Cultivating Habits of Discernment:
The Lilly Vocation Discernment Initiative

Cornerstone One:
First-year student orientation and community-wide, mission-oriented convocations

The first cornerstone strengthens first-year student orientation by devoting an extra day to service, reflection, and education about discernment. In order to stress the value of setting aside time for reflection on a regular basis, we will develop a unique Holy Cross journal that provides students with space for regular, written reflection on their life goals. Finally, it adds an important event in each academic year, a new annual convocation which reflects on one of the questions of meaning and obligation from the Mission Statement. By linking these, Holy Cross will introduce discrete practices of reflection into everyday student life and thereby nurture the process of discernment.

This program of orientation and community convocation will be planned by the VICC working with the Office of Student Affairs which will be responsible for program implementation.

(1) Student Orientation Improvements: The VICC will plan, develop, and implement a special, new Day of Community Service and Reflection for first-year students, which will be composed of an extra day added to freshman orientation, specifically dedicated to the aims of this vocation discernment initiative.
· The day will begin with a morning of community service in the City of Worcester, which introduces students immediately to the culture of service at Holy Cross.
· This will be followed by a series of short presentations in the early afternoon on the necessity of reflection in liberal arts education and the centrality of discernment to Ignatian spirituality and Jesuit education. These presentations will be designed to pass on some of the language and stories that characterize Holy Cross life and the Ignatian ideal.
· The final part of the afternoon will be dedicated to small group workshops in which students write essays which respond to the questions, "Who am I?" "Who do I want to become?" Student and faculty mentors for this process will help emphasize how the answers to both questions change and unfold during college and will encourage them to look regularly at whether this is or isn't the case in their own lives.

(2)"The Purple Book:" An Ongoing Tool for Reflection and Discernment: During the vocation orientation day, each student will receive a specially designed "Purple Book" for recording the essay devised in the afternoon. The book, in the school colors, will contain space for students to write similar reflections as their education progresses. New questions will be placed at appropriate points in the book to supplement the original ones-e.g. "As educated persons in a world of poverty and inequality, How then, shall we live?" or "How have the choices I have made shaped or undermined my progress toward becoming the person I aspired to be?" The books will contain a glossary of terms related to discernment and a selection of classic quotations and inspiring examples of discernment and reflective practice. We believe that this book can encourage students to take greater personal responsibility for their goals and actions, and to consider which choices constitute the "magis" in their lives. Use of the book will be tied into annual convocations, retreats, and other reflective moments in students' lives. While reflective writing is essentially private, students will find the habit of reflective writing useful when they meet advisors, ask for letters of recommendation, or compete for entry into special programs. When mentors and advisors ask how a particular choice reflects their personal and academic experience, students will be able to refer to the record of development in their "Purple Book." The book itself, and the process of repeatedly returning to it, should help underscore the importance we place on reflection and discernment as part of a Holy Cross education and a life well-lived.

(3) Annual Community-wide "Live the Mission Convocations:" The VICC will plan and implement an annual community-wide "Live the Mission" Convocation. Each year, these convocations will center on one of the four fundamental questions that the College Mission Statement identifies in the opening paragraph as constitutive of a Holy Cross education. In the fourth year, an additional annual reflection and discernment day on this question will be provided for seniors. These convocations will be an important departure from the present academic schedule at Holy Cross, a means of affirming the importance of taking time off from busy lives to reflect on questions of meaning and purpose.
The VICC will train faculty, staff and student peer leaders to assist this project as facilitators of small group discussions, both at new student orientation and at convocations.

(4) The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture will revive and enhance its Thomas More Lecture Series by inviting distinguished alumni/ae to speak about their profession, vocation, and the ethical challenges and opportunities they have met. Graduates of the College will also participate actively in the orientation program and campus convocations to share their experience with students and give witness to the need for habits of reflection and integration in family, community, and workplace.