The first question I get asked when I tell people I am from Venezuela is, “Why did you pick Rollins?” In my mind I’m thinking why not? Truthfully, Rollins is a place where you can take advantage of all of its resources it has to offer. There is so much flexibility in a liberal arts curriculum that it can be easy to get lost, but somehow during your sophomore year it becomes clearer what you enjoy studying and that eventually becomes your major. The flexibility I’m talking about is in the course load and extra-curricular activities, there is so much to get involved in that it is typical for a first-year student to get over-involved.
A couple weeks ago, the exec board of the Residence Hall Association attended Mini-FARH, the smaller conference of the Florida Association of Residence Halls hosted in Boca Raton, FL. The five of us on exec went down for the one-day conference it was interesting to see how proud people are about community building in the residence halls. Each school had their own RHA shirts and everyone kept commenting on ours because they were fascinated by it. On the front side it said “Welcome to the Neighborhood” and on the back there was a picture of Mr. Rogers, a noted Rollins alumni class of 1951, with the logo of the Rollins College Residence Hall Association. In the picture is Ellen King, the president for RHA.
One of the advantages of being a Peer Mentor for one of the RCC classes during the fall is that you get to meet great first-year students that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise. The Rollins College Conference (RCC) is a course specially designed for first-year students of the college and they are usually topics courses ranging anywhere from Culture Wars, to Harry Potter, to Election ’08. The professors for the class serves as your academic advisor until you declare a major and decide to change. Taking the class with you are two to three upperclassmen who serve as your peer mentor, they’re there to help you out during your first semester. I am a peer mentor for Associate Professor of Political Science Mike Gunter’s Environmental Political Activism class, and the students in it are all amazing. To be honest I was scared at first because you never know what to expect. I have gotten to know most of them really well and they’re just a good group of students. It’s a relief to know that since we’re going to be spending 10 days in a secluded island of the Bahamas with a population of 4,000.
There is one class I wake up every day excited about and that is Arabic 101 with Noelle Rumman. I have wanted to learn for so long how to speak, write, and read classical Arabic and I finally have the opportunity. The professor is originally from Syria and it is interesting to hear how she speaks, then watch videos from our program and see Egyptian speakers and Gulf speakers and how their accents vary differently from country to country.
My mom’s side of the family is from Morocco while my dad’s is Syrian. But my dad’s immediate family is in Venezuela while my mom’s is in Morocco. Growing up we would go to Morocco every other summer so I picked up the Moroccan dialect of Arabic, now that I actually take classes I realize how much of a distant dialect it is. Next Friday the class is taking a trip to downtown Orlando for dinner at Cedar’s, a Lebanese restaurant and the catch is that we all have to make our orders in Arabic.
Now you see why when I get asked why Rollins I think inside why not? Everything I’ve written thus far does not even account for a quarter of what I do on campus but these are just the highlights and to take advantage of what your school has to offer is the true liberal arts experience.
The video below is of my parents and my little cousin Mo'ad from Morocco. They're playing paper, scissors, rock and later on they teach how to count from one to five in Spanish. Currently, fellow R-Journalist Shannon Brown is studying abroad in Spain but next semester she'll be in Rabat, Morocco, where this video was filmed.
In his second year as an R-Journalist, Omar has enjoyed exposing the life of a student at Rollins College. As an Economics and International Relations double major, he has combined his passion for global affairs and economic policy. On campus he is involved on the exec board of the JUMP committee, vice-president of the International Student Organization, and founding co-president of Rollins Model United Nations.
Omar is the first international Cornell Scholar and as such has helped bring a different perspective on campus, that of a Muslim follower born and raised in Venezuela. His diverse background has helped him gain a more empathetic view of the world.
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A couple weeks ago, the exec board of the Residence Hall Association attended Mini-FARH, the smaller conference of the 