Concordia receives CIC grant to help students explore careers and purpose

Concordia College has received a 2026 Professional Development Award from the Council of Independent Colleges through its Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education to strengthen how students connect their education with future service and their calling. 

The grant will support a yearlong professional development initiative that equips faculty and staff with shared language, teaching strategies, and curricular resources to more intentionally integrate vocational exploration into Concordia’s Core Curriculum. Through curriculum mapping workshops, symposium discussions, vocation teaching circles, and a faculty retreat, participants will develop course materials and a shared source of teaching practices that encourage students to explore questions of identity, calling, and purpose.

“College should prepare students for more than their first job. It should prepare them for lives of meaning, leadership, and service,” said Dr. Stephanie Ahlfeldt, Concordia’s associate provost. “This grant helps us equip our faculty and staff with new tools to mentor students as they discover how their gifts can make a difference in their communities and the world.”

Grounded in Concordia’s Lutheran tradition, the initiative will help students engage questions of vocation throughout their academic journey rather than in a single course or advising conversation.

“By embedding vocational reflection across the Core Curriculum, students will have more opportunities to connect what they are learning with who they are becoming and how they hope to contribute to the world,” Ahlfeldt said.

The Council of Independent Colleges’ NetVUE program supports colleges and universities that help students discern meaningful lives and careers through liberal arts education. Concordia is one of 46 institutions selected to receive a 2026 NetVUE Professional Development Award.