Aquinas, Calvin and Hope colleges are among more than 30 U.S. schools teaming up for a new program aimed at encouraging students to use their faith as they explore career goals. The Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education, or NetVUE, launched about a month ago. Shirley Roels, the program’s senior adviser, said members are borrowing ideas from many faith traditions.

The hope is those ideas, in turn, will give students an understanding of how religion affects their sense of meaning and purpose, Roels said. That applies to occupational choices, family decisions and neighborhood and community commitment, she said.

“Faith is bigger than any one job or occupation,” said Roels, who also heads Calvin’s Van Lunen Center, which prepares students to lead Christian schools. “Faith calls you to a certain kind of life. Faith connects to every aspect of your life, so it ought to connect to your paid employment.”

NetVUE is a project of the Council of Independent Colleges, a Washington, D.C., organization that serves more than 600 liberal arts, two-year, four-year and international institutions. Lilly Endowment Inc., a private philanthropic foundation based in Indianapolis, made a six-year commitment to fund NetVUE, Roels said.

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