CIC awarded $433,533 in grants to nine Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) member institutions in fall 2019 (see list below). These NetVUE Program Development Grants provide between $25,000 and $50,000 to deepen, expand, refresh, or otherwise strengthen vocational exploration programs that are already underway and supported by NetVUE member colleges and universities. The awards may be used over a two-year period, beginning in spring 2020. The grants are made possible thanks to the generous support of Lilly Endowment Inc. To date, seven rounds of these grants, totaling over $7 million, have been awarded to 159 NetVUE member institutions.
The most recent round of awards will support a range of programs, all designed to enrich the culture of vocational reflection and discernment at the host institution. At
Alma College (MI), for example, vocational conversations will be incorporated into the first-year experience and academic advising.
Drury University (MO) will recruit a cohort of faculty advising fellows each year to develop campus advising resources and to generate vocation-specific benchmarks for students.
Ouachita Baptist University (AR) will incorporate vocational reflection into its writing across the curriculum program, while
Thiel College (PA) will create a developmental, mission-reflective pathway for students from first year to graduation. Programming at all recipient institutions is designed to provide curricular and co-curricular opportunities for undergraduate students to reflect on their many callings in life.
In addition to the Program Development Grants (another round of which will be offered this fall), NetVUE currently offers three other grant programs. One-year Professional Development Awards of up to $10,000 are available to support opportunities that enhance the expertise of staff and faculty members involved in undergraduate vocational initiatives. A new program, Grants for Reframing the Institutional Saga, provides up to $40,000 over two years to support the efforts of NetVUE member institutions to create an updated account of their history and mission in light of their current context. And three-year Vocation across the Academy Grants provide up to $75,000 in CIC and third-party funding to support long-term, institution-wide initiatives that expand ongoing programming in vocational reflection and discernment across the liberal arts and applied professional fields.
Over its ten-year history, NetVUE has awarded 353 grants totaling over $10 million to 222 member institutions. For more information about NetVUE grant programs, contact Lynn Hunnicutt, assistant director of NetVUE, at
lhunnicutt@cic.nche.edu or (253) 535-7644. For information about the entire range of NetVUE programs and services,
visit the NetVUE website or contact David S. Cunningham, director of NetVUE, at
dcunningham@cic.nche.edu or (616) 395-6750.
NetVUE Program Development Grants Recipients, 2020–2022
Alma College (MI)
Catawba College (NC)
Drury University (MO)
Lipscomb University (TN)
Ouachita Baptist University (AR)
St. Olaf College (MN)
Thiel College (PA)
Whitworth University (WA)
Wofford College (SC)