News > March 20, 2008

By Maya Yette | Staff writer

How can I make a living and a difference? If I discover my calling will I find a career? Can I be generous with my time without shortchanging my job? How will my decisions shape my profession? These and other important questions will be addressed at “Why Work? Business, Professions and the Common Good,” a two day conference to be held March 27-28 at the university to explore the challenges of modern business and professional life and the relationship between personal values and commitments and the world of work.

As part of the university’s 2007-2008 Voices of Our Time speaker series, the conference will feature New York Times columnist David Brooks and former Congressman Lee Hamilton.

They are among a group of experts from various fields who will come together for important dialogue about challenges faced in professional life today.

“Students who attend these presentations benefit from the research and wisdom of some of the country’s most outstanding leaders in business, education, religion and politics,” said Dean of the Divinity School Bill Leonard.

“To have these kind of gifted individuals in one place and accessible to students on this campus is a rare gift.”

Brooks will be the keynote speaker at the opening session, “Making Sense of Modern Professional Life,” at 4 p.m. March 27 in Wait Chapel.

Hamilton, president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, will chair a panel discussion, “The Demands of Public Life,” at 1:30 p.m. March 28, in Carswell Hall’s Annenberg Forum.

“I like the way philosopher Charles Taylor talks in terms of defining ourselves meaningfully against a ‘horizon of important questions,’” said Dean of the Calloway School Jack Wilkerson.

“My hope and expectation is that this conference will provide our students an opportunity to think deeply about the horizon of important questions against which they should be making career-related decisions.”

Five other panel discussions will be held on March 28.

These sessions include: “Theological Reflections on Work and the Challenges of Pluralism,” chaired by Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest Divinity School; “Re-examining Medicine as a Profession,” chaired by William B. Applegate, interim president of Wake Forest Health Sciences and dean of the Wake Forest School of Medicine; “The Legal Profession in the Marketplace,” chaired by Blake Morant, dean of the Wake Forest School of Law; “Integrating Work and Values: The Challenges of Professional Education,” chaired by Jack Wilkerson, dean of the Calloway School of Business and Accountancy at Wake Forest; and “Corporations and Human Flourishing,” chaired by Don Flow, chairman and chief executive officer of Flow Automotive, Wake Forest graduate and board of trustees member.

Deans of the professional schools have played a big part in the planning process.

They have made it a goal to try to maintain a strong student focus.

The conference is expected to be very accessible to a diverse audience of students, with many interactive sessions.

“Again, this is a rare opportunity that students should take advantage of for their intellect and their own vocational identity and direction,” Leonard said.

“I see this conference as a baby step in the direction of providing significant space within the lives of our students while they’re at Wake Forest for these large questions,” Wilkerson said.

This event is sponsored by the Pro Humanitate Center, a project of the Lilly Endowment.

Voices of our Time is an annual guest speaker series established in 2006 by university president Nathan O. Hatch.