Program Information

The Center for Vocational Reflection has programs to help educate the whole person for a lifetime of leadership and service in a global community. The specific purpose of each of the CVR's programs falls into one of the three broader categories below.

  1. Students: The first set of programs encourages students to think of their lives in terms of vocation, challenges them to lead full lives of commitment and service, and helps them to consider life-paths in which they can develop and utilize both skills and passions.
  2. Faculty and Staff: A second set of programs equips faculty and staff to explore their own sense of calling and nourishes their ability to challenge, guide, and support the faith, career, and life journeys of students.
  3. Campus-wide: A third set of programs builds on Gustavus' commitments to lifelong learning, community engagement, and ties with the Church by offering a variety of opportunities and resources for alumni, congregations, and other friends of the College to reflect on and more intentionally live out their vocations in and for the world.
  1. Encouraging students to think about their lives in terms of vocation
    • Summer Servant-Leadership Program for students who spend the summer working with an organization that contributes to the common good and enables them to grow as servant-leaders
    • Workshops, retreats, and discussion groups for first-year students through seniors on, among other things, life choices, identity, community, vocation
      • First-year student "Big Questions" retreats
      • Residence hall student staff (Collegiate Fellows) training retreat and in-service training sessions
      • First term seminar (FTS) presentations
      • "Re-entry Reflections" for students returning from study abroad
      • "Politics of Homelessness" FTS class reflection session and dinner/discussion
      • "Courage and Light" Workshop
    • January Interim courses such as "Changing the World: Justice, Action and the Meaning of Life"
    • Opportunities to reflect
      • Tea Time (weekly gathering of students to breathe and enjoy community)
      • Chill Out & Wellness Fair (annual wellness conference encouraging the Gustavus community to relax and come together as a campus)
    • Personal Appointments with Chris Johnson (CVR Director) and Amy Pehrson (CVR Assistant Director)
    • Alumni seminars and workshops
  2. Equipping faculty and staff to explore their own sense of belonging
    • New faculty orientation and mentoring program
    • Administrative and staff development workshops, seminars, and reading and discussion groups
    • Church-and-College faculty/administrator retreat
    • "Faculty Development in Service-Learning for Social Justice" program
    • "Teachers Talking" discussion on intersections of vocation, higher education, and good teaching and learning
    • "Courage and Light" Workshop
  3. Building on Gustavus' commitments to lifelong learning, community engagement, and ties with the Church
    • Opportunities for students working at Christian camps or other church-related organizations to participate in Summer Servant-Leadership Program
    • The CVR itself (centrally located "safe space," resources, discernment, communication, program coordination, and assessment)
    • Longitudinal research study of vocational identity development in college students
    • Support for Chapel Apprentice program
    • Support for a comprehensive church leadership program
    • Congregational "field experience" and mentoring opportunities
    • Dinner discussions, ongoing prayer/support groups, etc. around issues of vocation and discernment
    • "Inside Out: Learning with Passion and Purpose" summer leadership program for high school students
    • "Courage and Light" Workshop