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$2 million grant helps college launch new initiatives
MILLIGAN COLLEGE, TN (Sept. 2, 2003) — When Milligan College announced a new mission statement last year, it took that mission seriously, securing a $2 million grant from the Lilly Endowment for mission-centered initiatives. This morning, the college announced several new initiatives and programs to serve students and fulfill its mission -– a mission built on a strong academic curriculum rooted in the liberal arts and a Christian worldview.
Building on that strong academic program, Milligan’s newly defined mission is to “honor God by educating men and women to be servant-leaders.” How the college does that is a question being addressed by everyone at Milligan as the college kicks off a new academic year.
“At Milligan, we talk a lot about servant leadership and helping our students determine their vocational calling as servant leaders. It is part of our mission and it drives everything we do as we educate and prepare our students for life,” said Milligan President Donald R. Jeanes.
This fall, the college will introduce new honors scholarships, campus life programming, spiritual life activities, enhancements to the curriculum, career counseling services, and leadership and service training opportunities. These new initiatives build on and expand how the college already fulfills its mission.
Beth Anderson, director of the college’s Institute for Servant-Leadership, explained that the college is now looking at each aspect of the college experience and how the message of discerning the call to servant leadership is developed. Founded in 2000, the Institute serves to encourage and champion the college’s mission of servant leadership throughout the college’s activities – both in and out of the classroom.
“Milligan has a long history of rigorous academics and faculty who are dedicated to serving students. Whether in the classroom, in the dorm or on the athletic field, our mission is to encourage our students to reflect on how their faith is related to their career choices and what it means to be ‘called’ to lives of service, whatever their academic study may be,” said Jeanes.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
For example, explained Jeanes, career development, a key function at most colleges and universities, gets a special twist at Milligan, where it’s about vocational and career exploration. A comprehensive approach that spans the entire student experience, this office helps students assess and develop their individual gifts and talents and positions them to relate their professional life to their faith.
“The emphasis is not just on making a living, but making a life,” said Leslie Glover, who as the college’s director of student success oversees the Center for Calling and Career Exploration. “We work with alumni of the college and potential employers to identify opportunities and placement opportunities where there is a shared vision for vocation.”
Glover said it is important for students to understand that being a successful professional and a servant-leader are not exclusive of one another.
“That’s a unique aspect that Milligan provides – you combine the world-class academic pursuits with the Christian focus and the result is incredibly gifted and talented leaders who are prepared to be very successful. They understand that the true success of a meaningful life is found in the intersection of one’s career, faith and purpose,” said Glover.
STUDENT LIFE & SPIRITUAL LIFE
Milligan’s director of student life, Danielle Booth, and campus minister, Nathan Flora, have developed several initiatives relating to residence life and spiritual life on campus. Dorm chaplains have been selected in each dorm to coordinate opportunities for service, lead small groups, and provide pastoral care and mentoring. Residence hall staff will also have additional training to help students seek vocational direction.
These programs have led to several physical improvements. Several residence halls on the Milligan campus underwent renovations this summer to improve or create common areas for small group discussions, study groups and Bible studies.
Booth and Flora have also developed several spiritual enrichment retreats and strengthened the college’s chapel, vespers and convocation programming to better help students explore their vocational choices from the perspective of a calling to ministry, explained Flora.
“Overall, we want to nurture a sense of community on campus and to create activities that reveal our collective calling as Christians and demonstrate the importance of corporate worship. We also want to create meaningful opportunities for all members of our campus to deepen their faith and strengthen their personal relationship with God and their commitment to service in His kingdom,” said Flora.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE
In addition to residence life, spiritual life, and career exploration initiatives that span the entire student experience at Milligan, the college has developed specific programs unique to each class year and each academic program. By focusing on the student experience from day one through to graduation, as well as during graduate study, the college’s faculty and staff are working to ensure that every student gets the message.
During the freshman year, traditional students are typically “seeking God’s call,” explained Anderson. To this end, Milligan’s “Introduction to College and Calling” class, which is required of all incoming students, will have students participate in small group discussions about vocation and service. Taught by Glover and Dr. Bert Allen, professor of psychology, the class offers a personality assessment and gift inventory to help students further define and determine where their talents and skills may be leading them.
In addition to College and Calling, all traditional undergraduate students at Milligan take several core classes – including humanities and Bible – that are part of the college’s Christian liberal arts background. While these courses already emphasize and explore the Christian faith, they will now even more intentionally help students explore the concepts of vocation and calling. First-time students are also assigned a faculty or staff mentor through the college’s mentoring program. The mentor provides guidance, encouragement and academic advising for first-year students.0
Declaring a major is a critical turning point in the life of a college student and usually happens by the end of the sophomore year. The sophomore experience at Milligan will therefore focus specifically on vocational discernment, with a special sophomore summit, special class nights, and residence life and spiritual life programs focusing on “answering the call.”
“Each experience builds on the previous at Milligan,” explained Anderson. “For example, the sophomore summit is a pinnacle opportunity for sophomores to reflect on their experiences in the College and Calling course, in freshman Bible courses and in the humanities program. They are encouraged to review their assessment inventories and to consider possible professions, as well as voluntary service opportunities. In addition, they’ll develop personal mission statements and establish personal goals.”
“As students are encouraged throughout their time at Milligan to explore how their faith and career relate, it is important to provide them an opportunity to be engaged in service alongside faculty and staff members,” said Jeanes. “If students are to come to see a life of service as an expression of their love of God and neighbor, they will need ample opportunities to see this modeled outside the classroom.”
Jeanes explained that as students develop an understanding of their calling to servant leadership, they move from an inward focus of personal discernment to an external view of how they can impact the world. The junior year, then, focuses on service. A special junior service project in the community, for example, challenges students to put their faith in action and develop a passion for mission, ministry and service.
The senior year at Milligan includes the college’s required capstone course, Christ and Culture. This course examines how contemporary Western culture shapes how Christians understand and embody their faith and how Christians might respond to these challenges. A new senior forum on Christ and Culture will be an important extension of this course and help seniors examine their faith perspectives in light of the challenges of modern social expectations and cultural trends, explained Anderson.
Because each experience and year builds on the previous, explained Anderson, determining God’s call is a lifetime process and Milligan’s goal is to provide a starting point.
Anderson also pointed out that the college’s mission is communicated in its non-traditional programs, as well. The college’s graduate programs and adult degree completion programs all incorporate the message of a call to servant-leadership in various curricular and co-curricular components.
“Whether students are residential, traditional four-year, commuters or graduate students, they will be influenced by this message in some way, shape or form,” said Anderson. “It’s core to who we are at Milligan, so it plays out in every arena.”
LIFETIME PROCESS
Why all the careful planning and programming? Milligan leaders know that a life of service doesn’t just happen; it is nurtured.
“It’s very much a process from day one,” said Anderson.
Milligan’s more than 900 students come from 34 states and nine foreign countries. They also come from a greatly varied set of backgrounds and experiences – economic, geographical, theological, cultural and personal. The language of “vocation” is not part of the working vocabulary of many 18-22 year olds who are trying to reconcile their faith with societal pressures and expectations, explained Anderson.
Most students arrive on Milligan’s campus wanting to find direction for their lives, and at the same time they have a desire to serve.
“Our goal at Milligan is to provide a cohesive way for them to explore their vocational choices from the perspective of a calling to ministry – we want them to see their career choice as an opportunity to use their talents for ministry and service in God’s kingdom,” said Anderson.
Jeanes explained that the college’s mission is accomplished in many ways, and everyone – faculty, staff, alumni and even the community – plays a critical role.
“It’s all about serving our students better and educating them in all aspects of life,” said Jeanes. “We want to be student-centered in everything we do. That’s the only way we can successfully fulfill our mission and prepare a new generation of servant-leaders to make a difference in this world – to ‘change lives and shape culture,’ as our vision statement says.”
Jeanes said the upcoming year will be an exciting one.
“The new opportunities and initiatives that enable us to fulfill this mission and serve our students better than ever before are exciting to us all,” he said.