Bluffton University students Emily Baransy, Maryam Telahun and Marlon Young are exploring connections between vocation and faith this summer thanks to $1,500 Summer Discovery Grants awarded by Bluffton's Pathways to Mission and Vocation project.

In July, Baransy, a junior from Ottawa, will attend a Renovar'e Covenant Retreat in San Diego focusing on spiritual discernment and discovery. After returning to Bluffton, the social work major will work with campus pastor Stephen Intagliata to put her insights into practice as a pastoral assistant.

Telahun, a sophomore from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, majoring in economics and business administration, is volunteering in youth and children ministries at Ethiopian Fellowship Church in Sacramento, Calif.

A broadcasting and journalism major, Young is an intern with Education Broadcasting Services in Lusaka, Zambia. There, the sophomore from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is working with students in grades 1-7, instructing them in academic and basic life skills through a process of interactive broadcasting.

This is the seventh year that Summer Discovery Grants have been available to students interested in designing an experience that will allow them to creatively explore connections between their faith journeys and vocational discernment. Funding is through the Karl Schultz Discovery Funds, an endowment established through the gift of Bluffton alumnus Karl Schultz.