In December, the American Association of Colleges and Universities released a report highlighting employer support for higher education’s role in preparing students for uncertain futures. The findings emphasize the importance of vocational exploration, informed citizenship, and community engagement, showcasing how colleges equip graduates with essential skills valued by employers.
In December, just as many of us were wrapping up courses and preparing for a much needed break, the American Association of Colleges and Universities released a report—“The Agility Imperative: How Employers View Preparation for an Uncertain Future”—that should give many readers of this blog reason to feel confident about the vocational work we do to prepare students for their lives after college. In conversation with Inside Higher Ed, Ashley Finley, AAC&U’s vice president and report author, said that in contrast to the skepticism colleges and universities face from many Americans, “employers are higher education’s biggest fans. They value the ways in which colleges are preparing students to be nimble and agile for an uncertain future.”
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.
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.
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.
In the second episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton interview Michael Lamb, a faculty leader at Wake Forest University. He discusses ethics and the importance of virtues in public life, encouraging listeners to connect passions with community needs and to cultivate virtues in discovering personal callings.
Michael Lamb
In the second episode of this season of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton interview Michael Lamb, the senior executive director of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. An associate professor of interdisciplinary humanities and the F.M. Kirby Foundation Chair of Leadership and Character at Wake Forest, Michael also serves as an associate fellow of the Oxford Character Project at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, a project which helps graduate students in various fields, including government, law, medicine, business, and academia, think about the role of ethics in their professions. Michael’s research and teaching focuses on the ethics of citizenship and the role of virtues in public life, all of which offers many connections to the exploration of vocation.
The sixth season of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features Lee C. Camp, a public theologian and educator. Camp discusses vocational questions in higher education, emphasizing the importance of asking deeper questions about life’s meaning. He encourages students to pursue larger, more truthful narratives to foster meaningful lives and societal impact.
Lee C. Camp
NetVUE’s podcast Callings has launched its sixth season with an episode featuring Lee C. Camp, host of the podcast and nationally syndicated public radio series No Small Endeavor. In this show he’s explored what it means to live a good life in conversation with some of the country’s most notable philosophers, scientists, entertainers, and politicians. Lee is also the Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Lipscomb University, a NetVUE member institution. As a public theologian, author, and social commentator, Lee’s work focuses on Christian ethics, the intersection of faith and politics, and the meaning and pursuit of human flourishing.
In his conversation with hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton, Lee brings a wealth of experience to bear on questions of vocation in higher education. In the process, he challenges more simplistic and subjective notions of “meaningfulness,” which can often overemphasize our individual needs and perspectives. Instead, he encourages us to be good question-askers. “If we can give our students a better set of questions than the questions that they have,” he says, “it will change their lives.” For Lee, these questions often emerge out of the kinds of stories we live our lives by. He urges all of us, but especially undergraduate students, to expand the moral scope of these stories and consider this question: “Am I trying to live by a big enough, true enough story?” he asks, for “if you try to live by a too small, not true enough story, it can cause all sorts of horrific damage, to yourself and the world around you.” Ultimately, Lee encourages listeners to embrace the exciting adventure of living out these larger stories and creatively pursuing the virtuous life.
Click hereto listen to the episode featuring Lee C. Camp, “A Big Enough Story.”
Scott Carlson’s newsletter highlights Rachel Elliot Rigolino’s insights on general-studies programs, emphasizing their value for nontraditional students returning to education. Rigolino argues that these programs foster vocational exploration, despite misconceptions of their lack of rigor. Her students’ experiences illustrate the potential for meaningful academic growth and professional development through such degrees.
Readers unfamiliar with Scott Carlson’s newsletter “The Edge” (which appears on the The Chronicle of Higher Education) might find a post from this past summer inspiring and relevant to the work we do within vocation studies. In this post, he celebrates one of the winners of its “Edge Essay Contest”—Rachel Elliot Rigolino and her submission, “What My General-Studies Students Taught Me About Higher Ed’s Future.” As a lecturer of English and coordinator of the Supplemental Writing Workshop at the State University of New York at New Paltz, Rigolino uses her experience in these areas to argue “for the power of an unusual approach,” as Carlson writes, “in service to a nontraditional student population.”
NetVUE’s podcast Callings has wrapped up its fifth season with a bonus episode featuring highlights from various interviews. It offers valuable insights and advice for undergraduate students on understanding vocation and navigating life’s uncertainties. Guests discuss the importance of adaptability, resilience, and the complexities of pursuing one’s calling amidst challenges.
NetVUE’s podcast Callings has concluded its fifth season with the release of its annual bonus “Highlights” episode. It features clips from this season’s interviews, offering advice to undergraduate students on how they might think about vocation and the search for purpose and meaning in their lives. These excerpts are not only gems in their own right—representing the most interesting insights from the season—but they also provide listeners brief reflections that might be useful for classroom activities or points of departure for writing or discussion in their work with undergraduate students.
Guests include (top row, left to right) John Inazu, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, and Caryn Riswold; and (bottom row, left to right) Abel Chávez, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Jennifer Herdt.
The final episode of this season of Callings features Jennifer Herdt, a professor of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School, discussing virtue ethics and the good life. She emphasizes that living well isn’t about self-gain but instead about being responsive to the world. Herdt encourages asking, “What is worthy of my devotion?” to guide one’s vocation.
Jennifer Herdt
The final episode of this season of Callings features an interview with Jennifer Herdt, the Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics at Yale Divinity School, where she also serves as senior associate dean of faculty affairs. She is the author of many books and articles on virtue ethics, early modern and modern moral thought, and political theology. Her most recent book, Assuming Responsibility: Ecstatic Eudaimonism and the Call the Live Well, engages with questions of calling and obligation to others. Jennifer’s research also explores science-informed theological anthropology, which has been funded by a grant by the Templeton Foundation. In her teaching and research, Jennifer explores the connection between virtues, the good life, and the “call to live well.”
The final episode of this season of NetVUE’s podcast features Kwame Anthony Appiah, an influential philosopher and professor at NYU. He discusses his journey from Ghana through England to the U.S., highlighting the significance of liberal education and the need for students to think critically about diversity and moral dilemmas rather than being told what to think.
