NetVUE Regional Conference Hosted by AdventHealth University

Presenter(s): Dr. Kay Webb and Dr. Amanda Slone, University of Pikeville

This session introduces "vocational living"—a lifelong posture encompassing work, family, community, and service. Grounded in a 2023 NetVUE-funded initiative at the University of Pikeville (UPIKE), this presentation outlines how our Center for Career, Vocation, and Leadership serves as a hub to cultivate a shared vocabulary across academics, first-year advising, and athletics. By empowering "natural champions" among faculty and staff, we integrate vocational themes directly into existing classrooms and playing fields.

Participants will engage in guided discussion and small-group reflection while exploring practical strategies for identifying campus champions who can advance vocation-centered work across campus. We will share examples of how vocational themes have been integrated into classrooms and student programming, along with the frameworks and collaborative practices that have helped build a campus-wide culture of vocation. Participants will leave with adaptable ideas for fostering vocational discernment and creating meaningful partnerships within their own institutional contexts.
 

Presenter(s): AHU Administration

How can vocation and whole-person education move beyond inspiring concepts to become guiding principles for institutional decision-making? In this interactive session, AdventHealth University leaders will explore how vocation and Whole-Person Education can be intentionally integrated into the university's strategic framework. Participants will examine how mission, institutional priorities, student success, faculty development, and organizational culture can be aligned around a shared vision of educating graduates who not only excel professionally but also discover purpose, cultivate wellbeing, foster belonging, and live lives of meaningful service. The session will include an overview of AHU's strategic approach, lessons learned, and facilitated conversation on practical strategies for embedding vocation into long-term institutional planning.

Presenter(s): Dr. Erica Caton, AdventHealth University

Join colleagues in learning about the redesign of a gateway course that intentionally integrates Whole Person Education through collaborative inquiry, authentic assessment, and reflective practice. Instead of treating vocation as a single course topic, the redesign embedded the themes of belonging, well-being, fulfillment, and purpose throughout the curriculum. Students conduct interviews with caregivers and care receivers, collaboratively analyze shared experiences, and progressively develop a personal philosophy of healthcare. These scaffolded learning experiences emphasized listening, community building, and meaning-making while fostering the relational competencies essential to healthcare practice. Collaborating with faculty developers, instructors intentionally align learning outcomes, assessments, and pedagogy with institutional commitments to Whole Person Education. Participants will leave this session with adaptable ideas for creating learning experiences that advance learning and whole-person development.

Presenter(s): Dr. Carjamin Scott, AdventHealth University

As higher education faces increasing pressure to demonstrate return on investment, workforce outcomes, and measurable career success, mission-driven institutions face a critical challenge: how do we communicate the enduring value of whole-person education in a culture increasingly shaped by transactional expectations?

This session explores how institutional leaders can rethink and reframe the value proposition of higher education through the lens of vocation, purpose, and human flourishing. Drawing on current work in enrollment management and institutional messaging, participants will examine the tension between market demands and mission commitments, explore emerging approaches to communicating transformational outcomes, and consider how mission-driven universities can articulate their distinctive contribution to students and society.

Through facilitated discussion, reflection, and collaborative exercises, attendees will evaluate their own institutional narratives and identify opportunities to better connect career preparation with vocational discernment, personal growth, and meaningful service. 

Rather than presenting a completed model, this session invites participants into a shared conversation about the future of mission-centered higher education and the role leaders play in helping students pursue both professional success and purposeful lives.

Presenter(s): Dr. Richard Meagher, Randolph-Macon College

To acknowledge the multiple callings of the student as a whole person, educators must ask them to consider the communities into which they are born and/or join by choice. In this sense, vocation involves questions of our obligations, or what we owe to others. These are necessarily political questions. In an environment increasingly challenged by economic pressures, political divides, and new technology, how can we help students discern answers? Should we? In this session, educators will participate in a classroom advocacy assignment that encourages students to think through civic engagement and their community obligations. Participants will leave the session with a practical model they can incorporate into their work with students, as well as a framework for considering whether and why vocational education by necessity must include the political.

Presenter(s): Dr. Sandra Dunbar-Smalley, AdventHealth

This workshop will describe common current stressors and the impact on health. This will include the increasing mental health issues and chronic diseases that are prevalent in our society.

Following this, a variety of types of rest and how to be intentional about creating life harmony will be provided. Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith's work that highlights creative and spiritual rest, among others, will be shared. 

The audience will have an opportunity to take a short quiz regarding rest and to engage in a life harmony activity for discussion and personal action steps. 

The presentation will also include support from evidence-based literature and research regarding the value of these wholistic and healing perspectives and activities, in order to live our best lives.

Presenter(s): Professors Angela Sampson and Vicki Case, AdventHealth University

Leisure is often viewed as time away from work or productivity, yet occupational therapy recognizes leisure as a meaningful occupation that promotes health, shapes identity, develops strengths, nurtures relationships, and contributes to overall well-being. This interactive session explores how intentional leisure experiences can become pathways to vocational discernment, helping individuals discover their gifts, passions, and sense of purpose. Through the lens of Whole Person Education, participants will consider how meaningful engagement in leisure fosters personal growth, reflection, belonging, and ultimately a deeper understanding of one's calling. Participants will engage in a brief creative art activity designed to illustrate how occupation itself can facilitate self-discovery and reflection. Together, we will examine practical strategies for integrating meaningful leisure experiences into higher education so that they are recognized not as distractions from learning, but as opportunities for formation. By the end of the session, participants will be able to describe leisure as a meaningful occupation that contributes to identity formation, explain its role in vocational discernment, reflect on how their own leisure pursuits have influenced their calling, and identify ways institutions can intentionally leverage leisure to advance Whole Person Education and support student flourishing.

Presenter(s): Dr. Carole Anderson, Burman University

The world has changed significantly in just a few short years, leaving our young people to choose their vocations and navigate their life’s purpose amidst increasing complexity and uncertainty. Technology and the online world have left our young people (and us, too!) not only connected, but also completely disconnected at the same time. While limitless information is right at their fingertips, it has left them feeling empty and searching for something more.

What kind of lifestyle and core ingredients will allow them to flourish despite ongoing change and potential future struggles? What does it truly mean to flourish, and is it possible to do so even in the midst of hardship? How can current research on living well, flourishing, and lifestyle medicine be applied to an educational setting and vocational calling? These topics will be explored as we gather to connect and learn together.