Morningside College recently received a two-year grant to expand programming focused on the Second Year Experience for undergraduate students.

Morningside College recently received a two-year grant to expand programming focused on the Second Year Experience for undergraduate students.

The college received the $48,922 grant from Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE).

Morningside already has programming on the First Year Experience to help students get acclimated to college and choose a major by the end of their freshman year.

Last year, the college piloted a Second Year Experience in a few departments to help students connect with students and faculty in their major and in the community as a whole, explore careers and discover their life purpose or vocation.

“During the first year, there’s more of an external focus – getting settled in college, figuring out how to feed yourself and get your laundry done,” said Dr. Marilyn Eastman, associate professor of marketing, who is the project director for the NetVUE grant at Morningside College. “The second year tends to be a time of more internal reflection, and so it fits really nicely with discussing life purpose.”

The grant will enable the college to expand programming on the Second Year Experience to five departments, and the college may eventually expand the program to the entire campus.

NetVUE is a nationwide network of colleges and universities formed to enrich the intellectual and theological exploration of vocation among undergraduate students.