Finding Vocation with Jennifer Nagda

What is the difference between career and vocation? How do you use intentionality to direct your life towards a fulfilling vocation? As Tony Brown says, “you can’t just sit down and say, ‘I'm going to decide on my vocation.’ It's like chasing love. You can't chase love.” In this episode, Tony explores vocation with his former Duke student Jennifer Nagda. For more than a decade, her work has centered on the interests of immigrant children in government custody and legal proceedings. “I think one of the things that I took from Tony's class was the importance of intentionality,” she says. “And that there is this aspect of thinking and framing and creating a plan and then getting busy doing. And you don't linger in between.”

At the Table with Tony is a series of conversations with Tony Brown, professor emeritus at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Tony is facing significant health challenges. In addition to prioritizing his wife, Teddie, and his family, nurturing a generative, “grow together” friendship community that creates benefits for others is an important 2025 aspiration. At the Table with Tony helps him do that.

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As always, Tony is joined at the table by Duke senior, Penelope North.