The Center for Life Calling and Leadership's mission is to enable students to find an overriding purpose for their lives, equip them to make life decisions based on this purpose, and then empower them to develop this purpose into world changing leadership.
CLCL helps students explore the concept of vocation in the context of spirituality and faith, looking at vocation as a much broader subject than just a job, position, or occupation. It is more profound than a profession or life's work. Vocation should be seen in the context of a life calling that produces confidence in an overriding purpose for your life to bring about positive change in the world, and then living one's life in congruence with that purpose.
The Center provides faith-based "life coaching" that goes beyond traditional career counseling. The CLCL life coaches utilize a positive approach with students as they look for solutions to future questions. This differs significantly from clinical counselors in that our coaches are primarily forward-focused and proactive. This approach also differs from traditional career counseling in that it goes beyond career issues and looks at life calling in a much larger, strengths-based, holistic context. Life coaches at the CLCL meet with students one-on-one and in workshops to help them through this discovery process.
CLCL also offers the class, "Introduction to Life Calling," each semester. This 3-credit course focuses on developing an understanding of the concept of life calling and the discovery on one's God-given design as a basis for this calling. Students then are led to understand how work and individual leadership is best understood from this life-calling perspective. Students evaluate their values, spiritual gifts, interests, abilities, personalities, experience, preferred work environments, and career interests. They use this to develop a personal mission that can guide their college experience and their career beyond college.
The Office of Career Development, housed within the Center for Life Calling and Leadership, uses a strengths-based, God-focused approach to assist students in moving through the steps associated with the job search process. A three-credit course, one-credit seminar, three-part workshop series, and individual Career Coaching appointments are all available to guide students in the development of resumes, cover letters, interviewing skills, networking techniques, and other issues facing students as they transition from college into graduate school or the workforce. Beyond these valuable job search skills, however, the Center continues to tie a student's life calling to his or her career direction so that students are better equipped with the staying power to endure adversity in their chosen profession, provide an anchor in the career-related decisions they make, and help avoid jumping from job to job, and career to career.
CLCL also facilitates the leadership major and minor at IWU, and it provides the academic advising for all students who have not declared a major.