Brackley Faculty Fellowship

Vocational discernment is the process of reflecting on one's values, interests, and skills in order to make informed decisions about one's career and life path. It is a process that is ongoing and can be influenced by many factors, including work experiences, relationships, and spiritual beliefs. Jesuit education and Ignatian pedagogy centers the importance of developing discernment skills and reflecting on vocation as part of cura personalis -  care for the whole person.

Engaged Learning courses (service-learning, academic internships, public performance, fieldwork, and undergraduate research) provide students with the opportunity to apply their academic knowledge and skills to real-world problems and challenges. Additionally, the unique knowledge and voice of the community is brought into the classroom to animate, challenge, and enliven course material. Engaged Learning often allows students to envision a different way of being in the world, both for themselves and for society at large. This widening of scope and generative imagination are crucial as students ask deep questions about their own place in the world and its intersection with their own deeply held values. Engaged Learning courses are uniquely well suited to help students with vocational discernment.

EL courses are an ideal setting for faculty to introduce students to vocational discernment. By talking about vocational discernment in their classes, faculty can help students to:

• Reflect on their values, interests, and skills through embedded curricular critical reflection
• Attend to the ways in which specific disciplines uniquely engage critical societal challenges and provide hope and ways forward
• Identify the intersections between their own gifts, the needs of the world, and disciplinary approaches

Practices of vocational discernment also echo some of the essential elements of excellent Ignatian Pedagogy - reflection, meaning making, imagination, and building community.

Each faculty member awarded the fellowship will receive $1000 ($500 per semester across two semesters) to support their teaching, scholarship, and course development (books, conference travel, lab equipment, materials for courses, etc). Across Spring 2024 and Fall 2024, fellowship winners will participate in a reading and peer consultation group that will meet 3-4 times over each semester. Cohort meetings may include book discussion, speakers, professional development around incorporating best practices of discernment into courses, or peer review of one another’s course designs. CELTS educators will coordinate these events and be present throughout.