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On the other side of RCC

September 21, 2008

It is weird to return to Rollins as a sophomore and be a part of the whole Rollins College Conference (RCC) program all over again. This time it will not be my first time in college nor while I have three professors team teaching a course that raised more questions than I could write answers. Instead, I am part of a three peer mentor team for Associate Professor of Political Science Mike Gunter’s Environmental Political Activism RCC course.

What is great about our team is that we all applied to be peer mentors for the Environmental Political Activism class only, meaning that neither three of us would be peer mentoring had we not been placed with Professor Gunter. Our role in the class is to help freshmen make the transition from high school to college life, by taking the course alongside them and planning fun events on Fridays to get to know each other better as a group. For most students on campus, the best friends they will make at Rollins they probably met in their RCC course freshman year.

At the conclusion of our semester in December, we will travel as a class to Abaco Island in the Bahamas for some environmental restoration and meeting with NGO’s and government officials as a field study component to our course. This addition will help us make the connection between what we learn in class and put it to practice in an on-site experience, linking the liberal arts education with a pragmatic component.

Aside from peer mentoring, this first month of school has been quite a long one. With new student orientation week slashed in half because of Tropical Storm Fay and the intense heat that ensued, lots of us are already counting the days until fall break. Lots of the student organizations I am involved with have been in the planning stages for the past couple of weeks. After attending a few retreats to map out our goals and projects for the school year in the Student Government Association, JUMP (Community Service), and the Residence Hall Association it seems like we’re getting a better picture of what our roles are within the organization and our roles in the several projects we are working on throughout the year.

I am most excited about working for the Office of Admissions and the first large event of the year was Discover Rollins this past Saturday. I participated in a student panel and gave a tour to interested high school students for the class of 2013. We had nearly 500 people in attendance for this event and to quote what President Duncan told us tour guides that morning, “it seems that with every incoming class they get more excited to get involved.” He said this right after Madeline Obler, in charge of the Rollins Diplomts, had said that we had a large group of freshman tour guides in training.

What I remembered the most from this weekend was when we were in a classroom during my tour and a mother of a high school senior asked me, “How do you find a balance between being challenged and stressed out at Rollins?” I honored her question by responding that it is a matter of personal choice. You choose whether to be involved or over-involved, taking classes or having a credit overload, and ultimately a balance between classes, commitments, me-time, and social life will help you maximize your four-year experience at Rollins.

Photo: Iron chef competition between Peer Mentor groups. We had a pacific "Ring of Fire" themed dinner which ended up winning us the overall winner of the evening's competition.

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