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The St. Olaf College Institute for Freedom and Community is launching a new center for civic engagement. Made possible by an initial $1.7 million gift from Paul Svoboda ’81, it will nurture students’ passions for public service and build their capacity to engage responsibly and ethically in their communities.

The new Svoboda Center for Civic Engagement expands St. Olaf’s Academic Civic Engagement team and adds new resources for course development, community partnerships, and project implementation. It will also include a new civic leadership and credentialing program for St. Olaf’s community-based work-study students, volunteers, and fellows. Svoboda’s gift is being matched by the Buntrock Foundation for Leadership, doubling its impact. The center launched in fall 2025 and will roll out initiatives in the years ahead.

“Oles are solution seekers who look to understand others and contribute to the flourishing of their communities,” says St. Olaf President Susan Rundell Singer. “I’m grateful for Paul Svoboda’s generosity, which creates more opportunities for civic engagement. Our students give me confidence in a bright future and, with the Svoboda gift, that future just became even brighter.”

Civic engagement, service learning, and community-based learning are high-impact educational practices that reinforce learning as well as student retention and graduation rates. Academic civic engagement courses combine classroom learning with community-based experiences to strengthen both students’ practical knowledge and communities through their work together.

“One of the highest purposes of a college education is preparing students for active participation in civic life. The public value of higher education becomes visible when our community steps away from campus and fully engages with the broader community, and when we welcome others to campus with intent, purpose, and co-created opportunities. The Svoboda Center will support this meaningful and impactful work.”

— St. Olaf President Susan Rundell Singer

Approximately 600 St. Olaf students take courses with a civic engagement component each year; 60 percent of Oles do so before graduation. Additionally, 50 students complete community-based work-study in Northfield and surrounding communities each year. Many other students volunteer in local programs. Creating a dedicated hub for this work at St. Olaf will provide Oles with consistent civic networks to gain practical experience in coalition building, public service, and the community-based issues that form public discourse and response. Community partners will gain stronger connections and engagement.

“In a society where politics is more divisive than ever, the Svoboda Center for Civic Engagement will provide students with critical opportunities to take part in public life and service and understand how the issues we explore arise from those of our broader community,” says Chris Chapp, the Morrison Family Director of the Institute for Freedom and Community.

A tax and corporate lawyer by trade, Svoboda has supported several philanthropic and community projects through pro bono work, board service, and other roles. At St. Olaf, he initiated the Svoboda Legal Scholars program that similarly provides Oles with experiential learning opportunities each summer. Svoboda Legal Scholars conduct intensive legal research and support public interest law clinics at five law schools across the Upper Midwest, serving marginalized communities.

“Community involvement and civic engagement have always been encouraged and valued in my family,” Svoboda says. “Knowing many Oles share these interests, I hope the new center and its programs will promote and support students’ current and long-term civic involvement in whatever ways they may choose.”

The Svoboda Center for Civic Engagement is a key part of St. Olaf’s new strategic plan that outlines how the college will integrate opportunities for vocational discernment, civic preparedness, and civic engagement with curricular programs to ready students as people of character to lead meaningful lives as contributing citizens of the world.

“One of the highest purposes of a college education is preparing students for active participation in civic life,” says Rundell Singer. “The public value of higher education becomes visible when our community steps away from campus and fully engages with the broader community, and when we welcome others to campus with intent, purpose, and co-created opportunities. The Svoboda Center will support this meaningful and impactful work.”