College Students and Vocation

We were in class listening to Dean Lombardi (Twitter) share about his experiences as the Dean of Students. In response to a student question, he started to share about what a typical day would look like. It doesn't sound like there is a typical day...but what sucked me in is some of the stories he shared about individual students and the things they are struggling with as they are working on getting an education.

It brings to mind the fact that being an 18 to 22 year old college student is hard. It's an age when you have a lot of responsibility (whether you are in a college setting or not), and this is the season of one's life when challenges from childhood and adolescence just really can come to a head. He shared about students that are working very, very hard to stay sober. Young adults who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse and/or assault, and are dealing with the ramifications now. College students who are caught in a culture that glorifies pulling all-nighters, whether it is to study or to party, and high achievers with the general challenges of academic work while worrying about their prospects for the future.

There is a great article from Inside Higher Ed called The Myth of the College as a Fairy Tale - it is worth a read. The article pushes back against the view that college students have a life isolated from trial and tribulation:

Young Americans don’t go to college to avoid work. They work hard in college so they have a shot at earning a modestly rewarding living...The students I teach are professional jugglers who make a Cirque du Soleil show look like a barn dance. Among them they’re balancing academic course loads, community service, part-time or even full-time jobs, loan debt, athletic training and competition, transient housing situations, along with some of life’s other gems like a sick parent, a sibling in Afghanistan, or an unplanned pregnancy.

Yes, being a traditional age college student implies access to a lot of privilege (did you know only about 27% of Americans have a college degree, and the traditional, straight-out-of-high-school, residential college student is just one model of who may be sitting in a classroom or on a computer). But within the life of a college student, there is a lot of anxiety:

• How is my academic performance?
• Will financial aid and/or scholarships keep working out so I can keep attending?
• Am in in the right program? The right school?
• What should I do with my life?
• What is going on with my family right now? 
• How do I handle all of this transition?
• What are my job prospects?
• I'm an Engineering/Accounting/English major, but what I *really* want to do is...

I think these topics hit home because a lot of the people I know tend to care deeply about young adults, and oftentimes those young adults are in college settings. There is so much free-floating stuff floating around in their lives, and oftentimes the best way we can help care for them is to be present with them, and to offer services and reflection on how to make meaning out of their experiences, while supporting them as they move into an authentic expression of self that is integrated with vocation and professional and academic identity. It is a counter cultural view, and one that is embraced by campus ministry, student services staff, and those who work directly with these young adults.