A Note From the Director

Friends,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Meetinghouse Program for Christian Leaders Scholarship students at Georgetown College. Let me tell you a little about the beginning of the program and its aims.

The Christian Leaders Scholarship was established at Georgetown in 1980. Each year the college awards partial scholarships to approximately 70 incoming students. In 2001 Georgetown College received $2 million from the Lilly Endowment to provide programs for the “theological exploration of vocation.” One on the main programs is for students receiving the renamed Christian Leaders Scholarship. This program provides a variety of activities, retreats, resources, and contacts for these scholarship students. The goal of the program is to help students think about their future careers and education as a calling. My goal is to encourage students to use the resources of the Christian faith found in writings, personal contacts, classes, and travel experiences to develop a better understanding of what God desires for us.

On this site you will find several examples of reflective writing, a syllabus for Vocation Seminar, and an outline of the program. The first reflective writing is a sample of an assignment from the Vocation Seminar by Kristin Stratton. She shares her ideas from reading a selection from Dietrich Bonheoffer. Next is a longer vocational narrative by a graduate from 2006, Jarrod Lopez. From these student writings you will see that vocation offers a rich and interesting perspective for students. But this quest also continues for those of us who are further along in our journey, so I have included an example of my own vocational writing.

I have been privileged to develop and direct the Christian Leaders Scholarship program in addition to my role as an Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department. I hope that this information communicates the vitality of the students involved in this program and the many ways that we are learning to think about or vocation and the wonderfully rich lives God is calling us to.

In the peace of Christ,

Dr. Roger Ward