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It’s been one year since St. Olaf College launched the Svoboda Center for Civic Engagement.

Yet as Northfield Public Schools Superintendent Tim Anderson ’97 stood before the scores of community members who gathered for a daylong celebration of the center’s work, he noted that civic engagement is not a new idea for St. Olaf.

“It’s one of the oldest ideas that this place has,” he said.

What is new, he noted, is that the generous gift that Paul Svoboda ’81 provided to establish the center gave the work “a front door and a name.”

The Svoboda Center for Civic Engagement nurtures students’ passion for public service and builds their capacity to engage in their communities through Academic Civic Engagement (ACE) courses, internships, volunteering, and research opportunities. More than 1,000 students take an ACE course each year, and the center works with more than 50 local organizations to connect St. Olaf students with opportunities to learn and serve. Over the last year, the Svoboda Center has expanded the number of students involved in St. Olaf’s community-based work-study program and student service organizations. 

“The high-level purpose of higher education has always been to prepare civic contributors. We talk all the time about life on purpose for the common good, and we prepare Oles to make a difference in the world. Thanks to Paul, we are giving our students a chance to build that muscle. We are so grateful.”

— President Susan Rundell Singer

Anderson noted that he wished the Svoboda Center had existed during his time at St. Olaf. In the decades he has spent working in public education since graduating from St. Olaf, he has realized the importance of preparing students to be critical thinkers who are curious and ready to engage in our society.

“Good work radiates to others. You almost never get to see how far, and yet it goes anyway,” Anderson told those gathered for his talk in Boe Memorial Chapel.

He noted that like many St. Olaf students and faculty members, he had only met the founder of the Svoboda Center for the first time that morning. “And that’s the point. He built something for people he will likely never meet, and that’s what common wealth is,” Anderson said. “Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase ‘Oles Can. Oles Will.’ That’s not simply a slogan from a bookstore mug. It is what this place produces, generation after generation: People who don’t wait for permission to be useful.”

As the day’s celebration moved to the Tomson Hall atrium adjacent to the Svoboda Center, St. Olaf Professor of Political Science Chris Chapp, who serves as the Morrison Family Director of the Buntrock Institute for Freedom and Community, echoed that sentiment.

“Making a difference is baked into the DNA of St. Olaf College,” Chapp said. “Our mission calls for us to be a globally engaged community. Our strategic plan affirms that St. Olaf students are solution seekers and calls for an expansion of civic preparedness and engagement. And our history points to countless examples of St. Olaf students working tirelessly to contribute to their community. Now the Svoboda Center exists to institutionalize and energize this spirit of community, engagement, and service.”

Svoboda’s gift to launch the center was matched by the Dean L. and Rosemarie Buntrock Foundation, doubling its impact. The Svoboda Center is part of the Buntrock Institute for Freedom and Community, which was founded at St. Olaf in 2014 as a space to encourage inquiry and debate on important political and social issues. Chapp said he’s seen firsthand the impact of the center’s work.

“The Svoboda Center is helping our students develop a community mindset and lifelong civic habits, and the ripple effects of these efforts are having an immediate impact in our community,” he said. “Paul, we are so grateful for your vision and generosity.

President Susan Rundell Singer shared that when she first spoke with Svoboda shortly after joining St. Olaf, she was struck by his passion for civic engagement and his commitment to ensuring the college had the resources to support it more fully. 

“The high-level purpose of higher education has always been to prepare civic contributors. We talk all the time about life on purpose for the common good, and we prepare Oles to make a difference in the world,” she told those gathered for the celebration. But, she noted, that work is a muscle that needs to be developed at a young age. “Thanks to Paul, we are giving our students a chance to build that muscle. We are so grateful.”

Svoboda said while he was honored and pleased to help celebrate civic engagement at St. Olaf, he wanted the spotlight to remain on the faculty, staff, and students who bring the work to life.

“In a world where so much changes so quickly and things come and go, civic engagement is one of those constants that never go out of style. It’s a worthwhile endeavor,” he said. “There are many pathways that people can take to make a contribution. It’s up to this center to foster and nurture that.”

“In a world where so much changes so quickly and things come and go, civic engagement is one of those constants that never go out of style. It’s a worthwhile endeavor. There are many pathways that people can take to make a contribution. It’s up to this center to foster and nurture that.”

— Paul Svoboda ’81

Alyssa Melby, the inaugural director of the Svoboda Center, noted that many people, past and present, make the work of the center possible. “To the many faculty who care deeply about connecting their students with the world beyond the Hill, to students who make service a core part of their time at St. Olaf, to our community partners who make it possible for our students to build their civic skills in such meaningful ways — I say the deepest thank you,” she said. “You have lived into the mission of this place in ways that haven’t always been recognized until now: you are bearers of our collective vocation as neighbors in this place. Thank you for showing up for our community. Thank you for making a difference.”

Anderson told the students who gathered for his talk that he wanted them to take something important away from the day’s events: “You are a part of something bigger than yourself. And that’s not meant to be a comfort. It’s an assignment. I’m an educator, after all,” he said. “Somebody pooled what they did not have individually so this Hill could exist. Somebody you’ve never met just built a center for work you have not yet started. And so I implore you, go find somebody’s belonging to help build today.”