History of the CSLThe Center for Servant Leadership
In keeping with its long-standing mission to prepare students for fulfilling lives of leadership and service in society, Gustavus Adolphus College launched the Center for Servant Leadership (CSL) in 2011.
The Center invites students, faculty, staff, alumni, congregational and community partners, and friends of the College to discover their own ways to answer the Gustavus invitation to “Make Your Life Count.”The CSL brought together four Offices that existed separately for many years.
Career Center
The Career Center was started at Gustavus in 1977. Since the 1960s there was a staff member working, at least part-time, helping graduating seniors with job searching. The first internships began in the early 1970s. By the late 1970s there was a vibrant internship program with numerous opportunities around the United States and internationally.
Office of Church Relations
The ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) merger of 1988 brought together nearly 30 Lutheran colleges and universities previously governed by the previous Lutheran Church bodies, ALC and LCA under a variety of arrangements. When the new ELCA denomination was formed, each college was asked to choose one of three groups to approve their college trustees: the National Church Convention; a regional Synod convention; or an Association of Congregations convention including a business meeting. Gustavus chose the latter option, and in 1988 the Association of Congregations was formed.
Currently there are over 500 members of the Association, the largest of its kind in the ELCA. The Association of Congregations elects the Gustavus Board of Trustees and the Board of the Association of Congregations at its annual business meeting in April and its congregations serve as the College’s primary connection to the Church.
Community Service Center
In 1993 Gustavus created the Community Service Center to provide consistent staff and budget support for a wide variety of service activities already happening at the College. Prior to the creation of the Community Service Center many of the service activities and student organizations under the umbrella of M.A.G.I.C. (Meaningful Activities for Gusties In the Community) that was coordinated by a student and housed in the Student Activities Office. The longest running service program is the Big Partner/Little Partner program that started in 1963.
Center for Vocational Reflection
Launched in 2001 with the generous support of the Lilly Endowment, and as one of a few dozen programs like it in the nation, the Center for Vocational Reflection (CVR) was rooted in and enriched the heart of who we are and what we do as a liberal arts, residential, church-related college. The overall aim of the vocation initiative is to reflect on life as a vocation – a calling to live out one’s distinctive gifts, passions, and senses of faith and meaning in ways that benefit the community and help to address the world’s deep needs.
With the creation of the CSL the College continues to evolve the work of these areas and advanced progress of more than 60 recommendations from the Commission Gustavus 150 strategic planning process.