Program Descriptions

The Center for Vocation and Servant Leadership’s mission to form servant leaders is directly aligned with the mission of the University. Although the Center is not an academic program, it is a catalyst for mission excellence in academic programs. We do this by integrating servant leadership into the culture of the University, attracting students who show promise as servant leaders, and by providing faculty and students a deeper understanding of the Catholic mission.

CVSL Program Descriptions

Servant Leader Scholarship Program - This program develops students who have demonstrated the importance of both scholarship and servant leadership in their lives. It provides partial scholarships for over 40 students, both graduate and undergraduate, whose academic excellence and commitment to service are exemplary. A GPA of 3.0 and twenty hours of service are required each semester. The programming offered during two meetings each semester develops the students’ skills as servant leaders.
 
University Seminar on Mission - This seminar takes on the challenge of Catholic mission in an atmosphere of collegiality and respect. Over a period of seven weeks each semester, 14 members of the faculty and administration meet weekly for two hours. Each session includes expert faculty commentary on assigned readings followed by general discussion. The topics include a history of Seton Hall, a Catholic vision of education, and the recent history of Catholic higher education in America.

Advanced Seminar on Mission - The Center is offering an Advanced Seminar on Mission entitled “Wisdom, Method and the Catholic University” beginning in Fall 2011. During five sessions each semester, 14 participants meet every other week for two hours.  The aim of this seminar is to help faculty and administrators come to a deeper appropriation of their own interiority, and in so doing, come to appreciate the special wisdom that should characterize the Catholic university.

Faculty Retreats - The Heart of the University Retreat Series is offered primarily for the faculty who, as the heart of the University, express its deepest convictions by their teaching. The theme of the series is captured by the Latin "cor ad cor loquitur," that is heart speaks to heart. It is about the human heart as a place of encounter with God. These half-day retreats, held on campus, encourage faculty and administrators of all faiths to examine their individual journeys of faith.

Faculty Summer Seminar - Over a period of three days, a gathering of approximately 20 faculty members, led by an invited scholar, focuses on an aspect of academic vocation at a Catholic university. The seminars have a proven track record of deepening the sense of academic community and shared mission among the participants. At the end of each seminar, participants write an article on the seminar topic from the point of view of their respective disciplines. The articles are collected and published in online format by the Center for Catholic Studies, with whom we cosponsor this program.

Faculty Development is also offered through lectures, colloquies, and conferences cosponsored with the Center for Catholic Studies.