Where is the meaning in my work? Bates event can help

“How do you find meaning in your work?”

That’s the question that panelists, workshops and a keynote speaker will address during the Bates event called “Working Weekend.”

On Saturday, May 16, Bates hosts alumni speaking about how they use networks, strategies and values to construct meaning in their professional lives.

Co-sponsored by the Bates Office of Equity and Diversity and the Purposeful Work initiative, which seeks to provide opportunities for Bates students to develop their career interests and aspirations, Working Weekend invites attendees to think about their own work lives, both at Bates and beyond.

Corey Keyes, Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the sociology department at Emory University, starts the program with a keynote speech that explores what it means to flourish, based on his research on the psychological concept of “flourishing” and its connection with mental health and illness.

Thereafter, Working Weekend centers on two alumni panels. The morning panel, “Aligning Yourself and Your Work: Interests, Experiences, Strengths,” features:

• Stephan Greshham ’03, psychologist and LGBT special emphasis program manager for Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital;
• Larry Handerhan ’05, founder of Bates PRIDE (LGBT networking and advocacy group for the Bates community) who works at U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Khairah Klein ’91, a teacher at The Spence School in New York City
• and Daniel Robarts ’04, a horticulturalist and geneticist.

The panelists will discuss their personal processes of gaining awareness of their professional aspirations and aptitudes, and using that awareness to find meaning.

The afternoon panel, “Making Meaning While Making a Living,” features:

• Wendy Ault ’76, associate director of admissions at the University of Maine at Farmington and executive director of the MELMAC Education Foundation;
• Monica Rodriguez ’12, third-year law student at Boston College;
• and Bill Sweat ’79, formerly of Fidelity Investments and now a member of the Bates Board of Trustees and co-owner of Winderlea Vineyard and Winery.

The panelists will discuss networking, job crafting and negotiating. These skills are the pragmatic dimensions to finding and keeping meaningful work.