The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) is pleased to continue offering a summer seminar for full-time staff in all campus offices and divisions at colleges and universities that are members of CIC’s Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE). Vocation Across Campus: Supporting Students’ Search for Meaning is designed for staff who direct campus programs or serve in other long-term administrative capacities, but who do not also hold faculty appointments.
The 5-day seminar will take place June 21–25, 2027; nominations are due November 20, 2026. All participant expenses are paid, including a generous travel reimbursement. 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.
Thanks to a generous grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., CIC will cover most costs of participation for those faculty members who are selected.
Scroll down for more information; alternatively, you can download this two-page flyer about the 2027 Seminar, which can be printed or forwarded to interested staff members.
For summer 2027, the focus of the seminar will be first-generation students. Staff members who work with first-generation students and want to think more critically about the questions, hopes, and challenges that animate students’ approach to vocational exploration are encouraged to apply.
About the Seminar
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. Staff who are committed to supporting students’ vocational exploration and discernment can help them discover what might constitute a truly good, meaningful, and purposeful life—one that would lead to flourishing for themselves and others. Staff who are engaged in these efforts may find that their own understanding of the privileges and responsibilities of their own institutional position may be expanded, deepened, and enriched.
Participating staff members will have the opportunity to strengthen their engagement with vocational exploration and discernment through three specific emphases of the seminar:
- Reflecting on their personal vocational journeys and the ways their experiences shape their work with undergraduate students;
- Exploring a variety of language and frameworks for vocation, considering how these might align with the mission and contours of their institutions and how their own office’s programs and initiatives might foster deeper vocational exploration; and
- Designing new or revised programming and initiatives for students that incorporate vocational exploration and discernment.
Discussions and case studies will also focus on understanding the characteristics of emerging adults, and considering how social, cultural, and institutional dynamics both facilitate and hinder exploring and living out one’s vocation. The seminar also includes substantial dedicated social time, designed to help form a cohort of mutual support. Participants will be expected, in the academic year following the seminar, to develop or revise programming or initiatives to add a deeper focus on vocational exploration.
Staff members must be nominated for this opportunity by a cabinet member in whose division the nominee works. The nominator’s letter must include an affirmation that the staff member will be released from all campus obligations during the week-long seminar and will not be required to take annual leave or otherwise compensate the institution for this absence.
The nominee will be asked to include a brief resume, a statement indicating their interest in the seminar, and a description of the work in their current position description they would like to adapt or further develop from a vocation perspective through participation in the seminar.
Current Status
The seminar will take place June 21–25, 2027 at the Central Station Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Nominations for the 2027 NetVUE Staff Seminar are now open; nominations are due November 20, 2026. NetVUE member colleges and universities may nominate one full-time staff member—in any division—at the assistant director or director level or the equivalent. Nominators must affirm that the staff member will be fully released from regular campus duties during the week of the seminar. Please note: staff who also hold a regular faculty appointment are not eligible to be nominated for this seminar.
Seminar Leaders
Julie Massey most recently served as the chief of staff at St. Norbert College. Her previous roles included staff positions in ministry, mission, and student affairs. She directed St. Norbert’s Lilly-funded vocation exploration program for over a decade, has served as a NetVUE consultant, and is a current member of the NetVUE Advisory Council. She holds an MDiv from Loyola University Chicago and an Executive EdD in higher education from Boston College. After decades of working alongside ministry and student affairs colleagues, she deeply respects the contributions made by staff in higher education and looks forward to the good work (and fun) that are sure to be part of this seminar.
Richard Sévère is the dean of the College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences at Purdue University Northwest. He previously served as the associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Valparaiso University, where he also led the implementation of the Bloom Scholars Program, the University’s permanent four-year bridge program. This program is designed to prepare a cohort of newly admitted first-year, historically-excluded students for life at college and beyond—with attention to their academic, social, and cultural development. In addition to his administrative duties, Richard is a NetVUE Faculty Fellow, has led workshops on vocation at other university campuses, and has appeared on NetVUE’s Callings podcast. Richard is passionate about mentoring and is excited to co-lead this inaugural seminar for the dedicated staff at NetVUE colleges and universities who play a central role in helping students search for meaning and explore their many callings in life.
Nomination Details
Nomination Deadline: November 20, 2026
Selection of Participants Announced: January 2027
CIC will select up to 20 participants each year by competitive nomination. As noted above, NetVUE member colleges and universities may nominate one full-time staff member—in any division—at the assistant director or director level or the equivalent. Staff who also hold a regular faculty appointment are not eligible to be nominated for this seminar. Staff who wish to participate in the seminar should ask the cabinet-level officer who has responsibility for their work to submit a letter that makes a case for the nominee’s participation in the program.
Each nomination should include the completed nomination form, and the following three items, uploaded to the online portal, as a single document:
- Nomination letter from a cabinet member in whose division the nominee works that emphasizes the nominee’s qualifications, the nominee’s commitment to the institution’s mission, and the opportunities the nominee will have to bring insights about vocational exploration back to the home campus. The nomination letter should also include an affirmation that the staff member will be released from all campus obligations during the week-long seminar and will not be required to take annual leave or otherwise compensate the institution for this absence;
- Nominee’s résumé; and
- Nominee’s statement (no more than two pages) indicating reasons for wishing to participate in the seminar, their current understanding of and experience with vocational exploration and first-generation students, and the anticipated impact of participation in the seminar on the nominee’s work on the campus and with students.
Location and Expenses
The seminar will take place June 21–27, 2027 at the Central Station Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Thanks to generous support from Lilly Endowment Inc., CIC will cover most seminar costs, including materials, lodging, and meals, and will provide a travel reimbursement of up to $900 per participant.
Contact Information
For questions about the seminar or the nomination process, contact Rachael Baker, NetVUE associate director, at (616) 632-1060 or rbaker@cic.edu.
Other NetVUE Seminars
CIC offers additional NetVUE summer seminars, each of which is described on a separate webpage:
For early- to mid-career faculty whose primary interest is in incorporating vocational exploration into their classroom teaching.
For faculty members and staff who are considering ways of contributing to the wider national conversation about vocation and calling.
For 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.
For full-time faculty members at all levels to examine the interrelationship of the study of vocation and calling with the academic fields of theology and religious studies.
For full-time faculty members at all levels to examine the interrelationship of the study of vocation and calling with the life and health sciences.
About NetVUE
Learn more about NetVUE, including the array of programs and services that are available to member institutions.
To report a technical problem with the website, or to offer suggestions for navigation and content issues, please contact Madeline Smanik, NetVUE communications specialist, at msmanik@cic.edu.