President Barnett Talks Leadership on B Student Podcast

Rollins College President Brooke Barnett recently joined Betsy Gardner, president and CEO of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, on The B Student Podcast to discuss an array of topics, ranging from leveraging storytelling in leadership to the importance of authenticity. Here are three of the many takeaways from their discussion:

Why Rollins’ location is so ideal for college students

“You walk right off our campus, and you’re in the most charming place of Winter Park, which is a sophisticated and culturally rich environment that is just a block [from Rollins] and then Central Florida and all the assets of Central Florida. Many tremendous liberal arts colleges are in pretty remote areas where there isn’t as much going on. Students can’t do internships during the semester because there just aren’t those opportunities. For our students, they do have those opportunities. So I think it is just this perfect nesting of residential, beautiful campus, charming Winter Park, and all of the assets of the broader Central Florida region, including Orlando.”

The value of a liberal arts education in the age of AI

“I’m not a Pollyanna about the reality of the world of work. I just also think that we have really great evidence that the liberal arts in particular is the thing that will move us [forward]. Where we see a lot of people’s jobs being eviscerated—[the jobs] are very narrow and technical and trying to meet a moment rather than meet the future. I would argue that the skills of the liberal arts are what help you transfer knowledge to meet the future.”

“The people who are saying they don’t want to hire a new cohort of young people—I don’t think they’re looking at the young people that I’ve seen. I’m excited about the future when I spend time with our students. I think the future is quite bright.”

The importance of staying connected to the people you serve

“The further you get from the people you ultimately serve and the mission, the harder it is to do the work. And so every week, if not every day, I manufacture interactions with students and interactions with faculty and staff, because we want to be a relationship-rich, seamless, incredible experience for our students, and we want to be a great place to work. And the further I get from either one of those, I can’t quite channel that as I make decisions.”