Category: Series

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.

woman in blue and white basketball jersey holding brown basketball
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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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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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Vocation and Life Studies

The final post in this series discusses how creative writing pedagogy can benefit vocational education. It emphasizes the importance of life stories in addressing students’ identity crises and fears about the future. By studying the lives of various figures, students can gain insights into their own unpredictable journeys, learning that success often comes from embracing unexpected paths and overcoming failures.

The final post in a series on what creative writing pedagogy has to offer vocational teaching in any discipline.

Teaching and advising creative writing students can mean dealing with frequent identity crises. “But how do I become a real writer?” my students often ask. “How do I get published?” they want to know, or, “How can I pay my rent while pursuing my art?” Instructors of other disciplines may be able to relate, with students doubting their abilities to become a skilled enough doctor, lawyer, or engineer. “Do I really have what it takes to go to med school?” they might ask, or, “How do I choose between my passions and a job that pays the bills?”

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Vocation, Lineage, and Legacy

Creative writing pedagogy can enhance vocational teaching across disciplines by encouraging students to construct literary “family trees,” tracing their artistic influences. This exercise fosters a sense of belonging and legacy, linking students to historical figures in their fields. It empowers them to explore their roots, celebrate their influences, and envision their future contributions.

A series of posts on what creative writing pedagogy has to offer vocational teaching in any discipline.

Kalpis painting of Sappho by the Sappho Painter (c. 510 BC).

One of the most revealing exercises that teachers regularly assign in the creative writing classroom is the construction of a literary “family tree”—a map of a student writer’s artistic influences, those influences’ influences, and so on. In my creative writing MFA program, I had to construct a family tree of 20 poets who had shaped my own writing style, starting with 20th-century poet Adrienne Rich and stretching back from her to Emily Dickinson in the 19th century, on to Shakespeare, and all the way back to Sappho, who wrote 2,500 years ago. I then read and took an exam on all these figures’ writing. The exam resembled comprehensive exams in a PhD program, but with the explicit framework of my own personal artistic lineage and legacy.

In this post, I offer the “family tree” as a tool to be used by instructors in any discipline to help students on their vocational journeys. 

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Choosing Hope: A Vocation for Educators

This post explores the relationship between vocation and hope, arguing that very nature of a purposeful vocation obliges us to cultivate hope in our lives and our work. Especially as educators, we are called to choose hope in our work with students and create meaningful learning experiences that allow them to do so the same.

a person holding an open book
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You will not find hope in the headlines. A daily reader of the news and a parent of children ages four, six, and nine, I confronted this paralyzing fact when I read this headline in early September—“Minneapolis Catholic school shooting leaves 2 children dead, 21 people injured.” As I began drafting my concluding post to this series on the theme of hope, I wondered: How do I write about hope in this context? I faced an especially steep challenge, one that had already felt formidable months ago. As I mourned the tragic shooting, I came to see more clearly: hope is, in and of itself, a chosen vocation. It requires practice, strength, and imagination—a wholehearted willingness to keep envisioning new possibilities, even when the odds feel long. Truth be told, it is the harder choice.

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Understanding Alienation: Marx, Vocation, and Student Formation

The text explores the tension between students’ job aspirations and their pursuit of meaningful work. It highlights Marx’s critique of capitalism, emphasizing alienation and the lack of fulfillment it brings to workers. The author argues for education that prioritizes personal growth and purpose, encouraging students to seek fulfillment beyond traditional employment.

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.

Students often ask us: What kind of job will I be able to get with my degree? This occupational focus can be frustrating for those of us in higher education who want students to think more holistically about their vocations and explore questions like: How can I contribute to the common good? What do I want to accomplish with my life? What would be a fulfilling way to spend my time?

As a sociologist, I am inclined to reframe these questions through the lens of my discipline. When students struggle with the job question, I can’t help but think about the social and economic forces that control the kinds of positions that are available to them. Who or what creates the job market they will encounter? What forces shape how they will spend their time and energy? What structures the possible goals they will devote their lives to accomplishing?

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Hope through Connection V: Becoming Ourselves in Community

In a gateway course at St. Norbert College, community-building enhances students’ vocational exploration. Through personal conferences, peer mentorship, and intentional interactions, this gateway course fosters trust and support. This class helps students discover their voices and lays a foundation for meaningful relationships and learning, emphasizing that vocation flourishes within community contexts.

Imagine starting your semester by asking your students, “Who inspired you as a child or teen? What lessons did they offer?” Or ending the course with this question: “What kind of world would you like to leave behind for future generations? How can you start to shape that world now?” Drawn from NetVUE’s Conversation Cards, these questions have set the stage for community-building in our gateway course for the English major at St. Nobert College. It may feel like such conversations are off topic, even a tangent. But we—Deirdre, the course’s professor, and Caroline, her student—give you permission to do this. We assure you that it will pay off.

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Vocation as Process: Learning through Creative Failure

Creative writing pedagogy can enrich vocational teaching by emphasizing process over product, embracing failure, and prioritizing revision. This approach fosters courage, openness, and trust in students while encouraging them to take risks and learn from their mistakes. Ultimately, self-trust and experimentation lead to personal and professional growth.

A series of posts on what creative writing pedagogy has to offer vocational teaching in any discipline.

In On Being Stuck: Tapping Into the Creative Power of Writer’s Block, Laraine Herring writes, “We all have methods for getting in our own way. It’s human nature.” Her point is true for everyone—not just for creative writers. It’s especially true for students on their vocational journeys. As I mentioned in the first post in my series, the skills required for vocational discernment—courage, openness, and trust—are the same skills required for making art. And the same barriers to making good art—fear, self-doubt, and self-criticism—can also block or challenge students as they explore and discern their vocations. That’s why I think creative writing pedagogy offers helpful frameworks for all instructors when it comes to teaching vocation.

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Navigating Your Cultural Commute: A Scientist’s Approach to Vocation

The article discusses the integration of vocational discernment into a physics course at Pacific Lutheran University, inspired by a faculty workshop. Students engage in activities to explore their values and career paths alongside academic learning. The author emphasizes the importance of considering your cultural commute and the broader implications of vocational choices on your community of origin.

A series exploring the teaching of vocation in physics.

“The new vocation section was by far my favorite portion of the course and greatly impacted my post-university goals.”

“I wish I had done this assignment my first year of college.”

Students in my physics capstone course at Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) shared these comments in their course evaluations about the new vocational curriculum that I introduced the last time I taught it. After reviewing these course materials, a colleague also wrote, “I am SERIOUSLY impressed by all that you have done with this course! It is amazing and I wish I’d had training like this when I was in college.” As a professor, there are moments when you know you’ve created something impactful. This was one of those moments for me.

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