Saint Louis University recently received a $1.93 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. in order to assist students in finding their vocation in life. However, this is not an extension of Career Services.

“It is to help students incorporate their relationship with God and their vocation,” said Edward O’Riely, S.J., vice president of Mission and Ministry.

The Lilly Endowment assisted SLU in its Vocation: Interiority, Community and Engaged Service (VOICES) project. “The project so clearly fits within the mission of SLU to create men and women for others,” said Provost Sandra Johnson.

The program hopes to use the endowment with a series of weekend retreats for students to the Manresa Center for the purpose of examining how spirituality relates to their vocation.

“We are encouraging students to ask themselves, `How will I relate to the people and what service do I want to do?'” O’Riely said.

“VOICES will help our students and faculty to develop a commitment to respond to God’s call and carry this commitment outward to the communities in which they live and work, as well as the larger world,” Johnson said.

The University began working for the grant over two years ago when its first step was to apply for an application.

“We received $50,000 from the [Lilly] Endowment in order to research and write the proposal,” O’Riely said.

The grant is for $1.93 million over five years, while the University raises $1 million. However, O’Riely and those working in the program hope to continue the project after its first five years, and make it an inherent part of the institution.

“We would like to work with the sophomores because that is such a pivotal year,” O’Riely said. Nevertheless the program does not exclude students from other levels.

“We are still working out the machinery of the program,” O’Riely said, “but we hope to have it running by the end of the semester.”

There are currently a group of graduate students known as the Alexandria Society that meet once a week for dinner and discuss the issues that the new program hopes to address. Developers of the program hope to incorporate the spirit of the society into their future works.

Even though the grant carries a religious spirit, it does not force students to enter into the clergy or devote their career to a religious vocation. It simply calls on future leaders to examine the way their job effects and serves those around them.

Other Jesuit schools to receive the grant were Boston College and Georgetown.

Founded in 1937, the endowment is an Indianapolis-based private family foundation that follows its founders’ wishes by supporting the cause of religion, community and education.