A 4-day retreat with 10 graduate students to help them discern their next steps after graduation.
“The Discernment and Vocation Workshop reminded me that discernment is a living, breathing practice—communal, political, and deeply spiritual. It calls us to steward our resources, gifts, and institutions in the service of our communities. At The People’s Church, that meant creating a space of radical care and collective power; at Wespath, it means ensuring that financial stewardship aligns with our values, sustainability, and long-term collective well-being. Whether in the local church or the corporate office, we are called to listen deeply, move with intention, and shape a future where our communities truly thrive!”
– Rev. Dorlimar Lebron Malave
Discover your Calling: Theological Exploration of Vocation
Program Description
The Discernment and Vocation Workshop is a 4-day program that helps Masters-level students from HSP Sponsoring Schools discern their next steps after graduation. If you’re stuck between a career in the nonprofit sector, chaplaincy, doctoral studies, religious leadership, or anything in between—this program is for you! During our time together we’ll discuss how community impacts and informs discernment, how to think about our own personal and professional goals, and how to come up with practical next steps to set yourself up for post-graduation plans.
Past participants of the Discernment Workshop have gone on to pursue doctoral studies, like Larry Figueroa who is currently a PhD Student in Hebrew Bible at Union Theological Seminary. Others have created innovative new programs like Neddy Yong who, after the Discernment Workshop, applied for and received a million-dollar grant to create the Radically Inclusive Parenting Project. With the tools offered by this program you’ll gain confidence and clarity in pursuing your next steps.
Program Eligibility
- To participate in this program you must be a Masters level student from an HSP Sponsoring School. Preference is given to students entering their final year.
- Space is limited to 10 Participants
Program Dates and Location
- Dates: April 23 – 26, 2026
- Location: Chicago, IL
Program Fee
- $250 for Master students from HSP Sponsoring Schools
- The program fee includes the cost of room, board, travel, and all program activities
Program Applications
- Application opens on December 1, 2025 – February 15, 2026
- Recommendations are due 1-week after the application closes: February 22, 2026
- Program Fee is due 2 weeks after notification of admission
Facilitators
Rev. Dr. Yara González-Justiniano
Rev. Dr. Yara González-Justiniano is Assistant Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture with emphasis on Latinx Studies and affiliated faculty of the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies at Vanderbilt University. She is a practical theologian and minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She received a PhD in Theological Studies with a concentration in Church and Society from Boston University School of Theology, where she also received her Master of Divinity. At the University of Puerto Rico, Dr. González-Justiniano earned a B.A. in Audiovisual Communications with a concentration on film; she also double majored in theater and modern languages. Her educational journey of interdisciplinarity informs the ways in which she approaches theological studies.
The overarching themes of her scholarship are grounded in questions that pertain to practices of social justice, liberation, community, macro psychological analysis, hope, and art. In her most recent book, Centering Hope as a Sustainable Decolonial Practice: Esperanza en Práctica (2022), she wrestles with answering the question of what hope looks like amid socioeconomic crisis. Her interdisciplinary approach to this inquiry grounds itself in ethnographic research in hopes of finding practices that enable a hope that can sustain the collective. Her second book, tentatively titled Exhausting All Possibilities: Healing in Place, will explore issues of place and displacement in colonized contexts.
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Arelis Benítez, Ph.D.
Dr. Arelis Benítez is the Assistant Professor of the Practice of Religion, Psychology, and Culture, and Director of Field Education at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.
Prior to joining Vanderbilt faculty, she served as an instructor at Loma Linda University School of Religion where she was Director of the Master of Science in Chaplaincy program and the former Lead Chaplain at Loma Linda University Medical Center – Murrieta where she developed a volunteer chaplaincy program.
Her research interests center Chicana feminist perspectives on spirituality and Mesoamerican thought. Through this lens, she proposes alternative philosophies that redefine approaches to social, psychological, and spiritual transformation in pastoral theology. As a pastoral theologian, she anchors her methodological approaches in the works of Gloria Anzaldúa towards the inclusion of Latine communities and development of Latine spiritual care responses. Grounded in her own social location, her dissertation, Im/migration and Sexual Identity Reconstruction: Parallels of Pain and Reexistence in Pastoral Theology, explores parallels of suffering and healing in sexual identity (re)construction and migration narratives within the Latine LGBTQ+ community.
Clinically trained as a healthcare chaplain, she integrates over a decade of experiences in pastoral ministry with vocational commitments to social justice that extend beyond the academy and into the public and private spheres. Currently, she also serves as a member of the CPE Professional Advisory Group at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
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