The Lilly Initiative introduces and maintains conversations about vocation and service into all parts of the Simpson community. This is done through activities that promote reflection about vocation and responsibility to the larger community. These activities are added into existing programs (as well as the academic process), and new courses are developed to directly address issues of work, calling and the greater good. The Lilly Initiative also helps fund faculty who wish to develop new courses and acquire training to do so.
The Lilly Initiative also provides ongoing development programs for faculty and staff who are engaged in advising students both formally and informally. Advising is not a commodity to be handed to the student by the faculty, but a rich dialogue between two journeying people. Through meaningful conversations, students are able to reflect on their own life, broaden their sense of "world" and discover new boundaries of what they think is possible. The Lilly Initiative realizes that advising takes place both formally and informally at several levels of students' lives. So it is our goal to enrich as many of these conversations as possible by training both faculty and staff to be guides for their students' journeys.