Listening for Purpose

Today I had the absolute pleasure of talking with Dr. Carolyn Whittier, the assistant vice president for student life. Over the last 12 years, Carrie’s vision and direction have helped to reform what it means to be a student at Valpo. Our conversation was incredibly rich and touched on just about every element of calling and purpose you could think of. Though we talked about many things, there were a few threads that were constant through it all. The first one that came up was family. Carrie’s passions for education and fraternity and sorority life, her calling to live in the Midwest, and her desire to achieve were all traditions that were handed down to her by her parents. These traditions profoundly influence the choices that she makes every single day. One way they do so is through her calling to live her authentic life and encourage others to do the same. To me, this was the most salient theme throughout our episode today. This calling has shaped her career, her personal life, her interactions with students, and has quite literally become the standard by which she lives. I left our conversation wondering what the world would look like if everyone took the initiative to do the same.  Thank you for listening and we hope you enjoy this episode of Listening for Purpose.

Today I talked to Adam Monnette who is the first person who comes to mind when I think about a campus leader. He is the president of the University Programming Council (UPC), Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, and the Honor Council, but his leadership extends far beyond his formal roles. Adam has participated in a service trip each spring during his tenure here at Valpo, this past summer, he spent over 500 hours with the red cross as a fellow for the Calling and Purpose in Society fellowship, or CAPS, and he has sought to open up opportunities for those who may not have found their place on campus yet. Despite having accomplished all of these things, Adam claims that he is still looking for his place in college. We talked about many things from the importance of communication and community in leadership, to the difficulties of imposter syndrome, to a couple tips for finding one's place on campus, but throughout it all, the theme of searching was very present. No one’s life is complete in every way. We are all still seeking something, whether it be a group to fit in with, opportunities to grow in our career or major, or even just a friend to cry or celebrate with.  Thank you for listening and we hope you enjoy this episode of Listening for Purpose.

Sarah Martin is a first year Christ College student at Valpo who is exploring what it means to pursue calling and purpose in a collegiate space. We talked primarily about getting involved and getting out of one’s comfort zone, but we also talked about the distinction between calling and purpose. Sarah struck on a key idea that I wish we would have explored more, namely that there is a difference between the implications of calling and those of purpose. Calling is present oriented. We feel a calling now, something is attracting us in this moment, however, purpose seems more eternal. It is the idea may be that we are predestined to work toward a goal or accomplish some task. This distinction is something that we might gloss over at somewhere like the Institute for leadership and service, but for many others, it can have huge implications on the way we think about our intentional activity in the world.

Today we are joined by Abbie Valicevic who is the president of Omicron Delta Kappa (the leadership honor society at Valpo), former president of Valpo's chapter of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, and an aspiring oncologist. Abbie shared some of the some of the things the she believes to be central to her experience here at Valpo and essential to her as a person. She emphasized elements of servant leadership and education and tied it all together with gratitude. Abbie talked about the opportunities she has been fortunate to have throughout her life, and how they have given her a sense of responsibility to devote her life to serving other people. She also emphasized that education does not only happen in the classroom. College is a time to grow and explore beyond what we are learning for our degrees. There are opportunities every day to have formational experiences that don’t just teach you content. She ends by encouraging us to think about the things we are grateful for, namely the amazing opportunity to be here at Valpo, our roles around campus, and the relationships and experiences we have been fortunate to have during out time on this campus.

Today, we talked with Sophia Ullery who is the president of AAPIC (the Asian American Pacific Islander Coalition) and the Vice President of the Pre-law society here on campus. Our conversation took us many places, but throughout it all, Sophia emphasized that our collective calling is pursuing a deep seated sense of happiness. Because of this, calling isn’t necessarily some huge project that you learned how to do through a revelation from God. Calling and purpose can be found in the little things, in the daily tasks that we choose to do. She also emphasized the necessity of finding a solid support network of people who are driven the same way you are.

For today’s episode, I was joined by Chris Gatlin, Essence Roberson, Tekeidra Masters, and Elijah Morris: some of the members of the 2023 executive board for the Black Student Organization. Recurrent themes in our conversation were community, healing, vulnerability, and service. Service, especially, seemed connected to everything that this E-Board does from planning to open free or reduced cost healthcare clinics for those in need to helping out BSO members when they couldn’t pay for their textbooks. These values not only center BSO in their mission and purpose as an organization, they also make its members into a bonafide family. These values are unified and expanded through the 3 Ps as Tekeidra emphasized during this recording: Pain, Pride, and Progress.

This is the first episode of a podcast where we hope to reflect with members of the Valparaiso University community on who they are and how they show up in the world. Through this, we can start to understand the complex web of interactions, institutions, and relationships that make Valpo Valpo. This podcast is hosted by the Institute for Leadership and Service, where Kat Peters, and Dr. Anna Stewart recently joined the team as Assistant director and Director respectively. Most episodes of this podcast will focus primarily on the student experience, but we wanted to start by introducing ourselves, and our mission here at the institute. 

A theme that carried throughout our conversation was that we all live in and react to a real, imperfect world where we have to make choices every day that may not have a correct answer. These choices can be daunting, but they are also what makes the human experience exciting. Regardless of your opinion on them, they are extremely characteristic of the college experience. At the institute, we thrive on helping students navigate these gray areas, and figure out where to go when there may be many correct answers. Our goal is to be reflective, relational, and responsive, so that we can help students explore tough situations and examine the world around them. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and I hope that you will as well.