A grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. has enabled The College of Wooster to institute the Lilly Project for the Exploration of Vocation. Dianna Rhyan Kardulias, director of the project Wooster, explains the goals and objectives of the project and how it will address the broader vision of vocation.

Q. What is the Lilly Project and how will it affect The College of Wooster?

A. The College of Wooster Lilly Project provides opportunities for the entire College community to engage in serious vocational discussion and reflection. The goal is to create a campus climate of engagement that focuses on questions of meaning and value: What is worth doing, and how can our lives contribute to that which has ultimate significance?

The five year, $1.78 million grant will help to raise issues of vocation in order to provide students, faculty, and staff with vision, vocabulary, physical space, leadership, and communities of reflection that support spiritual and vocational transformation and commitment. Individuals and communities will be challenged to transform their personal and collective spiritual lives and envision what is possible for them beyond what currently exists.

Q. Why was The College of Wooster selected to receive a Lilly grant?

A. Wooster was selected because of its reformed tradition, its interfaith history, it international programs, and the fact that it was founded with a deep commitment to liberal arts values. Also, the fact that a large number of faculty, staff, and students were involved in the process enabled us to prepare a very comprehensive proposal. Nearly 300 schools applied and only 88 received grants. It was a very selective process and a very high honor to be chosen.

Q. What will be the focus of the Lilly Project at Wooster?

A. Vocare, a Latin verb meaning to call, best describes our focus for the next five years. We will be looking closely at "Who are we called to be as individual and institutions?" Individually, this is not about choosing a career, finding a major, or getting a job, but something much deeper. Vocation gets at the fertile "ground of our being," from which careers arise. Our goal will be to get people thinking more thoroughly and more ethically about vocation and their deepest foundations of identity.

Q. How will the grant be used at the college?

A. The Lilly grant at Wooster will support activities in co-curricular course development initiatives, off-campus field experiences, and service learning. The common thread is a focus on vocation as a search for meaning and fulfillment in one’s life and work, whatever it may be.

Q. What effect will the grant have on Wooster’s curriculum?

A. New courses will be developed to focus on the implications of the concept of vocation for individuals in various professions and for the professions themselves. The grant will allow the college to explore the expansion of its service-learning course offerings, which combine classroom and field work with a local social service agency, and guided reflection that helps solidify the connections between classroom theory and real-world practice.

Q. What new programs will be added as a result of the Lilly Grant?

A. The grant will support values-based field experiences through several new programs, including medical internships, a seminary semester, and a domestic summer service internship for students. The medical internship will place students during the summer with domestic and international humanitarian medical aid agencies affiliated with religious organizations. For students interested in pursuing health-related careers, the internship experience will help them understand that medical healing involves a spiritual as well as a physical dimension. The seminary semester will place Wooster students at partner institutions for internships, course work, and community service. It is designed both for students who are considering ordained ministry and those who wish to deepen their ethical education and enhance their ability to serve as leaders in religious and secular communities.

Q. How will the community at large benefit?

A. The community will benefit in several ways, including the service-learning component, which will link students to various assistance agencies in the area. It will also benefit through congregational partnerships that put students in touch with local congregations. In addition, there will be benefits through medical humanitarian internships, which will bring students together with area medical professionals.