What Will I Become? Exploring Vocation and Calling

1. What Will I Become? Exploring Vocation and Calling Christian Mission Heritage Series September 15, 2009

2. Presenters Don Thompson Professor of Great Books & Mathematics Cindy Miller-Perrin Professor of PsychologyChair of Social Science Division

3. Lilly Endowment Sponsored Research at Pepperdine • Student Development Survey • Goal: To understand how students define vocation and develop their own personal sense of vocation • 2002 – 2006 • Surveyed 300 students • Surveyed at 5 different time periods • Baseline – summer before beginning at Pepperdine • Each spring throughout undergraduate career

4. Cell-Phone Text Message Poll What is Vocation?

6. Defining Vocation • The secular definition views vocation as work or career • Vocation is God’s calling for one’s life – the reason God made you • Vocation is the intersection of faith development and identity development • Vocation is “the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet”

7. The Critical College Years • College years are “critical years” in vocational development • College students consider issues associated with personal identity, faith beliefs, and career options • Faith, identity, and vocational development are not uniform across the college years

8. Who are you as a class? • Total applications: 6407, total enrolled: 815 (13%) • GPA 3.66 • SAT Verbal 604 • SAT Math 623 • SAT Writing 610

9. Academic Majors

10. Ego-Identity Status Survey • Students receive scores on four identity scales: • Diffusion: no exploration or commitment • “I haven’t really considered politics. It just doesn’t excite me much.” • Foreclosure: no exploration, but commitment • “My parents decided a long time ago what I should go into for employment and I’m following through with their plans.” • Moratorium: exploration without commitment • “Religion is confusing to me right now. I keep changing my views on what is right and wrong for me.” • Achievement: exploration and commitment • “It took me a while to figure it out, but now I really know what I want for a career.”

12. Identity Development

13. Keith Cantu’s Story Universal City, TX International Studies - Political Studies Class of 2010 Fulbright Scholarship to Bangladesh or Peace Corps or Graduate School at Columbia U.

15. My faith/religion is NOT very important to me.

16. Faith Attitudes and Behaviors

17. Strength of Belief, Faith Behavior, and Application of Faith • Strength of Belief varied significantly over time • Faith Behavior varied significantly over time • Application of Faith did not vary significantly over time

19. I am motivated to choose a career that will provide/fulfill…

20. Vocational Barriers

22. Barriers to Life Purpose • Total Personal Barriers scores varied over time, marginally

23. Nicole Wallace’s Story Seattle, Washington Psychology Major Class of 2009 Clinical Ph.D. student - Fuller Theological Seminary Student

24. Conclusions • College students experience significant developmental variation over time • Strength of faith belief • Faith behavior • Identity development • Foreclosure, Moratorium, Achievement • Personal Barriers

25. Lessons & Opportunities for First-Year Students • Faith matters – Stay spiritually nourished, seek wisdom • Know Thyself – look for ways to challenge your assumptions • Barriers are real – live through and with them • Sophomore year - expect a watershed • Purpose - bigger and broader than your career

26. How to Contact Us Cindy Miller-Perrin: Cindy.Perrin@pepperdine.edu Don Thompson: thompson@pepperdine.edu