About The Svoboda Center for civic engagement
The Svoboda Center aims to foster the College’s civic leadership and responsible community engagement. It ensures that all St. Olaf students, staff, and faculty encounter abundant opportunities to discover and develop their vocations together through civically engaged courses, internships, volunteering, and research opportunities.
We ask: What can Oles do to make a positive impact in our local community?
Then we see it through, using what we’re learning in and out of the classroom to devise and implement real-world solutions.
1000+
Students took an ACE course during the 2024-25 academic year
3500
hours worked by our 50+ community-based work study students in 2024-25
50+
Community partners engage with the Svoboda Center each year
FOR STUDENTS
Start your civic journey. Learn about the many ways you can make an impact and be the change you want to see in the world.
FOR FACULTY
Get your course ready to the next level. Everything about ACE in the classroom.
Goals & Guiding Principles of the Svoboda Center
- To apply knowledge through academic civic engagement (ACE) courses and co-curricular learning experiences in collaboration with community partners to enhance learning and achieve community benefits
- To develop students’ civic leadership and organizational skills
- To encourage individual volunteerism and service
- To support scholarship, research and discussions on social impact and
community involvement issues - To foster vocational discernment by devoting personal commitments, time and resources to meaningful civic endeavors and the common good