The mission of the Newlin Center for Quaker Thought and Practice is to be a visible expression of the Quaker programs, capabilities, resources, and relationships of Earlham College, and the Earlham School of Religion. The Center will represent Earlham's Quaker character and mission in a public and visible way to our students, faculty, staff, and outside the Earlham community.

The Center aims to identify young Quaker leaders, nurture Quaker scholarship and dialogue on campus, provide members of the Earlham and broader community with information about the Religious Society of Friends and Earlham's living Quaker character. We aim to promote conversation and cooperation among Friends, and to provide a centrist gathering place for Friends across theological and cultural spectrums. The Newlin Center administers a grant on Faith, Vocation and Leadership, funded by the Lilly Endowment, awarded Earlham College in 2000 of nearly two million dollars.

Project on Faith, Vocation and Leadership

A fundamental convictioin of Quakers is that God calls each person to paraticular forms of life and work, and that we can make choices about these things in harmony with the divine call. Even persons who do not use religious language may see that certain forms of life and work are more in harmony with their unique combination of gifts, talents, passions, and interests with the needs of the world and the desire for a more peaceful and humane society. The most appropriate word for this sense of direction is vocation.

The project on Faith, Vocation and Leadership is intended to deepen and nurture a culture of vocation - an environment in which this manner of discerning a life's work is normal and natural to the progress of a student's time at Earlham.

As administrators of this grant, the Newlin Center for Quaker Thought and Practice develops activities, which are carried out in offices of Campus Ministry, Multicultural Affairs, Career Development, and the Religion Department of the College. For students it provides opportunities for vocational discernment and spiritual development. We provide funding for internships with religious congregations or agencies in Wayne County, Indiana or further afield, during both the academic year and the summer. The Center resides in Virginia Cottage - located just north of the Admissions buildings, and west of the Earlham School of Religion. The cottage is a place of hospitality and gathering as well as the home to the two Earlham program initiatives that reside there.