By Rob Humphreys ’16MBA | Photos by Scott Cook
In January, Rollins officially opened Kathleen W. Rollins Hall, the College’s new headquarters for applied liberal arts learning. As an entrepreneur who views the world through a digital lens, William Glass ’14 looks at the new Kathleen W. Rollins Hall—made possible by a transformative $10 million gift from Trustee Kathleen W. Rollins ’75—and sees parallels to a welltuned e-commerce platform. Both make it easy to step inside, explore a world of possibilities, and find what you need. “It’s all about lowering the barrier to entry and reducing as much friction as possible,” says Glass, host of the Silicon Alley podcast and co-founder of the soon-to-launch Ostrich personal finance app. Just like today’s online shopping is more seamless and user-friendly than in years past, so too is accessing experiential programs at the heart of the Rollins mission— the same ones that helped Glass, an international relations major, land a Fulbright scholarship, study abroad, facilitate 30 | Spring 2020
Immersions, work on campus, and, ultimately, launch a successful career. “Before Rollins Hall, the departments that housed these programs were so dispersed,” he says. “Putting them all in one place gives students the opportunity to find what they’re interested in without doing such a heavy lift.” That’s important, notes Glass, because “bringing together resources for a grander vision” is a concept that’s benefited him in multiple capacities, whether in sales for a Fortune 500 company or developing partnerships to fund a technology startup. “The experiences I had in so many areas, from study abroad to Immersions to peer mentoring and being president of X Club, those things helped me, as an entrepreneur, connect different ideas and see things others might miss.”
