Storytelling as Leadership at Rollins College

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. The alma mater of Fred Rogers features stunning architecture, lake access, and maybe most importantly, a spirit of giving back to the community. In fact, the attributes of the Rollins community ended up drawing in someone who never intended to become a college president: Dr. Brooke Barnett.

When a friend encouraged Barnett to apply for the role, she was initially skeptical as she never sought a presidency. However, the Rollins community quickly convinced her otherwise. She discovered a campus built on several differentiating factors: a business model that funds scholarships through a boutique hotel and art museum, a firm commitment to the liberal arts, and a community whose traditions run generations deep.

In a recent conversation, President Barnett explored themes she believes are critical for the continued survival of higher ed: the importance of storytelling for community building; the relevance of the liberal arts; and how a college's business model should reinforce its educational mission.

The Winter Park Innovation Triangle: A Business Model Inside the Community

Rollins' most distinctive asset may be the Alfond Inn, a hotel owned outright by the college. As Barnett describes it, the inn is “owned by the college and all net profits from the inn, spa, café, and restaurant altogether go to student scholarships. It's an incredible business model."

However, the inn is just one piece of the model. "We've created an innovation triangle taking the inn as one piece and then two pieces right across the street," Barnett explains. The Rollins Art Museum will soon move into downtown Winter Park, joining the Rick Goings Institute, which provides high-level executive education. The vision is a single, connected experience: "People will stay at the inn, they'll go to the museum, they'll be in these sessions, they'll be in dinner and conversation in Park Avenue and Winter Park."

This innovation triangle hasn’t always existed, though. Barnett and her team assessed the strength of the college’s assets to create a larger vision of how the college could expand into the community and deliver value in the areas they already do best: educating and bringing people together.

Liberal Arts’ PR Problem in the Age of AI

While Barnett is quick to point to the value higher education provides, she’s also direct about where she thinks the liberal arts have struggled to make their case. "I like to talk about the liberal arts broadly because I think the liberal arts have a PR problem and not an evidence problem," she says, noting that placement rates for liberal arts graduates at Rollins and elsewhere are strong even when the narrative around them isn't.

She connects that argument directly to the pace of technological change. "The enduring value of what we offer in the liberal arts, with intellectual flexibility, the ability to think deeply, shift frameworks, tackle problems that don't come with a manual," she says, is "not a luxury. It's the preparation that students need to grapple with a complex world that's getting even more complex." This is especially true as students encounter AI and rapid advancement all around them. "The liberal arts is not a relic. It is future-proofing in a moment of renaissance, in a moment of AI."

In her mind, the liberal arts exist to engage with AI, ask the right questions, and provide valuable human oversight. However, this does not mean letting AI completely take over. "If we move into a world of cognitively offloading certain skills in an educational environment, we need to make sure that those skills are known and learned before they're cognitively offloaded."

Leading Through Story

Barnett came to higher education with a background in media and journalism, providing her with a unique perspective on how institutions can tell a stronger story. "There is real power in specific stories and stories that aren't examples," she says. "We tend to think of story as example, but to truly tell it as a story." Her advice to peers, especially new presidents on a listening tour, is simple: "Figure out what are those special things about your community and tell them in a story." Identifying those key stories that embody an institution allows presidents to "turn those [stories] into a way to animate your aspirations, your future, your current, and what is special about the place."

She points to a Rollins tradition as an example of a story that has outlasted the person who started it. "Thad Seymour was another one of our presidents who used to walk around with silver dollars and hand them out to students when they were doing good things because he knew character was an important part of education," Barnett says. Now, Rollins hosts an annual kindness day rooted in the tradition of President Seymour and his wife.

Knowing Your Students, Preparing Them for a Purposeful Life

For Barnett, the differentiator that no amount of marketing can manufacture is a felt sense of community. "To know us is to love us," she says of Rollins. "I think our community is palpable. It takes very little time to walk across campus and feel what I think feels great about Rollins." That extends to her own relationship with students: "When I walk across campus, I am so proud of our students. I'm proud that I know them. I'm proud they feel comfortable enough to come up and talk to me and ask about things and to send me things."

That closeness feeds directly into how she describes the purpose of a Rollins education. "We also take very seriously that we want to prepare students for a good life," she says. "Part of a good life is a good career. We don't shy away from that... but part of it is an appreciation for the finer things of life, art and culture and dance and literature and all media, all of it. We want you to be an engaged citizen participating in your community, enjoying your life, able to support yourself with a career that matters and is meaningful. And to take seriously that notion of service and purpose."

For Barnett, this isn’t just theoretical. She leans into the ethos of alum Fred Rogers to promote kindness, dignity, and service in how the college operates and the stories it tells.