I didn’t expect ice cream to be such an important part of the most recent conference I attended. Read more…
Advice for Graduates: 5 Things To Do as You Enter the Next Phase of Life
Beyond the celebrations, parties, and bittersweet memories, graduation can be a defining point in who you are.Read more…
Master Yourself by Choosing Your Master (Masterclass in Writing, Part 5)
To manage your time well, make sure you know your Master’s voice. Otherwise, you may end up choosing the wrong master.Read more…
The Christian Academic Vocation in “Restoring the Soul of the University”
A taste of the Christian academic vocation and the greenhouse community as described in “Restoring the Soul of the University.”Read more…
Collegial Connections, Week Three: Maintaining Connections
Relational Maintenance Theory (Canary & Stafford, 1992; Stafford, 2011; Stafford & Canary, 1991; Stafford, Dainton, & Haas, 2000) explains that there are seven maintenance behaviors (positivity, understanding, assurances, network, sharing tasks/activities, relationship talks, and self-disclosure) that are used to sustain various types of relationships. For friendships, though, start by focusing on these two maintenance behaviors: sharing tasks/activities and self-disclosure.Read more…
Collegial Connections, Week Two: Meeting Connections
Meetings can be a chance to forge real connections with your colleagues. Renee Bourdeaux explains how. Read more…
Collegial Connections, Week One: Hallway Connections
Want to deepen your conversations with academic colleagues? Check out this new series by a communications professor on connecting with colleagues. Read more…
Why I Write (Writing As a Spiritual Discipline Series)
I’m not one of those writers who has always known I wanted to write. I don’t have childhood journals, and I didn’t write my first novel as a teen. (In fact, I still haven’t written one).Read more…
Letter to My Self, Starting Graduate School
Well, congratulations—you’re going to graduate school! So—this is your future self, writing from a decade ahead to let you know that you’ll have a lot of fun. On the other hand . . . it won’t all be easy. Read more…
Making the Second City Church Lenten Cross
I professed faith in Christ in 1970, right as I was completing my M.F.A. in sculpture. I was living in Baltimore, where I studied at the Rinehart School of Sculpture, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). The results of my conversion were mixed. My behavior certainly changed in some positive ways, but artistically I was stymied. I could not find any contemporary role models.Read more…
Pray for Tom’s Sabbatical
As of yesterday, Tom Grosh is officially on a well-earned sabbatical to finish his own dissertation; he’s excited to return to the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN) in June.Read more…
Help Tom Finish His Dissertation and You Could Win a Free Book
Take a short survey on how/what you’ve learned about “calling” by December 22, and be entered to win a free book.Read more…
How I found Mentors
Three years ago, I had no idea how to obtain a mentor or how you would go about finding one. Through God’s grace, I’ve actually found three mentors since then in different ways.Read more…
Imago Dei: Witness and Work (Part 5 of 5)
As someone who is involved in ministry vocationally, I have found that I have an interesting perspective on how many in the church understand the significance of work and its intersection with faith. I have encountered something of a double standard relating to the value of work for people who are in ministry positions and for believers involved in “secular professions.”Read more…
Fall Snapshot: Depending on Christ
As an aspiring psychologist, I was recently in a training session that taught us how to validate clients’ feelings—to show respect for their feelings, display empathy, and exhibit active listening so that they feel heard. While learning how to empathize with the feelings of others, however, I’ve also been reflecting on my own feelings, especially transitioning into my first year in a Master’s program in New York City.Read more…
Scheduling for our Souls (Scholar’s Compass)
I’m not sure where you are on your academic path, but as a freshly graduated Ph.D., I am excited as I start a job as an Assistant Professor this year. It means I get to learn how to create my life schedule amongst a bunch of newness: new city, new home, new church, new university, new community (including new coffee shops!), new university, new colleagues, new students, and honestly, a new me.Read more…
Graduate School Survival Kit
We’ve gathered some of our most read and appreciated material on navigating graduate school here. If you’re looking for encouragement/grad school survival advice individually or for your campus group, check out these five options.Read more…
Inhabiting Transitional Time Well
My transition from being an undergraduate to entering graduate school was ambiguous. I simply did not know when or where I was going. Discerning my vocation was a long, but important process that took about three years that started in my junior year of undergrad.Read more…
Summer Snapshot: Reimagining Work
This summer I have been focusing on reimagining work instead of escaping work. I started the summer completing one of the heaviest projects of my life, my dissertation. PhD in hand, I spent a good few weeks reflecting on how to “come out of the tunnel” after an intense academic year.Read more…
Processing your PhD: on next-ness
As a young faculty person, with all the anxieties that are part of that identity, that quiet does tend to bring in some of its own challenges, however. It might even go to waste, slipping away into the voracious demands of the calendar. There’s a refrain of next-ness, for lack of a better phrase. What’s next, indeed?Read more…
Returning to Mapping Your Academic Career
Summary: Traces the career trajectory of a college professor, identifying the factors that mark the successful passage from one “cohort” to the next, the risks to be negotiated in each season of work, and key resources for career development.Read more…
Processing your PhD: a further meditation on done-ness
My friend Nate recently asked me what I’d do next. “What do you mean, ‘next’?” I replied.Read more…
Processing your PhD: on teaching
Almost by their nature, large research universities don’t necessarily prime their PhD students and candidates for a teaching-oriented academic career. Read more…
Processing your PhD: the first of a short series on life after graduate school
You stand in the Quad, surrounded by empty chairs and the sound guys talking down the stage. It’s an early June day in Seattle at the University of Washington. A cool wind is blowing paper programs lazily through the air.Read more…