Archives: Newsletter Post

Telling the difficult truths about calling—that calling involves bliss and sacrifice—provides a revolutionary way to approach it, not as some idealized or glorified notion but as a complicated, ambiguous even painful reality that deserves to be understood in all its complexity and glory. p.16 Bonnie Miller-McLemore’s latest book begins with a bit of a confession: […]

In her welcome letter to the latest issue of Virtues & Vocations: Higher Education for Human Flourishing, Suzanne Shanahan invites us into a conversation about the meanings of work. Musing with Alain de Botton, Shanahan wonders not only how we select meaningful work but how we interpret labor we love. Read more of Shanahan’s welcome […]

It’s Friday early in the fall semester, and a group of students from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business board a bus for what Professor Andy Hoffman calls “a four-hour ride into the woods.” At a retreat center, they surrender their phones and laptops—returned only on Sunday—and prepare for a weekend focused not […]

Described both at the “Dutch Wunderkind of new ideas” and “one of Europe’s most prominent young thinkers,” historian and journalist, Rutger Bregman is the best-selling author of three books. His latest book, Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference is newly out in English. It is an aspirational call to action […]

In this essay, Cristy Guleserian, Executive Director of Principled Innovation at Arizona State University, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, reflects on how we can foster campus cultures that individuals and communities. She asks, “How can we hold strong convictions and practice genuine civility and civic grace? As educators, are we modeling and encouraging humility and […]

In 1995, Alabama became one of the first states to legislate character education. The mandate was simple: ten minutes a day focused on 25 traits. Implementation, however, was left up to individual educators—many of whom, like current University of Alabama professor Ben White, barely noticed its effects. “I went through school during that time,” White […]

I feel chastened by the world… Nick Cave Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional (2023) is an eloquently spare and finely observed novel about a middle aged woman’s quest to make sense of her life and the world around her. The Booker Prize short listed novel, framed as a journal, begins as the main character is retreating from her […]

In this essay, Erhardt Graeff, considers how to sustain hope and a desire to impact the common good among his engineering students. He begins, “My undergraduates at Olin College of Engineering want to make a positive impact. They see engineering as a career path to building a better world. Their initial theories of change are […]

At Belmont University, the effort to form students of purpose, wisdom, and strong character isn’t an abstract ideal—it’s a lived, campus-wide commitment. Through the Formation Collaborative, Belmont is strategically embedding character formation and whole-person development into every dimension of university life, from academic curriculum and staff leadership to student experiences and institutional culture. To be […]

The recent publication, Virtue in Virtual Spaces (2024), makes a bold proposition. Authors Louisa Conwill, Megan Levis and Walter Scheirer argue that Catholic Social Tradition offers a road map for reimagining the internet as a force for good in the world. Focusing on social technologies (the internet) and dedicated to the patron saints of the […]