Muller Center Announces Inaugural Sophomore Sojourners

The Muller Center at Newberry College announces its first cohort of Sophomore Sojourners. Hunter Berley, Lauren Evans, Autumn Fountain, Sarah Johnson, Korina Martinez, Kennedy Moore, and Tamara Stemmer will spend the 2016-17 academic year exploring questions of meaning, purpose, values, and service.

The aim of the program is to help sophomores gain greater clarity about personal, educational, and professional goals—and, says Muller Director Krista E. Hughes, “to provide some breathing room to explore those. Rather than being ‘one more thing to do,’ we hope Sojourners will experience this program as a place to pause amidst the noise and demands of being a college student and reflect on the bigger questions.” Activities will include two off-campus weekend retreats; gatherings every other week for a meal and conversation; targeted mentoring from faculty and staff; and a self-designed community service project.

The Sophomore Sojourners program is part of a broader Purpose Exploration Initiative the Muller Center will launch during the 2016-17 year. “In its first year, the Muller Center sought to sustain and strengthen existing civic engagement activities,” says Hughes. “With those programs humming along, we are excited to implement our Purpose Exploration Initiative, which is a vital expression of Newberry’s roots in the Lutheran liberal arts tradition—a tradition that prizes self-reflection and personal and social responsibility.”

Other Purpose Exploration programming will include the Compass Fellowship for faculty and staff; Table Talk meals where faculty and staff share their vocational stories with students; and Pilgrimage Hikes where students enjoy a daylong opportunity for contemplative time in nature. Plans for future programs include a residential living-learning community, alternative break service trips, and Junior-Senior leadership programs.

For more information on these programs, contact Dr. Krista E. Hughes at muller.center@newberry.edu.