Hollins University has received a $60,000 Vocation Across the Academy Grant from the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) to invest in integrating principles of vocational discernment and career management into coursework and cocurricular activities.
The grant will support the first three years of Hollins’ Scaling Vocation Across the University initiative, which is intended to foster a deeper sense of purpose among students and prepare them for lives and careers of meaningful engagement with the world’s most pressing issues.
“In our students’ educational journeys, Hollins is poised to deepen the role of vocational discernment by framing it as an interplay between individual reflection and social engagement,” said President Mary Dana Hinton. “With the help of NetVUE, we are confident that Scaling Vocation Across the University will become a model for how institutions of higher learning can seamlessly blend contemplative discernment with active, purposeful engagement in career development.”
Jeffrey White, director of Career and Life Design at Hollins, agreed. “Ultimately, we are extending beyond traditional notions of student vocational discernment by combining it with the intentional process of building networks of professionals who can support students in both career exploration and launching successful careers.”
To demonstrate the university’s dedication to the initiative’s longevity and success, Hollins will supplement the NetVUE funding with an additional $30,000 in donor funds. The university also commits to providing $30,000 in institutional funds in the second and third years of the project. For the fourth year, to ensure the sustainability of the project’s activities beyond the grant period, Hollins will allocate $25,900 in institutional funds.
“The level of our financial commitment demonstrates our dedication to vocational discernment as a permanent fixture of a Hollins education,” Hinton noted.
Two innovative core courses are central to this initiative. The Career Toolkit: The Purposeful Career and The Purpose Course are both designed to immerse students in vocational exploration and reflection, facilitating a journey from identifying global challenges to articulating personal missions aligned with career aspirations.
“The goal of the courses is to advance students’ journeys of purpose-driven career reflection and development, from sophomore year through their capstone experiences,” Hinton explained.
The Career Toolkit: The Purposeful Career course is constructed on three pillars:
- Framing discernment of vocation and lives of purpose through the lens of problems of human concern, such as ending extreme poverty, protecting biodiversity and landscape, or redesigning the health care system.
- Framing vocational discernment as an interplay between individual reflection and social engagement.
- In-person group sessions and activities that promote student dialogue about the connections between the first two pillars.
The course will employ a hybrid approach with a coaching element in which students will engage with Career Launch. The platform, which offers microlearning via text and video, along with a workbook, is intended to help students build relationships through social interactions with professionals in students’ fields of interest.
The Purpose Course represents the capstone of Hollins’ comprehensive approach to vocational discernment and the university’s new general education CORE program, which was launched during the 2023-24 academic year. Hinton described the course, which is being designed collaboratively by a team of faculty and staff members, as “the culminating experience where learners synthesize their educational journey, aligning their academic growth with a reflective understanding of their future roles in the wider world.”
Complementing this approach will be the development of an Institute for the Liberal Arts, Social Capital, and Social Mobility, and the integration of vocational discernment into student affairs programming, ensuring campus-wide engagement with the concept of vocation.
“Scaling Vocation Across the University promises to transform our students’ educational experiences and equip them with the reflective habits of mind necessary for fulfilling our mission of helping our students lead lives of purpose,” Hinton said. “With this NetVUE-funded initiative, we aim to transform students’ engagement with careers that are not only successful but also deeply aligned with their vocational reflection around purpose and broader societal challenges. The initiative also aligns well with Transforming Learning, Transforming Lives, our strategic plan that calls for advancing our students’ future social mobility.”
A program of the Council of Independent Colleges, NetVUE is a nationwide network of 300 colleges and universities formed to support and enrich vocational exploration and discernment among undergraduate students. Its purpose is to increase the capacity of independent colleges and universities to support their undergraduate students as they explore and discern their many callings in life.
