Finding Your One Thing: Discernment in a World of Career Noise

Students often struggle to balance passion with practicality in career decisions, influenced by financial obligations and societal expectations. Many enter careers accidentally, through apathy, or via social pressure, leading to dissatisfaction. Encouraging thoughtful reflection on values and proactive choices can guide students toward fulfilling career paths aligned with their true vocations.

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One of the challenges for our students in making vocational and career decisions is finding the appropriate balance between passion and practicality. While the pursuit of one’s passion is often considered the ideal, the realities of modern life—with its multitude of well-meaning voices, financial obligations, and family concerns—frequently necessitate more pragmatic choices. This tension creates a dynamic in which vocational aspirations and career decisions are continuously evolving and being reconciled.

Vocation often has spiritual and philosophical connotations. And even though we often use career interchangeably with vocation and calling, there are important distinctions between these words. Careers are frequently regarded as more pragmatic and of lesser importance, with the implication that vocation, and especially calling, hold greater depth. I would contend that one’s career also merits deep reflection and discernment. Today, a career is understood as the journey or path one takes in their professional life. While vocation speaks to the inner call, career offers a different context that includes steps taken to build one’s life’s work. Our careers, although distinct from our vocations, can be the means through which we express our vocations or callings. In this context, our careers should also be the result of deep thought and discernment.

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Mentoring for Vocation: Maria LaMonaca Wisdom

In a recent NetVUE podcast, Maria LaMonaca Wisdom discusses her role as assistant vice provost for faculty advancement at Duke University. She emphasizes the importance of mentoring in fostering growth and personal relationships, while highlighting the need for revision and change in vocational paths. Mentors illuminate potential and inspire hope in students.

Maria LaMonaca Wisdom

In the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton interview Maria LaMonaca Wisdom, a leading voice on mentoring and coaching in higher education. Maria is the assistant vice provost for faculty advancement at Duke University, where she focuses on helping faculty flourish as researchers, educators, mentors, and leaders. In this role, she offers group coaching programs along with 1:1 coaching to faculty at critical transition points of their careers. She is also the author of How to Mentor Anyone in Academia, published recently by Princeton University Press, which offers methods and approaches to understand the mentor role. No stranger to undergraduate education, Maria is a former Lilly Fellow and holds a PhD in English; she taught literature for a decade at a small liberal arts college before pivoting to her work as an administrator.

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The Power of Unexpected Mentorship

Mentorship can profoundly influence personal growth, as illustrated by Ben Gambuzza’s experience with a music professor, referred to as Professor J. Their connection encouraged Ben to explore deeper questions about himself and his future. Through unconventional guidance, Professor J taught Ben valuable lessons that transcended traditional classroom learning, emphasizing self-discovery over direct career advice.

Scott Carlson, senior writer at The Chronicle.

Mentorship can take many forms, and sometimes we cross paths with people with whom we unexpectedly form significant relationships that prompt us to see our lives in new and different ways. Last week, in his newsletter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Scott Carlson included an essay by Ben Gambuzza, an undergraduate student he met in 2019 when he gave a talk at Trinity College about “writing, college, and the future of work.” After the talk, Scott took on Ben as a mentee, and when Ben proposed writing a piece on mentorship for Scott’s newsletter, Scott supported his efforts and published Ben’s essay last week. In it, Ben tells the story of his serendipitous encounter with a music professor who became one of his most important mentors. This professor didn’t always provide Ben with concrete answers to his questions, but he helped him refine the kinds of questions he was asking about himself and his future. Readers of Vocation Matters interested in the role of mentoring and vocational exploration will find much to appreciate in Ben’s essay, which is included in its entirety below.

This piece by Ben Gambuzza was originally featured in Scott Carlson’s newsletter The Edge, which is published by The Chronicle of Higher Education. Vocation Matters is grateful for the permission to repost it for our readers. If you wish to access the original essay, you can go to last week’s issue of the newsletter published on December 4, 2025, but you will need a subscription to view it.

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Understanding the Student-Athlete Transition: Opportunities for Vocational Conversation

This post discusses the challenges student-athletes face during the transition from sports to life after college, highlighting issues of identity loss, depression, and social disconnection. It advocates for supportive conversations about vocational paths and emphasizes the importance of understanding these unique challenges to help student-athletes navigate their new realities effectively.

The first post in series on vocation and student-athletes.

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In the third semester of my graduate studies, I realized it was not for me, and I needed to call home to discuss dropping out. It was the first time ever that I had not wanted to attend school; in fact, I had been looking forward to the focused coursework. I had always planned to go to graduate school, but what I couldn’t account for were my feelings of being lost and disconnected. I finished my bachelor’s in May and started graduate school in July, so there was little time to process my undergraduate experience. There was even less time to process the loss of my athletic career, something that had been a driving force in my life for a solid decade. I played three sports a year from the seventh grade until I graduated from college. My identity as an athlete was deeply ingrained in my mind—it was how I identified with the outside world and how the world acknowledged me. When I graduated, that part of me seemingly stopped, but I had no way to understand what was happening.

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Creating a New Narrative for Theatre: Theatre as Vocation

This post discusses the importance of theatre as a vocation that fosters community, self-discovery, and resilience among students. It challenges common myths about theatre being a frivolous or unviable career by highlighting its diverse career possibilities and the life skills gained through theatrical training. The author advocates for recognizing theatre’s true value.

A series on the role of theatre in vocation, with a focus on how it supports community-building, the uncommon good, and vocational exploration and discernment for all our students.

Lights up on theatre professor’s office. STUDENT sits across from PROFESSOR, tears running down their cheeks. PROFESSOR is used to this, has multiple tissue boxes around.

STUDENT

All I’ve ever wanted to do is theatre. But my parents said they’ll disown me if I major in it.

PROFESSOR

Why are they against it?

STUDENT

They say I won’t get a job, I’ll be poor. They think it’s not a real career, it’s just a hobby. They don’t take it seriously.

PROFESSOR offers tissue box as scene fades to black.

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Engaging NetVUE’s Big Read with Students in the Classroom

In “Follow Your Bliss and Other Lies About Calling,” Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore discusses the complexity of vocations, highlighting their potential for both meaning and pain. A recent webinar featuring faculty from NetVUE institutions explored themes of the book, emphasizing engagement in undergraduates’ understanding of callings amid modern challenges.

In Follow Your Bliss and Other Lies About Calling, Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore explores the “double-edged” quality of our callings, grappling honestly with how we live out our vocations in all their complexities. As affirming and generative as they can be, “deeply meaningful callings,” she writes, “are also often painful!” On November 13, four faculty members from NetVUE institutions explored this issue (and many more) as they discussed Miller-McLemore’s recent contribution to vocation studies, which also serves as NetVUE’s Big Read this year. In their discussion, they reflected on ways to engage this book with undergraduate students in the classroom and how its major themes can help them understand and contextualize the challenges that come with callings to work and live in a fast-paced, modern society.  

Webinar presenters included (left to right) Brian Bowman, Deirdre Egan-Ryan, Jason Mahn, and Brad Pardue.
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Attention and Contradiction: Willie James Jennings

Willie James Jennings, an esteemed theologian at Yale Divinity School, emphasizes the importance of belonging in education through his insights shared on NetVUE’s podcast. He advocates for educators to engage with students as fellow learners and highlights the need to confront racial injustices within education systems while committing to challenging antisemitism and advocating for Palestinians.

Willie James Jennings

The most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features an interview with Willie James Jennings. Willie is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School. A highly sought-after speaker, Willie teaches and writes in areas that include theological anthropology, liberation theologies, cultural identities and race theory, and environmental studies. He is the author of numerous articles and several award-winning books. He is also an ordained Baptist minister, and before completing a Master of Divinity from Fuller Seminary and a PhD from Duke University, he received his undergraduate education from Calvin University, a NetVUE member institution. Willie was also the keynote speaker for the NetVUE Unconference in March of 2021.

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Breaking Free from the Iron Cage of Rationality

The discussion emphasizes students’ financial motivations when choosing careers, highlighting the influence of Max Weber’s “iron cage” of rationality. This focus can overshadow values, creativity, and purpose. While some students prioritize money, others seek balance, suggesting a potential shift in career perspectives that educators can encourage for a better societal future.

A series on how the great sociological thinkers from the past can help us understand the struggle of today’s students as they explore and discern their vocations.

black steel pet cage with one dollar
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Colleagues and I have recently been interviewing students to learn more about how they think about vocation. One question has generated especially striking responses: “If money was not an issue, what would you do the first year after college?” Explicitly asking students to do the unthinkable—to set aside their overwhelming concern about money—opens whole new worlds of possibility. One student I spoke with said that she would want to be a teacher if money was not a concern; she would love to work with young kids, but has eliminated that possibility because she knows that early childhood education does not pay well. Even though students do not always have the most accurate sense of how a major in the liberal arts can be a foundation for financial success, they know that (at least from a financial standpoint) they are at college so that they can get a “good job.” This focus on money is entirely rational; but where do feelings, values, a sense of purpose, and the greater good fit?

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The Case for the Modern Polymath: Why a Broad Education Matters

Students will confront complex challenges like AI, climate change, and inequality. To tackle these “wicked” problems, they need polymathic thinking, which entails integrating knowledge across disciplines. Small liberal arts colleges can cultivate this mindset, fostering adaptability and diverse experiences, crucial for navigating a complicated world and achieving fulfilling careers.

Leonardo Da Vinci, Self-portrait (circa 1517-1518), Turin, Royal Library.

Students today will enter a world of unprecedented challenges that were unfathomable a generation ago. The problems our students will face include artificial intelligence, political divisiveness, climate change, access to healthcare, growing economic inequality, and countless other issues. Addressing these social and political issues will require our students to learn how to solve “wicked” problems that are complicated, incomplete, and interconnected—ones that require complex solutions. Polymathic thinking will be increasingly necessary for our students to navigate this new world successfully.  

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Exploring Vocation Beyond Career: A Guide for Students in the Sciences

The post reflects on mentoring a student who struggled after not being accepted into graduate school, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing vocation from career in the sciences. A four-part vocational discernment assignment encourages students to explore their callings beyond professional paths, fostering self-awareness and engagement with their values and community roles.

A series exploring the teaching of vocation in physics.

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A few years ago, I mentored a student in their senior year who, despite their best efforts, did not get accepted into graduate school. The student was crushed. They had identified the path of graduate studies as their calling. Now, with the gate to that path closed for at least a year, what was their calling? For students in the sciences, their vocation and even their value are often tied up in their career. As a practice, science is all-consuming. It has a way of eating up your time, energy, goals, and personal life. You feel that if you are not “all in,” then you are doing it wrong.

Reflecting on this student’s experience, I realized that I could have done more to help them see how their calling or vocation could play out in multiple aspects of their life, which is why I now have students think and write more fully about this part of their vocation exploration. In this post, I highlight the impact of my four-part vocational discernment assignment for science students, which I described in my previous post. I also discuss a follow-up assignment, which instructors can use to help students think about vocation as something that intersects with multiple aspects of their lives, not just their future career.

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