Faith & Vocation Stories | Introduction

In Fall 2020, Campbell staff members invested in themselves and their coworkers by taking part in a virtual cohort on a quest to illuminate their gifts and career paths. The staff members used reading and discussion groups to get to know one another and told stories from their own lives and the lives of others who made an impact on them. 

Led by Vice President for Spiritual Life and Campus Minister Faithe Beam, the cohort met in two groups of six and was funded through a $10,000 grant from NetVUE (Network for Vocation in Theological Education) to engage staff in the process of vocational discernment. Participants read “Let Your Life Speak” by Parker Palmer, which shares insights and wisdom on the learning from our core attributes and following a sense of meaning and purpose. They also discussed their faith journeys and the integration of their spiritual lives at Campbell. 

Cohort discussion encouraged personal spiritual formation, interdisciplinary exploration of the meaning of “calling” and new ideas and practices toward engaging students in career discernment. With a better understanding of why and how they came to their career path, the staff members could guide students toward their own journeys of reflection and decision-making.

“The cohorts have created a space for staff to examine their purpose, their own spiritual growth and the ways they can talk about that in meaningful ways with students they interact with,” said Beam. “It invites us to examine what we believe and how that guides how we live, and it’s been an honor to walk this path with our staff over the past year.”

Not only did the staff learn from one another, they also built lasting friendships over Zoom sessions filled with compassion, honestly, empathy and humor. As they explored their philosophies, strengths and weaknesses, six members of the cohort chose to film a telling of their stories about meaning and purpose. Over the next few months, Campbell will be sharing those stories in the hopes that faculty, staff, students and friends might learn something new about themselves and their own calling.