Finding Your Path
We all do it. We meet someone new and the first thing we ask is “What do you do?” Too often we define ourselves by what we do for a living. For those who cannot pursue a path they don’t believe in, what they do is an extension of who they are. And those are just the people who turn to the Lilly Project to find their calling in life.
Susanna Bee ’07 wanted to explore her Chinese heritage and discover a form of healing that had helped her mother through a tough illness. Daniel Meyers ’07 hoped to learn about seminaries as he sought opportunities to explore his Christian faith. Jessica Cass ’07 wondered if she had the stamina to counsel those facing critical medical decisions. Keara Cummings ’07 pondered the experiences of female rabbis as she decided whether to follow that path herself.
These students’ majors include anthropology, biochemistry, religious studies and biology, but they, like many others at liberal arts colleges, seek opportunities beyond the classroom to explore their future calling and bring meaning to their lives.
Since the Lilly Project for Theological, Spiritual and Ethical Exploration of Vocation came to Willamette in 2001, people across campus have engaged in research, service and discussion to help students discover their vocation. Vocation at Willamette holds a broader definition than simply a specific occupation or a religious career. It’s about exploring a calling in life — whether that’s a calling to faith, to service or to a countless array of other ends — and choosing your best personal path.
“It’s a project I think is perfect for a liberal arts campus,” says Gretchen Flesher Moon, chair of the English Department, director of the Writing Center and a member of the Lilly Project Advisory Board. “It’s something that, without being career-oriented, really helps students figure out how their experiences in college affect what they will do with the rest of their lives.”
The three paths of exploration — theological, spiritual and ethical — wind their way in numerous directions and keep the program from being an entirely religion-focused endeavor. That’s something organizers say fits well at a university in the Pacific Northwest, where people tend to call themselves “spiritual, not religious” and are less likely to attend church.
“The project takes all forms and shapes on campus, anything from a beach clean-up to a vocational retreat,” says Bee, who has participated in multiple Lilly-funded programs. “The way the Lilly is set up has allowed a larger audience to be affected by it, utilize it and gain from it.”
“We wanted the project to be relevant, helpful and meaningful to as many people as possible,” says Karen Wood, associate chaplain and leader of the Lilly Project at Willamette. “That meant making it applicable to more than just the Christian community. Within the context of Willamette’s campus, we wanted to make it open to people who may not follow a religion but want to lead a meaningful life. We offer them the resources to shape what that meaningful life might look like.”
Some would say this should be a goal of all liberal arts universities, to help students discover their path in life. So in a sense, the Lilly Project also allows the University to reclaim its own vocation in a contemporary way, says Charles Foster ’60, a longtime theological educator. Foster, who taught at numerous schools before retiring as interim dean of Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, has directed several Lilly-funded research projects. He encouraged Willamette leaders to apply to bring the Lilly Project to campus and helped them work on their grant proposal.
“Vocational discussion is part of Willamette’s mission,” Foster says. “This is what a liberal arts education is about — helping students develop the kind of intellectual skills and sense of self as a public citizen that enables them to make a contribution to society.”
Avenues for Exploration
In 1999 the Lilly Endowment, Inc., a philanthropic foundation created by members of the Lilly pharmaceutical family, formed an initiative called Programs for Theological Exploration of Vocation. The initiative asks church-related colleges and universities to establish programs that help students examine the relationship between faith and vocational choices, provide opportunities for gifted young people to explore Christian ministry, and enhance the ability of faculty and staff to teach and mentor students in this arena.
The Lilly Endowment initially awarded grants to 20 schools in 2000; in fall 2001 Willamette was one of 29 additional schools to receive grants. Today 88 schools nationwide have Lilly programs — Willamette is the only one in Oregon and one of just four in the Pacific Northwest.
Willamette’s $2 million, six-year grant brought numerous new programs to campus including new staff: a vocational discernment counselor as well as Karen Wood, who joined the Chaplain’s Office to lead the project. In 2005 Lilly gave Willamette an additional $500,000, matched by the University, to find ways to create an endowment to sustain the program.
At Willamette, the project funds 14 types of opportunities for students and faculty, three geared specifically toward students’ theological exploration — spending a semester studying at a seminary or graduate school of religion, traveling to visit a seminary, or doing a summer internship in a congregation or religiously affiliated agency.
Several opportunities benefit the wider Salem community, including sponsorship of arts events on campus, convocation lectures on vocational issues, and visiting scholars and scholars-in-residence who teach, meet with classes, give public talks and present workshops.
Other aspects are directed specifically toward faculty — summer research grants to explore issues of vocation and grants to redesign courses or develop new ones to address vocation.
Most of the remaining avenues are for students, including outreach grants to help student groups start community service programs, funding for the Take a Break service-oriented spring break program, the chance to meet with a vocational discernment counselor, grants for summer research projects, and retreats to explore personal issues of vocation.
Pathways to Discovery
Jessica Cass didn’t know what to expect when she obtained a Lilly-funded summer internship in the chaplain’s office at Salem Hospital. She knew she was interested in a career in genetic counseling — helping counsel patients who were facing difficult medical decisions — so she thought working in the chaplain’s office would better expose her to the psychological aspects of health care. Before she knew it, she was placed in charge of counseling for the entire family birth center, where she worked with expectant mothers and their families.
The internship was stressful: Cass witnessed people’s pain all day long, then struggled to leave it behind when she went home. “I was seeing people die or watching them come in bloody. If I hadn’t had a group to talk with on campus, I might have been very emotionally distraught.”
Reflection is a crucial component of the Lilly Project. Cass met weekly with Wood and other interns to talk about what they were learning from their job experiences. “We don’t learn by doing,” Wood says. “We learn by thinking about what we’ve done.”
Cass wasn’t sure her work made a difference until one weekend when she was called in at 2 a.m. — a bad sign. She walked in to find a woman who’d had a perfect pregnancy until the sudden onset of a rare syndrome caused internal bleeding that spread to her brain. The baby was saved through a Caesarian section; the mother was brain dead. Cass struggled with how to comfort the woman’s family. “There were a couple of moments I was kind of questioning what my role was. I knew I was supposed to be here to help these people, but I felt weird not crying with them.”
At one point, an obstetrician speaking to the family broke down in tears. “It was at that moment I realized sometimes it’s okay to share a family’s pain with them. I realized that I’m not numb to it, so I knew I had what it takes to do this kind of thing. The first time I saw the husband after that weekend, he came up and gave me this huge hug. That whole summer, I’d been wondering if I was making an impact. That was the point I realized the summer had been worth it for me.”
Sometimes it’s designing a personal research project that can help a student understand his or her place in life. Bee obtained a Lilly grant to travel to China to study reflexology, an ancient form of healing that involves massaging certain parts of the foot to relieve pain in other areas of the body. She became interested in the subject when the technique proved successful in alleviating the serious side effects of Western medications her mother had been taking to battle a difficult illness.
A first-generation Chinese-American, Bee wanted to explore the spirituality of contemporary reflexology — as well as make her first visit to the country of her ancestry. “I think before you can really explore life’s calling, you have to understand who you are,” she says. “More than anything else, I think my project helped me explore a part of who I am, an understanding that will strengthen me in my future endeavors.”
Keara Cummings also used Lilly Project funds to do research. Cummings, who is Jewish, interviewed nine female rabbis about their inspirations and what compelled them to enter a field dominated by men. She discovered she easily identified with many of the women’s experiences. “They became role models for me because I saw in them something I wanted to do,” says Cummings, who now plans to attend rabbinical school. “The project helped me develop and gave me confidence.”
The theological aspects of the project also appealed to Daniel Meyers, whose first connection with Lilly was a summer internship at a local church. Meyers, a Christian, is considering going to seminary — an option he explored by obtaining a second Lilly grant to spend a summer at a theological school. “I used to think that meant you had to be a pastor, but now I know it can be more than that. You can do nonprofit work or social justice work. The Lilly Project has really helped me understand that you don’t have to know everything you want to do in life. Purpose and calling don’t have to be limited.”
The Willamette Way
Each school participating in the Lilly Endowment initiative can tailor the project to fit its campus culture. Many of the other schools receiving Lilly grants have a stronger Christian-oriented focus — including Baylor University, Notre Dame and Calvin College — and thus have a much stronger religious theme in their programs. The Lilly Program at Willamette stays in touch with its United Methodist Church roots through some of the theological-based opportunities, but by no means does it limit the project to Christian exploration or even to religious discoveries. “The definition of vocation doesn’t necessarily mean faith,” Wood says. “Lots of projects ask the students to look at who they are and what’s important in their lives.”
“That’s faith at work, too,” adds Chaplain Charlie Wallace. “It’s just not the traditional faith of ‘I believe in God the Father Almighty.’”
Lilly Advisory Board members Moon and Bill Smaldone say their very presence on the board should help people understand the range of Lilly at Willamette. Moon calls herself a “person of liturgical faith.” Smaldone, history department chair, describes himself as closer to agnostic. Both have been involved with the board since it formed, and both received Lilly grants to develop courses that explore vocational issues.
“The Lilly Project was written so it would have a secular component,” Smaldone says. “It broadens the range of projects that we’re willing to support. Having people like me on the board symbolizes that range.”
The Lilly Project has transformed the direction of conversations on campus, Wood says — discussions of meaning and purpose in life are no longer seen as self-absorbed.
“Willamette is a wonderful place for this project,” Moon says. “The idea that you should do good as well as do well is very alive here. Opportunities to reflect on what makes a good life, a life worth living, are welcomed among our students.”