Augustana receives $50,000 to support vocational reflection

Augustana has received a $50,000 grant from NetVUE (Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education) to make vocational reflection more intentional in the academic curriculum and connect what’s learned in the classroom to co-curricular activities.

NetVUE Director David S. Cunningham said Augustana’s proposal stood out because the college will use the grant to enhance the understanding of vocation among faculty and staff, which will enable them to incorporate this perspective into their work with students.

“This suggests that the effects of Augustana’s project will continue long after grant funding ends,” Cunningham said.

The grant will fund seminars for three groups of Augustana faculty and staff to help them design ways to infuse vocational reflection in and beyond the classroom and guide students in understanding the meaning and purpose of their lives:

• professors teaching the new “Reasoned Examination of Faith” course to sophomores

• leaders of high-impact student experiences, including study away trips, internships and perhaps “alternative” spring break trips

• leaders of co-curricular programs, such as residential life, the athletic leadership program, advising, Greek life, and multicultural and international student programming 

“Our hope is that students take full advantage of an Augustana education where curricular and co-curricular experiences together introduce and reinforce the purpose of education: to become adults responsive to the needs of others and capable of good work in a world that so desperately needs them,” said Dr. Jason Mahn, director of the Presidential Center for Faith and Learning.

Through the years, Augustana students have had the opportunity to pursue one-on-one vocational reflection at the Center for Vocational Reflection, and now CORE. The NetVUE grant extends the advantages of that work more strategically.

“By building the language and practices of vocational reflection into key components of the curriculum and co-curricular life, this grant will enable more students to make the most of their experiences by reflecting on their gifts and talents and responsibilities from within them,” said Dr. Mahn, grant administrator.

Seminars funded by the grant are expected to begin in late spring 2019.

NetVUE Program Development Grants are financially supported by the Council of Independent Colleges and Lilly Endowment Inc.