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Author: Kate Lord Archive

Four grantees, one shared vision: Character, vocation, and mission in action

four faculty members speak on a panel

At the 2026 NetVUE Conference, teams from four ECI-supported campuses — University of Dubuque, Bellarmine University, King University, and Belmont University — shared how character, vocation, and mission are woven into daily campus life. Their approaches range from faculty learning cohorts and holistic advising to campus-wide character festivals and communities built on accountability.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

Solving Wicked Problems Starts with Who You Are: Character Education and the ‘Wicked Festival’ at Radford University

students and faculty gather at the Wicked Festival at Radford University

Each semester at Institutional Impact Grantee Radford University, students from across the university gather at the Wicked Festival, presenting original solutions to some of the world’s hardest problems. “Students, community partners, alumni judges, and faculty circulate, ask hard questions, and push back. The students are the authorities.”

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

The Davidson difference: New Institute for Public Good translates a legacy of honor into a framework for dialogue

debating at Davidson College

“We’re going to develop the leadership for the next generation of leaders, and we’re going to do it in the ways that we care about when it comes to character,” Chris Marsicano, P.I. for Davidson College’s Institutional Impact Grant and the inaugural director of the Martin Institute for Public Good, recently told LearningWell magazine.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

New character textbook makes virtue accessible for undergraduates

Improving Character book

When Robert J. Hartman began teaching his first-year seminar, “Becoming a Better Person,” in Fall 2023, he set out to help students reflect on who they are, who they hope to become, and how to take steps in that direction. As he built his syllabus, though, he noticed a gap: there simply weren’t enough succinct, engaging resources on character designed for students just starting out.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

I dreamed I made my mentor cry

"I dreamed I made my mentor cry. He was giving an academic talk on character education, and I asked a question I would never ask in real life." By Emily Hunt-Hinojosa

In an essay published in The Christian Century, ECI Senior Research Scholar and Associate Director of Partnerships Emily Hunt-Hinojosa considers the texture, complexity, and invitation to character in relationship to power. She offers a unique and nuanced exploration of MLK Jr.’s vision of character, braiding multiple ways of knowing into a story of character and love.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

Searching for joy

Virtues & Vocations. "I believe joy is allowed rather than demanded, surprising and not to be managed, experienced through connection."

“This letter describes what my imagined companions—sociological archetypes to draw out complexities beyond my own experience and knowledge—might encoun­ter together on the path to joy,” writes Senior Research Scholar & Associate Director of Partnerships Emily Hunt-Hinojosa in this month’s Virtues & Vocations magazine.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

“What measure should we use?”

The ECI Research Team often gets questions like the above from educators leading character-related projects. Before discussing assessment tools, we first need to answer a deeper question: What kind(s) of evidence could tell us whether your institution or program is having the intended effect on students? 

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

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