How a University in Argentina Embraced Character
Universidad Austral in Buenos Aires visited Wake Forest, then created a series of sessions that helped faculty reach students by redesigning their courses.
Back in 2024, character experts from the Universidad Austral in Buenos Aires attended our “Character across the Curriculum” workshop. Then, they took it a step further. Those educators adapted our summer workshop into Spanish and expanded it from three days to nine sessions spread out across the year. As part of their project Educación del Carácter Basado en la Investigación (Research-Based Character Education), led by Dr. Claudia Vanney, professors used what they learned to redesign their curriculum and syllabi. “The Program allowed us to transform how more than 130 professors think about their role. They no longer just transmit content, but deliberately design experiences that cultivate curiosity, intellectual humility, and carefulness in their students,” says Vanney. “The collaboration with Wake Forest was key to giving this process a rigorous, yet deeply human, framework.”
This spring, Senior Executive Director Michael Lamb got a first-hand view of how it’s going. During an invited visit, he and his collaborator, Edward Brooks of the Oxford Character Project, met with Argentina’s Secretary of Education and his team to discuss the importance of character for schools, universities, and public policy as part of a meeting organized by Agustin Porres and the Varkey Foundation. At Universidad Austral, Brooks and Lamb gave lectures on character education and the seven strategies for character development, spent time talking to educators and administrators, and met with students.
“One of my favorite parts of the visit was talking with 30 students in a special residence hall at Austral focused on cultivating the intellectual virtues,” Lamb said afterward. “The students were incredible—thoughtful, passionate, and earnest in their pursuit of character. I felt so encouraged by their courageous questions and authentic desire to serve others.”
During that conversation, one of the students asked how to cultivate the virtue of hope. “Ed and I both discussed the power of friendships for helping us realize hopes that we cannot achieve on our own,” Lamb says. “This trip provided a vivid reminder of how friends—both old and new—can encourage, inform, and inspire us as we seek common hopes. I returned feeling energized by the global movement to educate character and grateful to do such meaningful work alongside such meaningful friends. In a moment when many people question the value of higher education and the importance of character, these friends provide grounds for hope.”
READ MORE:
- “Las siete estrategias para trabajar el carácter en el aula” from Infobae (Spanish)