SOUNDBITES

Meaningful Work

Soundbites from past Virtues & Vocations convenings

“For me the great insight is that we are formed more powerfully by our work than we form it. The tools we use, the habits of thought, the systems we routinely employ, the way we think about the persons around us and the persons we don’t see who are vital to our work, those habits and processes—the cultures—are shaping us as we use them. Sort of like the handle of a hammer shapes the hand of a carpenter over a lifetime. . . . Work has many consequences, and one of them is that you are turning into someone while you do it. So, look for a way to make it formative.”

Sanford “Sandy” Shugart
former president, Valencia College

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“What draws so many people into the healthcare professions—physicians, nurses, therapists—is a desire to look at human suffering and do something about it, whether it is doing something by a surgery or a technical procedural skill or simply standing with someone as they navigate a devastating diagnosis. I think both of those need to be valued in the same way.”

Sneha Mantri
physician and director of medical humanities, Duke University School of Medicine

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“Students are obsessed with work. Most of them think about college as a transactional relationship; it is just about getting a job. They are given a social script, and parents who don’t know what to say when their kids come to them and say that they want to get a good job say, ‘Well, keep your options open. You can do anything.’ So, on the one hand, they’re told, ‘keep your options open. You can do anything.’ And on the other, they are told that there are only a couple of really successful careers. ‘Be a doctor. Be a lawyer. Be an engineer—or you are a failure.’ So they are really confused about how to make a good choice about work. . . . A lot of the practical exercises [from The Young Adult Playbook] come from the insight that work is a gift; you have to develop your talents, and you have to serve the human community—that’s what meaningful work is.”

Thomas Smith
provost, Providence College

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“Every interview subject who attended an HBCU talked about the significance of their professors, and they talked about the professors as being almost familial. . . . They had stories of faculty members who would go to their dorms when they were sick and bring soup or knock to find out why they weren’t on the bus. . . . That wasn’t my approach to teaching, but I’ve been inspired by a lot of what I learned doing this research to engage my students more holistically.”

Deondra Rose
professor of public policy, Duke University

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