Student Affairs as Vocation

Last week, after the tragedy in Omaha and the campus shooting episode of Grey's Anatomy, I considered writing a post reflecting on my reactions to such incidents. But with Saturday morning's tragedy in Arizona as well, I don't think I have it in me right now. Plus I'd still want to focus on campus incidents rather than making a broader statement which may seem odd if I didn't mention it. That post may still be forthcoming, but not just yet.

Instead, I thought I would launch into the subject I wanted to write about most--how my decision to work in the field of student affairs (and possibly higher education in general) was not just a career decision, or even a lifestyle choice (as many Residence Life professionals may attest), but a vocational discernment. Allow me to unpack that phrase for you, at least as I understand it.

For many, the word "vocation" refers specifically to religious life, and for me, coming from my Catholic background, whenever my church hosted a "Vocation Talk," it was to foster an interest in the priesthood among us youth (read: young men; women are still not allowed to be ordained). The context in which we use the word is almost always religious--yet as I've come to understand the definition of "vocation," also speaks closely to the commitment those of us in higher education (especially student affairs) have made to our chosen field of work.

One of the meanings of the word vocation, from the Latin vocare (meaning "to call"), according to Dictionary.com, is "a strong impulse or inclination to follow a particular activity or career; a calling." When you speak to people who work in student affairs about what they do for a living, while you may never fully understand exactly what they do (and some of us are still figuring that out!), you will notice the intense passion they have for their work. And often that passion is contagious!

For me, my decision to become a student affairs professional was both unintentional and intentional. Like many of my colleagues, I did not graduate high school hoping to enter student affairs after finishing my undergraduate degree. I actually have a Bachelor's in engineering! But it was my campus involvement that led me to realize my passions and interests lay elsewhere--and the opportunity to establish an LGBT Resource Center at my alma mater (Gonzaga University) cemented that epiphany.

At the same time, though, my decision was also very intentional. While I was running the center, I took part in the Spiritual Exercises, essentially a long "retreat" that was created by the founder of the Jesuit order of Catholic priests, St. Ignatius of Loyola. (Gonzaga is a Jesuit university, and one of the religious studies classes I took was on Ignatian spirituality, so I knew what I was getting into.) While the Jesuits will go into a full month of silence to engage with the exercises, I opted for the less-intensive but just-as-fulfilling Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Living (affectionately known as SEEL). Instead of one month, participants engage over the course of nine months and only spend time twice a day in quiet reflection. It was during this time that I had the chance to deeply reflect on what I was doing for a career and how that spoke to me as a person.

And so to me, it began to feel more like a "calling" than a career choice. Granted, ultimately I plan not to become a senior student affairs officer (SSAO)--I plan to research and teach in Higher Education and Student Affairs--but higher education speaks deeply to who I am as a person, especially the developmental impact it has on students. Perhaps within your framework you may call this integrity, the synchronization of the external and internal worlds, but to me it feels like answering a voice speaking from deep within. And that is the basis of discernment--listening to those inner movements and seeing the path that you are being led toward (by God, in my case, or through whatever means with which you connect to the greater around you).

I plan to come back to this topic in future posts, particularly in how reading Parker Palmer has reinforced my belief that this truly is a vocation for me, and not just a career. In the meantime, do you see your work in student affairs as a job? Or is it also something bigger for you?

Bryce