is now a full-time educator at Azalea Park Elementary School.

18. You’ll help ensure that Rollins continues to rank among the nation’s best in blending academic and athletic excellence. For the 11th consecutive year, the College has earned the NCAA Division II Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence, which honors schools where student-athletes achieve an academic success rate of 90 percent or higher. Rollins’ 96 percent academic success rate was the highest in the Sunshine State Conference and the sixth highest in the nation.

19. You’ll give business professionals like Paula Hopkins ’93 ’97MBA ’18DBA the opportunity to advance to the top of their fields. After receiving her bachelor’s and MBA from Rollins, Hopkins returned to Crummer to fulfill her lifelong personal dream of earning her doctoral degree, a credential she leveraged to earn a leadership role as senior sales director of strategy for PepsiCo.

20. You’ll make it possible for the Rollins Museum of Art to showcase important traveling exhibitions like this season’s From Chaos to Order: Greek Geometric Art from the Sol Rabin Collection. This kind of support helps the museum fulfill its mission as a teaching museum that uses art to encourage critical and creative thinking along with aesthetic enjoyment.

21. You’ll give first-generation college students like Carley Matthews ’22 the platform and resources to fight for social justice. Because of the financial aid she’s received at Rollins, she’s been able to hurl herself into the Rollins experience—from serving as an EMBARK leader and Immersion facilitator to interning at the United Nations and receiving an offer to join the OnePulse Foundation after graduation doing outreach to the LGBTQ+ community.

22. You’ll support Hamilton Holt School students like Hannah Munford ’21 as they become advocates for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through her involvement in everything from the Black Student Union and Student Government Association to the Pre-Law Society and the Off-Campus Student Association, the communication major helped make Rollins a more inclusive place for her peers.