Recommendation from the Faith Task Force:
Incorporate more opportunities that intentionally engage students in vocational exploration within the overall Gustavus experience.
Additional explanation:
A means to accomplish this would be engaging at least one member in each interested discipline/department to be trained by Center for Vocational Reflection staff at incorporating vocational reflection within their coursework or employment experience, and to have this trained faculty/staff member assist in training the other members of their department. A training plan by the Center for Vocational Reflection and identification of faculty/staff members from the interested departments for training should be established before the end of spring 2010. Additional ideas we wondered about for incorporating vocational exploration in the Gustavus experience:
• In cooperation with the First Term Seminar (FTS) program, train, and recommend all FTS faculty to develop monthly reflective practices within their FTS class.
• Develop a required sophomore retreat helping students identify and connect their passions and ways they might serve to academics, and reflecting on service, leadership, and vocation. The content of this retreat would include concrete ideas and theories, opportunity to practice reflection, and development of a service plan within their course of study in something they “love.”
• Venues for opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to reflect, focus, and meditate could be Christ Chapel, the Arboretum, a proposed meditation garden, or a designated meditation space.
• The Chapel service itself could offer occasions for silence or meditative worship through Taizé and familiar forms of liturgy.
This recommendation was placed in the Spiritual Growth and Development Strategic Framework Substantive Category using the language:
Incorporate more opportunities that intentionally engage students in vocational exploration within the overall Gustavus experience.
This recommendation was placed is Tier 1 and is being monitored by the President.