Early-bird essays are invited to help launch a new campus initiative at this fall's convocation.

At the Sept. 28 campus-wide gathering, Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef will announce a year-long project designed to encourage campus community members to write 350-word "My Personal Compass" essays on a philosophical, spiritual, political or civic belief and to then thoughtfully consider the many perspectives that are sure to result.

The initiative is modeled after National Public Radio's "This I Believe" program, which reprises the radio essay series hosted in the 1950s by legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow. (For more details about the NPR program, see www.npr.org/thisibelieve.)

The NPR series is intended to encourage people of different beliefs to listen to one another. "Today the art of deep listening, of hearing and honoring another person's perspective, is perhaps a fading art," said Vanderhoef.

"I'm hopeful, though, that we can reclaim that ability and achieve the greater collective understanding necessary to solve our collective challenges as members of this community and as citizens of the world," he said. "I invite members of our campus family to thoughtfully write about their guiding beliefs and to share their essays through the 'My Personal Compass' project."

Essays will be posted on a special "My Personal Compass" Web site accessible from the campus's home page and a selection will be printed periodically in Dateline.

Early submissions are requested now because it is hoped that a representative sampling might be read at the Sept. 28 convocation, to be held at 11 a.m. in Mondavi Center's Jackson Hall.

Essays of 350 words may be sent to mypersonalcompass@ucdavis.edu. To be considered for possible inclusion in the convocation, essays are requested by Tuesday, Sept. 6.

NPR's advice to its essay writers might also guide "My Personal Compass" essay writers: "Be specific. Take your belief out of the ether — ground it in the events of your life. Your story need not be heartwarming or gut-wrenching — it can even be funny — but it should be real. Consider moments when belief was formed or tested or changed. Think of your own experience, work and family — things you know. Refrain from saying what you do not believe. Make your essay about you; speak in the first person ('I')."