Supporting Students’ Callings: The Role of Vocation in Promoting Purpose in Higher Education

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

2:00 PM - 3:15 PM East Coast USA Time

Location: Georgetown University - Level M1

Primary Presenter(s)

SB

Sheila Bauer-Gatsos

Special Assistant to the Provost
Dominican University, United States

Co-Presenter(s)

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Michelle Hayford

Associate Dean University College and Executive Director of Arts NC State
North Carolina State University, United States
KJ

Kamara Jackson

Senior Director of Career Programs and Employer Relations
Dominican University
TL

Terese Lund

Associate Vice Provost for Purposeful Pathways
Wingate University, United States

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Darby Ray

Director of Harward Center for Community Partnerships and Harward Professor of Civic Engagement
Bates College, United States
RS

Richard Severe

Dean, College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (CHESS)
Purdue University Northwest, United States

This panel, sponsored by the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), will explore the ways that public and private institutions can promote the purpose of higher education through intentional engagement in and attention to vocational exploration, discernment, and meaning making. Panelists represent a range of institutions and have designed and implemented a variety of programmatic interventions, including career development and preparation, civic learning, community arts engagement, student well-being, and purposeful pathways. Participants will learn more about frameworks that integrate purpose-centered learning at key moments in a student’s educational trajectory; community engagement as a form of vocational exploration/discernment and civic learning; arts accessibility and partnerships with community organizations that care for the most marginalized; equity-minded and developmentally scaffolded career and vocation curriculum; and the ways that these frameworks of vocation can contribute to overall student well-being.