NetVUE supports regional and topical gatherings, including multi-campus collaborations, on specific topics. NetVUE member campuses, or a group of campuses, are encouraged to organize and host such gatherings based on issues or themes of interest. Regional and topical gatherings typically draw from 40 to 80 participants, allowing focused discussions and useful networking opportunities based on campus roles, institutional location and affiliation, program offerings, and other points of mutual interest. Events are heavily subsidized by member dues, so that the registration cost is typically only $100, including all meals and two nights’ lodging.
2026-2027 NetVUE Regional Gatherings
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Vocation And Experiential Learning: The Call to Mentorship
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Telling Honest Stories as Calling in Higher Education
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2026 NetVUE Gathering at the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting
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Vocation and Whole Person: Education in a Transactional Age
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Encuentra: Explorations of Culture and Calling
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Vocation, Higher Education, and the Future: Imagining Possibilities, Cultivating Practices
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Roots, Branches, Leaves: Institutionalizing Vocational Discernment
September 24–26, 2026 • Presbyterian College • Clinton, SC
Vocation And Experiential Learning: The Call to Mentorship
When we invite students into meaningful mentoring relationships, whether in research labs, service experiences, congregational settings, career exploration, or beyond, we create transformative spaces for vocational discernment and discovery. Given the increasing importance of hands-on, immersive learning in undergraduate education and the vital need for human connection in our work, this gathering will invite faculty, staff, and administrators to consider how vocation, mentorship, and experiential learning intersect in higher education.
October 11–13, 2026 • St. Olaf College • Northfield, MN
Telling Honest Stories as Calling in Higher Education
Inspired by St. Olaf College’s Land Acknowledgement statement, a group of faculty and staff spent a year and a half researching and telling untold and undertold stories from the college’s history. Building on the work of this group, this regional gathering examines how colleges tell honest stories about their place, their people, and their purposes. Together, participants will explore how honest storytelling can be a collaborative and college-wide process and imagine how these stories are integrated into larger narratives about their institutions.
November 19–20, 2026 • Preceding the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting • Denver, CO
Is Citizenship a Vocation? Loyalty, Protest, Advocacy
Accounts of a person’s vocation almost always include a calling toward citizenship—and often, obedience to the rule of law and support for governmental officials. At the same time, many who have worked for justice and the common good have understood their vocations as demanding protest against injustice and advocacy for the marginalized. Today, in the face of partisan divides as the rule of law is hotly contested—sometimes violently—the conflicts among these callings is on full display. During NetVUE’s annual pre-conference gathering before the SBL and AAR Annual Meetings, participants will deliberate on the worth and limits of our vocation as citizens.
December 3–5, 2026 • AdventHealth University • Orlando, FL
Vocation and the Whole Person: Education in a Transactional Age
In a time of rapid technological change, participants will reflect on how they can prepare students not just for careers, but for meaningful lives of service, purpose, and resilience. Rooted in AHU’s commitment to faith-informed, holistic education, the gathering will highlight practices that integrate vocational exploration with whole-person development. Through shared learning, peer dialogue, and collaboration, participants will consider how institutions can nurture belonging, wellbeing, fulfillment, and purpose in students and educators alike.
February 25–27, 2027 • Fresno Pacific University • Fresno, CA
Encuentra: Explorations of Culture and Calling
Drawing on NetVUE’s new resource, Encuentra: Conversation Cards, this gathering explores and celebrates the role of culture in human experience and understanding of the world and one’s calling. Participant experience of the food, music, dance, art, and language of the diverse Hispanic, Latine, Latin American, and U.S. Latine cultures in Fresno frames sessions exploring the origin and unique contribution of these conversation cards, and how culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy can help foster vocational exploration. Breakout sessions will provide ample opportunity for hands-on practice, reflection, and discussion.
March 11–13, 2027 • Wake Forest University • Winston-Salem, NC
Vocation, Higher Education, and the Future: Imagining Possibilities, Cultivating Practices
Join us in celebrating the launch of the new NetVUE Scholarly Resource Project book, Vocation, Higher Education, and the Future: Imagining Possibilities, Cultivating Practices. Participants will explore how institutions can foster meaningful vocational practices in a rapidly changing landscape. Through conversations with the book’s contributors and Wake Forest leaders, offering insight into innovative approaches to vocational discernment and character formation. Registrants for this gathering will receive a copy of the book.
May 20–22, 2027 • Le Moyne College • Syracuse, NY
Roots, Branches, Leaves: Institutionalizing Vocational Discernment
When vocational programs become more integrated into the culture of an institution, they can have a stronger and deeper impact on students. Work on vocational discernment breaks down silos and brings people together from across campus constituencies. This gathering will use the story of The Manresa Program, Le Moyne College’s vocational discernment program, as a model to help participants to explore ways they could further institutionalize their own vocational discernment efforts. Participants will leave with concrete ideas and proven strategies that can deepen and strengthen work with undergraduate students.
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