Fresno Pacific University has received a Professional Development Award totaling $27,999 from the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE). The grant will support professional development that helps equip faculty to better guide students as they explore their purpose and calling.
The project aims to deepen FPU’s commitment to helping students make vocational exploration a meaningful part of their academic experience.
The funding will provide two cohorts of interdisciplinary faculty with a retreat and four workshops in which participants will explore their own vocational journeys, receive training in culturally responsive pedagogy, examine factors that inhibit vocational exploration, and develop and pilot course components designed to help students connect learning with purpose. After piloting and assessing these components, faculty members will share their insights with colleagues and the broader university community.
Laura Schmidt Roberts, Ph.D., professor of biblical and theological studies and director of GE and faculty development, serves as the grant director for this project. “The overarching goal is to help students explore the shape of their vocation as an integral part of their educational formation at Fresno Pacific,” said Schmidt Roberts. “We want to equip faculty with approaches that are real and relevant, culturally appropriate and engaging, and aligned with the Fresno Pacific Idea.”
This year NetVUE awarded the Professional Development Award to 43 institutions in the total amount of $889,000.
NetVUE is a program of the Council of Independent Colleges and a nationwide network of colleges and universities formed to support and enrich vocational exploration and discernment among undergraduate students. Financial support of NetVUE comes from a combination of membership dues and the generosity of Lilly Endowment Inc.