Westmont Hosts National Conference on Education, Work and Calling

“Vocation, Vocationalism, and the Liberal Arts” is the theme of the fourth annual Conversation on the Liberal Arts, Feb. 6-7, hosted by the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Westmont.

While the conference is by invitation only, the public is invited to an evening forum and desert reception 7:30 p.m. Feb. 7 at the El Cabrillo Room of the Santa Barbara Radisson Hotel.

Both the conference and the public forum will explore the relationship between learning, work and calling. How can educators communicate all that a liberal arts education can be to those who see higher education as essentially job-related? How can educators help students embrace educational goals that go beyond the job market, like civic engagement, personal enrichment and community leadership? Can we draw on students’ concern for their careers, transforming those concerns into the pursuit of a calling?

The gathering will include invited representatives from public and private, religious and secular institutions around the country. The colloquium will include three plenary sessions as well as opportunities for smaller group discussions.

Plenary speakers include Williams Sullivan, senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and co-author of “Habits of the Heart”: Nicholas Wolterstorff, professor emeritus at Yale University and Yale Divinity School and author of many books on philosophy, theology, and higher education; and Sabine O’Hara, ecological economist and dean of Concordia College in Moorhead.

“It will be an excellent opportunity to interact with others about how they negotiate the relationship between education, career and calling,” said Christian Hoeckley, administrative director of the Institute. “Join us as we consider whether the idea of vocation can bridge the gap between the educational goal of many students
the goals of a liberal arts education, which involve so much more than our working lives.”

The Institute for the Liberal Arts was established four years ago to promote the importance of the liberal arts tradition in higher education. Westmont, as a liberal arts college, focuses on the development of students in all areas: personal, intellectual and spiritual.

For a schedule of sessions and more information, visit the institute’s Web site at http://libarts.westmont.edu, call Hoeckley at (805) 565-6158 or e-mail libarts@westmont.edu.