2024 NetVUE Conference (Day 2) | Dr. Carter-Francique's Community Conversation - HBCU Career Exploration

Dr. Akilah Carter-Francique is a 2023-2024 NetVUE grant recipient and will share her work at Benedict College with her presentation entitled, “Lift Every Voice: Career Mentoring for Black Students”

The NetVUE 2024 Conference is held March 21-23 in Atlanta, GA with the theme, “Vocation for the Life of the World”

When asked about their reasons for pursuing higher education, entering students overwhelmingly focus on their expectations of improved job prospects and other elements of professional preparation. But once they have spent some time at college (and especially at liberal arts institutions), they increasingly describe themselves as eager to make a larger impact. They may articulate this as a desire to “help people,” to “make a difference,” or even to “change the world.” How can college and university leaders support these students as they formulate these plans and prepare themselves to pursue them? How can leaders help students channel their particular passions into the kinds of work that will make a difference—and how might they prepare students to face the inevitable obstacles and challenges that they will meet along the way?

Institutions that are members of CIC’s Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) have already made a commitment to support their students as they explore and discern their many callings in life. When leaders from NetVUE member institutions gather in Atlanta this spring, they will focus on how they might improve this support in ways that will help students address some of the world’s deepest hungers. Students and educators alike are being called to contribute to the common good, to engage with our communities, and to provide leadership and healing in the midst of division. Our callings are not just our own; they are vocations for the life of the world.