Vocation"What ought I to do?" is the Socratic question that drove the liberal arts tradition that has been at the core of Western education. In Christian spirituality, that question has often been framed as one of vocation-that is, "What am I called to become?" Ignatian Spirituality offers a particular wisdom on vocation. It counsels us to discover our personal calling by aligning our gifts and aspirations with what we see as the deepest needs of our world. These classic understandings of vocation coupled with the significant contributions of recent Lilly grant winners ("what is call?" and the three key questions) enhanced our own conversation about vocation at Santa Clara.
DISCOVER stands for "Developing and Inspiring Scholarly Communities Oriented toward Vocational Engagement and Reflection." This title spells out the project's key ingredients and brings together these two recent developments at Santa Clara. The first half of the title-Developing and Inspiring Scholarly Communities-expresses the University's shift to the RLCs which seek to integrate students' academic, social, and spiritual experience. It reflects the conviction that learning happens best in community, where the whole person can be engaged. The Ignatian tradition realizes that the search for a life path needs the wisdom of a mentor and confirmation by actual results. Young people especially need the assistance of good mentors and a broader tradition to distinguish their own hopes from the expectations of others or the demands of the marketplace. Wise mentors can help students discover that they have gifts from God and become responsible adults by using their gifts generously. We call this mentoring role "accompaniment." As students integrate their academic, personal, and spiritual experience through the RLCs, faculty and staff will act as mentors to accompany them and provide sustained resources over time for vocational discernment. These continuing reflections will more likely inculcate a habit of discernment than a single event or brief experience. The elements of the second half of the title-Oriented toward Vocational Engagement and Reflection-capture the unique Ignatian approach to discovering God's call at the intersection where faith engages the world. The Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., set a new standard for Jesuit education at the Santa Clara conference by calling our students to be "persons of well educated solidarity" whose faith aligns them with those most in need. From the perspective of Ignatian spirituality, we find our vocation by engaging the world and reflecting on how that engagement elicits fundamental desires to heal, serve, and create. Because God's spirit speaks through both the world's realities and the gifts of the individual, vocation arises from this interaction of faith and justice, the heart and the world. Our understanding of vocation is captured in the words of Herman Hesse:
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What does vocation mean for Santa Clara University? The invitation from Lilly came at a unique moment in the University's history when two major developments converged. The first was a renewed commitment to faith and justice as the mission of Jesuit institutions of higher education. The recent national conference on Justice in Jesuit Higher Education held at Santa Clara reminded us that an education based on Christian faith must engage a world marked by great promise and widespread suffering. The second development is Santa Clara University's shift from traditional dormitory-style living to four-year Residential Learning Communities (RLCs). These new communities will be physical spaces where students, faculty, and staff integrate what happens inside and outside of the classroom.
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