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...

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 b...

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 leaders...

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 l...

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 he...

This is the second part of our first episode introducing the director and assistant director for the Institute for leadership and Service: Dr. Anna Stewart and Kat Peters. In part one, we discussed different conceptions of calling and purpose, and how they arrived at theirs. This episode was recorded about a week after that one and covers some of the same topics but leans into the purpose and miss...

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 Stewa...