CIC Awards $50,000 NetVUE Program Development Grant to Bloomfield College
Bloomfield College is one of 20 institutions nationwide selected to receive a 2021 Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) Program Development Grant through the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). The two-year $50,000 grant award, to be used between May 1, 2021 and April 30, 2023, will supplement Bloomfield College’s current initiatives toward deepening vocational exploration and discernment in its undergraduate student population.
Through the grant, faculty will develop and implement a new 200-level course, Ignite Your Passion: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Vocational Exploration, providing students the foundation necessary to create purposeful academic planning for a fulfilling career path. The course will encourage students to explore vocation with curiosity to determine how it differs from a career and to create a pathway through discernment of self, examination of experiences and passions, and the setting of goals. In addition, faculty and staff workshops and reading groups on the role of vocational exploration across institutional contexts will ensure that the College maintains a sustainable vocational program following the end of the grant period as required.
“The NetVUE Program Development Grant will support an outstanding collaboration between faculty in different disciplines, our Center for Student Success, Spiritual Life, and the Center for Academic Advising and Career Engagement to significantly strengthen and expand vocational exploration for students through curricular and co-curricular programming,” said Michael A. Palladino, Ph.D., vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty.
Guidelines for NetVUE Program Development Grants stipulate that NetVUE member institutions may request amounts ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 for use over two years to deepen, expand or otherwise strengthen existing programs that are already underway and supported by the institution. Grants are awarded based on proposals that explain (a) the purpose and goals of the proposed activities and their relationship to the ongoing vocational exploration program of the institution, (b) the extent of institutional support for vocational exploration efforts to date, (c) the proposed enhancements to the program, and (d) the ways in which the NetVUE-supported program would be sustained by the institution after the grant period.
“The high level of interest in the Program Development Grants reflects the deep commitment of NetVUE member colleges and universities to vocational exploration in undergraduate education. Grant applicants proposed a wide range of demonstrably effective strategies for building campus capacity in this regard,” said Richard Ekman, CIC president. “My colleagues at CIC and I congratulate you on receipt of this grant, and we look forward to following your progress during the coming two years.”
NetVUE Program Development Grants are made possible thanks to generous financial support to the Council of Independent Colleges by Lilly Endowment Inc. CIC is an association of nonprofit independent colleges and universities that has worked since 1956 to support college and university leadership; advance institutional excellence; and enhance public understanding of private higher education’s contributions to society.