Wild Hope invites students to ponder, "What will you do with your one wild and precious life?" "Wild" because so much is possible and unpredictable and the complexities of the world are so great, and "precious" because the life of each individual student vitally matters and is full of promise.
The Wild Hope project began in 2003, with a $2 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. The project was founded on the idea that improving the quality of reflection on vocation-meaning and purpose-contributes to PLU's being a more intellectually rigorous, developmentally astute, theologically rich, and world-informed environment for students - a place that better helps them to become the mature, thoughtful, contextually aware, committed, creative leaders the world needs. The faculty and regents of PLU continue to support this idea, and in May, 2011 the Wild Hope Center for Vocation was created to carry on the project's good work.
Wild Hope challenges all in the university to:
Throughout all its activities, Wild Hope integrates four areas of development-the life of the mind (intellect and imagination), connection to the larger world, personal development, and faith or spirituality.
The center cultivates an environment of thoughtful reflection leading to courageous action. Through this, the center supports a robust mentoring environment in support of the PLU mission- to educate students for lives of thoughtful inquiry, service, leadership, and care-for persons, for communities, and for the earth.
