“Many American colleges are elevating discussions of character. Wake Forest University has developed the Educating Character Initiative, a national network of colleges committed to putting character at the center of curriculum,” writes Clark Gilbert in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
United Negro College Fund’s Jelani Favors and the ECI’s Emily Hunt-Hinojosa and Michael Prinzing make the argument that character education efforts at HBCUs have been underappreciated. To kick off conversations around research on the role of HBCUs in educating character, they invite you to collaborate and join the discussion.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
Current ECI grantees share what helped them develop strong proposals, build partnerships, and connect their ideas to their institutions’ needs. Together, they remind us that this work matters, that there’s room for many approaches, and that you are not alone in the process.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
In 2025, ECI Webinars brought together diverse perspectives on how communities can cultivate wholeness, reciprocity, care, justice, and hospitality, and how character can be intentionally developed through community.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
In the episode, Aaron Cobb discusses hope—not just as a feeling or a fleeting optimism, but as a virtue that shapes character and community.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
“We don’t just train people to be doctors or engineers or business leaders; we train people to think for themselves, and that is profoundly liberating,” Duncan Pritchard recently told LearningWell magazine about the university’s character work. Pritchard is director of the Anteater Virtues Project, which promotes the intellectual virtues of curiosity, integrity, intellectual humility, and intellectual tenacity across the university.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
This fall, George Fox University hosted ECI Community members united in exploring the formation of student character in faith-based higher education. Together, this group of thoughtful leaders represents a growing subset within the ECI Community: faith-based institutions committed to forming students with the qualities they need to serve the common good.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
What does it mean to build the traits of a peacebuilder rather than just theoretically know how to resolve conflict? At Utah State University, a religious studies professor and a political science professor are collaborating to enhance the university’s core curriculum with peace studies pedagogy that’s integrated with character education.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
The North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Office of Community Engagement and Service, NCCU Wesley Campus Ministry, and Duke University Chapel co-sponsored a public conversation on “What an Education is For: Character and the Second Curriculum at HBCUs” at NCCU on Thursday, Oct. 16.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
Seton Hill University is weaving its founding spirit, rooted in the mission of the Sisters of Charity, into a modern approach to character education. With support from the ECI, faculty and students are turning archives, classrooms, and conversations into spaces where virtues like humility, wisdom, and gratitude spark to life.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News