Level II Vocation and Purpose

What next? Planning life after LRU

Congratulations! You have made it to your junior or senior year; you have chosen a major; maybe you can even start to imagine life after LR. This module is designed to help you think about your future: who do you want to be? what do you want your life to look like? can you create a life of purpose? how?

This segment is not directly related to our class but to the work of the Living Well Center for Vocation and Purpose. In an effort to reach junior and senior students, as you start (or continue) thinking about what comes after college, the LWC asks you to pause and consider your vocation journey. If you are taking another Level II class this semester and are completing this assignment in that class, as well, you may submit the same assignment for both classes.

Student Learning Outcomes

When you complete this module you will be able to to:

- begin articulating a sense of vocational discernment,

- relate this sense of vocational discernment to your major,

- articulate what you understand yourself to need in order to live a life of purpose.

Activities

Vocation is so much more than "what do you want to be when you grow up?" or even "what do you plan to do with that major?" Vocation includes these things, but it is a much deeper understanding of how you want your life to look; of what you believe you are called, in poet Mary Oliver's words, "to do with your one wild and precious life?"

In order to begin thinking about this:

First, visit the Living Well Center's YouTube channel playlist on "Vocation" . You are invited to watch as many as you would like. But pick at least one that most interests you and watch it.

Then, visit the Living Well Center's "Lives Worth Living" video library. And, again, you are invited to watch as many as you would like. But pick at least one that most interests you and watch it.

Assignments

After you have watched the videos above, write a brief reflection that addresses the following:

- what do you understand "vocation" to mean?

- how do you understand your own vocation?

- how does your choice of major(s) reflect and/or give shape to your sense of vocation?

- what specific things do you need in order to find meaning in what you are doing?