New Center for Servant Leadership to Open Spring Semester Posted on January 19th, 2011 by Matt Thomas '00

Jeffrey Stocco has been named Director of the Center for Servant Leadership.

In keeping with the priorities of Gustavus Adolphus College’s Commission Gustavus 150 strategic plan, the College is about to open its new Center for Servant Leadership (CSL). The innovative gathering place will intentionally co-locate and integrate the College’s Office of Church Relations, Center for Vocational Reflection, Community Service Center, and Career Center. The CSL space, currently under construction, will open its doors in the College’s O. J. Johnson Student Union at the start of the College’s spring semester. 

President Jack R. Ohle has appointed Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jeffrey Stocco to be Director of the Center for Servant Leadership, effective June 1, 2011. The leaders of the CSL’s component programs, each of whom will serve as an Associate Director of the Center for Servant Leadership, will be Jeffrey Rathlef, Director for Community-based Service and Learning; Rev. Grady St. Dennis, Director for Church Relations and Community Engagement; Christopher Johnson, Ph.D., Director for Vocation and Integrative Learning; and Cynthia Favre, Director for Career Development. 

“Gustavus’s longstanding commitment is to prepare students for lives of leadership and service,” President Ohle said. “In Commission Gustavus 150, our broad and inclusive constituent-based strategic planning process, the message was very clear that service and leadership must remain at the core of who we are. The CSL grew directly out of more than 80 recommendations by Commission Task Forces. We are excited about this opportunity because it will take us to a new level and intentionality in living out our mission.”

The CSL will engage students, faculty, staff, alumni, congregational and community partners, and friends of the College. Offerings will include community-based service and learning, retreats, mini-courses, workshops, consultation sessions, internships, career explorations, and the like. The CSL will support vocational discernment, informed citizenship, critical and integrative thinking, and innovative solutions to significant challenges of our time. 

“I am thrilled to serve in this exciting new program, located right in the heart of campus,” said Vice President and Dean of Students Jeffrey Stocco. “The Center is poised to build on the strengths of four excellent and established programs, which are based in the world, in the community, in congregations, and in the workplace. We have a unique opportunity to deepen and integrate our work as students stand ready to find their place and make a difference in the world.”

The CSL will officially be dedicated during a ceremony on April 9, as part of the 2011 convention of the Gustavus Adolphus College Association of Congregations. The theme for the convention is “A Year of Living Purposefully: Savoring Life Through Servant-Leadership,” and will feature keynote presentations and a workshop led by Richard Leider ‘66, leadership consultant and founding partner of the Inventure Group, as well as Larry Spears, president and CEO of the Spears Center for Servant Leadership.  Leider and Spears have worked with Gustavus faculty and staff in developing plans for the Center. At the convention, they will speak about leadership and vocation, and will help attendees to equip themselves for service in the world.