Lilly Conference on VocationMarch 14, 2002 at 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Gustavus Adolphus College will publicly celebrate this year's launch of its Center for Vocational Reflection at this conference. Events include (those marked public are free and open to all):

Wednesday, March 13

7-8 p.m. -- Public keynote address titled "Let Your Life Speak: Higher Education and the Needs of the World" by Parker Palmer, followed by audience Q & A, in Alumni Hall;

8:30-9 p.m. -- Public reception and post-address conversation, hosted by the Center for Vocational Reflection and Vocation House residents, in Linner Lounge.

Thursday, March 14

8:15-9:45 a.m. -- "Vocation in Life and Work": Reflections and conversation on vocation in our own lives and work and on helping students to reflect on their lives in terms of vocation, with campus support staff and student affairs staff, in Linner Lounge;

10-10:20 a.m. -- Public Daily Chapel homily by Parker Palmer;

10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m. -- "The Big Questions": A workshop with Parker Palmer for students on their "big questions" (e.g., Who am I, and what's my place in the world? Why am I here? What am I to become, and how will I know? How do I discover my vocation/interests/passions?), in a Campus Center banquet room;

3:30-5:30 p.m. -- "Education as Transformation": A workshop with Parker Palmer for faculty, administrators, and staff from Gustavus and area schools on issues of vocation in teaching and learning, education for citizenship and civic engagement, and active/experiential pedagogy, in Alumni Hall.

Keynote speaker Parker Palmer is an internationally renowned writer, teacher, and activist who works independently on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality, and social change. The author of such widely praised books as The Courage To Teach, Let Your Life Speak, The Active Life, To Know As We Are Known, and The Company of Strangers, Palmer has been named one of the thirty "most influential senior leaders" in higher education and one of the ten key "agenda-setters" of the past decade. He has held a variety of positions in education, religious, and social change with such institutions as Georgetown University, the Danforth Foundation, the National Council of Churches, and the Lilly Endowment. A senior associate of the American Association for Higher Education and senior advisor to the Fetzer Institute, for whom he designed the Teacher Formation Program for K-12 educators, Palmer holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley as well as several honorary doctorates from institutions across the country.

Sponsored by: The Center for Vocational Reflection.