Belmont Receives NetVUE Vocation across the Academy Grant to Enhance Career Readiness and Vocational Discernment

Award to support faculty development, curriculum integration focused on connecting students' virtues with career preparation

Belmont University has been selected to receive a NetVUE Vocation across the Academy Grant from the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). The grant totaling over $64,000, with anticipated matching funds, will fund project activities from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2028. These awards are made possible by a generous grant to CIC from Lilly Endowment Inc. 

The grant will enable Belmont to create cohort-based learning experiences for faculty and staff to connect curricular and co-curricular learning focusing on vocational integration and career planning across the institution. Building on Belmont's commitments to the career readiness of every student and to forming diverse leaders of character, the program addresses the growing need for students to translate their college experiences into meaningful work for the common good. 

Deliverables include a learning module, faculty development events and a mini-grant program that will incentivize course redesigns that more explicitly embed virtue-focused vocational discernment and career planning. These resources and programs will be assessed and scaled from the general education core into major-required courses in the disciplines over multiple years. 

"We anticipate that the efforts of this program will successfully equip faculty and staff to embed vocational discernment, career planning and career readiness into curricular and co-curricular experiences," said Mary Claire Dismukes, director of Career & Professional Development. "As a result, it will help students better understand their unique virtues and discern ways to construct a meaningful life and career to make a difference in the world." 

NetVUE Vocation across the Academy Grants provide three years of grant funding of up to $150,000 for projects that are four years in duration and are designed to help colleges and universities develop more effective ways to strengthen the link between liberal arts education and career preparation. CIC has awarded 86 grants in the first seven rounds of the NetVUE Vocation across the Academy grant program. 

The Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) is a nationwide network of colleges and universities formed to enrich the vocational exploration and discernment among undergraduate students. The network provides resources, grants and programming to help member institutions support students as they explore their callings and connect their academic experiences to meaningful career paths.