Vocational Discernment
Vocational Discernment on The Road Through Xavier
“Discernment is necessary because it is not always clear what love calls for.” - Dean Brackley, S.J.
Vocational discernment work happens in class, on retreats, through community engaged learning, and with advisors, success coaches, career development, and faculty mentors. Vocational discernment is never finished - the same, or developing questions, should be returned to again and again. Our hope is that Xavier students return to these questions throughout their time on campus and beyond. Discernment is best engaged as the pattern moving from action to reflection and back to action again.
Academic departments likely have a collective sense of how students within their majors fare towards preparedness for life after graduation. The University’s 1st Year CORE programming, namely First Year Seminar and Goa, along with Success Coaching and Advising, set students off on the road of vocational discernment. These early experiences are best furthered and deepened through vocational discernment components of academic departments’ formational programming for majors, introductory courses for majors, community engaged learning classes, undergraduate research, internships, and capstones.