New Director of Community Service and Service Learning Joins Gustavus

Gustavus Adolphus College welcomes Jeffrey Rathlef as its new Director of Community Service and Service Learning. Rathlef began his new duties Tuesday, July 1.

Rathlef comes to Gustavus after spending the last seven years directing and managing the School for International Training’s (SIT) Latin American and Caribbean portfolio of undergraduate study abroad programs. At SIT, Rathlef developed new programs and provided academic leadership and operational supervision to more than 20 locally-based academic directors who run SIT’s overseas programs in 14 countries throughout the Latin American and Caribbean regions.

“It is with great enthusiasm that I anticipate my forthcoming immersion and engagement with the Gustavus Adolphus and St. Peter communities,” Rathlef said. “I look forward to meeting the diverse faculty, staff, and students at Gustavus engaged with one of the institution’s core values of service, and learn how the staff of the Community Service Center will continue to best support and foster that core value moving forward.”

Rathlef attended Kansas State University where he obtained a B.S. in horticulture and a subsequent B.A. in history. He went on to pursue graduate studies at Ohio University where he earned an M.A. in international affairs and a subsequent M.A. in cultural studies in education.

In between his undergraduate and graduate studies, Rathlef entered into the United States Peace Corps as a Rural Community Development Volunteer in South America where he lived and worked for three years in a rural community in the central Andean highlands of Ecuador. During his time with the Peace Corps, Rathlef supported numerous community development initiatives in areas of rural crop extension, environmental education, community health and nutrition, and waste management.

Rathlef is married to Dr. Maria Beatriz Torres who will be joining the Speech Communication Department at Minnesota State University, Mankato as a full-time faculty member in August 2008.

For more information about community service programs at Gustavus, go online to gustavus.edu/communityservice.