The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) is pleased to announce the first 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 took place June 16–20, 2025; all participant expenses were paid, including a generous travel reimbursement. Participants had 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.
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 had the opportunity to strengthen their engagement with vocational exploration and discernment through three specific emphases of the seminar:
Scroll down for more information; alternatively, you can download this two-page flyer about the 2025 Seminar, which can be printed or forwarded to interested faculty members.
- 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 also focused 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 included substantial dedicated social time, designed to help form a cohort of mutual support. Participants are expected, in the academic year following the seminar, to develop or revise programming or initiatives to add a deeper focus on vocational exploration.
Seminar Co-Leaders
Julie Massey currently serves as the Chief of Staff at St. Norbert College, a role she assumed in the summer of 2021. 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 will complete and Executive EdD in higher education at Boston College in May 2024. Vocational exploration is work that makes Julie’s heart sing! She delights in learning with and from colleagues interested in deepening their own sense of calling, and in supporting students as they do the same. 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 Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Valparaiso University. He also led the implementation of the Bloom Scholars Program, the University’s permanent four-year bridge program, which 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 teaches medieval literature and rhetoric; his current research project focuses on the fear of sodomy in the Middle Ages and its impact on friendship and masculinity among Black men. 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.
Current Status
The nomination period for the 2025 NetVUE Staff Seminar closed on November 18, 2024. Up to 20 participants were selected by competitive nomination. 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. Selected participants were notified in January 2025. If you are looking for information regarding the 2026 NetVUE Staff Seminar, click here.
Location and Expenses
The seminar took place June 16-20, 2025, at the Central Station Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Thanks to generous support from Lilly Endowment Inc., CIC covered most seminar costs, including materials, lodging, and meals, and will provide a travel reimbursement of up to $800 per participant.
Contact Information
For questions about the seminar or the nomination process, contact Rachael Baker, NetVUE director of professional development, at (616) 526-7939 or rbaker@cic.edu.
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.