Purposeful Graduate
Why Colleges Must Talk to Students about Vocation
We all know that higher education has changed dramatically over the past two decades. Historically a time of exploration and self-discovery, the college years have been narrowed toward an increasingly singular goal – career training – and college students these days forgo the big questions about who they are and how they can change the world and instead focus single-mindedly on their economic survival. In "The Purposeful Graduate, Tim Clydesdale" elucidates just what a tremendous loss this is, for our youth, our universities, and our future as a society. At the same time, he shows that it doesn't have to be this way: higher education can retain its higher cultural role, and students with a true sense of purpose – of personal, cultural, and intellectual value that cannot be measured by a wage – can be streaming out of every one of its institutions.
The key, he argues, is simple: direct, systematic, and creative programs that engage undergraduates on the question of purpose. Backing up his argument with rich data from a Lilly Endowment grant that funded such programs on eighty-eight different campuses, he shows that thoughtful engagement of the notion of vocational calling by students, faculty, and staff can bring rich rewards for all those involved: greater intellectual development, more robust community involvement, and a more proactive approach to lifelong goals. Nearly every institution he examines – from internationally acclaimed research universities to small liberal arts colleges – is a success story, each designing and implementing its own program, that provides students with deep resources that help them to launch flourishing lives.
Flying in the face of the pessimistic forecast of higher education's emaciated future, Clydesdale offers a profoundly rich alternative, one that can be achieved if we simply muster the courage to talk with students about who they are and what they are meant to do.
Contents:
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. Purposeful Paths
2. Contexts
3. Matters of Design
4. Students
5. Faculty and Staff
6. Strategies and Ecologies
7. Larger Lessons
Appendix 1: List of Participating Institutions in the Lilly Endowment Inc'. s Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation Initiative, 2000-2009
Appendix 2: Methodology
Appendix 3: Interview and Survey Questions
Appendix 4: Visited Campuses, Program Participation, and Postaward Continuation
Appendix 5: Resources for Purpose Exploration Programming
Notes
Index
About the Author
Tim Clydesdale is associate professor of sociology at the College of New Jersey.
Reviews
"There are all sorts of books offered about how to improve higher education, energize students, incentivize teaching, and so forth. But Clydesdale's focus on vocation as a fundamental impetus for directing the student's course in college and beyond makes his book stand out. It is a simple notion that can be generalized to all of higher education, and he offers a bevy of programmatic initiatives that are as feasible as they are sensible" – George Dennis O'Brien, president emeritus of the University of Rochester
"At this time of increasing doubt and uncertainty in higher education, Clydesdale has given us a shining path forward. 'The Purposeful Graduate' is well reasoned yet passionate in its recommendations. It is also a good read, filled with compelling stories of young people searching for meaningful vocations in our complex world. I recommend it to anyone who cares about the future of higher education in this country" – William Damon, Stanford University
