Upcoming Opportunities
Announcing 2027 Summer Seminar Opportunities
NetVUE Summer Seminars are an excellent opportunity to deepen knowledge about vocation and calling, to engage in peer-to-peer conversation, and to increase capacity for vocational work at an institution. The seminars are designed to cultivate a cadre of leaders who can provide network-wide guidance on vocation, as well as helping them support one another as they carry out this work on their respective campuses. Seminars focus on the work of faculty members, staff, and/or administrators. Member institutions are encouraged to nominate someone for at least one of the seminars; some seminars require only an application rather than a nomination. Some institutions find it helpful to convene a leadership team to develop a strategy for promoting these opportunities and target key areas of the campus for strategic vocational growth in the coming years.
The seminar program is funded through member dues and generous support from Lilly Endowment Inc., which means that they are available at no additional cost to members (a generous travel stipend for participants is included). Each member institution can nominate only one person for any given seminar, but can nominate for multiple seminars each year. Nominations and applications for seminars are due throughout the fall, as noted below. Continue reading to learn more about each seminar; visit the seminars page on the NetVUE website for more information on how to nominate, to be nominated, or to apply.
For Faculty Members
The NetVUE faculty seminar Teaching Vocational Exploration is open to full-time faculty members at NetVUE member institutions from all disciplines or fields. 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. The seminar is led by Paul Wadell and Darby Ray and will take place June 7–11, 2027, in Indianapolis. Nominations for this seminar must come from the chief academic officer and are due October 2, 2026.
The NetVUE faculty seminar Religion/Theology/Vocation is intended for full-time faculty members in the field of theology or religious studies at NetVUE member institutions. 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 seminar is led by Niki Johnson and Jason Mahn and will take place August 2–6, 2027. The application (no nomination required) is due January 22, 2027.
The new NetVUE faculty seminar Life and Health Sciences/Vocation is intended for full-time faculty members at NetVUE member institutions in scientific disciplines at all levels. Participants will probe a variety of understandings of vocation, focusing on the central themes of life, stewardship, and human health in undergraduate education. The goal of the seminar is to provide participants with a deeper understanding of how vocational discernment intersects with scientific inquiry and to establish a broader network of faculty members committed to exploring vocation as an area of scholarship within the life and health sciences. The seminar is led by Rachael Baker and Meghan Slining and will take place August 2–6, 2027. The application (no nomination required) is due January 22, 2027.
For Staff and/or Administrators
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. (It is not open to faculty members.) Participants will learn more about vocation and its importance for undergraduate students, develop or revise programming or initiatives to support vocational exploration, and cultivate a broader network of colleagues committed to supporting students’ work in this area. The seminar is led by Julie Massey and Richard Sévère and will take place June 21–27, 2027 in Memphis, Tennessee. Nominations (from the candidate’s cabinet-level supervisor) for this seminar are due November 20, 2026.
For Faculty Members, Staff, and/or Administrators
The NetVUE seminar Institutional Leadership for Vocation is open to faculty members and staff who have taken on administrative roles (e.g., associate deans and assistant provosts) 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. The seminar is led by Remylin Bruder and Kurt Schackmuth and will take place June 14–18, 2027, in Louisville, Kentucky. Nominations (from the candidate’s cabinet-level supervisor) for this seminar are due November 20, 2026.
The Enhancing Vocational Exploration seminar is open to faculty members and staff at NetVUE member institutions. 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. 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. The seminar is led by Rachael Baker, David Cunningham, and Justin Klassen and will take place June 7–11, 2027, in Indianapolis. Nominations (from the candidate’s cabinet-level supervisor) for this seminar are due October 2, 2026.
For questions about these seminars or the nomination process, or to learn more about how summer seminars can help advance vocation-related goals for your institution, contact Rachael Baker, NetVUE associate director, at (616) 632-1060 or rbaker@cic.edu.
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