What’s New
🎩 GET INVOLVED! 🎩
Are you a Wake Forest student who wants to get involved with our Program? Click or tap on the button below to learn more:
- 🎬 We’re co-sponsoring an event with the Lam Museum of Anthropology on Sunday, October 13 at 4 p.m. in the Kulynych Auditorium in the Byrum Welcome Center. The event will feature a screening of “Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya,” to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day. Learn more information about this event here.
- 📣 Join us for our major conference, Educating Character Across Differences: Cultivating Communities of Character in the University, December 5-7, 2024, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, hosted by the ECI on behalf of our Program.
- 💰The Travel for Interdisciplinary and Community Engaged Learning (TICEL) Travel Grant application is now open to faculty in the graduate and professional schools! Applications are due October 25, 2024, apply today!
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Our Mission
The Program for Leadership and Character inspires, educates, and empowers leaders of character to serve humanity. Through innovative teaching, creative programming, and cutting-edge research, we aim to transform the lives of students, foster an inclusive culture of leadership and character at Wake Forest, and catalyze a broader public conversation that places character at the center of leadership.
Over the last decade, Wake Forest faculty have become leading experts in the study of character. The Program for Leadership and Character is now using this groundbreaking research to develop creative, liberal arts-based programming to transform the lives of our students.
We are excited to share who we are and what we aspire to do. We hope you will join us in this effort.
Courses
We teach courses on leadership and character and equip others to develop relevant courses.
College Programming
Our outside-the-classroom programs equip students to develop the character needed to lead with integrity.
Professional Schools
Our efforts in the professional schools prepare students to be leaders and professionals of character.
Conferences
We host conferences to facilitate broader reflection on leadership and character beyond Wake Forest.
C2C
Learn more about yourself and others through a Call to Conversation.
Research
We use rigorous research to assess our programs and share our results.
Come see Dr. Donovan Livingston (@dlive87) on Monday, September 23rd from 6-7 p.m. in the auditorium at the Porter Byrum Auditorium at @wfuniversity. The event, “‘I’ma put the lil homies on next’: Mixtape methodology and meaning making through hip-hop literacy,” is free and open to the public. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members are all welcome.
This event is part of the Leadership, Equity, & Education Speaker Series. It’s hosted by the EDU Student Leadership Council, and co-sponsored by the Wake Forest’s Department of Education, the Center for Literacy Education, the African American Studies Program, the Program for Leadership and Character, Wake the Arts, the Department of Music, ZSR Library, and the Humanities Institute.
Earlier this month, Assistant Director of Curriculum and Pedagogical Design Nancy Winfrey partnered with the @wfulawschool to create a program that would welcome back our second year law students and provide them with the tools to #flourish as students and as individuals.
Dr. Dan Henry, Assistant Teaching Professor in African American Studies, is teaching a course called Organic Leadership: Lessons from the Black Freedom Struggle. The course focuses on the history of African American philosophies of democratic citizenship and leadership. Here, Dr. Henry talks about Ida B. Wells, one of the thinkers his class is learning about this semester.
This past weekend, Wake Forest graduate and professional students went to Montreat for the Human/Nature Retreat (formerly the Flourishing Retreat) where they took mindful forest walks, created nature art, and participated in a nature writing workshop to build a stronger human-nature connection. Research shows that time spent in nature can make people happier, healthier, and possibly kinder by reducing stress, inspiring gratitude, stimulating creativity, and promoting social cooperation.
It begins THIS WEDNESDAY and continues every other Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Starling Hall. See you there!
Join the Center for Literacy Education for the Leadership, Equity, and Education Speaker Series on Monday, September 23 in the Kulynych Auditorium from 6-7 pm. Dr. Donovan Livingston, Director of College Thriving and Teaching Assistant Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will give a lecture on hip hop as a form of literacy.
Over the summer, we held our Men’s Student-Athlete Leadership Retreat. The retreat was led by Wendell Dunn, Assistant Director of Leadership and Character for Athletics, and Dwight Lewis, Associate Athletic Director, Student Engagement and DEI. We asked the student-athletes to share their takeaways and experiences from the three-day retreat, and here’s what they had to say.
Yesterday we hosted our first Leadership and Character Involvement Kickoff! This dinner was an opportunity for students to meet our Program staff, learn about the work that we do, and the ways they can get involved. “Our hope was for the students to know that we are a resource for them; that this is a space where they can explore not just what they want to do, but who they want to be,” says Roscoe Bell, our program coordinator.
If you missed it, don’t worry! We will host a Wednesday Night Dinner in Starling Hall on September 18, at 6 p.m. where students can stop by for refreshments, meaningful conversation, and a chance to build a community on campus.
Join us tomorrow for our Leadership and Character Involvement Kickoff at 6 p.m. in the Magnolia Room! This event is an opportunity for students to learn more about who we are, the ways they can get involved in the Program, and have dinner and meaningful conversations. We hope to see you there!
What is college for? Let’s talk about it! In preparation for our upcoming discussion group, our Leadership and Character Scholar, @juztmason (’25), asked students their thoughts on attending college and here’s what they had to say.
If you are interested in continuing this conversation, sign up for our discussion group! Click the link in our bio to sign up by Wednesday, September 4.
Last week we wrapped up our pre-orientation program called L.E.A.P. (Leadership, Ethics, and Purpose). During this four-day program, students reflected on virtues such as courage, justice, empathy and humility and examined the ways student leaders can have an impact at Wake Forest and their larger communities by knowing their character and leading with it. Rafael Castro (‘28) shares the most meaningful part of his experience after participating in L.E.A.P.
This week, we welcomed the incoming class of Leadership and Character Scholars to @wfuniversity with an open house at Starling Hall. @k.michael.lamb delivered opening remarks for new students and their parents. #ProHumanitate #WFU28