The most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speaking with Shirley Hoogstra. Shirley has been an elementary school teacher, a litigator, a vice president for student life at Calvin University and, since 2014, the president of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU).
With her belief that there is “nothing wasted in God’s economy,” she encourages us to look for vocational possibilities both by taking heed of our own feelings of “restlessness” and by listening to others. Within classrooms, we can prepare students for multiple vocations and for facing difficult problems and contentious spaces by cultivating in them a “deep moral courage.”
One of the highlights of this episode is Shirley’s advice for leaders, including student leaders. In addition to her list of concrete suggestions for effective leadership, she encourages us to approach problems with generosity and to ask, “what might I not know?”
In this conversation, she also discusses vocational pivots, risk-taking, the meaning of Christian higher education, and her passion for prison education. She emphasizes the deep courage and grace that beckon us in our callings and that are desperately needed in today’s world.
Click here to listen to the episode featuring Shirley Hoogstra titled “Risks, Pivots, and Deep Courage.”
Stephanie L. Johnson is the editor of Vocation Matters.