Tag: hope

Re-Experiencing the 2026 NetVUE Conference

In March, NetVUE hosted its biannual conference focused on vocational programming in higher education, themed “Vocation: An Itinerary of Hope.” Keynote speakers included Norman Wirzba and Almeda M. Wright, who shared transformative ideas. Highlights were summarized in an April 16 webinar, engaging discussions on vocation, advocacy, and resources for member institutions.

This March, NetVUE hosted its biennial conference, where teams from member institutions gathered to learn from each other, experience fellowship, and deepen their advocacy in relation to vocational programming for undergraduates at institutions of higher education. This conference’s theme—Vocation: An Itinerary of Hope for Higher Education—allowed attendees to attend thoughtful presentations, learn about cutting-edge ideas in the field, and take advantage of meaningful networking opportunities. NetVUE’s webinar on April 16, 2026, (Re)experiencing the 2026 NetVUE Conference, shared highlights from the event. (Readers at NetVUE member institutions can view recordings and presentations from the conference by following the links in this post and signing in to the NetVUE Online Community.)

Scenes from the 2026 NetVUE conference, including keynote speakers, Norman Wirzba (bottom left) and Almeda M. Wright (top right).

The webinar opened with NetVUE’s executive director David Cunningham providing an overview of the conference, complete with photos from the event. NetVUE staff summarized key points and insights from the keynote speakers, quarter plenaries, and some of the concurrent sessions.

The opening keynote of the conference featured Norman Wirzba, the Gilbert T. Row Distinguished Professor of Theology at Duke University. His lecture, “Vocatio: Called to Transformative Encounter,” explored how education can create rituals for transformative encounters by encouraging individuals to be mindful pilgrims. His latest book, Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis, will be NetVUE’s 2026-2027 Big Read.

The quarter plenaries explored critical issues in higher education that many institutions are currently grappling with. Advocacy and Vocation in Troubled Times focused on strategies to ensure all students have access to vocational programming that fits their needs. Implementing Vocation-Infused Advising shared insights from three institutional models that integrate meaning and purpose into academic advising. Navigating Vocation in an AI World emphasized asking the right questions, centering the human experience, and acknowledging the positive and negative impact of using AI in vocational exploration. Finally, The Purposeful Student Athlete outlined ways that institutions are nurturing student athletes, integrating promising programs and interventions, and shaping athletics as an educational experience.

Two concurrent sessions were also reviewed during the webinar. Deepening Vocation Across Campus centered on institutional leadership’s role in cultivating an environment that supports vocation exploration of faculty and staff. Additionally, 1,500 Purposeful Conversations with Students focused on five big ideas: responsibility, privilege, virtue and vocation, choice, and self-knowledge.

Almeda M. Wright, associate professor of religious education at Yale Divinity School, delivered the closing keynote address, “Teaching to Live Reclaiming the Sometimes-Revolutionary Calling to Teach and Lead.” She shared stories of Black activist educators who demonstrated persistence through peril by being practical, working locally, and demonstrating commitment to the community. Her most recent publication is Teaching to Live: Black Religion, Activist-Educators and Radical Social Change.

Throughout the webinar NetVUE staff and webinar participants took time to discuss these topics further. The webinar host, Rachel Pickett, also shared additional resources, including NetVUE’s website, with information about a variety of resources, including grants, upcoming events, and professional development opportunities; as well, she shared NetVUE’s digital community resources, which includes access to the 2026 NetVUE Conference materials for those faculty and staff at member institutions.

The webinar was recorded and can be accessed (along with additional resources) through NetVUE’s webinar page, which includes links to which all faculty and staff members at NetVUE institutions have access. Interested in becoming an institutional member? You can find more information on NetVUE’s website for membership.

Rachel F. Pickett is the webinar coordinator for NetVUE.

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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A NetVUE Conversation on Vocation and Character

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.

Paul Wadell (left) and Hannah Schell (right).
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Vocation and Pedagogy I: Viewing Our Students with Hope

This post initiates a series on the interplay between vocation and pedagogy, highlighting the significance of hope in the classroom. It emphasizes student engagement and the necessity of viewing learners as valuable individuals. By implementing Universal Design for Learning, educators can create inclusive environments that foster vocational conversations and support students’ unique experiences and aspirations.

The first post in a series exploring the connections between vocation and pedagogy.

“What conversations about meaning and purpose do you wish we were having in the classroom?” I asked a group of my senior students and then held my breath. When I first began thinking about vocation, I felt overwhelmed by both the possibilities and the challenges of integrating it intentionally into my teaching. To help me do so, I invited my students to help me understand what they needed so that we could imagine what was possible. They were eager to engage, and their ideas jumped quickly among three elements: the content of the conversations, the possible structures for activities, and the culture of the classroom. As my students shared their thoughts, they connected content and pedagogy in ways that encouraged me to think more carefully about designing possible activities to give shape to and reinforce the unfolding conversation. It was the beginning of my learning journey, which has led to many interesting observations of the reciprocal relationship between vocational exploration with students and general pedagogy.

In this first post, I want to consider vocational and pedagogical hope in the classroom. Students are shaped by the hopes we hold for them and the value we see in them. Engaging vocation invites us to see our students not merely as the receivers of learning but as people whose experiences, skills, and passions have value. It challenges us to consider how our interactions contribute to their discernment and flourishing. To view students vocationally is to embody hope for them, as Paul Wadell so aptly describes. We cannot think vocationally without hope, and the learning spaces we create contribute to communicating that hope to our students.

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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
Photo by Yelena from Pexels on Pexels.com

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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A Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope: Emmanuel Katongole

Emmanuel Katongole, a Catholic priest and theology professor, discusses his vocational journey in the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, emphasizing themes of identity, belonging, and the complexities of living a life that crosses boundaries. His experiences illustrate how dislocation can help explore questions of home and community and foster a deeper understanding of self and hope in creating a better world.

Emmanuel Katongole

In the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, our hosts John Barton and Erin VanLaningham speak with Emmanuel Katongole, a Catholic priest in Uganda and a professor of theology and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame. Known for his work on violence and politics in sub-Saharan Africa, Katongole is a theologian of peacebuilding and reconciliation who confronts the complexities of callings in various contexts. He is the author of many books, his most recent being Who Are My People? Love, Violence, and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Katharine Hayhoe on the Practice of Hope

Erin VanLaningham and John Barton interview atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe on the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast, Callings.

Katharine Hayhoe

Erin VanLaningham and John Barton interview atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe on the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast, Callings. Katharine is a distinguished professor and the Political Science Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law at Texas Tech University, where she is also an associate in the Public Health program of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. She currently serves as the chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy as well. Her most recent book is Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World.

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Shaun Casey on Diplomacy and Hope

In a new episode of NetVUE’s podcast series Callings, hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speak with Shaun Casey, founding director of the Office of Religion and Global Affairs at the U.S. State Department.

In a new episode of NetVUE’s podcast series Callings, hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton speak with Shaun Casey, founding director of the Office of Religion and Global Affairs at the U.S. State Department.

Shaun’s work explores the overlapping concerns of religion, diplomacy, and public life. Trained as a theologian with an interest in public policy, Shaun held multiple academic positions before he was called to his work at the U.S. State Department by Secretary of State John Kerry. “I want to be a faithful disciple,” he says, “wherever I end up.”

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Hopeful Waiting: Advent and Vocation

Advent points to a specific conclusion, but it is also a season of caring about the process—the process of renewing our hope that we can ready ourselves for what is to come.

Year after year, the academic calendar brings the gift of a rhythmic return to the same moments. If it’s mid-December, then I’m invariably scraping through exam week while ignoring the Christmas cards that should have been in the mail two days ago. As much as this month is about wanting to wind up the current semester, however, it also involves looking ahead. Just this week, I finalized—belatedly and guiltily—the book order for one of my spring classes. Doing so brought a familiar surge of excitement and anticipation. I have taught this class several times, but each new section offers the opportunity to tinker, improve, and of course meet new students. As I clicked “submit” on that book order, I was struck by the similarity between the renewal promised by the academic calendar and that embedded in the liturgical calendar. At this time of year, both calendars ask us to look ahead with hope. And that regular return of hopeful expectation, founded in students’ academic experience, can be a powerful vocational resource.

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A Skeptic’s Hope

My deep concerns about justice and the abundance of unnecessary suffering makes finding hope very challenging. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quote “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” is of little comfort to me because the arc of the moral universe doesn’t appear to bend toward justice on its own. It is the mighty efforts of people who refuse to give in to injustice that bend it in that direction.

As both a cynic and a skeptic, I find hope a particularly challenging commodity to find, especially in recent months. As an atheist I don’t have faith to fall back on or to justify hope. But I do find hope, against my cynicism and despite my skepticism, not because history teaches me that we are inevitably moving toward justice, not because I have faith in a divine being who will ensure it despite human failings, but because the alternative is despair, and we deserve better. My work developing a social justice major, my writing about the problem of evil, and recent events in our country have me thinking about hope a lot lately—searching for hope, really. This essay is a reflection of my thoughts on how I came to choose to hope.

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