A version of this post was delivered at Wisconsin Lutheran College’s winter commencement this past December, where Paul marked his retirement and celebrated more than 25 years working in higher education.
Among the foundational tenets of vocational discernment, here are two: our vocations are dynamic, and our vocations are ambiguous. For many, the inverse of these principles can also be true, shaping our impulses to think of discernment as being fixed or final. If we think about vocation in these terms, we start making assumptions that are misguided and possibly damaging, such as, discernment happens only once. If we think about discernment as a singular event, we put ourselves under a lot of pressure to get our calling right, perfectly right.
But if we think more accurately about the dynamic nature of vocational discernment, then we ought to keep in mind its fluid quality. If we picture discernment as a substance, then we see that it is amorphous and pliable, depending on the shape of the life that contains it.
The latest episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features Carlo Rotella, a writer and professor at Boston College. His book, What Can I Get Out of This?, explores teaching undergraduates and emphasizes meaningful engagement in the classroom. Rotella advocates for seeing education as a practice requiring persistence and presence, underscoring its relevance beyond mere career preparation.
Carlo Rotella
NetVUE’s podcast Callings has released a new episode, which features an interview with Carlo Rotella, an award-winning writer and professor of American Studies, English, and journalism at Boston College. His most recent book,What Can I Get Out of This?: Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skepticsgets at the heart of what it means to teach and to learn together with undergraduate students today. Carlo has been a regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine since 2007. His work has appeared in collections like The Best American Essays, as well as The New Yorker, Harper’s, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Slate, and various scholarly periodicals. Recurring subjects in his writing are cities and city life, boxing, music, crime, basketball, neighborhoods, and how people get good at things. He is co-editor and founder of the University of Chicago Press’s Chicago Visions and Revisions book series.
As his career and his most recent book illustrates, Carlo is interested in the nuts and bolts of teaching—what he considers its craft and the ways we can build classroom experiences that help our students make meaning. The book follows the experience of a single cohort of students in a required introductory literature course, most of whom are not English majors. In it, Rotella tells the story of what happens when students practice discussing ideas and readings with each other over a semester and then follows up with them a few years later, revealing that the course’s impact yielded an impactful return on investment in one’s education and life. As he describes it, one of the things it explores is “how to be a student, how to do college,” helping educators better understand how our students experience and live out their vocations as students.
At the NetVUE conference in March, participants explored the theme of hope within vocational education, and this post reflects on how the conference provided opportunities to cultivate hope, even in moments of despair over issues like AI’s impact on higher education. Conversations reinforced the importance of human reflection in vocational discernment. A notable discussion with Patrick, a car service owner, illustrated the breadth of vocational understanding, highlighting that vocation is essential for everyone.
Vocation is a practice of hope. I recently attended the 2026 NetVUE Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, right on the heels of a communication conference. I realized quickly that I was having conversations at NetVUE about the same topics I had just discussed with my communication colleagues, but the tenor of the conversations were strikingly different. At NetVUE, the prevailing sentiment about circumstances in undergraduate education was that of hope.
I don’t mean that people were ignorant of the headwinds facing our institutions; I mean that the people I conversed with agreed that the work we do matters and is worth doing, despite the challenges we face. Indeed, hope was a fitting theme for the conference. It reinforced the belief that we can—as a group of networked colleagues—pursue a shared vision of shaping our students through sustained action to be people of hope. What was reinforced for me at the conference was that vocational education is one practice of hope.
This post opens by reflecting on a mock funeral at Montclair State University that protested cuts to humanities and social sciences, highlighting deep grief in higher education. This shared sense of loss prompts a need for vocational recommitment. The podcast episode featuring Victor Strecher illustrates how purpose can guide healing, emphasizing the importance of meaningful work amidst adversity.
A photo from a recent news article in The Guardian stopped me in my tracks. It featured a black tombstone memorializing 15 departments within the humanities and social sciences facing cuts at Montclair State University, where students organized a mock funeral in protest of this proposal. At the top of the tombstone, a large RIP dramatically introduced the list of the departments, starting with anthropology and ending with English.
This story is an all too common one across higher education right now, leaving students, faculty, and staff in a state of grief over profound vocational dislocations as their callings are being devalued by college administrators and policymakers. This student-organized funeral resonated with me upon my return from a recent retreat for educators, who gathered to reclaim our vocational visions and voices. One undercurrent in our conversations was a deep sadness for all that has been lost in higher education in recent years: departments slashed, dedicated colleagues terminated, harmful narratives about our work increasing.
A student’s disbelief over a statistic regarding sleep deprivation reflects a broader concern about time poverty among students, which hinders their ability to engage in “productive leisure.” This engagement is crucial for personal growth and vocational exploration, urging educators to emphasize meaningful co-curricular activities and critique the cultural obsession with busy-ness.
A student sat down in my office for what I thought was going to be a quick check-in on a paper idea, but her face darkened as her eyes passed over my monitor. “What?” she exclaimed, “Who are those other 42%? Who? I don’t know them!” I’d been skimming a news article reporting that 58% of Americans reported not getting enough sleep. She could not believe that the number was so low, for she and her classmates were so squeezed by school, employment, and, in many cases, athletics that she could scarcely imagine a world where anyone had enough time to get it all done, never mind sleeping enough. I couldn’t blame her. I’d had the same basic reaction to that headline.
This post discusses how community-engaged learning (CEL) transforms students’ vocational exploration by emphasizing self-positioning and relational practices. It highlights the importance of understanding one’s identity and context, which fosters authentic connections and transforms perceptions. Through reflective exercises and community interaction, students gain insights into their roles and aspirations, leading to meaningful career paths.
A series on the role that community-engaged learning can play in vocational exploration and discernment.
Our students come to us and into our educational spaces—our classrooms, laboratories, studios, and offices—with different experiences, identities, interests, and talents. Recognizing this dynamic is central to our ability to harness the power of community-engaged learning (CEL) for vocational exploration. CEL is a pedagogical strategy that pairs meaningful and mutually beneficial work in communities with reflection. In our first post, we asserted that CEL helps students explore vocational paths by exposing them to new voices; it enables them to explore their interests and talents within this context and offers them a pedagogy of hope.
In this post, we explore vocational practices that elevate student learning within CEL and prepare students to build positive relationships with community partners and fellow learners. We focus on moments in which vocational exploration can strengthen CEL by equipping students to understand their own identities, assumptions, and knowledge about a community. When we integrate opportunities for individual self-positioning, good neighbor practices, and contextual preparation into our CEL courses, students are better equipped to explore their callings in community with others.
Entering a classroom can be daunting for both new professors and students. Many students may feel isolated, lacking connections with peers. Fostering friendships through group projects and ungraded exercises can enhance belonging and satisfaction. Creating an inclusive environment benefits students academically, emotionally, and vocationally, enhancing their overall college experience.
Walking into a classroom on the first day of a semester can be intimidating, especially for new professors. A room full of strangers looks at you, expecting so much, including a masterful demonstration of your disciplinary expertise. If I as a faculty member can can admit that this experience has been daunting, especially in the early years of my teaching career, imagine what a room full of strangers feels like for some students.
For years, I assumed (wrongly) that the students in my classes knew each other. Certainly, I thought, they had certainly spent time together at orientation, sporting events, and the student union. That perspective ended quickly one afternoon when a student shared something that surprised me.
In a recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, Angela Duckworth discusses her book “Grit” and the significance of passion and perseverance. The conversation touches on mentoring, the importance of connection in education, and the relationship between human flourishing and serving others. Duckworth emphasizes goal setting and intentionality in pursuing one’s vocation.
Angela Duckworth
NetVUE’s podcast Callings recently released an episode featuring an interview with Angela Duckworth, the author of the well-known book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, a number one New York Times bestseller. Her TED talk on this topic is one of the most watched of all time. A 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Angela is the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor in the department of psychology and faculty co-director of the Behavior Change for Good initiative in the Wharton School, both at the University of Pennsylvania. Angela’s wide experience includes having advised the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, Fortune 500 CEOs, as well as working as a math and science teacher in the public school system. She founded a summer school for underserved children and co-founded the Character Lab, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing scientific insights that help children thrive. Angela holds degrees from Harvard, Oxford, and the University of Pennsylvania.
The author reflects on the integration of vocational exploration within business education, highlighting the mismatch between students’ career readiness and the search for purpose. Despite feelings of imposter syndrome, she is driven to empower students to connect professional success with personal values, advocating for a holistic understanding of vocation in business contexts.
I’ve got a confession: When I applied for a NetVUE grant to embed vocational exploration in my organizational communication program, I did it partly because I knew I had what we in business call a “unique selling point.” Ever since being introduced to NetVUE, I’ve been reading its blog posts and listening to its podcast episodes, so I knew that my application would be considered alongside proposals for further integrating calling into English, philosophy, and theology programs. I was confident that NetVUE would be interested in bringing the language of calling into classrooms where it’s rarely, if ever, heard.
But that strategic thinking was not my only motivation. My study of organizational communication majors shows that students struggle with career transitions because they can’t connect professional preparation with individual purpose. My research on mid-career women reveals how a clash of personal and professional values lead to career disruptions—research with such a wide scope that it’s the foundation of my forthcoming book.
I know that underemphasizing vocation has serious consequences across the lifespan of work. But here’s what I didn’t know when I submitted my proposal: a serious case of imposter syndrome would follow.
On February 18, NetVUE hosted a webinar discussing the connections between vocation and character, featuring scholars Paul Wadell and Hannah Schell. They explored how to inspire students towards meaningful lives rooted in values amid a success-driven culture. The session also included audience questions and additional resources for educators.
On February 18, NetVUE hosted its most recent webinar, focusing on the deep connection between vocation and character. Speakers explored the power this connection has to shape who we become and live lives of meaning and purpose, guided by values and virtues—a challenging enterprise in a world that often rewards winning and success at any cost. The webinar featured Paul Wadell and Hannah Schell, two prominent scholars on virtue who both contributed essays to At This Time and In This Place: Vocation and Higher Education, the inaugural volume from the NetVUE Scholarly Resources Project. In their presentations, they highlighted the urgency of this conversation at this moment in time and its potential for cultivating hope. Sharing how they became interested in the intersection of vocation and character, they also addressed the relational nature of these concepts and encouraged viewers to understand our callings within larger communal contexts.
