News Archives - 2003

Sharon Daloz Parks, associate director and member of the faculty at the Whidbey Institute for Earth, Spirit, and the Human Future near Seattle, will be the guest speaker at the Oct. 14 Convocation, "Big Questions, Worthy Dreams," 11 a.m. at the Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center.

The "twenty-something" years of young adulthood are increasingly recognized as critical but puzzling. These are the years of searching, when most people make formative life decisions. Looking for place and purpose in a changing world and asking new questions of meaning and faith, young adults re-examine their earlier beliefs and assumptions as they encounter a bewildering array of new experiences and complex choices. Too many wander through the challenging time alone, without the presence of mentoring voices.

Parks' presentation will explore the role that college can play in helping young adults search for place and purpose in a changing world and ask new questions of meaning and faith before making formative life decisions.

Parks has held faculty and senior research positions at Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Business School, the Kennedy School of Government and the Weston School of Theology. She is co-author of "Common Fire: Leading Lives of Commitment in a Complex World," "To Act Justly, Love Tenderly, Walk Humbly," "Can Ethics be Taught," and "Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Young Adults in Their Search for Meaning, Purpose and Faith."

The 2003-2004 Convocation Series is titled "Making the Most of Your Gifts." This series of six will challenge us to consider all work as vocation. Seeing what we can do as vocation emphasizes the importance of identifying our gifts and abilities, and of bringing them to bear on problems and situations that benefit the community while providing opportunity to live out our passions and dreams.