{"id":213260,"date":"2026-03-31T17:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/213260\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T17:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:12:07","slug":"fgcu-roots-of-compassion-kindness-center-hosts-first-global-kindness-summit-wgcu-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/213260\/","title":{"rendered":"FGCU Roots of Compassion & Kindness Center hosts first global ‘Kindness Summit’ | WGCU News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research into the science of kindness<\/a> in recent decades has moved the conversation from kindness being a “feel-good” sentiment into a rigorous field of study<\/a> that shows significant physiological and psychological benefits for people who practice it.<\/p>\n

At the same time, there is a growing global kindness movement<\/a> comprised of a network of organizations dedicated to highlighting these kinds of benefits, and encouraging ways to embed the practice of kindness into our everyday lives.<\/p>\n

Florida Gulf Coast University offered its first class on kindness about six years ago, and not long after FGCU founding faculty member, Dr. Maria Roca<\/a>, founded the school\u2019s Roots of Compassion & Kindness Center<\/a>. Now, the ROCK Center is preparing to host a global kindness summit called K20 that will kick off the “Kindness Without Borders initiative.”<\/a> <\/p>\n

Kindness leaders from around the world will gather on the FGCU campus in May (5\/14-17) for a series of talks and interactive events, all with a goal of sharing knowledge and inspiring action. We talk with the co-founders for a preview and a conversation about the importance of being kind.<\/p>\n

Guests:
Dr. Maria Roca, Associate Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, and Director of the university\u2019s Roots of Compassion & Kindness (ROCK) Center
Francesca Donlan, ROCK Center Board Member
Alan Williams<\/a>, \u2018values-driven\u2019 leadership advisor, author, and founder of SERVICEBRAND GLOBAL<\/a><\/p>\n

WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and\u00a0donate now<\/a>. Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Research into the science of kindness in recent decades has moved the conversation from kindness being a “feel-good”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-213260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}