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Lilly Grant Enables Expansion of Student Vocation Programming

Thanks to a generous grant from the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) www.cic.org and the Lilly Endowment, Inc., we are set to expand our program to support student exploration of vocation and calling. Through a series of desserts and dinners, students will be able to connect with faculty and staff and each other as they explore the idea of calling and vocation. During these informal get-togethers, students will be encouraged to consider their talents, gifts and interests.

Chaplain Jon Bratt says, “We are thankful for the opportunities the NetVUE grant will give us at Roberts. We have so many good people and departments already committed to helping students explore and discover their ‘calling’ from God. This grant will give us opportunity to pull together and coordinate our efforts to be more intentional in all our programs and broader in our reach to all students.”

Sparked by attendance at the Network for Vocation Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) in 2013, Bratt and his team initially instituted Discernment Dinners to lead students in exploring the topic of calling. Now Roberts can expand upon that idea to include more events. Bratt explains, “The NetVUE grant will help us develop our Freshman Experience, connecting students with faculty and staff, and institute a Sophomore Class Discovery Retreat, open to all sophomores to explore their calling and step into their adult life better prepared to serve.”

The goals of the grant mesh perfectly with our mission to “prepare thoughtful, spiritually mature, service-oriented people who will help transform society.” In addition, these connection points will be extremely helpful to students as they discover or dive deeper into their majors and feel a greater sense of purpose. Our hope is that as students feel more connected to each other, the Roberts community and to their unique callings, it will inspire them to press on toward degree completion and service to the greater community.

Over the next two years, our team will be working hard to implement the Discovery Program with the completion of training materials, the encouragement of greater staff and faculty participation and the addition of Discovery Events.

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