Beyond the Classroom

At Rollins, you’ll make an impact around the globe. From Australia to Argentina and virtually everywhere in-between, Rollins offers more than 90 international programs throughout the year. Whether you want to study entrepreneurship in France or community development in Tanzania, you’ll explore the world and test your ability to make it brighter.

Interviewing a local researcher about reforestation amid a lush Costa Rican rainforest trumps sitting through a lecture on the topic any day. Our faculty-led field studies, which range from one to three weeks, take you right to the source of the 21st century’s toughest challenges, teaching values, nuance, and complexity in a way not possible through a textbook.

From addressing access to safe drinking water in the Dominican Republic to helping preserve one of America’s most dramatic landscapes, Rollins’ Immersion experiences allow students to engage some of the world’s most pressing issues through weekend and sometimes weeklong journeys of education, reflection, and action. These transformative trips have become bucket-list experiences for Tars, which is a big reason why the College has ranked No. 1 nationally for the highest percentage of students who participate in alternative breaks for four of the past six years.

Looking to channel your passion for social change into solution-oriented action? Head to the Social Impact Hub in Kathleen W. Rollins Hall. This on-campus incubator for changemaking provides Rollins students, faculty, and staff with tools and resources to address local and global social issues with big, innovative, system-changing solutions.

During her first year at Rollins, studio art major Meredith Ewen ’19 developed an immersive art program for an Orlando nonprofit that serves children and adults with special needs. A year later, computer science major Sam Sadeh ’18 founded an after-school coding program for students in local Title I schools that earned funding from Google. Both Ewen and Sadeh learned how to lead powerful change in their community through Rollins’ Bonner Leaders Program, a four-year community service opportunity administered through the Center for Leadership & Community Engagement to students passionate about volunteering.

In 2018, Rollins was selected as one of just 30 colleges worldwide to host the global pilot program of the Millennium Fellows, a prestigious leadership development program that empowers students to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on campus and in their communities. Ever since, teams of entrepreneurial Tars have created projects to tackle everything from hunger to inequality.

Over the years, Rollins’ student-run Sustainability Program has spearheaded everything from the College’s Fair Trade-campus designation and bike-share program to an urban farm that supplies fresh, organic produce to campus dining services.