Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection - The Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection encourages individuals and groups to reflect upon their vocational choices, and it provides resources to support that reflective engagement.
Format
- Audience: First-year students, sophomores, all undergrads.
- When: Pre-orientation program; spring break program; annual events for all students.
- Frequency: Summer program, spring break, annual events which include 1.5-hour lectures, workshops, and dinner programs plus overnight or weekend-long off-campus retreats.
- Approximate Number of Participants: Pre-orientation program: 18 freshmen; spring break program: 12 sophomores; annual events for all (over 100 students per year).
- Focus of Programs: The Pre-orientation Program offers four primary resources for exploring vocation: faith, personal assessment, creative expression, and community engagement. The spring break program invites students to participate in a study-away service learning program (in Cuba, Mexico, New York City, or Northern Ireland) that emphasizes three aspects of vocational exploration: faith and social action, social and economic justice, and international humanitarian efforts. Annual events offer various activities and information related to vocational reflection.
Funding & Operations
The Cothran Center was started with generous grant funding from the Lilly Endowment. It is now supported through a combination of endowment funds and operating funds provided by the university.
- External Support:
Our center originated with a grant from the Lilly Endowment’s Programs for Theological Exploration of Vocation (PTEV) to fund a “center for the theological exploration of vocation.” Currently we are funded by a university endowment established by generous donors (including the Cothran family, for whom we are named) who are committed to helping to keep meaningful programs for vocational reflection available for future generations of Furman students.
- Operations:
(1) Pre-Orientation Program: $20,000-25,000 per year.
(2) Spring Break Program: depending on travel destination, $18,000 (New York City) to $30,0000 (Northern Ireland) per year.
(3) Annual Events: about $14,000 per year (not including expenses for the annual public lecture featuring a well-known speaker).