Category: Conference Reflection

Vocation is for Everyone: Becoming People of Hope

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.

close up of a card with the word hope lying on a tree
Photo by Chris F on Pexels.com

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.

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NetVUE at AAC&U: Advancing Public Purpose through Vocational Exploration

In January, a panel from NetVUE presented at the AAC&U Annual Meeting, focusing on higher education’s public purposes and vocational discernment. Panelists discussed integrating civic engagement, arts accessibility, and career development into education, emphasizing the need for collaboration and purpose in student experiences. The session highlighted both challenges and strategies for fostering student flourishing.

This January, I led a team of five colleagues affiliated with NetVUE who presented at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Annual Meeting: Answering the Call for Constructive Engagement. One of the meeting’s tracks was “Advancing Public Purpose,” providing attendees the chance to explore many related questions: how we define the public purposes of higher education, how we think about telling and retelling our stories, and how a sense of purpose informs our leadership. There were also opportunities to learn more about anchoring purpose in various undergraduate experiences, including liberal arts pathways, civic engagement, research, project-based learning, and career and professional opportunities. Our NetVUE panelists shared concrete strategies for incorporating vocational exploration into undergraduate education by attending to career development and preparation, civic learning, community engagement, student well-being, and purposeful pathways.

Presenters included (left to right): Sheila Bauer-Gatsos, Michelle Hayford, Kamara Jackson, Terese Lund, Richard Sévère, and Darby Ray.
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Connecting to the Common Good: A Reflection on NetVUE’s 2025 Regional Gathering at Furman University

Stephan T. Moore reflects on the enriching experience at NetVUE’s regional gathering focused on vocation and the common good at Furman University. The event fostered camaraderie among attendees, encouraging discussions on personal journeys and their impact in higher education. The gathering emphasized the importance of collective commitment to the common good for students.

Stephan T. Moore

Reflecting on my experience in February at Furman University’s regional NetVUE gathering—Vocation and the Common Good: The Call of Belonging and Community—I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to connect with so many remarkable colleagues and scholars from across the country. The environment fostered a deep sense of camaraderie, where five representatives from my own institution, Catawba College, came together with a shared purpose without being influenced by our titles or organizational structures.

As we gathered around stories of laughter, childhood memories, and our vocational work, I was reminded that our individual journeys—both professional and personal—have brought us to this point, where we strive for a common goal: impacting the lives of all of the students we serve, whether they are traditional or non-traditional. Our work is about creating a stable foundation for our institutions to thrive and continue to serve these students for years to come.

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Called to the Common Good in Teacher Education: Reflections on the 2024 NetVUE Keynote Address

In her keynote address at the 2024 NetVUE Conference, Meghan Sullivan, professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, offered insight into how and why we can and should help our students deeply consider their callings.

In professions known for producing heroes, teaching ranks among the top. As Christine Jeske observes in her chapter in Called Beyond Our Selves: Vocation and the Common Good, teaching is found among the short list of “‘good’ vocations” whose work is assumed by our society to flow out of an abundant generosity. Teachers are famously overworked and underpaid, and as a teacher educator I’m constantly mindful of this backdrop for much of my work, including the facilitation of vocational exploration and discernment among undergraduate students.

Meghan Sullivan

In her keynote address at the 2024 NetVUE Conference, Meghan Sullivan, professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, offered insight into how and why we can and should help our students deeply consider their callings. She reminded us that when students experience a lack of training, a lack of a sense of vocation, and a lack of being formed and habituated in a great community when they’re young, they can more easily come to believe that everything truly is about them. The result of this lack of formation can lead to a pursuit of money and power as if nothing else is worth aiming for in life. Sometimes, these students can eventually acquire enough power to destroy the common good.

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