John Rok: From Dean of Students to Professor of Religious and Theological Studies

By: Vita Duva
Posted In: News

A caring father, John Rok and his wife Kitty have four full-grown children, with only one who has yet to finish college. Yet, Rok has given his heart to not one, but two families -also serving the Salve community as the Vice President of Student Affairs full-time for 17 years.

“I look at Salve students through a lens of my own – knowing someone reached out to my own children, I should be ready to do the same here,” said John Rok.

Through his honest and caring work, such a position has allowed him “to work with all facets of students’ university lives outside the classroom- from their physical and mental health, to how they play, eat, live, serve the local community and develop as persons during these years,” Rok said.

Nevertheless, Rok was offered his very first full-time position at Salve back in 1979. After earning his degree in Theological Studies from The Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, he decided to return to his home state of Rhode Island, where he began his work in Newport for Saint Joseph’s Parish in religious education. Rok said of his first position, “it was 50/50 – teaching in religious studies and establishing a full-time counseling service.”

“It was a time when Salve was experiencing a period of growth,” he added.

Rok is originally from Central Falls, Rhode Island.

Over time, this position led to a shift for Rok, in which he took on a role in full-time administration. Prior to serving as the Vice President for Student Affairs, he has also served as the Director of Counseling Services for six years and as the Dean of Students for seven years. However, this summer, Rok was offered the opportunity to return to full-time teaching here at Salve, beginning in the spring semester of 2011. This was not an opportunity Rok was about to pass on. As for now, Rok is on sabbatical, but will be offering the course RTS 335 this fall to, “25 ‘lucky’ students,” he said.

Additionally, Rok plans to further develop study-abroad courses both in Poland and Belgium, hopefully sometime in the near future.

“From my own personal experiences, I know students gain so much from travel, study and service outside the formal classroom setting,” Rok said. “I am now in a position to work specifically on helping this happen for Salve students.”