By Christian Bell

News Editor

Following months of research, proposal drafts, and focus groups, Calvin was awarded a $2 million grant by the Lilly Foundation for the development of programs that will lead to a stronger vocational focus on campus.

The Lilly Foundation is a private, non-profit organization that awards funds to colleges for the theological exploration of vocation.

Calvin began the work of applying for the Lilly grant last year. The college was initially awarded an initial $50,000 to fund research for further grant application. With that money, several approaches were used to determine the strength of Calvin's vocational focus, how students viewed the concept of ``vocation,'' and what improvements a grant from the Lilly Foundation could make.

With that data in hand, a multi-hundred-page grant application was prepared for the Lilly Foundation outlining why Calvin would be a good choice for the grant and how the money would be put to use for strengthening vocational development. The grant writers received notification of the award last Monday, and have already set to work putting it to use.

A five-member focus group oversaw the grant application process. On that team were Dean of Academic Administration Shirley Roels, Vice President for Student Life Shirley Hoogstra, interim Dean of the Chapel and Director of the Institute for Christian Worship John Witvliet, Director of Foundation Relations Lois Konyndyk, and Dean for Instruction Claudia Beversluis.

The focus of the proposal and the ensuing work is focusing on ``embedding vocation deeply across the whole college.'' The concept of vocation moves beyond simply an occupation for which one is paid. ``Vocation'' in the view of those preparing the grant is the entire spectrum of one's life in dedication to the service of God.

``We have a broad concept of vocation here,'' Roels said. ``We're very intent on having every student in every profession or every walk of life feel called. Vocation is much broader than just a career; all of life is vocation.

``A job is a job, that's not a vocation. A job or a career may be part of a vocation, but a Christian vocation is answering the question, `How do I respond to God in all areas of my life?' In our thinking, vocation is not only conceptual development or intellectual development, it is also at the same time a development of the heart and will. We want to take an approach that is looking at college students as whole people.

``Half the grant is really intended to deepen the understanding of vocation across the entire campus.''

The grant will also provide opportunities for faculty to do research and scholarship about how the concept of vocation fits into their particular field of study. The grant development team hopes it will broaden into directly affecting how courses are being taught and helping students to effectively learn about vocation.

Roels said one consideration of vocation in the classroom is, ``How do we fit what we know about the cognitive and the emotional and the spiritual side of students with the subject matter of what we're teaching?

``With the new core, we have a vocational theme in the freshmen year, but we need to make sure that vocational theme is drawn through every year so that it is ever present for sophomores, juniors, and seniors.''

Research and academic components to vocational philosophy are not the only reason for the award of the funds, however; another part of the proposal seeks to strengthen the view of spiritual vocations on campus. To this effect, Roels cited studies that show a troubling vacuity of future leadership in the church.

Calvin feels it can affect a change in this respect by training and equipping students for work in the church and get them excited about the possibilities. One way this will be done is to create a position for a ``Director of Spiritual Leadership Development,'' who will very directly work with the Spiritual Activities Coordinators in the dormitories and spiritual leaders in off-campus settings such as the Project Neighborhood house. The director will also talk to faculty about how they can contribute to what goes on in the dorms, and how they can relate some of these topics in their courses, such as discussions on ethical questions within scientific fields.

There will also be a strong emphasis on youth and worship ministry. For this, there will be an endowment for a Jubilee Scholarship program. Jubilee scholars will be juniors who are interested in pursuing a vocation in church ministry; in exchange for work in worship programs on campus throughout the year, they will receive a $4,000 scholarship and a summer internship.

Additionally, new courses will be developed for the ministry focus, including a joint course offering with the Seminary. There will also be a new Ministry Resource Center in the library that will collect a wide breadth of texts, music, and other worship materials.

The implementation of all the programs will begin next fall.

Calvin is among prestigious schools who are receiving the grant. Other recipients include Duke University, Pepperdine, Marquette, and Wake Forest.