Vocation & Experiential Learning: The Call to Mentorship
Ï㽶Ðã is proud to host the 2026 NetVUE Regional Gathering, convening faculty, staff, and administrators from across the region to explore a pressing question in undergraduate education today: How does mentorship in experiential learning opportunities foster genuine vocational formation in students?
As higher education continues to grapple with questions of purpose, meaning, and student flourishing, this gathering affirms that the answer lies not in programs alone, but in relationships. When we invite students into meaningful mentoring relationships, whether in research labs, service experiences, congregational settings, career exploration, or other high-impact contexts, we create opportunities where vocational discernment and discovery become possible.
Event Details
September 24-26, 2026
Ï㽶Ðã
Clinton, South Carolina
Registration Deadline:
Friday, August 21, 2026
Goals & Aims
This Regional Gathering is designed to accomplish the following:
- Examine how intentional mentoring within experiential learning contexts can help shape a student’s sense of purpose and calling.
- Share concrete practices that participants can bring back to their own institutions to deepen mentorship culture and vocational programming.
- Explore the relationship between human connection and learning, particularly as higher education increasingly relies on immersive, hands-on models of undergraduate education.
- Foster cross-institutional dialogue among faculty, staff, and administrators who are committed to integrating vocational exploration into campus life.
- Strengthen the regional NetVUE network for sustained collegial relationships across institutions working on vocation and calling in undergraduate education.
Who Should Attend
This gathering is open to faculty, staff, and administrators from NetVUE member and non-member institutions who find vocational formation, mentorship, and experiential learning in higher education important. Whether you lead a chaplaincy, direct a research center, coordinate career development, oversee service-learning, or teach in a classroom, you will find a meaningful place in this conversation.
Featured Speakers
Andy Chan
Vice President for Personal and Career Development
Wake Forest University
Andy Chan is one of the most influential voices in American higher education on the intersection of vocation, career, and whole-person development. He is widely credited with transforming career services at Wake Forest into a nationally recognized model that goes beyond job placement.
At this gathering, Chan will explore how intentional mentoring relationships help students develop vocational clarity, resilience, and a sense of purpose that sustains them across a lifetime, not just into a first job. His talk will challenge participants to reimagine what it means to prepare students for the future and will offer a framework for how mentors in any institutional context can guide students toward lives that matter.
Dr. Austin Shull
Associate Professor of Biology & Director, Center for Inquiry, Research, and Scholarship (CIRAS)
Ï㽶Ðã
Dr. Austin Shull is a cancer biologist and educator who actively mentors undergraduate students through scientific research. His work with CIRAS at Ï㽶Ðã has become a model for how undergraduate research can serve as a space for both scientific training and personal formation.
Dr. Shull’s presentation will draw a compelling parallel between the iterative nature of scientific investigation and the process of discerning one’s vocation. He will argue that the habits of mind developed in the lab, asking hard questions, testing hypotheses, embracing failure, revising and trying again, are precisely the habits that help students navigate uncertainty and discover meaning. His talk will offer practical insight for any educator who mentors students through ambiguity toward discovery.
The Rev. Dr. Buz Wilcoxon
Marianne and E.G. Lassiter Chaplain & Dean of Spiritual Life
Ï㽶Ðã
Rev. Dr. Buz Wilcoxon leads Ï㽶Ðã’s Ecology of Calling Initiative, a comprehensive institutional effort to integrate vocational formation into the full fabric of campus life. The initiative is supported by a $1.25 million grant from the Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative.
Wilcoxon’s presentation will explore what he calls “the ecology of calling” where vocational formation does not happen in isolation, but within an interconnected ecosystem where church and academy, mentors and students, personal gifts and communal needs all interact. He will share how experiential mentoring in congregational settings gives students space to test their gifts, serve others, and come to understand themselves as citizens and leaders called to something beyond themselves. His work offers a practical and theological model for institutions seeking to cultivate these vital intersections.
Dr. Terese Lund
Associate Vice Provost for Purposeful Pathways & Associate Professor of Psychology
Wingate University
Dr. Terese Lund is a developmental psychologist whose research and institutional leadership have placed her at the leading edge of purpose formation in higher education. As Associate Vice Provost for Purposeful Pathways at Wingate University, she leads campus-wide efforts to help students connect their classroom learning, experiential opportunities, and deeper sense of calling into a coherent vision for their lives. Dr. Lund is a Principal Investigator in the Purpose Lab, a joint research initiative with Boston College. Her research has consistently found that students who have at least one meaningful mentoring relationship report significantly higher levels of purpose.
She was also a lead architect of Wingate’s CIC-NetVUE Vocation Across the Academy grant in 2022, which brought purpose-discernment and vocation-discovery programming to campus and created a shared language for vocational exploration across faculty, staff, and students. At this gathering, Dr. Lund will bring both scholarly rigor and practical experience to the question of how institutions can scale mentorship and purpose formation beyond individual relationships into structural, campus-wide practices.
Registration
Lodging for Thursday and Friday night is included in the full registration rate. To secure your room, you must book directly with the hotel using the instructions below.
NetVUE Member
- Day Rate (no lodging): $50
- Full Rate (two-night lodging included): $100
Non-Member
- Day Rate (no lodging): $100
- Full Rate (two-night lodging included): $400
Deadline to Register is
August 21, 2026
Deadline to Reserve Your Room is September 3, 2026
The Venue
Ï㽶Ðã Campus
Sessions will be held in Neville Hall and Edmunds Hall, two of Ï㽶Ðã’s most recognized historic buildings. Neville Hall, renovated in 2017, houses Kuhne Auditorium — the primary plenary space — which features theater-style seating, full audio-visual presentation capabilities, and accessibility features. Smaller breakout discussions and facilitated conversations will take place in Neville Hall classrooms, which offer flexible configurations for panel discussions and small group work.
Ï㽶Ðã’s compact, walkable campus offers campus-wide wireless internet access and ample parking throughout, creating an inviting atmosphere for connection and conversation between sessions.
Hotel: Hampton Inn & Suites Clinton – I-26
Overnight accommodations are available at the Hampton Inn & Suites Clinton – I-26, located just off I-26 and three miles from campus. Lodging for Thursday and Friday nights is included in the full registration rate — but you must book your room separately using the instructions below.
Hotel amenities include:
- Complimentary hot breakfast buffet
- Free WiFi and free parking
- Indoor pool and fitness center
- 24-hour market and business center
- Guest rooms with microwave, mini fridge, coffee maker, and work desk
Complimentary Transportation:
Complimentary coach transportation between the hotel and campus is provided on Thursday evening, Friday morning and evening, and Saturday morning for all registered guests.
Hotel Booking Instructions
While lodging costs are covered by your full registration, rooms are not automatically reserved upon sign-up. To secure your room, you must book directly with the hotel using the group code below. Deadline to reserve your room is September 3, 2026
To Book Online
The nights of September 24-25 are covered by your registration fee. Additional nights at the group rate may be added at your own expense.
- Use the button below to access our group reservation page — the group code will be applied automatically.
- If needed, adjust your arrival and departure dates, then click “Update Search.”
- Select your preferred room type and click “Select and Book” to complete your reservation.
To Book By Phone
Call Hampton Inn & Suites at 864-938-1040 and ask to reserve a room using the group block Higher Education Conference and group code CHH90E for September 23-24, 2026.
Questions? Contact:
Austin Shull
ABOUT NetVUE
The Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) is a network of colleges and universities committed to deepening the intellectual and theological exploration of vocation. Administered by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), NetVUE supports institutions in cultivating meaningful conversations about calling, purpose, and vocation across all aspects of campus life. Regional Gatherings like this one are a cornerstone of that mission that brings together practitioners for focused, collaborative learning.
This event is made possible by the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), and administered by the Council of Independent Colleges with generous support from Lilly Endowment Inc.