  {"id":56741,"date":"2025-09-16T15:40:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T15:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/?page_id=56741"},"modified":"2025-09-16T20:06:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:06:20","slug":"thrive","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/thrive\/","title":{"rendered":"Vocation and Thriving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Augsburg University educates students to thrive in their lives.\u00a0 Every student graduating from Augsburg University will understand what it takes for them to thrive, for their communities to thrive, and for our world to thrive. Our students thrive when they are actively expressing the unique ways they are inspired, equipped, and empowered to create a more just and sustainable world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thriving is never something that happens in isolation from others. We thrive in community, we thrive as community, we thrive with community. I am only thriving if you are also thriving. We are only thriving if they are also thriving. Thriving is always something we do together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How do we begin to understand how we thrive? We discover our unique way of thriving and helping others thrive when we take the time to explore and discover the six different elements of thriving.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-56691\" src=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/09\/Thrive-Framework-Diagram-small-file-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"A circular diagram with six segments labeled Traits, Health, Responsibility, Inspiration, Voice, and Empathy.\" width=\"538\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/09\/Thrive-Framework-Diagram-small-file-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/09\/Thrive-Framework-Diagram-small-file-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/09\/Thrive-Framework-Diagram-small-file-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/09\/Thrive-Framework-Diagram-small-file-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/09\/Thrive-Framework-Diagram-small-file-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/09\/Thrive-Framework-Diagram-small-file-2048x2048.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 538px) 100vw, 538px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Christensen Center for Vocation is committed to helping every member of our community learn to thrive by exploring these six components through high-impact learning, storytelling, mentorship, and community. Through these efforts, we cultivate the imagination and practices that lead to more just, sustainable, and thriving lives and communities.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Lutheran Theological Understanding of Vocation<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Augsburg University is a university of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Therefore, this commitment to helping our students and our world thrive is rooted in the university\u2019s Lutheran theological heritage, particularly its understanding of vocation. This theological understanding of vocation can best be summarized with these words from Martin Luther\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Freedom of a Christian<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (1520).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c. . . we should be guided in all our works by this one thought alone \u2013 that we may strive and benefit others in everything that is done, having nothing else before our eyes except the need and advantage of the neighbor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The centrality of the neighbor\u2019s well-being, or thriving, is the primary focal point of higher education within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and at Augsburg University. The purpose of a college education is to (1) develop the mindset and skills necessary to discover what our neighbors need in order to thrive, and (2) develop the mindset and skills necessary to pragmatically meet those needs. Every discipline within a liberal arts education including Literature, Business, History, Sociology, Philosophy, Economics, Theater, Political Science, etc. is intended to increase our ability to \u201cbenefit others in everything we do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/?p=56686&amp;preview=true\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Read more about how a Lutheran understanding of vocation informs this Thrive framework.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Augsburg University educates students to thrive in their lives.\u00a0 Every student graduating from Augsburg University will understand what it takes &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-56741","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56741"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56752,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56741\/revisions\/56752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}