NetVUE Summer Seminars
Teaching Vocational Exploration
NetVUE offers an annual seminar, “Teaching Vocational Exploration,” for full-time faculty members in all fields at NetVUE member institutions. The seminar is designed for early- to mid-career faculty members, who will learn to strengthen the teaching of vocational exploration in their own classrooms and to initiate conversations about vocation and pedagogy with colleagues on their home campuses. Each year’s seminar takes place in June at a location in the central part of the country; all participant expenses are paid, including a travel stipend.
Faculty members must be nominated for this opportunity by the chief academic officer at their institution. They are asked to submit a CV and a statement indicating their interest in the seminar, as well as a description of the course that they hope to design or modify as part of their work at the seminar.
Vocation Across Campus
The NetVUE Staff Seminar “Vocation Across Campus: Supporting Students’ Search for Meaning” is open to full-time staff members—in any division—at the assistant director or director level or the equivalent. One of the most promising ways that staff can serve their students is to guide them into an exploration of their many callings in life. Participants will have the opportunity to learn more about vocation and its importance for undergraduate students, to develop or revise programming or initiatives to support vocational exploration, and to cultivate a broader network of colleagues committed to supporting students’ work in this area. The 5-day seminar will take place June 2025 in the central part of the country; all participant expenses are paid, including a generous travel reimbursement.
Enhancing Vocational Exploration
The “Enhancing Vocational Exploration Seminar” is for those serving on the faculty or staff at institutions that are members of its Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE). The seminar is designed to bring together a small group of educators who seek to contribute to the growing national conversation about vocation and calling. Participants in this seminar will bring to the table their experiences with vocation on their own campuses, whether in teaching, research, writing, service, or inter-office cooperation. Any member of the staff or faculty at a NetVUE member institution is eligible to be nominated for the seminar. The typical nominee will have some experience of vocational reflection—whether through classroom teaching, working with students outside of the classroom setting, reading and writing about vocation, or some form of institutional leadership around vocation.
Institutional Leadership for Vocation
The NetVUE Seminar “Institutional Leadership for Vocation” is open to faculty members and staff who have taken on administrative roles (associate deans, assistant provosts, and the like) and who would like to explore campus-wide projects that encourage vocational exploration. The goal of this seminar is to bring together a group of current leaders who are eager to explore how vocational exploration and discernment can play a greater role across campus, particularly in the work that these leaders do with members of the faculty and staff, but also in curricular and co-curricular programming for students.
Religion/Theology/Vocation
The NetVUE seminar “Religion/Theology/Vocation” is intended for full-time faculty members in the field of theology and/or religious studies at colleges and universities that are members of CIC’s Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE). Participants will examine the interrelationship of the study of vocation and calling with the academic fields of theology and religious studies, exploring implications for research, teaching, and service to the institution. The goal of the seminar is to provide participants with a deeper understanding of the relationship of vocation to higher education, to support their investigations of the uses and disadvantages of these concepts within theology and religious studies, and to establish a broader network of faculty members committed to exploring vocation and calling as an area of scholarship within their discipline.
Writing Vocation: A Colloquy for Future Contributors
Participants in the NetVUE colloquy on Writing Vocation will become familiar with and better equipped to write about vocation in different contexts. They will learn about opportunities within NetVUE to write about vocation, develop possible projects, and create a writing plan for such work. Colloquy facilitators (Geoffrey Bateman, Krista Hughes, and Erin VanLaningham) will lead participants through a series of sessions and share insights into how to approach writing about vocation in different genres and for different audiences, such as writing for blogs and for professional journals (including venues sponsored by NetVUE). Colloquy participants will be given time to explore writing projects about vocation, to do some writing, and to consult individually with the facilitators. The colloquy is meant for writers from all disciplines, in all institutional roles, and with any level of experience.
Learn more about the NetVUE Writing Colloquy
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