Taking guidance from your spiritual core.

Service grounded in spirituality is an everyday conversational topic at Marian College in Fond du Lac WI, a Catholic school sponsored by the Sisters of St. Agnes. It's harder to talk about spirituality at public universities, which are held back by fear of straying into religion.

But our day-to-day decisions, from big career moves to tiny gestures, reflect our inner core. When Marian hosted the October 2005 conference of Wisconsin Women in Higher Education Leadership (WWHEL) with a focus on negotiation, two Marian administrators discussed in a breakout session how reflection and core values shape the ways they negotiate their lives.

Kate Candee is principal investigator/ coordinator of the college's Title III grant program to improve student learning. Jennifer Krueger directs the First Year Experience, funded by the Title III grant.

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Books have inspired and influenced them to work from a spiritual center (see sidebar). Taking the time to curl up with a book or listen as you drive can help you discover what speaks to your spirit.

Inner voice

In Kate Candee's 15 years at Marian, she's heard a lot about inner spirituality. Her mentor gave her Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer, a Quaker whose words about the inner voice spoke to her.