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Jeff Aupperle

Associate Dean Calling & Career

Profile image of Jeff Aupperle

Contact Information

Education

  • PhD, Educational Leadership & Administration, Indiana State University
  • MA, Higher Education & Student Development, Taylor University
  • BA, Christian Ministries, Bethel University

Biography

I began working in the Calling and Career Office at Taylor in February 2014. Many things have changed since that first day of work, but the reason I find this work compelling has not changed at all.

The work of the Calling and Career Office at Taylor is designed to answer the two questions of vocation that everyone has asked or will eventually ask in considering their calling: Who am I? and... What am I to do?

In our work with students we seek to reinforce the idea that our pursuit is not the calling, but the Caller. Our work is important and finding work that matters and is meaningful is a worthy quest. We must be careful, however, that the quest does not consume us. The outsized role work has in shaping our identity can be intoxicating and enticing. Work, however, is just one element of our response to the caller—alongside work are elements of family and friendship, service and Sabbath, creativity and community.

There’s a short saying that we use often in the work we do with students that puts the importance of work in proper perspective. It goes like this, “the value of our work is not in what we make, but in what it makes of us.” I am grateful for the opportunity to meet with students, wherever they are along the path, to explore these important questions of calling and career.

Responsibilities

  • Directing the work of the Calling and Career Office
  • Teaching Faculty: Vocation (SDV 216), Exploring Your Calling (SDV 217) and The History and Foundations of Higher Education in America (HED 550)