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Rollins College Conference (RCC)

October 29, 2007

I wasn’t too keen about taking a 9 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday when my Tuesday and Thursday schedule starts at 11 a.m. I can’t say the same now, that 9 a.m. class is my RCC class, a class every first year student takes, regardless whether you are a transfer student or a recent high school graduate. These are fun courses because they are not in your major and may fulfill one of the graduation requirements. There are 35 Rollins College Conference classes to choose from that range from theater to activism and from psychology to yoga and meditation.

Around half of these are Living Learning Communities (LLC) while the other half are not. What this means is that you live in the same building and for the most case the same floor as most people in your RCC class. I’m taking Culture Wars, which sets me in the Ward LLC—I have to say it’s the best way to get fully integrated into school and meeting people. I’m on the same floor as most of the people and my best friends are all in my RCC because we get to know each other well. Outside of class, we meet each Friday afternoons to relax and some weeks we might have activities in which we can earn points toward the RCC Cup.

Our beloved professors come from three different departments: Professor of History Barry Levis, Associate Professor of Art Susan Libby, an art historian herself, and Assistant Professor of Philoshophy & Religion Ryan Musgrave. At first I feared that one teacher might be the dominant one and lecture all class, but it has been the exact opposite. Each week is a different theme regarding the different aspects of culture wars and each class is taught mostly by one professor, but Friday mornings are reflective classes in which we voice our opinions in the high-tech Bush 120 classroom. This is my first experience with a course being taught by more than one professor, and I truly benefit from not having one person dictating how to think, but rather having three who bounce of ideas off one another.

Every Friday afternoon we have an activity organized by our peer mentors called Fox Fridays. In my case, we have the three best peer mentors: Rob Hoffman, Erica Tibbetts and Joe Kelly. They are upperclassmen who take the class with us during our regular schedule and do the homework along with us except that they’ve been at Rollins for a lot longer than we have. Every few weeks they check up on us and we will meet with them to just talk about what we’ve been involved ever since we set foot on campus, how are our classes going, and I’ll ask for advice.

They’ve taken us to see Equus at the Annie Russell Theatre at Rollins, prepared us for a Battle of the Brains, in which we came in second place, sang onstage with us at the Alma Mater competition, and suffered with us during blog nights every Wednesday where we submit a paper for our class.

The coveted RCC Cup is a competition between the 35 RCC classes—we earn points throughout the semester in various competitions. To earn points, we’ve taken part in dodge ball tournaments, a karaoke competition, talent show nights, Battle of the Brains, singing the Alma Mater, career services sessions and wearing Rollins gear every Fox Friday. Culture Wars is in the lead by nearly 100 points.

The perks of living near all of the students in my class are mainly that if I have a question about an assignment or want to have a group study session, I just have to walk down the hall. Because we spend so much time together and see each other nearly every day, I know the people in my RCC better than I know any other of my classmates in the other courses. My greatest fear was that I would not build as strong a network of friends as I had back home becasue I was coming to a new country with people whose ways contrast mine. It has only been a little over two months since I came to Rollins and I can’t be more grateful to have met such excellent people.

Picture: Preparing for the Alma Mater competition, we renamed our class to “Culture Peace” and sang to a folk version of the Alma Mater.

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