Carleton chaplain forges path for students interested in religious leadership with new fellowship program

For those in the know, Carleton is often referred to as a “pipeline” or “feeder school” for Harvard Divinity School, with many graduates going to and religion professors coming from its graduate studies program; however, beyond Carleton’s religion department and Chaplain’s Associate (CA) student work program, there has been little structured support for aspiring religious leaders at the College — until now. Rev. Schuyler Vogel ’07, college chaplain, recently received a grant from the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and the Lily Endowment Inc. This grant will allow Carleton to fund a Religious Leadership Fellows Program in the upcoming 2025–26 academic year.

Vogel applied for this grant when he noticed a lack of concrete support for students exploring religious leadership positions professionally, despite Carleton “having a really great history of producing clergy and other religious professionals.” 

“It seemed like there was a really big need,” said Vogel. “It felt important to find ways of supporting students both financially and through networking and [community-building] experiences.”

The current structures in place for future religious leaders at Carleton were “lacking intentionality,” Vogel added, which is needed to equip students to “enter discernment” and “explore what religious leadership looks like” as well as “engage more deeply with people in their religious traditions and practices.”

Through the NetVUE grant, Carleton students of varying levels of certainty can find community and support. Vogel hopes to assist students “who know they’re at least interested in the possibility of entering religious leadership professionally, asking questions about what this looks like long-term, and give them the resources to explore that.” 

By opening up this grant to all kinds of students, Vogel aims to offer the unique opportunity of experience without an extensive, often life-long commitment. 

This support will come in a variety of modes, from “working alongside a local community that’s of their tradition or practice” to attending conferences to “spiritual discernment experiences.” Going beyond the experience offered through the CA position, where religious events are exclusively held on campus and mostly student-led or led by one of Carleton’s associate chaplains, the grant allows students to engage with religion outside of the Carleton bubble while being financed by the Office of the Chaplain.

“We had a really strong application that was grounded in past success — that we know how to do this and do it well — while also showing a clear need and ability to go beyond what we’ve done,” Vogel said. 

This work is a mixture of engaging students in their own traditions while also facilitating a “cohort model” where recipients of the grant funding will meet bi-monthly to learn from one another across traditions. 

“Engaging with other people’s journeys creates an important aspect of outward-facing experience,” said Vogel. 

With this funding, a cohort of eight rising juniors and seniors spanning a variety of faith traditions will be equipped with the resources they need to explore futures in religious leadership. Many of the students involved in the Religious Leadership Fellows Program are current CAs, but are seeking something more. Working independently and together, these students will have the freedom to explore career paths in a way never before possible at Carleton.