The University of St. Thomas has been awarded a grant to help faculty and staff invest in the futures of its undergraduate students. The University was among a select group of Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) members to receive a $20,000 Professional Development Award for a project planned throughout the 2026-27 school year entitled “Cultivating a Common Vocabulary of Vocation at the University of St. Thomas.”
Dr. Brad Vermurlen, assistant professor of sociology in the Nesti Center for Faith & Culture and project leader, said this initiative is a first step toward positioning UST faculty and staff to lead students to discover their purpose and vocation.
“This grant will allow us to pull together a group of 15 UST faculty and staff to function as a 9-month learning community and informal advisory board with an eye toward a longer-term initiative on the role of vocation and purpose in the undergrad experience at UST,” he said.
The project seeks to give UST faculty and staff, across academic and co-curricular settings, a shared framework for helping students explore vocation and purpose with consistent vocabulary and a coordinated approach, according to the grant application.
“With professional development on vocations, faculty and staff can make a lasting impact on the lives of current students,” said the Rev. Eduardo Rivera, CSB ’14, MDiv ’20, UST chaplain and director of Campus Ministry, who also serves as a project leader.
The grant application says professional development at UST is needed to equip faculty and staff to engage “vocation” as a central dimension of undergraduate formation. Such development must connect intellectual resources from the Catholic tradition with practical strategies for teaching, advising and mentoring on campus.
Awarded funds will support faculty and staff participant stipends, books and materials, guest speaker fees, an end-of-year workshop, as well as an external assessment of program effectiveness. Dr. Vermurlen mentioned that the group will meet monthly from September through May, engaging with texts on vocation and reflecting on student experiences.
By May 2027, the group aims to produce three new written resources, including a survey targeting UST undergraduates and two additional tools for integrating vocational reflection into Career Services and Campus Ministry. The latter could include advising prompts, classroom reflection exercises, training materials and mentoring strategies.
“The grant award also positions UST to apply for future, larger NetVUE grants that reach as high as $150,000 for future development in vocation-related programming,” Dr. Vermurlen added.
Fr. Eduardo celebrates this initiative and emphasizes that a vocation is never discerned alone.
“Whether someone is discerning matrimony, the priesthood or consecrated life, we must discern within the context of a community, entering into prayer and dialogue with God as well as our families, friends and mentors,” Fr. Eduardo said. “As students discern their vocations, the faculty and staff of the University of St. Thomas play a crucial role in their discernment process, guiding students to their callings through their daily conversations and interactions.”