Volume 11, Issue 3

To learn and grow in college, students must be able to question their convictions, explore new pathways, and cope with crisis without disconnecting from a deep ballast of faith that these challenges have purpose and meaning. An attitude of faith has an important influence on student welfare and success in college because it provides a critical psychological and spiritual ballast that is needed to respond to the intellectual and emotional upheavals that college life usually brings. This article examines the role of colleges and universities in nurturing students’ search for meaning and purpose in college.

A new national study of college students’ spiritual development is described. Measures of five spiritual qualities—Spiritual Quest, Equanimity, Ethic of Caring, Charitable Involvement, and Ecumenical Worldview—were developed from pilot data collected from 3,700 juniors attending 46 diverse colleges and universities. These measures were subsequently administered longitudinally to 14,527 entering freshmen at 136 institutions and again to these same students at the end of their junior year. Students show significant spiritual growth during the first three years of college, and spiritual growth appears to enhance other college outcomes such as academic performance and satisfaction with college. A number of specific college experiences were found to enhance spiritual growth.

In this essay the author reflects on major developments in the educational and social purposes of higher education over the past two decades, especially as they relate to preparing students for citizenship, character and social responsibility in a global society. The author argues that colleges and universities have generally ignored outcomes related to moral and ethical development as well as other dimensions of personal development. Yet it is affective outcomes such as tolerance, honesty, self-understanding, and social responsibility that are required for effective leadership and citizenship in our increasingly complex world. Higher education must be viewed as a public good rather than a private benefit and embrace a broader educational mission that includes intellectual, emotional and social complexity outcomes.

While participating in a short-term service-learning based course in Honduras, the authors interviewed residents of Santa Rita, a small high poverty village, concerning their perceptions of the impact of service groups working in the community. This article presents the interview findings interwoven with the authors’ personal reflections. One author addresses the question of whether service work is fostering dependency among community members. The second author describes her awakening to the reality that her initial perception of the community’s values and needs differed from those of community members. The third author describes the community members’ lack of awareness that the act of service and the relationships built across borders is as much a gift for those providing service as for those receiving it. Following the reflections, the faculty director provides implications for effectively leading service-learning programs.

There are some who begin their careers with a definite purpose in mind: aspiring to write a great novel, attaining a top leadership position in an institution, or becoming wealthy through real estate ownership—and carefully plan the steps they take to achieve that goal. For the author, that was not the case. He moved from one position that satisfied many of his values, personality characteristics, and desires, to another which satisfied more, and finally a long tenure in one that satisfied most of them. What may have appeared to others as a sustained purposeful career—was not at all purposeful.

Developmental and cultural factors may inadvertently play a contributing role in the discomfort that occurs during service-learning experiences. Ironically, reflection exercises may actually exacerbate the emotional and cognitive dissonance that occurs in these experiences. Both students and faculty require an understanding of what it means to “squirm and learn” in these circumstances as well as reflection strategies that allow students to process what is characterized as the “shadow-side” of reflection. This essay recounts one professor’s own experiences with this challenge and provides insight into the developmental and cultural aspects of the shadow-side of reflection concluding with a description of reflection strategies for consideration.

Through experience of working with students in a Summer Service Learning Program (SSLP) course, the authors discovered the value of two types of post-immersion reflective practices: one-on-one debriefing sessions and small group discussions facilitated by graduate students. The authors argue that the combination of the two practices is valuable at three levels: (a) enhancement of the primary learning goal for the SSLP; (b) fuller participation of all students, those who are more introverted as well as extroverted, in verbal reflection on their experience; and (c) increased opportunities to look at how the questions and insights from the SSLP can inform the remaining years of their college education. Findings suggest that these practices are valuable for all types of educational immersion experiences.

As colleges and universities confront challenging times, there is a need ensure that we maintain humane treatment across power dynamics. This article considers some of the important relationship dynamics to which leaders must attend as they navigate the use of power and privilege.

This article reports the findings and implications of an empirical study that explored the spiritual inclinations and practices of student affairs professionals. The survey for this research utilized pre-existing scales from the UCLA national student and faculty studies, scales developed by Seifert and Harmon (2009), and two newly developed scales, Graduate School Curricula and Mentoring Experiences. The results of this research do appear to confirm that even though the profession of student affairs espouses the value of holistic student development, practitioners do not consistently include spirituality as a component of their practice.

In this article, college students who have demonstrated a deep commitment to community service in college reflect upon the role that their service experiences in high school did (and did not) play in laying the groundwork for their present commitment to service-work and social action.

Guiding students to become responsible citizens is a world-wide goal in universities. Universities in three parts of the world share commonalities in their programs in which students are given opportunities to use and develop their skills and knowledge in relating to others in different types of communities, one within the university setting and two others into communities external to the university setting. Gaining experiences in being a citizen in a community is a key characteristic of the programs.

Kevin Roose, an ethnographer in journalist's clothing, writes about his "domestic study abroad" as a Brown University student matriculating at the conservative evangelical Liberty University, led by the late Jerry Falwell.

In this article, the author contemplates various types of mentor relationships and the responsibilities of both parties in making that connection flourish.