Vocation and the College Experience

Vocation and the College Experience: these programs are designed to enable all Maryville students to explore their future lives and work in relation to a sense of vocation and in relation to their underlying religious faith or existential convictions. These programs include:

  • Diagnostic Testing for Freshmen — two or three selected diagnostic inventories (assessing personal and vocational interests, leadership and personal qualities, etc.) given to students during the middle part of their freshman year
  • Advisor/Mentor Retreats — a series of annual afternoon or evening retreats for faculty advisors and their own group of advisees and "mentorees"
  • Faculty Workshops — a series of workshops for faculty to help deepen their attention to questions of faith and vocation in the curriculum, to assist them in their role as advisors and mentors, and to equip them to properly understand and interpret the results of the diagnostic inventories
  • Parent Workshops — a series of parent workshops offered during Fall Family Weekend to educate parents about the meaning of vocation, about why we think it is important, about the journey of exploration that we will attempt to lead their sons and daughters on, and about the diagnostic tools that we will be using as part of that journey
  • Lilly Summer Internships — up to ten internships offered each summer enabling Maryville College students to get firsthand experience in quality professional, nonprofit, or corporate work settings
  • Community Service and Professional Meetings — funding of approximately 15 students per year to participate in a service project or professional meeting or conference related to their area of interest
  • Vocation Dinners — two dinners per year (one per semester) in which a feature speaker tells students the particular story of his or her own life and sense of calling
  • Faculty Exploration of Vocation — eight summer stipends per year to foster faculty exploration of vocation and some additional resources to allow faculty to attend conferences or to engage in other forms of activity that directly pertain to and facilitate their exploration of vocation